Hello there friends! Hope that you’ve been having a great month so far to start off your year! I’m so relieved that I’ve gotten my sound up and running on the computer now! Also…today I’m very happy to be continuing on with making my monthly art journal pages (plus using my stash!) and to be continuing the partnership with my sweet crafty friend, Carol! I always love to see how each of us interprets the monthly stash themes.
If you’re not familiar, I post an AJ page each month along with my crafty friend, Carol (from Crafty-Stamper), as we get creative trying to use up our never-ending stash piles! We use a prompt each month and post them. I know she will have some great inspiration, so please check out her blog for an AJ page too! Here’s my first Art Journal inspiration for 2023 with the “SMASH OUR STASH” January prompt of “Sprays/Stains/Paints” :

So this one is a bit different for me, but I wanted to try out a “minimalistic” style and very soft with the colors that’s almost pale. Not sure I achieved what I was thinking, but fun to try anyway.
Background: With the prompt in mind, I had no problem pulling out a few Distress Spray Stains that I have so many of but hardly use. So I started the background with a stencil and added some texture paste to the two opposite corners over a gesso painted 6″x9″ 140# cold press paper pre-punched with holes for book. I then took the spray stains and went over the two opposite corners with them.
I found a cool photo online of the eye with the clock. The outside of the eye has repetitive “tick tock” wording over it. Before attaching this photo and the wording elements, I stamped a very large pocket watch image (Whimsy Stamps retired) with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink. Since the sprays and ink are water based media, I covered the page with Distress Micro Glaze to make it permanent before adding some collage medium to attach the other elements. I also used a Big Brush marker to go around the edges for shadows. The pocket watch detail is a laser cut chipboard that was sprayed with black distress spray.
I took some more paint to add to the colored sprayed edges along with some black and white paints to randomly splatter over the entire page. Lastly I took some silver metallic rub to go over the raised areas and make them stand out a bit. The page has a sheen to it because I went over it with a coat of collage medium.
I hope you’ve gotten some inspiration today and thank you for stopping in!
Challenges:
- Art Journal Journey – Use a photo (eyeball)
- More Than Words – It’s About Time
- Country View – Time
- Love to Craft – Anything Goes
- Love to Scrap – Anything Goes
- Arty Divas – Anything Goes