GIU Blog Hop

I am excited to be part of the GIU blog hop! A sort of farewell from the GIU gals from the first of the year. Hopefully you came from Guadalupe's blog. If you've just wandered here, be sure to begin at the Unity blog and happy hopping!

Today I decided to play in my art journal. Recently Angie did a Facebook Live using this lovely heart from Beautifully Confused. I thought what a great stamp to use in an art journal! I made a little tutorial for you.

 

I gathered supplies and added more after I got going and was inspired, but this was a good start.

 

I started with a base of Tim Holtz tissue paper, applied using soft gel. It's a great glue for this sort of thing. Similar to Modge Podge, but denser. 

 

I added some dry wall tape for texture. It's sticky, so I just cut it up and stuck it on. You can find this at the hardware stores.

 

For  additional texture, I tore up some masking tape into random strips.

 

After adding the base bits, I used a thin layer of gesso to hold everything down, mute the tissue, and prepare the background to receive ink.

 

Removing the kitty from my laptop was the next task. I can't see Annie! You may or may not need this step.

 

I next applied various distress inks, randomly and without much thought. After I was finished, I hit it with water to get the cool splats

 

I wanted some larger, watery spots, so I stamped the ink onto an acrylic block, sprayed with water, and flicked the wet ink over the page.

 

For the heart, I got out some coordinating paints and my brayer. I ran the brayer through the paint and onto my stamp.

 

I tried to leave distinct color differences, as you can see.

 

The mesh tape left gaps in the stamping, so I filled them in with a brush.

 

I repeated this process with some background stamps from Let Adventure. Fantastic set for texture!

 

I decided the best way to get my sentiment on the heart was to emboss. I chose white and used a sentiment from She. I also embossed the bird from You Make You in a green with gold specks powder. It looks cool!

 

After that it was just a matter of  adding this and thats. The bird SO need a crown and I added some washi tape and metal bits, finishing off with splatters in white.

 

The finished piece! Be sure to comment and visit the other blogs for more inspirations. Next up is Karen!