Art Journal with Brenda

Hello crafty friends and as always a big welcome to Off The Rails. After having two months off selling our farm, buying a home and moving I'm back at the craft desk and into everything I love. I was looking forward to getting my craft on with this months challenge and then my tutorial. I may have been moving but my mind was running with what I would do this month for each thing. 

I would like to share with you my Art Journal double page I created of my son Riley. 

It has been created in my Art Journal which has hand made paper so that is why you are seeing some white around the edge from the page before and after. I love creating in this art journal because of the texture of the paper. When doing it with one of these journals though always remember to Gesso the pages so there is no bleeding through to the other side or you will ruin other work created on the page before or the next page you will create on. 

This is my finished work followed by how I created it which is quite simple to do. 

To start my page I have used a black Gesso and give the whole page a real good coating. You can wait for it to dry or give it a quick hit with the heat gun.

While waiting for my Black Gesso to dry I chose my photo (black and white to go with the background) and the shape I wanted to use.  I chose circles and punched them out but you can choose what ever shape you like. I had in mind a bit of an out of space look so that's why I chose them.

I placed them on the journal where I wanted them and then glued them down. If you choose your shapes before you start you can glue them down and the cover the whole page with the Gesso.
Because I was deciding what I wanted to do I did the background Gesso first and then once the circles were glued I then did the Gesso on them.

Once this is done and then dry it is time to add the colour. I used Ranger Perfect Pearls - Forever Violet, Turquoise and Confetti White. You can use as many colours as you like as there is a great range. If you are unsure of how it would look then do a sample first.
You will now need a spray water bottle, Perfect Pearls and a heat gun.

1. Wet your page with spray water
2. Using a dry brush with a little Perfect Pearls on it, tap the brush and let it fall to the pages. Do with all your colours of chose.
3. Re-spray with water. Do not spray too close and the more water you sure the more the Perfect Pearls will run.
$. Dry with your heat gun.

 As you can see by the photos, being on hand made paper the texture to the background is great. It is now time to place your photo. I chose to fussy cut Riley out so the photo was in keeping with the background and I think it makes it a little more dominant on the page.

 One he photo was glued on I then got a white marker pen and Kaisercraft Gel Pens. I first went around each of the circles, then did some stitchching on the edge of the circles.

Once this was done I did journaling around each circle about Riley.

With all this done my journal pages were finished. Simple but nice. I hope you have enjoyed having a look at how I created them. Please keep scrolling to see other creations and techniques by the rest of the Design Team and also have a look at this months challenge and join in with us.
Happy Crafting - Brenda xxx