Taking a Bite out of Art Journaling in my Clairefontaine Journal!

Happy Monday - Welcome to Viva Las Vegastamps!!! Susan here with my top of the month post. Throughout the month of August, twice a week, the VLVS! Design Team is featuring sketch journals by Clairefontaine. You can see their products HERE.

You can check up on all things journal related at the Rhodia Drive blog: http://rhodiadrive.com/ and also on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rhodia-Drive/98458096197.

As part of this month long event...Viva Las Vegastamps! and Clairefontaine are hosting a contest this month--comment on all the Clairefontaine posts throughout the month to get a chance at a free journal and a $15 coupon to the VLVS! online store! Great prize!! Good luck!! Remember, you can't win if you don't enter!!!

I have made an Art Journal page in my Clairefontaine Journal - using Viva Las Vegastamps! and a technique using my little "happy accidental invention"...MIXERS MIST!

Today I am sharing some in-depth instruction as to how to make your own mists using Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer with Terri Sproul Mixers. I have been loving the bronze mist I made and am so excited to make more colors to play with.

This was my HAPPY ACCIDENT...Terri Sproul MIXERS MIST!!!!

My DISCOVERY: I took the contents of my water cup containing the glittery goodness leftover from washing my brushes while painting with Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers and I poured this into an empty spray bottle. This is a lovely, sheer shimmery spray - very subtle on light paper. I now have a large spray bottle of this and I am using this mixture as a base to make a whole family of mixer mists!

 

To do this I have rummaged my house and reclaimed every spray bottle I can get my hands on. I have here an assortment of recycled travel size hair/body sprays, some Ranger Mini Misters, and some small mini sprayers from Sky Blue Pink.

**PLEASE NOTE** The wash water is directly from the cup. I'm not sure how much Crystal Lacquer is actually in it. But the bronze mixer - I made from scratch. I filled about 1/2 bottle with water {one of those 1 oz. travel size sprayers}, a few scoops on a toothpick of bronze & copper penny mixers and a squirt of CL. Not so much that it's sticky - just enough so the shimmer will stick to the paper you spray it on. The mini mister tubes don't hold very much liquid {maybe a dozen sprays or so}, this is why I started with the wash water mix as a base. There is nothing else in my wash water except for Crystal Lacquer and Terri Sproul Mixers.

Below are the tester papers I made for the colors I've mixed so far. I added a swatch of black paper to each so I could see how these worked on dark papers. The bronze, gold, silver and interference colors worked best on the black paper. An unexpected result: the colored mists really didn't show up at all - they just leave a white splatter. On white - all of the colors worked beautifully - even the interference violet. The scanner and photographs can't capture all the shimmer reflections - but I promise, the glittery goodness is there!

  

  

I labeled each card with the color combinations. I'm so excited to play with these!

With my MIXERS MISTS in hand - I got out my stamps, resist ink and black ink, some sea salt granules and punchinella to make a fun background in my art journal. I sprayed several colors on first layer then let dry and then heat set to make sure it was entirely dry.

This art journal page feature these VLVS stamps: Shark Head Large #4018, "Some Days I Feel Like..." #891 quote bubble, Sailboat Harbor #9863, Design/Tight Curlyques #9795, and Texture/Yarn Balls #9731. I love to use the stamps to build scenes, and use stamps to give detail or texture.

The lovely Clairefontaine Journal features an 83lb pH neutral, acid-free drawing paper with a smooth satin finish, solid hardboard covers and a flexible plexi protective front cover. I was so happy to have a shiny new book in which to art journal in and this book has a nice large spiral to allow my pages room to grow  with my chunky mixed media creations.

I stamped my images with black Memories Ink by Stuart Superior and masked areas I wanted to protect from colored mists. I also used Ranger Resist Ink pad to stamp texture with "Texture/Yarn Balls" to simulate splashed water.

I sprayed several layers and colors of my mixers mists. I also sprinkled sea salt granules around shark base and fins - this will repel color as it drys and give a nice bleach texture.

Detail of salt granules as misted colors dry.

Page when dry and salt granules and masks removed. I really love the variegation of the color mists. To add color and detail, I drew and colored on top with Ranger Distress Markers and the paper texture was perfect {no pilling or fiber breakdown}. I also took care in not over-wetting or rubbing the damp paper too much. I finished off by dry brushing water splash with ice blue acrylic paint and white gesso. I stamped along the bottom with the curlyques and hand drew in some waves with Black Soot Distress Marker.

I have to say the paper in the Clairefontaine Journal has a wonderful smooth texture and held up nicely to the misting with limited warping. I have made a couple other pages that applied several layers of colors using stencils and I was really impressed with the durability of the paper.

Thanks so much for dropping by today! Pop on over to the Viva Las Vegastamps! store - loads of new stamps have just been added - Halloween, Christmas and many more! Check your latest newsletter - there is a free shipping coupon code that is good through August 8th!

If you would like to see more of my creations please visit my blog, sbartist : painting in the dark HERE. I'll be back with another stamping adventure on August 12th. Hope you have an inky day! Sb