Instructions

Hi everyone! Carisa here with you today and I’m so excited to be on the Ranger blog sharing a mixed media piece using brand new Dina Wakely Media products! I was absolutely giddy when I saw her media tapes because like many of you probably, I’m a little bit of a tissue tape junkie. I love the tapes with her scribbly text and fun Dina style prints on them. Black and white is perfect because they become so versatile and you can color customize them for whatever suits your needs. I was inspired by Autumn all around us and want to show you how I created this fall inspired art journal page.

Today I am working in the Dylusions Black Creative Journal. This journal is so much fun to work in with the black pages and I love the square size of the pages. It’s fun to see how paints become more muted or vibrant against the black background. Because of this I do not prime my pages with gesso since that would defeat the purpose of working in the black journal. But if you prefer, you could always use Dina Wakley Media Clear Gesso. To start, I randomly added the tape to my page to start my background. I love the different prints of the tape and it will give me a nice layer of texture as a base to add my color on top.

The great thing about the tapes is that I don’t have to use any gel medium with them. They adhere so well, especially once you burnish them into the page with your fingers. I didn’t have any lifting as I added my layers on top, which is a huge bonus in my book. A lot of times, when I’m using tape, I have to use a gel medium with them so I know they won’t lift or move underneath layers. I pulled out three Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Acrylic Paints in Evergreen, Cheddar and Fuschia. These colors are the perfect Autumn palette. They remind me of the gorgeous colors we’re seeing right now in the mountains. Fall is my favorite season and the colors of the leaves inspire me to work outside of my normal cool colors palette I normally gravitate toward. Using the stiff bristle brush, I do a little color blocking with all of the colors on my page. Right now I’m just building up my background with some color and I love that I’m still able to see the prints of the tapes in the background. At this point, I also spritzed my page with some of Dina Wakley Mica Sprays in Evergreen and Ruby. I love the shimmer in these sprays over the top of my paints.

Next I grabbed some of Dina’s new Texture stamps with her Archival Ink Palette and stamped around my page randomly. I’m not worried about placement here as I just want some random texture all over. I also grabbed two Tim Holtz stencils (woodgrain and speckles) to add more texture, this time with paint colors Umber and White. I felt I needed to brighten my moody page up some with white so I used that with one of the stamps and then again with the stencil. I dried this with my Ranger Heat Tool and then added a layer of Crazing Medium for some subtle crackle texture.

Now comes the fun part and the reason for my pretty paint blocking and textured background. Using a Stabilo all pencil, I’m going to draw some simple leaf shapes on my page. I kept it super loose while trying to create some aspen leaf shapes (since those trees are very Colorado and that’s where I live) along with some basic leaf shapes. I drew some big and I drew others small. I also sketched in some branches, but those go away in the next step.

Once all my leaves are outlined, I am going to start blocking out my shapes by painting around them in white. As I was doing this, I no longer liked the look of the branches so I allowed those lines to blend and melt into my paint. Since the Stabilo pencil is water-based it reacts to wet mediums that you use over it. This created beautiful texture as the white blended with the black pencil to create different shades of gray. Along with the brushstrokes, I felt at this point my leaves were starting to look as if they were floating down from the trees as they do when they start to fall off the trees. I loved the effect! I also add a splash watered down Gilt Acrylic Paint using the splatter brush. I love the golden accent and it just adds to the texture of the leaves across the page.

To finish my page, I wrote in my quote with the Ranger Fude Ball Pen. It is one of my favorite fall quotes by Emily Bronte: “Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the Autumn tree.” It was the perfect quote for this page as I love how the leaves look as if they are floating across the page. The Fude Ball Pen is great for my journaling because (as often happens) I am able to wipe it away with a baby wipe if I make a mistake; and it’s a bold tip so my writing is crisp and clear.

Here is a close up of the left side of my journal spread.

I filmed the entire process for you, as well, so you can see each step as it comes together. I love sharing my process and letting you see the entire page come together in a little speed video as I talk you through what I’m doing. That’s it for me. Thank you Ranger again for inviting me to share my art with your readers using my favorite Ranger products. I hope you have been inspired to break out your art journals and create fall inspired beautiful mixed media art using the entire Dina Wakely Media Line!