Art Journal page with stencil & molding paste

Hi there, Isa here with a textured journal page tutorial using the Leaves 1 stencil and stamps from the Sketchy Leaves and Pick a Number sets. The background is a piece of mixed media paper smooshed with Distress Oxides and Distress Inks, and I’m also using crayons and acrylics. I’m adding a final touch with a word from the Journal Words stamp set.

Let’s start with the background! Remember my tutorial about using one stencil two ways ? I made a lot of those papers and the one I’m glueing here as a background on my home made journal page was made with Distress Oxides and Inks. So I know from the get go that it will be reactivated by any water-based medium that I’ll put on top of it, and that’s what I’m looking for.

With a palette knife, I then apply a thin layer of molding paste through the Leaves 1 stencil, to create texture. While drying, the molding paste is absorbing the color underneath and the result is a gorgeous raised surface in the same hues as the background.

Next step is bringing some darker tone in the opposite corner with acrylics. I’m glueing down a focal point from the Sketchy Leaves stamp set, that I created out of the papers made in a previous tutorial, as well as another point of interest at the edge of the page, from the Pencil Marks 3 stamp set.

As I want to echo the color of the focal point, I’m rubbing my Neocolor II crayon over the surface of the molding paste pattern before wetting it with a clean brush. I also add a dash of dark color in the same corner, to add a more dramatic effect.

To fill in the space that’s left and that feels a bit too big, I’m gluing down a piece of book page where I stamped numbers from the Pick a Number set. It gives the page that touch of vintage and out of style kind of look that I’m looking for.