Fly High, Fly Far Mixed Media Art Journal

Fly High, Fly Far Mixed Media Art Journal by Renae Davis
Fly High, Fly Far Mixed Media Art Journal by Renae Davis

One of my artsy friends posted a project she did a while back with the prettiest blue ink, butterfly Stamps and sheet music and I’m grateful she allowed me to give it a try and I absolutely love it! I haven’t had this much fun making a layout in a long time. I’ll admit, at first I was only going use this project for my YouTube channel but by the time I finished, I realized it was too easy and too fun not to share (hence the screenshots). I’ve also linked the video down below.

The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project. The opinions I share are solely my own.

TCW 9001 White Gesso onto Dylusions Creative Square Journal pages
TCW 9001 White Gesso onto Dylusions Creative Square Journal pages

The journal I’m working in is the the Dylusions Creative Square Journal from Dyan Reaveley for Ranger. It has the best mixed media cardstock to work with but the pages are a cream color. I added a strip of masking tape down the middle to protect the string binding (if it gets wet too much the binding can come undone) and painted over the pages with a generous layer of TCW 9001 White Gesso to not only brighten the page and add contrast to the blue ink I was going to use but to prevent any ink that may want to bleed through. I knew I was going to be using a lot of ink!

TCW9010 Silver Gesso through 6x6 TCW579 Sheet Music Stencil.
TCW9010 Silver Gesso through 6×6 TCW579 Sheet Music Stencil.

In the corners of the pages I added TCW9010 Silver Gesso through 6×6 TCW579 Sheet Music Stencil with a cosmetic sponge.

TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through TCW278 Circle Explosion Stencil.
TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through TCW278 Circle Explosion Stencil.

Towards the center of the page, on both sides, with a palette knife I added TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through 6×6 TCW278 Circle Explosion Stencil. I use three circle stencils throughout this layout and this one, with the biggest circles, I used in the middle of the layout.

TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through TCW807 Script Dots Stencil
TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through TCW807 Script Dots Stencil

To fill in any gaps in the middle, on both sides, with a palette knife I added TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through 6×6 TCW807 Script Dots Stencil.

TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through 6x6 TCW361 Tiny Circles Stencil
TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through 6×6 TCW361 Tiny Circles Stencil

For the last stencil, on both sides of the edges, with a palette knife I added TCW9005 White Modeling Paste through 6×6 TCW361 Tiny Circles Stencil. These little dots make such a huge impact in the final result! I heat set the modeling paste to make sure it’s completely dry before I add the ink.

Blue and White fluid acrylic ink blended over textured layout
Blue and White fluid acrylic ink blended over textured layout

Before adding any ink, I sprayed the layout with a few spritzes of water onto the page first to allow the ink to spread out a little instead of residing to a puddle.

Using a blend of Daler Rowney’s fluid acrylic ink in Rowney Blue, Process Cyan and Indigo, I dropped the ink using the built in dropper over the page. I used Titanium White Golden fluid acrylic to lighten up any dark places and a straw to help move the ink around the page.

Cutting circles from sheet music using circle punches and circle compass
Cutting circles from sheet music using circle punches and circle compass

While the ink dries, I use a variety of 2″ circle punch, 1″ circle punch and a circle maker (the blue compass pictured on the left) to create and cut a number of circles from sheet music. I find my sheet music in thrift stores through old music books and hymnals but you can always print or stencil them out if you need to.

Not pictured- I coated each circle with a watered down layer of TCW 9001 White Gesso to brighten up the cream colored paper. This also will help in blending the crayons in the next step.

blending Marabu art crayons over the edges of the sheet music circles
blending Marabu art crayons over the edges of the sheet music circles

Once I pasted the circles down over the page, I used dark blue and black Marabu Mixed Media Art crayons to darken the edges of the circles bu=y drawing around the edges of the circle and blending inwards with my finger.

white metallic watercolor cream over modeling paste dots
white metallic watercolor cream over modeling paste dots

This step really helped those little modeling paste dots POP. I used a metallic white watercolor cream from Brea Reese and lightly went over the top of the modeling paste dots- especially the little ones so they wouldn’t get lost in the background. I also traced lightly around the edges of the sheet music circles again.

The butterflies are mixture of: wall stickers from Dollar Tree, Tim Holtz stamp set and a mini black silhouette butterfly stamp- both stamped with Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black.

stamping "fly high, fly far" word sentiment from TCW2210 Uplifting Sentiments 4x6 Clear Stamps
stamping “fly high, fly far” word sentiment from TCW2210 Uplifting Sentiments 4×6 Clear Stamps

I stamped the “fly high, fly far” word sentiment from TCW2210 Uplifting Sentiments 4×6 Clear Stamps across areas of the page using Ranger Archival Ink pad in Jet Black.

For the final addition, I stamped Fly High, Fly Far (to match the previous stamped word sentiments) with Tim Holtz Tall Text alphas in Ranger Archival ink in Ket Black on scrap paper and pasted them in opposite screeners of the page. I then went around the edges of the sentiments with a black Marabu crayon.

Below are the final project pictures. Just look at all the texture!!!

Don’t forget to check out the video friends!

Fly High, Fly Far Mixed Media Art Journal Process Video on YouTube

Renae Davis, The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

6 thoughts on “Fly High, Fly Far Mixed Media Art Journal

  1. Fantastic to get all the texture and contrast. Just the hint of purple in the butterflies really gives them lift. Thanks for the walk through and inspiration.

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