Art journal

This last weekend I went to my first mixed media class.  It was my first time playing with gesso.  It was so much fun!  Since then I've been watching lots is videos on YouTube about different things you can do in an art journal. 

Yesterday on Pinterest I saw a beautiful mixed media canvas made by Sarah over at La-De-Dah.  Her canvas is so beautiful - it inspired me.

 I had lots of fun trying new things.  After my first layer of gesso, I used my Stampin' Up watercolor crayons to watercolor the entire background.  I also used my Betsy's Blossom stamp set and all of the colors in the brights family to start my collage effect.  To tone it down a bit, I applied another layer of gesso.  Then I made coordinating acrylic paint by mixing Stampin' Up reinkers & white acrylic paint.  I used those paints with the poked out side of my embossing folders to make different textures on my page.  I also used the paint and random household items as stamps.  The pink circles were made with my acrylic paint,and a paper towel tube.  I tapped the end of my paint brush, that had the remaining paint on it, to get some neat splatter effects.  When that was dry, I applied another layer of gesso, again to tone down the brightness.  When that was dry, I went back and highlighted some things with my gel pens.  I used black, white, & glitter gel pens.   The words were done on a separate sheet of white cardstock.  To color them I used homemade dye sprays in Stampin' Up colors.

Thanks for checking this out - let me know what you think!  :-)