Instructions

I love Dyan’s style and that it allows me to step out of my comfort zones, work with bright colors, design with odd shapes, fancy images and so much more. I couldn’t decide on an idea for just one art journal page, so I made an entire journal. Let’s jump right in

Step 1: First, I needed a couple pages for my art journal. Of course, there is always the option of patterned paper, but where is the fun in that? I prefer creating my own backgrounds by mono printing with a gel plate. I started by scooping up some Dylusions paints onto my Gel Plate and creating a few prints. Staying within similar colors helps avoiding muddy prints, so I created a few in orange, green and blue/ purple shades with designs on both sides of the paper.

Step 2: After the paint was dry, I added the first layer of texture with the Dylusions Ink Sprays in the same colors as the paint. I picked a few small stencils and sprayed the ink all over the backgrounds.

Step 3: The second layer involved the same stencils, but this time I used the shimmer sprays.

Step 4: After I was done creating all the backgrounds, I cut the pages to 9 ¼ x 7 ¼, bent them in half and layered them all on top of each other. Next, I measured and marked the middle of the fold and one inch from the top and bottom of the fold.

Step 5: Then I punched holes through all three marks, and sewed the pages together. One of the easier binding techniques is the following:
Thread the twine through the needle and push it through the middle from the outside in.
Push the needle through the top hole from the inside out.
Go through the middle hole again, outside to the inside.
Now go through the bottom hole, inside to the outside.
Tighten the twine and tie a knot with the rest of the twine from the beginning in the middle of the journal on the outside.

Step 6: As you can tell, I really enjoyed working with the new Shimmer Sprays. I picked some of the coloring sheets, cut them apart and sprayed them in a variety of colors. These are perfect for decorating the journal.

Step 7: Besides the sprayed die cuts, there are so many other amazing Dylusions images. I selected some of the dy-cuts, a few more of the coloring sheets, stamped images, new washi tape and went crazy.

Step 8: There are so many options – using the images as is or adding different heads and bodies. Adhering them to the top and bottom of the pages, doodling a little and coloring some of the images. I had a blast while playing around and trying to figure out how I want my pages to look like.
After one day of fun I ended up with 16 colorful pages, some rather simple, some full of doodles and “me”.
I hope you enjoyed my project for today’s blog post and hopefully got inspired to jazz up some of your art journal pages.