Art Journal: Life is Good.

I’ve been having so much fun lately doing ATCs and tags, I haven’t had a moment to do an art journal layout just for me in a while. So yesterday I sat down and decided to just play.

Life is Good.

This layout was inspired by a tag I saw on Pinterest. (And I’ve found the creator! Visit Claudia’s amazing fan page or watch the tutorial on the tag that inspired my art journal layout!) I loved it so much, I wanted to do my own version in an art journal. I took pictures as I went along, so I could show you how I created this fun piece.
I’m using my Moleskin notebook. First I applied a layer of gesso to the top half of the spread. I knew the bottom half would be covered with die cuts, so I didn’t bother with the bottom of the pages.

I then used several gelatos in shades of blue: Elderberry, Cotton Candy, Blueberry and Boysenberry. I applied the gelatos to the page and used a wet baby wipe and my fingers to spread the colors until I was happy with it. I then covered the color with a layer of matte medium to protect it from whatever I wanted to do to the skyline.

I then cut several “sand dunes” using the Lawn Fawn Stitched HIllside Borders.

I then blended on some Distress Oxide inks in Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey and Vintage Photo. I inked the whole die cut because I wasn’t sure of my placement yet.

I fiddled with the placement then glued the dunes onto the page using Ranger’s Multi Matte Medium. I used an alcohol marker to color the edges under the dunes, because I thought there might be a chance some of the background page might show through my wave die cuts.

Next I cut my waves using the Frantic Stamper Frothy Wave Edger die. I inked the die cuts with Distress Oxide Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers, then flicked some water over the top for the bubbly look.

I had left the tops of the waves white, so I applied some Versamark embossing ink to the wave tops and sprinkled on some White Puff embossing powder. After heat setting, it puffs a little bit, giving it some texture.

I then stamped out some of the images from the Lawn Fawn Life is Good stamp set and also die cut the trees, coconuts and crab from the Lawn Fawn Palm Trees die set. I colored the stamped images with my mishmash set of alcohol markers (I use a combo of Blick, Spectrum Noir and Copics, so my colors wouldn’t be very helpful) and inked the trees with Distress Oxides Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint. I fussy cut the stamped images since I didn’t want the white border around them as my trees and girl wouldn’t have them.

Next, I stamped out one of my Julie Nutting doll stamps, Betsy. I knew her legs would be mostly hidden, so I didn’t bother with her feet. I used a darker piece of the Julie Nutting Skin Tone paper pad to stamp the doll on, then stamped out her swimsuit onto some pretty scraps I had in my stash, and pieced them onto the doll.

I glued down the two back waves, then placed my pieces where I wanted them before gluing them down with matte medium.

Before I glued down the final waves, I spritzed them with a silver shimmer spray to give it a bit of sparkle. I added some stamped birds and my sentiment as the final touches.

Hope you enjoyed a look into this process! Thank you for visiting! 🙂