Karen Bearse Designs: Falling Into Autumn Art Journal Mini

Hello My Inky Friends, today I have a mini art journal page for you. I also have a video!! It is the start of a new week over on Topflight Stamps & we are moving into the Fall/Halloween realm. I have been working in a Dina Wakley 6x6 kraft journal & decided to just keep on going.

Here is my Fall page, again played with quite a few different products. The funny thing about this page was being sure it represented Fall. For some reason bats immediately came to mind, yet bats fly around all the time! Anyway the spark for my page was the beautiful owl stamp by Visible Image. I suppose you could do any project and just add candy corn to the photo, LOL.

Video Link

Check out my You Tube video & play along. Just grab supplies from the list below or whatever you have that you feel like playing with & create along!

These were the products I started with. As you can see they were added to while working. You don't have to know everything you are going to be doing when you start. Once creating the ideas spark from there.

Let's Get Inky!

Started with some white gesso to help the background colors pop. I have been playing with Dina Wakley supplies just for fun lately so carried on experimenting with those. Stenciled through multiple images using her acrylic paint in Sedona, Tangerine, Fuchsia & Lemon.

Ahhh love these layers of stenciled images. In the end that 9 was a bit strong so it was knocked back with some gesso.

Next up!

Let's make that cool leaf. The Lavinia stencil is so detailed & spritzing with multiple colors of Glossy Spray made for a nice shiny leaf. The back of the stencil was spritzed 1st with Pixie Spray. This creates a tacky surface that keeps the stencil in place. Wait a minute for the spray to dry & the stencil will stick down. This helps prevent the paint from seeping under the stencil. Spritz on the Gloss, letting the color dry in between if you don't want them to mix. Hot tip: Wipe the nozzle down & re-cap immediately to help prevent clogging. More tips on my video.

Glossy spray is a unique acrylic paint spray that dries permanent. Once the leaf was well dry, some doodles were added. *Hot Tip: Unless you are using a Posca Pen wait 4-5 hours for the spray to fully cure or you risk ruining your pen. The next time you go to use it, it won't work.

While the pen marks were drying it was time to add some stamping to the background. Using the Foliage Set & some Archival Ink in Cobalt Blue & Seafarer, random images were added.

My focal image, the owl was stamped on white card stock in Black Soot Archival. The quotes were also stamped on parchment paper in a few colors. Which one should I choose? In my video, you can see more option choices as well as tips on getting photo polymer stamps to ink up & play nice.

Next up, time to glue. Once my decisions on placement were made, the images were glued down using Ultra Bond. I like to take the lid of & use an old credit card to spread the glue on the back of my cut out, then simply adhere it down. This glue is great for getting heavier papers to stay put, like card stock or watercolor paper.

Here come the bats!! Using black card stock my bats were die cut. Not sure if this die is still available. It was from last year or a few years ago & as it is seasonal once it is gone they don't always bring it back. I may have glued one of the bats upside down, ssh don't tell anyone.

A moon was cut out of white card stock & partially embossed with Seth's Blue Moon embossing powder. It helps give it that extra wow factor.

Time for more assembly!! The moon was highlighted & the bats doodled on using Posca pens. Way more steps were added then initially planned but that is the fun of art journal pages. Hop over to Topflight Stamps to see photos of the products. Links are below & I hope you subscribe to my You Tube channel. More technique videos are coming!!! Have a great week!

Supplies: