Anouk (Creanouk): Tall Journal Play!

Hello beautiful artist,

Anouk here, and today I'm sharing a page that I made in my tall journal.

Making my own art journals has made me experiment a lot with a lot of shapes and sizes. Awhile ago I made two tall shaped journals, and they are so much fun to play in! It did took me awhile to get used to them though, but once you crack the code of the weird composition this size gives you so many possibilities.

When I work in this size I almost always grab a tall stencil that will fit the narrow pages, but this time I want to play a little bit with layering a repetitive pattern stencil. I'm working with the Japanese Tulip Oriental Rug (L921) by Cathy Nichols.

01. Setting up the basics

This page already had a thin layer of gesso on it, so no need to add extra. I grabbed a few collage bits and layered them on the corners of the page. I normally don't bother to put clear gesso on top of my collage, but since I'm using a piece of pattern paper I wanted to be safe and applied a thin layer.

               

02. Gel printing

I used a small Gel Printing 3x5 inch plate to apply some Dina Wakley - Heater acrylic paint. I love how you can print paint quick and easy with this small play plate without making lots of mess. I stamp the plate directly to the page making sure I don't use too much pressure. The goal here is to make some marks, not to get the entire print.

03. Stencilling

I'm sorry for all the red lovers out there, but I always soften my Naphthol Red Deep paint with a bit of Titanium White to create a tone that is the perfect mix between red and pink. I then applied it with a baby wipe through my stencil, because I couldn't find my ink dabber. So if you ever can't find your stamping and tool know that a baby wipe is the perfect alternative.

04. Gesso

Now it's time for my favourite part. After the colour explosion I tone it all down with a little bit of gesso. I don't cover it all up, just a little bit to make it more softer. Then I grab my stencil again and I apply some gesso through it with a pallet knife. As a finishing touch I watered down my gesso to make some splatters.

05. Colour

The fabric on my journal gave me the perfect inspiration for my colour pallet. So grabbed Dina Wakley - Sage acrylic paint and applied it with my fingers blending it with the wet gesso.

06. More collage

When the, what I like to call - base layer was done I add some more collage elements to the page. When the elements were dry I made them blend in with the page by adding a tiny bit of gesso here and there.

07. Coffee

I don't know how it happened but coffee became my signature move in art journaling. I splattered some dry grounded coffee on my page and sprayed some water on top of it to create these intense coffee marks.

08. Finishing touches

For the finishing touches I cut out a few words form a Dutch book and glue them on my page. Then I grabbed my stencil again and some gold paint to highlight the words a little bit.

Have you ever worked in a tall journal? If you didn't I hope that this blogpost has given you a bit of inspiration to start one yourself.

Productlist

L921 - Japanese Tulip Oriental Rug

Handmade journal

Vintage Music and Book Paper
Pattern Paper DecoTime
Lace DecoTime

Tea Bags

Amsterdam White Gesso
Amsterdam Clear Gesso
Mod Podge Matt
Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint - Heather
Dina Wakley Acrylic Paint - Sage
 Amsterdam Napthol Deep Red Amsterdam Titanium white Amsterdam Gold Instant Coffee

Thank you so much for reading my blog post. I hope that I have inspired you to create today! My name is Anouk or Creanouk on social media, and I'm an all-round creative from the Netherlands. I love art journaling because I can put my heart and soul into it. You can find my work on Instagram and Youtube.