I wanted to share with you a fun journal page I made in my Strathmore 6×12 inch watercolor journal. I started with a loose, watercolor wash for the background and once that was dry, I drew in the flowers using a Sakura Micron 003 pen. It’s a good way to have some old fashioned carefree fun! As most of you know, I have a thing for sparkly magic so I added accents of glitter throughout the design✨
Hope this inspires you to create art today😊
Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!!!
Share the Happy💖
“Flowers are the music of the ground, from earth’s lips spoken without sound.” ~Edwin Curran
This was a fun and whimsical zentangle design I created with alcohol ink markers, Home is Where the Heart is. Sometimes it’s just so much fun to let go and draw whatever comes to your mind! This was created on 9×12″ mixed media paper and will be part of a handmade book that I plan on creating once I have enough pages.
Last week I entered Jodi Ohl’s Color Lovers Challenge. I posted Day 1 this past Saturday. Since it runs for a full 30 days I thought I would post a few of these together. I’ve been enjoying adding quotes to all of these and I think I’ll continue doing that. Hope they inspire you in some way 💖
Day 2 – Teal and Orange
I painted the background teal with acrylic paint and made some marks while it was still wet. I painted a piece of watercolor paper bright orange and a page from an old book, green. I cut out all the pieces and glued them in place. I added the quote, “Sometimes you have to make your own Sunshine!”
Day 3 – Cool
There’s nothing better than a nice cool night under the stars. I tried something new, it didn’t quite go as planned but I still like it for my first attempt. I added the quote by Vincent Van Gogh “I know nothing with any certainty. But the sight of the Stars makes me dream.”
Day 4 – Black and White
I painted the background with black acrylic paint and made a few zentangle tiles. I drew in a few doodles and added a quote from Lau-Tzu: “Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”
Day 5 Anger/Hurt
This was a tough one for me because I love happy colors. So the only colors that came to mind were all the warm colors like red, yellow and orange. I painted an abstract in my journal and added a quote by Benjamin Franklin “Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one.”
Last week I shared Page 1 of my journal with you. I had a lot of fun making these tiles using coffee as the background. This flower tile is slightly bigger than the other one as it’s a full 3″ square.
I loved creating with Shrinky Dinks when I was a kid. So I found this heart that I had made quite some time ago and thought it went well with the page as I made it part of the quote “True Love Always comes back.”
Supplies
Watercolor Paper, 140lb, Cold Press
Micron Sakura Pen 003
Assorted Bright Watercolor Pencils
Coordinating Acrylic Paints
1 Cup of Coffee
Ephemera/Embellishments of your choice
Posca Pens: White and Black
Pencil for shading
Instructions
Make a cup of really strong dark coffee.
Cut your watercolor paper to the desired size.
Using the Coffee, paint your watercolor paper. Let dry.
Paint the pages in your journal with acrylic paints, let dry.
Using your watercolor pencils, draw and color in your design. Activate the colors with a little water but try not to over mix the colors. Let dry.
Using the Sakura Micron 003 Pen outline your design on your tile and glue it to your page.
Add doodles, embellishments and ephemera to pages.
Add shading with a pencil and highlights with the Posca pen.
I have a tendency to make little pieces of art, then put them away until I’m ready to use them. I read an article where they made art using coffee. I’m not a coffee drinker but I do love the smell of coffee so I decided to give it a whirl.
I used watercolor paper for my 2.75″ x 3.5″ tile so I could be heavy handed with the coffee and get a nice background color. The trick is to make really strong, dark coffee then paint your paper.
Once the coffee is dry, you can create your art. I used watercolor pencils to make my drawing and activated the colors with water. After the paint dried, I went back over my drawing with Sakura Micron Pen 03. As always, I couldn’t resist adding that little bit of sparkly magic with glitter to the tile. (Note: When painting your tile, don’t be afraid to go bold and bright with the watercolor paints because they become muted and toned down when the colors mix with the coffee.)
For this journal page I used my Strathmore 5.5″ x 8″ Mixed Media Journal. I started by putting a good coat of gesso on my page and let it dry. Next, I used assorted acrylic paints that blended with the tile but at the same time made it stand out. After I was happy with the page, I glued my tile in place, added a few doodles and that was it.
I’ll post the second page of this layout next week so stay tuned as the adventure continues!
Earlier this week I shared my first journal page with my “Dream” zentangle tile. This is the second part of the journal spread with a quote by Karim Seddiki that I thought went well with the Dream zentangle tile: “Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.”
I made this zentangle tile a while ago and set it aside figuring I’ll find a home for it at some point. The journal page was started and left unfinished because I ran out of time and it too was set aside and forgotten 🙁 Luckily I recently came across the two pieces and just had to make them work. So this is what I ended up with.
This page has everything going on from watercolor to acrylic paints, colored pencils, pens, markers, collage and more. You name it, it’s on here. To say the least it was lots of fun to make!
Stay tuned, because I’ll be posting page 2 shortly.
Last week I shared my first journal page using Spirograph. This is my second journal page. I had so much fun creating these two pages. I love how they turned out and hope you do too!
I made this page the same as the last. I created the background with a watercolor wash and while that was drying I made my Spirograph designs on coordinating cardstock, cut them out and glued them into the journal. Next I drew a few doodles and inspiring words. I topped it off with a shading, highlights and stickles for a little bling.
You can have some serious fun with a Spirograph set. Just use your imagination!
I wanted to try something different in my journal so I looked around my studio and found the Spirograph set. I hadn’t used it in years. I bought this for my kids when they were little and luckily it was passed back to me when they grew up.
I started this page with a watercolor wash for the background and set it aside. While that was drying, I searched my paper stash and found coordinating sheets to create a couple of Spirograph designs. I cut them out and glued them onto the page. Next I drew in doodles, wrote a few inspiring words and of course added stickles for a little bling. Last I added a little detailing with shading and highlights and that was it.
You can make some really interesting art and cards using a simple Spirograph set. Just let your imagination run wild and have fun!
Hope you had a great week! This is the last quote from my mini 3.25″ x 4.5″ book:
“Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.” ~Unknown
Really love this quote. The author was unknown but it looks like it originated from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who said “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
Hope you enjoyed these words of wisdom. Have a great weekend!
Flowing Waters Art 