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Breathe... with Briana

February 20, 2017

Hello Art Makers,

I hope this post finds you well. I’d like to share a secret about myself. I feel like I rarely finish a piece of art to a stage of completion. Some of that is because I create for the process of it, rather than the product. I am an expressive artist, not a fine artist. However, I do want to create a finished piece here and there. Can any of you relate to this dilemma?

To push myself a little, I decided to take a random piece of pre-painted deli paper to see if I could turn it into a more completed art journal page.

First, I chose the amazing “Star and Cross” artistcellar stencil from the Arabian Nights set. Next, I chose a paint color that inspired me. It was the Dylusions Blendable Acrylic in “Bubblegum Pink.”

When I opened the container, the paint was much soupier than I had expected. I nearly dumped it all over the place. A word of CAUTION, “Be careful when you open your paint!” I know from watching Julie Fei-Fan Balzer videos that the trick to getting a lovely stencil print is to dab off a bunch of paint before applying it to the stencil. I was feeling a little rebellious though, so some of the soupy paint snuck underneath. Am I crushed by this? Nah. It’s no big deal. Sometimes being messy with your art is quite fun!

TA DA! I love this hot pink on top of the gray-green and yellow.

Now, comes the part of turning painted paper into something else, like an art journal page.

I grabbed my Strathmore Visual Journal, a paint scraper, and some Apple Barrel acrylic paint in two shades of green.

Once the green paint was on and sort of dry, I reached for the good ol’ Liquitex Gloss Medium & Varnish. I tore strips of the pre-painted and stenciled deli paper and set them in place on my journal page.

I put medium under each strip, one at a time, and also spread the excess on top of the deli paper strips. I used the paint scraper to remove the air bubbles. I also chose to wrap the strips around the top and bottom edges of the page, so there is a bit visible when you flip to the next page in the journal.

I recently purchased an alphabet stamp set designed by Everything Art, put out by PaperArtsy.

I was eager to try these stamps, but felt a little confused by the packaging. The letters were all connected by a tab, and also had a sticky side. Guess what? It wasn’t that hard to figure it out once I just dove in and tried something. I snipped the letters apart and found the taps actually quite useful for placement on the page, as well as when I went to put the stamps back on the packaging. (The gray part is somewhat sticky, and that’s what keeps the stamps in place on the glossy paper packaging).

Since I’ve been feeling overwhelmed a lot lately, I decided to put the calming word, “Breathe” on my art journal page.

Now, when I flip through this journal and come across this page, I may pause and breathe.

May you also pause to breathe.

Did you know there are entire programs just on re-teaching adults how to breathe? It’s true! Anyway, thank you for witnessing my creative process. I hope you learned something or felt inspired to try something new!

And remember . . . .