I cant believe its Friday again already, the weeks seem to be just flying by.

This week i wanted to share with you a great way to get my creative juices flowing if I feel that my mojo is having a little break... ( Plus sometimes it's just fun to get all misty, inky and painty! ) When I start to feel like this, I like to pull out my art journal and have a play..

I actually have two art journals, one that my finished pages go in, and another that I pull the pages out of to actually create on...Stops the mist, ink etc bleeding through to the back, and ruining your previously created pages..

Here is a quick little page I did recently using the yummy Dylusions range..

The first thing I did was mist my background using several different colours of the Dylusions Ink sprays. I gave my paper a light mist with water first , sprayed my chosen colours, then another light mist of water. It helps to blend the colours together. Then dried it with my heat gun.



Now to create a few different layers within our background. You can use lots of different things, stamps, more mists, stencils, masks and paint. I created a ghosted layer on my background by misting water through my stencil,



then gently lifting my stencil, and turning it over to make a reversed pattern with the water that was sitting on top of the stencil.



Giving it a light roll with a roll paper towel

and then drying with my heat gun! This really is a great little technique and the end result looks great.


I've then used the same stencil ( after i wiped any left over water off) to apply a light swipe of white gesso in several places ( you could use any type of white acrylic paint)





another quick and easy layer..



I've then stamped some random images on my page in different colour inks, and stamped a border.



To add my final touches i've stamped some more of the gorgeous Dylusions stamps onto white card stock and colored them using my inks sprays and a water brush.





After I let them dry, I cut them out and stuck them on my background.. and taaa dahh.. one finished page.. and hopefully the return of your mojo!



I think I've used every colour in theDylusions Ink sprays except the brown and black..

And have also used stamps from these stamp sets..
Bags of Bunting
Further around the edge
Pondering Petunia
Write between the lines
Dependable Dotty ( I've used her wings)

The crow stamp set and stencil are also Dylusions, and have proven extremely popular, as soon as they hit the Scraptherapy shelves, they have all been snapped up. But if you would like them, Just pop Lee-Anne a little note, and she'll be more than happy to get them in for you!

Wow those colours are amazing. Love what you have done with these - that would be fantastic on the front of a altered journal or something like that - very funky

This looks fabulous, Karen.....very coooooolllllll. I love to play in my art journal too, even if for no other reason than to get very messy Love what you have done here.

thank you so much Lee-Anne and Deb... i have to agree i think that's the best part about playing in an art journal... the excuse to get all messy!!

Ok I've decided I need an art journal to play in!

I rarely get to just sit down and play, and I'm often time poor when I'm making project so I find myself sticking to techniques I already know.

Thanks for sharing your techniqes Karen - I love the collection of stamps and the bright colours you've used.

those are surely not mists, but psychadelic fogs! (i'm a 60s baby). They are amazingly intense. Love your work

Thats amazing Karen... Love love love the colour and your tecniques used too. How fabby is that page!

that is awesome Karen. I've never seen stamps like those before.

I love art journalling too, although haven't done it for a while now, I have to decide where is going to be my 'messy space' in our new house lol..

this is great karen love the colours

oooh...I am in love Karen! Very inspiring!

Karen I picked up some sprays and some of the new stamps yesterday - can I ask what cardstock you use to stamp on? I was playing last night but found that the colours bled through really badly. And is Stazon the same as the Archival? Or are they a different type of ink?

Thanks in advance

Christine, they are slightly different ! But essentially they do the same thing, you could use stazon instead of archival, stazon is a solvent based ink ,this is why they make a special cleaner to use with it. I've never actually used stazon, have always used archival. ( I'm just a bit of a Ranger product freak giggle, Ask Lee-Anne, she'll tell you how bad I am ....)

As for paper, I buy two journals the same and pull the pages out of one and use that, no matter what you do, you will always get some mist bleeding through to the back when you use them.

To just stamp my images on and color I use the Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper... It's amazing. It's a coated paper, and. Is quite sturdy, great to stamp and color on, even stands up to a bit of water... Colors are really bright and vibrant on it.

Hope this all helps, let me know if you need any other help.

Thanks Karen - should have picked up some of the stamping paper when I was at Babinda yesterday - I didn't even think of it. I'll have a play with what I have and pick some up next time. Thanks for your help!

Nola should have some up in Cairns Christine if that is any help