Sunday Reflection with my Artist Journal

If you're looking for the Diva Inspiration Hop (and a chance to comment and win a GC) go to this post, now closed)

I love the idea of creating just for me. A place where I try new techniques without fear of needing an eraser before I publish it. When I received the new Plain Jane stamps from Verve (gotta love that they are under $3 a piece right now), Julee mentioned that she started out using these quotes in her journal and I'm so glad she did. My creativity was so excited to crack open my artist journal and play with the new stamps that I couldn't stop with just one stamp.
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I used Jet Black StazOn ink with the Grace Plain Jane and stamped on a white paper towel! How fun is that! I grabbed some travel watercolors and painted a rainbow vertically over the sentiment and let it run together with an extra saturated brush. Since I can't wait long when I'm creating I grabbed my heat gun tool and quickly dried the paper towel, then tore the edges against a metal ruler. I painted some white gesso on a journal page before I did the watercolor and it was dry enough to apply my stamped paper towel to the page with matte finish Mod Podge. I cut out a frame with the Rounded Scallop Frame Die from Basic Grey's Picadilly paper line and glued it over the sentiment.

For the rest of the page elements I stamped some flowers around the sentiment with the Fringe Flower Plain Jane coloring them with a variety of pens (see detail list below). With a Copic Multiliner pen I drew a larger frame around the page and again with some watercolor randomly brushed for color. I took the negative rectangle from the Rounded Scallop Frame and added it to the top of the page for repetition and stamped only the beginning two words from the One Day Plain Jane with Staedler pens. More random stamping with the dotted background from Verve's Bountiful Backgrounds set in Basic Black making sure not to get a good inking so it stamped in a partial pattern. The very last step was to mask the sentiment and brush black gesso around the frame and across the top of the page.

My journal page doesn't have any erased parts. I took my time... had some fun and will be ready to journal, well if I want to journal at all on this page, for another day. Using stamps on journal pages is a huge help to me because I tend to work too hard on my handwriting the main elements. If you've taken anything away from my creation today, I hope it is this. Take the time, whatever amount you have, to create with abandonment. Try new things and enjoy the mistakes for learning. When you get ready to create for someone else you will more likely have confidence in your design. That's my reflection for today.

I hope you will jump back to last Tuesday's hop and enjoy what the Diva's have come up with for the Inspiration Hop this month. Today is the last day to comment for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate to the Verve Shop! See details on the Verve blog post here.


Details:
Stamps: Grace Plain Jane (Verve Stamps), One Day Plain Jane (Verve Stamps), Fringe Flower Plain Jane (Verve Stamps), Bountiful Backgrounds (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Sketch Book, Picadilly (Basic Grey), paper towel
Ink: Jet Black (StazOn, Tsukineko), Basic Black (Stampin' Up), Watercolors (Royal) colored pens (Staedler), Copic markers and multiliner
Accessories: Rounded Scallop Frame Die (A Cut Above Die, Verve Stamps), White and black gesso, matte decoupage glue (Mod Podge)