Thursday, April 21, 2016

Color Burst Gatherings Journal

Hello everyone! My name is Kimberly Jones and I’m delighted to share a fun project with you today featuring Ken Oliver’s Color Burst watercolors, and StencilGirl stencils!
If you are new to Color Burst, it’s a richly pigmented powder that explodes into vivid hues when activated with water. What a fun match for stencils!
I chose several beautiful stencils for this project including Nature’s Gatherings, Go Your Own Way Arrows, Numbers, and Classic Feather Retake. I decided to create a nature journal to gather sketches and watercolors and to jot down notes and observations.
I would love to share some of the details from this project with you today.

Color Burst is such a versatile medium and there are infinite ways to use it. You can definitely create a riot of color, but I like to use it more subtle ways too -  for tinting papers and fabrics, and of course for stenciling. Today I’ll share 3 of my favorite ways to use Color Burst with stencils. The first way as shown in the photo above is the sprinkle and spritz technique. Simply gather a selection of your favorite colors that play well together, sprinkle them in the sections of your chosen stencil and then lightly spritz them with a spray bottle filled with water. I found it helpful to use masking tape to hold the stencil in place. Be sparing with the water because too much will cause the pigment to run under the stencil. This method is very unpredictable and it’s always fun to lift the stencil and reveal the results!
Technique #2 is a bit more like traditional watercoloring. I used Chartreuse and Lime Green to stencil a simple botanical image from Nature’s Gatherings. I used masking tape to secure the stencil onto a piece of Water Media Paper, and tapped a few granules of pigment from each bottle onto a craft mat. I like to use a water brush for this technique, and as you can see I only used a tiny bit of water to create a few droplets of paint.
Technique #3 is the most subtle of all and uses my new favorite Color Burst - Burnt Umber!
I like to tap some into an inkwell or other small container, add a bit of water, stir it up, and then use it like an ink. I used a cosmetic wedge to sponge some of the Burnt Umber onto Water Media paper using the tree image from the Nature’s Gatherings stencil. I  used this technique to create the bird silhouette on the journal cover using part of a vintage hanky. I also tinted the ledger paper and other paper scraps on the cover collage using Burnt Umber. 
To create the journal covers I tinted 2 pieces of 6 x 8 1/2 Khadi Paper with more of the Burnt Umber and water mixture. I covered the front with a piece of vintage ledger paper and then stenciled over it with random elements from the Numbers stencil using gesso. I then added a piece of canvas layered with the tinted Swiss dot fabric, the Burnt Umber bird, some illustrations from a vintage field guide, and a piece of handmade paper stenciled with one of the Go Your Own Way Arrows. A found metal keyhole topped off the focal point of the cover. Notice that gorgeous rusty shimmer on the arrow and some of the stenciling? That’s Iron Oxide Liquid Metals, a new addition to the Color Burst line! It’s actually a liquid and I used it with a dry paint brush to accent the arrow and some of the other stenciled areas. It adds so much sparkle! I used a black Posca paint pen to stencil the word gatherings onto a piece of Burnt Umber tinted handmade paper. A white Uniball gel pen add some final details to the arrow and other stenciled elements.
The inside pages of the journal include an eclectic mix of Water Media paper, parchment paper, and several pages form a vintage ledger. I used a simple 3-hole pamphlet stick to bind the journal together using Chartreuse and Lime Green tinted sari ribbon. A calligraphy brush attached with 24 gauge copper wire completed the project.

It was such a pleasure to create with these gorgeous stencils and I know they will be making many more appearances in my artwork!
If you would like to keep up with my artful adventures please check out my blog Serendipity Vintage Studio or follow me on Instagram@artfullvintage. Many thanks to StencilGirl for inviting me to be a part of their inspiring community!

11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you so much Seth! I loved using one of your beautiful stencils!

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  2. Lovely and creative, as usual. Just need to look at your work to get inspired!

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  3. I tried to comment on this earlier today, on my Android, but it has stopped allowing me to leave comments on these posts. I have no idea why. Maybe I've pushed the wrong button...???? Anyway, this is beautiful! Keep up the good work!

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