Let's Play - January 2016

I don't know what took me so long, but I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is Carolyn Dube. I am in awe of how easily she speaks on camera in her YouTube videos, and her art skillz are the bomb. If you've been living under a rock in close proximity to mine (hence my 90's slang), you can find out more about her here.

I recently saw the video about her Let's Play challenge. It sounded like something to keep me creating even when I wasn't really feeling up to it, and it's a monthly thing so it isn't like I have to rush to get something done in the span of a few days. If you want to find out more about the challenge, click the colorful "Let's Play" button to the right of this post.

I have to admit that it was nice to just ease into the process of creating without getting too worked up about the finished product. That's one of the reasons I love art journaling, but lately it has seemed that the finished product had to be share-worthy or else it was a waste of time. That is so wrong on so many levels! This challenge was a great way to bring me back to my center, and the January theme of using something that would have been thrown away made it all the easier.

I selected a priority shipping envelope from my last order from istencils.com, and I cut the envelope so that I had one panel at almost 7 inches by 9 inches. I used a piece of the protective material that came with my PS4 (whatchamacallit?) and cut it up to avoid falling into the habit of just sticking it down in one piece and moving on. I even saved a mini candy bar wrapper and tried to use it in a way that I probably wouldn't have normally.

I used the FW Acrylic Inks to get some color down after I applied a thin layer of white gesso. See the Pinterest board below for a full list of the supplies I used.

This is the material that expensive electronics sometimes come wrapped in. It is soft to the touch and a thin material, perfect for the application of paint.

I applied a layer of Dina Wakley's black gesso before using white linen Dylusions paint with a couple of stencils. Some of the paint got underneath the stencil in a couple of places but I didn't sweat it.

I used a white paint pen and a black permanent marker to trace the triangles that I cut out, as well as to doodle all over the page. I did some light stamping with Memento's London Fog ink pad, so that the stamp isn't too pronounced.

On a whim, I used one of the crazy bird stamps and colored it in with spectrum noir markers. I used Elmer's glue-all to adhere the triangles and the bird to the envelope.

I decided to add a little pop of color using the Gelly Roll moonlight pen. It didn't stick in all of the areas and I just accepted it. In fact, it makes the outlines of the large triangles look more sketchy, which is the look I was aiming for.

This is the mini Hershey's wrapper. I just stuck it down instead of attempting to mold it into a special shape or cutting it into another triangle, and that makes it stand out on the page. In order to help it blend in better, I went over it with some of the FW acrylic inks to mute the brown color on the wrapper. Doodling over it made it fit better with the theme of the page, and I'm happy with how it turned out.  

I enjoyed the process of creating this page - my first one in almost a month. It was nice to get back into the swing of things and just do some creating without focusing too much on the specifics. Of course, there are things about the page that I'm not overly thrilled with, but it isn't enough to worry about.

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The finished product:

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Thanks for checking out my creation. Join in on the fun and check out Carolyn Dube's channel and blog - you won't regret it.

Follow Travis's board Supplies - January Play Challenge on Pinterest.