If I could only have three things to work in my art journal, it would have to be gesso, acrylic paint and Sharpies.

I always start the background of each page with either gesso or fluid acrylic paint.  Sometimes I put a coat of gesso and before it’s dry, add some paint and blend them together.  Sometimes I put one color of paint on part of the page and then one or two other colors for a multicolored background.

If I use a medium or dark color for the first layer, I’ll then use gesso on rubber stamps over the paint.   For a more monochromatic look, I take the same color as the background and add a little gesso to lighten it and use that on the stamps.

I never buy white paint, I use gesso for any white I need.   I also use gesso if I want a textured background.  You can apply it with a putty knife or credit card or pallette knife and have some great texture.

I buy the cheapest gesso I can find.  I have used the good Golden’s and it is yummy.  But because I use so much, I just get the cheap brand so I don’t have to be sparing with it.

I feel the same way about acrylic paint.  I have Golden’s fluid acrylics as well as some heavy bodied tubes.  The tubes are very rich and creamy and if I could afford them, I’d use nothing else.   The fluids by Golden have a rubbery feeling, shiny surface when applied to sketch paper or watercolor paper, though so I don’t like them as much as the cheap craft paint type acrylics.  And, again, they are so cheap that I can use as much as I want without worrying about the cost.

I use Golden’s gel medium to seal everything, so I dont’ have to worry about the paint chipping or fading.  And the craft paints come in so many colors, you rarely have to mix them.

Finally, I love Sharpies for so many uses.  I nearly always write in my journal with sharpies.  They will write over acrylics and gesso.  If the paint hasn’t been dry for a while, the tip of the Sharpie might get covered with paint and stop writing, but if you rub it on a paper towel it cleans right up.

I also like Sharpies for outling designs that I paint on the pages.  It’s much easier than outlining with a brush and paint.  If you use Sharpies on a thin page it will bleed through to the other side and possibly to the next page.  To prevent the bleed through, use a coat of gesso or paint first.  If you don’t want to do that, you can cover the bleed through with black gesso!  To write or draw on black gesso use metallic sharpies or a white-out pen.

All of us have creative talent.  And I believe that most of my readers have chosen to nurture that creativity.  However, our society has taught us that to be recognized as “an artist” you have to have an art  degree, or someone outside yourself must make that distinction.  Watch Susan Boyle in this video.  No one came to discover her.  She took the initiative to allow others to hear her talent.  She knows she has it.

I can’t imagine the courage it took for her to go on that show.   But before she goes on stage she says   “I’m going to make the audience rock.”  She didn’t worry about her looks or whether she was going to “make a fool of herself”.   (That’s one of my biggest fears.  The mean voice in my head is constantly saying “They’re going to make fun of you.”)    In a later interview on Good Morning America,  she talks about how kids made fun of her in school.  That’s a trauma she has probably carried with her all her life, and yet she still got on tv and faced Simon and risked being made fun of once again.   But in her heart she knew she could sing.

Now, sit back and really think about YOUR dream while you watch this video.  Allow yourself to believe in YOU.  I truly hope this inspires you to believe in yourself and know that you can make your dream come true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnmbJzH93NU

If you haven’t tried this, please do!  It is so fun.  And it helps you learn a lot of techniques like shading and perspective.

I’ve seen artists that do large black and white drawings similar to this.  Theirs have much more detail.  I can’t find any of the sites right now but if you go to Deviantart.com you might could search for black and white drawings and find some.

If you do any doodles, I hope you’ll share them with me.  It’s my newest passion!

But I did some work on canvas, too.  Here’s a painting I did.  The dots were made with gloss liquid gel medium.

It’s a chunky canvas so I painted the sides.  Here’s a picture of the side.  The lines aren’t very straight so I’m going to try and clean them up some.

I should take an internet vacation more often.  Nahhhh…I didn’t like it 

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” ~ Leo Buscaglia

With 24 hour a day global news I am constantly hearing about someone in need that I can’t help.  I wonder if this leads many to apathy.  Being so overwhelmed with so many causes and needs can be overwhelming.

The above quote helped me remember that while I can’t feed all the starving children in the world, I can make a difference in my daily life.  I don’t need money or to be able to volunteer a day a week to give someone a kind word or a smile.

I think about how people have truly changed my day by just giving me a compliment or opening a door for me.  I want to remember that I hold the ability to turn someone’s life around if I show kindness and caring.

Joss Paper Transfer

This is another tutorial from the Background Techniques book I wrote.  This one shows how to transfer joss paper onto a page using gesso.

Materials needed:

Joss Paper – available at Oriental stores

Gesso

Brush

This is how it will look after the transfer.  I like the grungy, faded look it has.

1.

Instructions

1.  1. Put a thick layer of gesso on the side of the joss paper that has the image or ink.

2,   2. Before it has time to dry, place it, face down, on the surface you are transferring to.

3.    3. Rub the back of the joss paper with your hand. Rub for a minute or longer to make sure all the ink gets rubbed onto your page.

That’s it!

However, most the artists I know, while they may have a designated space to create, don’t have beautiful, clean studios.  I hear many more conversations about the mess and the over abundance of supplies, than I hear about what fabric to choose for the chaise in their studio.

Most creative people have very interesting decor in their homes, though.  The ideas don’t stop at the studio door.   Terri St. Cloud has a pole that she painted in her dining room.  Nici D created the coolest “door” to her studio out of torn rags.  I wish I still had pictures of both of these so you could see.

I know that a lot of you must have interesting things you’ve done in your homes.  Will you share them with me?  Leave a comment telling me what you’ve done and either give me a link to a picture or email me the pic.  I want to make my own little tribute…  I’ll call “Where Real Women Create”. [Not implying that the wonderful women in the book are not real women,  just that we didn't clean up for a camera crew.]

I came across this picture lately from a previous decorating job I did in my home.  I painted the sunflower on the wall, then hung a frame on the wall to seem to frame the flower.  My family thought it was the strangest thing they’d ever seen, but I thought it was lovely.

So, please fill my comment page with the things you’ve done in your home.  I really want to see!

Fun Art Journaling $30.00

Fun Art Journaling Continued $30.00

Journaling Prompt Cards $15.00

Creative Ways to Pray $15.00

Photoshop for Artists $25.00

To read the full description and to order go to this page.

Cut out letters

Materials needed:
•    magazines
•    letter stencils or die-cut letters
•    craft knife or scissors
•    acrylic paint
•    water soluble crayons ,oil pastels, watercolor pencils, or plain colored pencils
•    baby wipes or damp cloth
•    glue stick

1.    Select magazine pages that have interesting patterns, color or text.

2.    Trace the outline of each letter you’ll be spelling onto different magazine images you have chosen.

If you don’t want the lines of the pen or pencil you are using to trace, showing up on the front of your letters, trace them backwards on the back of the page.

3.    When all the letters are traced, cut each one out, using a craft knife.  You can use scissors if you prefer.

4.    Select an acrylic paint that goes with the magazine patterns you have chosen for you letters. Paint a page in your journal with the one solid color.

5.    Create a simple image on the page.  I made a bird silhouette and colored it in with water soluble oil pastels, but you could use watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils or just plain colored pencils if you want.  After I colored it with the pastels, I used a baby wipe to smooth the pastels around for a smoother look.

If you’d like to use a bird, also, you can click on this picture and it will take you to the original image that you can download.

6.    Decide how you want to arrange your cut-out letters on the page.  Once you’ve made this decision, glue them on with a glue stick.

If you doubt that this statement is true, think about Mother Teresa. She didn’t have marketing plan or a public relations secretary. And yet, there probably isn’t anyone in the world that doesn’t know who she was. All she did was act on love. It was that simple and look what she accomplished.

You start in your corner of the world,  and I’ll start in mine

They have a lot of free downloads, both idea booklets and graphics.  I got this card from them.

It’s a card that you can pass out anywhere.  I was thinking of leaving it on the table for the waiter at restaurants.  It encourages the reader to pass kindness along and even gives ideas for being kind.

They have buttons, labels, bumper stickers and I can’t remember now all the other things.  I love this place!!  Please go there and check out what they have and even download some of their idea booklets.

Showing kindness doesn’t cost anything and it makes both the giver and the receiver feel so good!