Art Journal Every Day: Art Journal Backgrounds
November 04, 2011
If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, all the posts can be found here. Please read this post first. There is a flickr group for sharing right here. Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day! No need to finish anything or even like it. Just play! Linky list for November is right here.
Today we have a guest post from M. Carmen Sánchez (Cuchy) with two ideas for creating beautiful backgrounds for your pages.
Hi there! Thank you Julie for inviting me today to your blog.
I'm a huge lover of all kind of techniques which I try out and use in all my projects. My art journal is not an exception. I would like to show you two of my favourite background techniques ever.
First one is the “Salt Technique." Originally used in silk painting and watercolour, it turns out great also with spray paints and glimmer mists on paper.
For this page I used glimmer mist and color wash and some salt.
Spray the paints blending the different colours in a gradient-like way.
Before it dries, pour some pinches of salt all over the page.
See how the salt absorbes the paint and leave a mark around the salt spots?
Let it dry completely. You can use the heat gun. Once dried, remove the salt with a rag (or your hand).
The background is ready for collage, doodling, stencils or whatever.
I finished my page with some magazine's images, a bit of lettering (see my bad spelling? I did my best to correct it) and some fashion add-ons to the image.
Second technique is “Water stamping.”
Grab your favourite colours of distress inks.
Spread a thin layer of gesso on your paper and let it dry.
Directly with the ink pad, colour the page.
With a damp brush, blend the ink and see how it works as watercolour paint. Let it dry
Now use the blending tool to apply more ink over the background and intensify the colours.
Spray some water directly on your stamps and stamp on the background (I found that foam stamps takes more ink which I love it, but you can use either rubber or clear stamps, just try them out for different outcomes).
See how the stamp removes the ink and leaves a beautiful mark?
Let it dry horizontally or vertically if you want some dripping.
You can leave your background as it, or go further.
Let's outline the stamped images.
And stamp the title with acrylic paint. Put some paint on your craft mat and spread it with the stamps.
Stamp it over the background and outline the title if you want.
Hi all, I'm M. Carmen, but you can call me Cuchy. In fact, nobody but my mother calls me M. Carmen.
As far as I remember, I’ve always been interested in any kind of arts & crafts. Mainly self-taught, I do not miss the chance to attend as much workshops, either online or on-site as I can, being always in an ongoing training.
I am a member of the Design Team of Kuretake and contributor and guest designer in various Spanish and international blogs. I taught several workshops in Madrid and Barcelona and I love to teach from my own experiences, and encourage the students to think outside the box and put their inner self in everything they create, to achieve a personal and unique result.
For a couple of years now, I'm more into mixed media, altered art and art journaling. It is in my art journaling where I try out and experiment with new techniques, sometimes with good results and sometimes not so good :) but always interesting. I love that creative process.
You can find me online here:
- Blog: Hecho a mano
- Facebook: Hecho a mano
- Livestream: Hecho a mano (usually broadcasting live on fridays)
- YouTube: Cuchyy2k