Tag Archives: Mixed Media

8-Layer Journaling – Session 1!

Good morning!

I am so happy to share a new mini-series of art journal how to videos with you! I am calling this series

8-Layer Journaling

Back in February of 2015, Shannon Green put out a YouTube video series, called Journaling by 5s. It took the fear and guesswork out of art journaling. I would highly recommend you go check that process and her work out…Shannon is truly inspirational!!!

To quickly paraphrase her process is that you create 20 art journaling pages in 5 – 15 minute sessions, by layering 2 pre-determined media types per session.

Shannon’s Session are as follows:

Background – Paint, Ink
Texture – Collage, Recycle
Pattern – Stamps, Stencils
Focal Point – Words, Images
Details – Pen, Pencils

Although, I really do love this process, I modified it pretty early on, because I was nowhere near able to get my sessions completed within the allotted time, which drove me BANANAS! I felt like I would do better if I limited myself to one medium per session, and to limit my use of mediums to only 5 options. For example, for the paint layer, I limit myself to only 5 tubes/bottles/jars/etc of color, to cut down on my need to overthink the process. Doing this allowed me to finally get all 20 pages done within the allotted 15 minutes. SUCCESS!!

I have used this process for creating my Soul Sister Cards,

and for something I like to call Doodling books that I find super fun to play on while I am on an airplane or waiting someplace!! Every time I have done this process the pages end up looking so different from each other, and I am always so amazed at how cool they turn out!!!

So my modified version, which I am calling 8-Layer Journaling is:

Paint
Paper
Washi
Stamps
Stencil
Focal Image
Words
Pen Work

So, with all of the logistics out of the way…let’s get started!

I took 5 sheets of 9″ x 12″ Canson watercolor paper, and I cut them in half both directions so that I ended up with 20 sheets of paper sized 4 1/2″ x 6″.

Now let’s get on to Layer #1

Paint!

I selected 5 colors of Dina Wakley’s Heavy Body Acrylic Paint: Tangerine, Magenta, Lime, Lemon, Turquoise. (I didn’t select any inks or sprays because I don’t have any in my art studio, at the moment.)
I grabbed 2 paint brushes, 1 for the warm colors (tangerine, Magenta, Lemon), and 1 for the cool colors (Lime, Turquoise, Lemon)
Set my timer
and got to playing!!

If you do decide to do this 8-Layer Journaling process with me, I want to highly encourage you to not purchase anything new…use whatever you have in your stash. (This is probably something we could all hear a little bit more of!)

I hope that this is something that you might be inspired to try, and if you do, please share on Instagram #8layerjournaling I would LOVE to see your creations!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments section! I am always happy to be of help!!

Now it is your turn to get creating!

Here is to having some fun!

Soul Book Club #6!

Hello my Beautiful Creatives!

Where the heck does the time go???

I realize I have not posted here in quite a while, and I really don’t want to skip over anything, so I am recommitting to getting caught up. Slowly but surely!

Soul Book Club # 6 was posted, well, let’s just say a while ago! 🙂

When I was doing this week’s Soul Book Club video, I pretty much just gave myself permission to just play without much thought…you know, the same kind of free play that you might have done when you were an innocent kindergartner. This is my absolute favorite way to spend time in my Soul Book.

Free, uninhibited, playtime!!

My first spread I did today, was inspired by a picture that I had found on Pinterest. This image was a red splotchy background with the words Must Make Art. Not only is red my favorite color, this sentiment is my truth! I can’t seem to go a day without wanting to make art of any kind! and I mean EVERY-SINGLE-DAY!! 🙂

For this spread I thought I would use my 3×5 Gelly Plate, and basically use my Gelly Plate as kind of a stamp. I was also really excited about doing this spread because of the time card that I had tipped in to the middle of this spread. I knew it would 1. give me a bit of a challenge figuring out how to decorate it because it is a different kind of paper than the actual sketch book itself. and 2. I love the idea of having like a mini page in the middle of this spread.

I felt that I was having some trouble getting my groove on, I was having a lot of troubles dropping things – I do that when I let myself get a little bit too tired, and this spread, in my opinion really kind of turned out to be quite a mess, but I am glad that I did it! I also found that this spread helped me get warmed up, and inspired me to do another spread! 🙂

The second spread I did, I did not have a plan for that one either, but it is literally my favorite spread in my Soul Book now! 🙂

This was the first time I had ever used black gesso as my background layer, and it was also the very first time that I gave myself permission to use my good Golden’s acrylic paints, and man I am I soooo impressed!! When this spread was done, not only did I love it, it felt like oil cloth! As you might have noticed in the video, I just could NOT STOP PETTING IT!! LOL!!

Petting your art = LOVING IT!!! 😉

Anyway, bear with me, as I get myself caught up with my spreads here on my beautifulcreatives website, it will get done…I AM DETERMINED!!

Anyway, here is to a BEAUTIFUL Creative kind of night!

If you want a different life, you have to choose differently!

Soul Book Club #4!

Good morning!

I hope you are enjoying my weekly Soul Book Club series! This week, I am happy to announce that week 4 is ready for your enjoyment!

I a really having a lot of fun recording these sessions, I think it is getting a little bit easier. I have been doing this process for a few years, but I am experimenting with how to go about teaching others how to play in your Soul Book, as well as how use your Soul Book as a tool to help you get from where you are to where you want to be, and to ultimately live an authentically creative life, in your own manner!

This week’s Soul Book journaling prompts:

I feel happy when…
I feel sad when…
I feel peaceful when…
I feel most myself when…
My favorite childhood memory…
My favorite memory as a teenager…
My favorite memory as an adult…
What is one area of my life needing attention?
What is one area of my life that is doing amazingly? How did you make it amazing? Can you translate that to other areas of your life?
If there is something that you have putting off, but you know you really should do it, what is that thing? What can you do within the next 10 minutes to take action on that thing?

Please feel free to copy and paste into Word or Pages, and then you will then have the ability to change the fonts style, colors, size, etc. I give you permission to use this list however you would like, including removing prompts, adding prompts, or even just wiping the entire list out and starting over!

I really do hope you are getting some goodness out of my weekly Soul Book Club videos!!

Thanks so much for watching!

Mixed Media Techniques #3

Good evening!

This week, for my Mixed Media Art Technique video, I had some fun showcasing 3 of my favorite quick and easy art journal background techniques. More specifically, 3 easy ways to take the fear out of getting started on a white art journal page! I find that some times when I am faced with a fresh new page, I can overthink what to do first, and then end up getting frustrated, or worse, giving up and walking away. These simple techniques takes that fear out of getting started!

As promised here are the art supplies that I used this week:

DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic Paints: Wild Green, Tutti Fruitti, Tropical Blue, and Buttercream
An old plastic credit card (a palette knife could be used as a substitute)
Dina Wakley Media 1 Inch Flat Brush
and a small square of hard plastic, that I had repurposed out of a piece of the packaging of something I had purchased (you could easily use any flat hard item to do this, or you could use a piece of overhead projector plastic, cut into a square)

I hope that these examples give you some inspiration to go and try doing some of your own quick and easy backgrounds! The sky is the limit on what you can do over the top of these backgrounds, but I hope I can help get you started. I am sure that in one of my future videos I will be showing how I finish each one of these pages, so please stay tuned! If you haven’t done so already, I would recommend that you subscribe so that you don’t miss a thing! 🙂

Thanks so much for visiting, and here is to living a Beautiful Creative life!

1 - Signature

If you want to have a different life you have to choose differently!

Mixed Media with Chrissie B #1

Good evening!

I am so happy to report that I have a new art journaling video up out on YouTube. I will not lie to you, this is the longest video I have every done! WHEW!!! Watching this is more like watching a free art journaling background class!!! I am pretty happy with it!

As promised, here is a list of supplies that I used during this video:

Dina Wakley Media Stiff Bristle 1 inch paint brush
Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Lime, Magenta, Ocean, Tangerine, Lemon, Turquoise, Fuchsia, Night, White
Book Pages – I used pages from a small dictionary
Golden’s Matte Medium
Liquitex white gesso
Palette knife – mine was plastic
3 mini Tim Holtz Stencils, Plus Signs, Dot Fade, and Schoolhouse
Ryan Reaveley Dylusions Journaling Block
Ranger Archival Ink pads: Manganese Blue, Deep Purple, Fern Green
Dina Wakley Media Stamps: Textures
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamps: Mixed Media 2, Bitty Grunge

I hope you enjoyed this video!! There will be many more to come! 🙂

Here is to have a Beautiful Creative life!

1 - Signature

If you want a different life, you have to choose differently!

Longing for Family!

I don’t know about you, but my sweetie and I have had an AMAZING 4th of July weekend!

We were fortunate enough to spend the weekend out in Carlton with my sis-in-law, mom-in-law, and the nieces and nephews!! Can I just tell you, we had a BLAST!!! We had fun going on a long walk/jog, swimming at the community pool, window shopping, and then my sis, Nette, and my niece Megan spent so much time arting! I was teaching them both some mixed media techniques!! Megan is getting ready to redecorate her room, now that she is almost a teenager, and I wanted to help her out by giving her the opportunity to make some new art to hang in her room!!

Megan’s Art

The stuff we did was pretty advanced, and she did swimmingly!!! Nette and I did well too, but Megan ended up with a finished piece…let’s just say, Nette and I have a bit more to do before we can say the same thing!! 😉

Anyway, we had fun listening to music, hanging out on the back patio trying to enjoy the rare moments of cool breeze (and this weekend, that was rare!), but now that Jason and I are finally back home, I am a little sad. I miss having family around, having family dinners, community walks, meet and greets, get togethers, and just plain silliness that you can only experience with true freedom like you can with family! My sweetie and I are seriously thinking about moving to their little town, just to be able to have that in our lives more often. We shall see! 🙂

My Art

Well, enough of that! I wasn’t wanting to be a bummer at all, but really just a quick, and belated, Happy 4th of July to all of you out there!! I am so grateful to live in an amazing country where I can live the way I want to, with the people I love!! God is good! We are SOOOO BLESSED!!!

Here is to creating a Beautiful Creative life! 😉

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #24!

It is better late than never…

I am happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday video has been posted out on YouTube!

The supplies I used this week were:

White gesso
Art Advantage Acrylic Paint: Permanent Green Light, Phthalo Turquoise, Cerulean Blue
Dina Wakley Media Stencils: Halves, and Spinners
Dylusions 5×8 Stencil: Circles Small
Black Stabilo Pencil
Finalize Bottle filled with white acrylic paint
Punchinella
M. Graham & Co Titanium White Acrylic Paint

This week’s page is actually really simple, but I love the way that it turned out.

I was really excited to get started on this week’s art journal spread because this was the week that I got to start in my crisp, clean, new art journal!

My new art journal is a Strathmore 400 series, 8.5×11 watercolor paper journal, and I am just LOVING the size! It is so much more manageable than the art journal I just finished, which was a Strathmore 500 series 11×17, I think!

The pages of this journal aren’t quite as smooth as the last journal, but I think I will be able to enjoy myself so much more, now that I don’t have the pressure of trying to figure out to cover such a large spread! So YEAH FOR THAT!! 😉

I am LOVING all of the textures that this background technique has created!

I also really LOVE the colors that I have chosen for this page – ACTUALLY, it was my hubby who chose blue and green – his favorite colors!! Thank you, Sweetie! 😉

I also am really enjoying adding art journaling to my spreads!! It has kind of become a game to see if I can figure out a new way to journal on my page each week! I really like the circular journaling though…might be my new fave! 🙂

So, even though this page was really simple to do, and actually came together rather quickly, I am really very happy with how it turned out! I think that this new journal is off to a great start!! I can’t wait to see what comes out next!!!

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!! 🙂

Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #23!

I am happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday #23 video has been posted out on YouTube!

This week the materials I used were:

White gesso
Tissue paper – two different patterns, the teal and white chevron patterned tissue paper was from Paper Source
Gel medium
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Lime, Magenta, Tangerine, Night
Apple Barrel Craft Paint: White
Balzer Designs Stencil: 12X12 Stones Divided
Balzer Designs Stencil: 6X6 Mini Fifties Clock
Dylusions Stencil: 9X12 Flossie
Fineline Bottle with White Acrylic Craft Paint
Distress Ink Reinker: Festive Berries
Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Pen
Pilot Permaball Black Pen
#2 Pencil
Scissors
Uhu Glue Stick

Well, what can I say about my Art Journal Thursday this week? I was so excited to be finishing up with this particular art journal that I really had no idea where to begin. So, maybe that is where I will start in my explanation for this week’s art journal – my art journal. The journal that I have been using is a Strathmore 500 Series, Mixed Media Paper Journal, which I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this brand, and the paper is SUPER tough, and is so CREAMY to work on…the problem that I have been having is the S.I.Z.E!! I saw that Donna Downey (who I LOVE, by the way!!!) was using this size, 11×14 sized pages, I thought, “I CAN DO THAT!!!” Well, when you are a newbie art journaler, which I am, and you work full time at a non-artsy kind of job, which I do, and when you have committed to yourself to do a two page art journal spread EVERY SINGLE week, and NOT ONLY that, but to record your process and post out on YouTube EVERY SINGLE WEEK, which I SOOO INSANELY DID – you quickly come to the realization that THIS IS A LOT!!! 😉 You DO NOT want to make things harder for yourself by buying the LARGEST art journal that you can possibly find!! What was I thinking???

So, the next art journal, which I will start using in next week’s art journal video, is a MUCH more manageable 8.5 x 11 size!! I CAN’T WAIT!!!

Anyway, back to this week’s spread! When I started I didn’t really have a plan, I usually don’t, but I knew that I wanted to use this AWESOME new tissue paper that I had found a Paper Source!

Once I got my colors, patterns, and textures started it was very VERY tricky for me to reign it in, but I was having some good fun playing, and staying in my head!!

I decided that I wanted to use all of that pattern as an element that would pop off of the page by covering a lot of it with a dark color, and a silhouette stencil. Once I had done that I wasn’t really sure where to go from there, but I had some deep, stop-and-listen-to-your-soul-cuz-she’s-a-speakin’ kind of thoughts going on, so I decided to grab my Fineline bottle with some white acrylic paint, and decided to journal some of those thoughts out onto my page.

“She knew that she was going to have to get out of her own way if she were ever going to make her dreams come true. No one was going to do the hard work for her. She knew it was going to have to be all up to her!”

Yeah, I am not sure where that came from, because it came from someplace deep, deep down, and even as I write it now, I KNOW that it is the TRUTH that I am living with right now!

I am not sure if I really love the design of this finished spread – when I look closely it is kind of a bit of train wreck, and I know it definitely had parts of it that I would do differently (for example, the Distress Ink Festive Berries never did really dry – even after 48 hours!! UGH!!! I should’ve used my Dylusions spray ink with a dropper!), if I were to do it again, but for some reason that this spread really resonated with me, so my final thought is that I really LOVE it!!

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 😉

If you want a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday #22

Good morning!

I am very happy to announce that my Art Journal Thursday video #21 is up on YouTube!

The supplies I used this week were:

Gesso
Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints: Tangerine, Magenta, Lime
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Re-inker: Peeled Paint
Alesa Baker Designs Wood Mounted Stamp: French Handwriting
Art Impressions Wood Mounted Rubber Stamp: Squiggly line (that’s what I am calling it)
Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint: White
Paper Towel that had mopped up various Dylusions sprays
Scissors
Uhu Glue Stick
Fineline Applicator filled with White Acrylic Paint
Black Pilot Multiball Pen – my new FAVE doodling pen!!!

If you watched this week’s video, you already know that I really didn’t have any kind of plan when I went into this week’s art journal spread! In all honesty, I just knew that I had to get an art journal video done for this week, but I was so tired from a week of not really taking very good care of myself sleep-wise, compounded with losing another hour of sleep due to daylight savings time, I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to get this one done!

I decided to help get me into the arting mood that I would listen to some loud happy music, and it worked! Before I knew what hit me, I had found my stride, and was once again a very VERY happy girl! 😉

I had a lot of fun this week just putting down colors, doodling, and just really letting myself play! I find that when I revert back to my inner, kindergarten Chrissie, that I have a tendency to be really happy with my art journal pages!

This week was no different!!! As soon as I released my inner me, I found myself having fun, and pulling from a pile that I haven’t really played with in a while – and that was my stash of used paper towels, which may not seem like something to be proud of, but trust me, I am!!! I just LOVE finding new ways to use treasures from my stash!!

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed watching this week’s video! I really hope that these weekly videos can, in some way, inspire you to try something new in your own art journals – that would be so AMAZING to me!!! 😉

What do you think of this week’s spread? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 😉

If you want to have a different life, live differently!

Art Journal Thursday Video #21!

Good evening!

I am very happy to report that my 21st Art Journal Thursday video out on YouTube!

The art supplies I used this week were:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Decorative Tissue Wrap: Postale
Uhu Glue Stick
3×5 Gelli Plate
Blick Studio Acrylic Paints: Cadmium Orange Hue, Primary Red, Phthalo Green
Apple Barrel Acrylic Craft Paint: White
Brayer
Art Advantage Double Ended Stylus
5 Miscellaneous Wood Mounted Rubber Stamps: one is from Great Impressions (3 concentric circles), one is from Inkadoo (Carte postale), one is from Delafield Stamp Company (XOXOXO), one is from Hero Arts (Painted Circle), and I am not sure where the last one is from, but it is the one with small doily design
Ranger’s Black Archival Ink Pad
Black Stabilo All Pencil
Uni-Ball Signo White Broad Pen
Scissors
Scarlet Lime Black Doodling Pen

When I started this week’s layout, I was determined to try something that I had felt failed miserably last week; and that was creating a background using my 3×5 Gelli Plate.

I felt like the reason this didn’t work for me last week was the fact that I didn’t limit myself to a selection of a handful of colors. That background ended up being so busy that there was no way that anything could stood out on its own in the foreground. This time I made sure to limit my colors to just three, not counting white!

As I was laying my color down with my Gelli Plate, I started seeing this layout as kind of a paper quilt, which made me start thinking about my mama, and my grandmother, and all of the strong women who came before me. It made me really happy to reconnect with those memories, and to understand just how blessed I am that I come from such a long line of really strong, and AMAZING women!

Thinking on the women of family, also made me think of a favorite song from my childhood, that has a way of popping up in my life at exactly the right moments. This song is called “This Little Light of Mine”. It has been showing up a LOT in my life over the past year, and it again this week. It reminds me that I need to shine my light, which is where my my sentiment came from this week. You may be the only light in the world someone sees today, make sure you shine bright!

I think this background turned out much better than my attempt last week, hands down! This week’s attempt has inspired me to try this again, but this time on an art canvas! I am thinking that this might be a really cool background for a new piece of artwork that I can hang in my new office at work!

What do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art spread!! 🙂

Until next time!

Here is to a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 😉

If you want a different life, live differently!