Mixed Media - create a "messy" page | Art Journaling

Hi everyone 🌷 I hope you are all doing well.

This is my first post of 2025 and one of my goals this year is to boost my blog! I know blogging seemed to be on the downward trend a few years ago, but personally, it had always been my favorite form of communicating. So, trendy or not, I will endeavour to increase my posts this year.

We've been having exceptionally cold weather and even a light dusting of snow. I have been in my studio working on a series of small paintings on wood panel. Like with my other crafts, I enjoy mixing things up and in between paintings I have done some art journaling and created a few mixed media pages. Some of these I share the process on my YouTube channel. Here is one of them. Since I'm working in my A6 journal the page is easily done and includes fun tools and plenty of layers with an assortment of stamps and stencils.

I'm mainly working with acrylic inks in this tutorial. I find I like the ones from Liquitex, as they are highly pigmented and come in a large color range, including neons and metallics. Using an old, small plastic bag I spread the inks randomly on the surface. 

Applying scraps of collage, grungy stamps and fun stencils. All supplies are listed in the video description. You can watch the entire process from start to finish here:

Creating this art journal spread with its many layers and textures was enormously satisfying. Are you a fan of "messy art"? Let me know in the comments.

Have a great week -

Winter Birdies Art Journal Tutorial

Hello lovelies!

I was thinking about my blogging journey the other day, and how this little blog of mine has changed direction several times. Last year, due to circumstances beyond my control I wasn't able to post a single article. Therefore it makes me especially happy that I was able to pick up blogging again this year, even though not quite as often as I had hoped. 

I know that mixed media art might not be your cup of tea, but I combine this with other crafts, such as card making and gelli printing, for example. Who doesn't love those?!

Anyway, today's tutorial is a full spread in my art journal. If you are wondering what type journal I am using - it's from Hahnemühle, my favorite brand. Since it's a German brand it's readily available here, but foremost, I use it for its smooth, natural white paper quality. At 200 gsm it takes a lot of wet media surprisingly well. I also like the different formats they come in. The art journal above is a nice A5 size that opens up to an A4 spread. 

I've chosen a Winter theme and primarily use acrylic paints for this project. In this first layer I have chosen Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre, reflecting a bit of the colors of Autumn, which you can still see here and there. To get this interesting texture I have used a piece of sandwich paper. 

After the first layer has dried, I add another paint layer, this time with a small brayer.

I let this dry again, before adding the next layer with some stencilling. I like dabbing the paint on with a make up sponge - just be sure to pop it into a jar with water after use. Then rinse thoroughly under a tap.

You can watch the whole process from start to finish in my video tutorial here:

Be sure to give me a "thumbs uo" or leave a comment...this helps to circulate my video to a wider audience, so more people can enjoy it! All the supplies are listed in the video description.

And here's my finished spread! I have chosen an excerpt from Mary Oliver's book "Winter Hours" and printed it out, then cut out the sentences and glued them down with a glue stick. 

Let me know if you like these type of spreads or if you wish to see more card making, collage fodder type of tutorials? Thank you.

Have a beautiful day,