Crazy Circle Mixed Media Journal Page.

This mixed Media Art Journal Page i've named Crazy Circles, for obvious reasons. I did'nt know what this page was going to look like at the end, i simply collected the paint colours i love, the stencils that jumped out at me and a good old black sharpie.

The above photo is of the products i used to create my Journal Page. All these products were purchased from my local dollar store. I've found that often the cheap paint products are just as good as the expensive ones.

I started by placing six pea sized blobs of paint in a triangle shape on the page. Two blobs of each colour (forest green and sky blue) three times. (as pictured above). I then used a play dough rolling pin to spread the paint across the page. You can also use a brayer roller from craft shops. These are much cheaper and do the same job.
Craft HACK......cheap is sometimes always the best....

Then i added a few pea sized blobs of (light leaf green) paint up the middle of the page. I then used the roller again to spread the paint over the page.

Then i used white gesso threw a stencil. I love this particular stencil as it have great area coverage with beautiful curves. I used a scrap piece od
f cardboard to gently scrape the gesso onto the stencil.

As you can see from the above picture by using cardboard that is flexible the stencil outcome is not quite purfect. With this type of journal page perfection is not an issue. For a cleaner gesso stencil outcome i've found that by using an old bank card, library card or something similar gives a great result. Also hold the stencil firmly to the page, unlike this page where i just dropped the stencil down and away i went.

I then added Plasters tape (mesh tape from bunnings) in random strips on the page.

Using a dry hard bristled brush i dabbed (cobalt blue) paint onto the plasters tape. I love using this tape. After dabbing the paint onto it gently lift the tape at one edge and peal away from the page leaving behind fantastic squares. This tape can be used as a stencil, as a textured feature to atc's (artist trading cards), and canvases and greeting cards. The great thing about using it as a stencil i now have two strips of tape that are a motttled blue and white.

Then using a dry brush again and the same dark green colour as before i lightly brushed over the gesso areas of the page. As i started brushing over the area i started noticing that not all the gesso had dried. That's ok as it just adds to the character of the page.

As you can see in this page the gesso smear with the green paint gives a great textured look, and with those blue squares there, wow, super happy at this point.

I then used the sky blue paint threw this great stencil i have. I love the curves and lines in this stencil. Great to use on...well, everything...
I also used a dry brush and lightly dabbed it onto the stencil. Makeup sponges also work a treat. Cotton tips, baby wipes also work, just experiment to find what works for you.

Now here i must apologise. I did take step by step photos of this part of the page accidentally deleted them. I used the stencil in all four corners of the page and one just off centre toward the bottom right. I then used an old bottle lid and dipped it into orange paint. I then placed it on the page creating cool circles. I had sure to re dip after each stamp of the lid. I also seem to have deleted this photo as well.

Ok, im so sorry for jumping ahead without step by step photos. As you can see i made four orange circles going up the page. I then made seven smaller circles using a smaller lid around the large circles. I also used a floral stencil inside the large orange circles. I then used the same large lid dipped into white paint over the top of the orange just slightly off to create an orange shadow. I also linked the circles with four large white circles as well as white dots around the smaller orange circles to make little flowers.

This is a close up of the orange shadow effect and floral stencil.

I then used paint colour (pink/yellow) threw a really cool zigzag stencil around the corners and edges of the page. I also flipped the page around as i felt that the page looked better this way around at this stage.  I also used a wet brush of a mix of white and pink/yellow paint and roughly ran it around the edge of the page.

Then using a ruler and a black sharpie pen i went around the edge of the (pink/yellow) stencil. I also framed the page but lining out the pink white edge. I also drew around the odd circles including the small ones, added black dots on the white dots as well as dash marks on the boarder where the stencil lines crossed.

Close up of the top left corner.

Close up of the top right corner

Close up of the bottom right corner

Close up of the bottom left corner.

I hope you have enjoyed this Mixed Media Journal Page. I honestly apologise for the lack of photos toward the end. Hopefully i didn't loose anyone. I was aiming to help instruct viewers with an easy, clear step by step page to try at home.

PRODUCT LIST:
Mont Marte Paints:
Yellow/pink,
Mid green,
Yellow green,
Yellow orange
Sky blue,
Cobalt blue,
Chinese white.....$2.99
Mont Marte gesso....$9.99

These are the prices from my local dollar stretcher store. Prices and stock will vary depending on store and location.

Plasters tape/ Builders edge fibreglass tape. 50mm x 20M...$7.17
This product price might vary depending on store, availability.

Stencils i buy from aliexpress. Down load the app for free from the app store. The most i've paid for a stencil is $2.06 and the cheapest was $0,77. These were with free shipping.

My brushes are just cheap brushes from dollar stretcher, my play gough roller is from kmart.

The above list is a recommendation on my craft HACK. craft doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg...

Thank you.   xoxo