a page from my art journal...

Hello again :) I am making an effort to share more of my creative projects on my blog this year and have been putting my one little word {create} intentions into practice with a bit of art jounral play.

My original plan was to use this bear cutting die on a scrapbook layout, but as much as I liked the concept of using a cool geometric bear on my layout I felt a bit stumped with which photos to use it with, but as with many things the more I looked at it the more potential it seemed to have and some ideas started to form about using it for a page in my art journal. 

I started with a floral background which I lightly covered with gesso using a regular silicone kitchen spatula. I die cut the bear from black cardstock and worked out his placement before applying a few layers of matte acrylic paint in random swipes using the same spatula. I always reach for matte paint for my art journals because it is a lot easier to work over the top and intentionally left a few areas free of paint so that the floral background would still peep through but no longer look so busy.

I added some stamping to the background with an old Kaisercraft texture stamp from my stash. I attached the bear and used a fine point sharpie marker to add the phrase beneath him and applied a sprinkle of metallic gold rub-ons over the stamped areas.

I found a few Crate Paper die cut floral accents in my stash to create a floral crown and used a felt tip pen to outline all of the leaves to help them match the black lines of the bear.

 I selected a larger die cut flower for the bottom of the page but because it had more of a red tone, I used the more of the pink acrylic paint to alter the colour and applied a little bit of tacky glue to accent the flower with a gold foil sheet which I simply placed over the glue and peeled away the excess once it dried. The remainder of the flowers were cut from my original floral background.

Here's a closer look at the fabulous bear Uniquely Creative Geometric Bear which started it all - he can be found through the listed stockists

I love dies that are versatile and have enjoyed using the Uniquely Creative range for a few art journal pages - this one featured the interlocking Scribble Circle dies as a mask along with some fun Wiggle Waves for a decorative element. I'd love to hear what items you are adding to your journals!

Thanks for stopping by xx

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