Bold Birds Art Journal Tutorial

Hello everyone!! Monday morning and a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. One of my favourite things with our challenges is the wide variety of themes, every week there is something new. This week we are focusing on paint. I did a tutorial for an art journal page, but you can use the techniques on pretty much anything.

I used lovely new Dina Wakley products on this page, and had planned to use her paints too, but they are still in a parcel making their way to me. Instead I used Distress Paint. Ever since I set eyes on the Scribbly Birds stamp set, I knew I was going use it a lot. I am sure you know that I like birds. On this page, I used paint in a number of ways, I turned it into a tutorial.

Start by covering the pages with gesso using a palette knife. I pressed a circle stamp into the gesso here and there. Always remember to immediately clean your stamp after using it with acrylic paint or gesso. I also dragged some lines through the gesso with a Ranger scraper tool.

When the gesso is dry, paint the page with watered-down Distress Paint, adding just a little bit of water to the paint. I didn't cover the whole page, wanting to leave some of it white. Now you can see the texture of the stamping and scraping clearer.

When the paint was dry, I used a stencil and Black Soot paint to add some flying birds to the sky.

To be able to play around with the placement of the birds, I first stamped them and some hearts on tissue paper, tore them out and moved them over the page until I was happy. They were adhered with glossy multi medium. The tissue paper practically disappears. I've been using this technique a lot lately, it works great on slightly textured surfaces. My Small Creative Journal is also a little bulky now on the one side, making it harder to get good stamped impressions. Add a layer of gloss multi medium on top of the birds too.

I painted branches for the birds, using Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain paint. Sentiments were stamped on the page. The purple sentiment was sponged through a stencil using Dusty Concord paint. I painted the birds with Salty Ocean, Spiced Marmalade, Dusty Concord, Picked Raspberry and Picket Fence, letting the paint dry in between layers. White paint was sponged through the Plastic Canvas stencil to add more texture. I also added some lines with my Ranger scraper tool and Black Soot.

Distress Paints are thin and you might need more than one layer. I used a marker to bring some of the black lines back on the birds. Shadows were added under the birds with black paint.

The heart was painted with Dusty Concord and Picked Raspberry. I stamped more words, both on the birds and the background and also stamped some scribbly text here and there.

One of the great things with acrylic paint is that you can paint light over darker colours and the white highlights gave the birds more life. I added some marks to the branches with a marker, to make them fit with the Scribbly Birds.

Here we have watered-down acrylic paint for the first background layer, stenciled birds and a final layer of white stenciling and stamping.

I cut up squares of Ranger Cut 'n Dry Foam to use when sponging paint through the stencils, making the birds lighter in some areas.
I hope you will join us this week in our paint challenge. As every week, one random participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp.

Thank you for stopping by today and have a great week!
Anna-Karin
Supplies:
Surfaces: Ranger Dylusions Small Creative Journal
Stamps: Ranger Dina Wakley: Scribbly Birds, All the Gals, Collaged Hearts, Scribbly Women, Textures
Ink: Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
Stencils: Ranger Dina Wakley: Plastic Canvas, Birds in Flight, Affirmations
Paint: Distress Paint: Peacock Feathers, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Black Soot, Walnut Stain, Picket Fence, Gathered Twigs, Dusty Concord, Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean
Medium: Ranger Dina Wakley: White Gesso; Ranger Multi Medium Gloss
Tools: Ranger Cut 'n Dry Foam, Craft Scraper Tool