It’s fun how pages usually evolve on their own.  I rarely have a “plan” in mind when I start a journal page.  I simply dive in and start adding colour, and see where it takes me . . .

This one started with orange and yellow Distress Ink applied through a round stencil with a blending tool.  Then I decided to add a different stencil (and a different colour – purple!) in the background.  A blending tool allows for great stop and start points, so it’s possible to pick and choose exactly where to apply the colour.  After adding the purple, I wanted more contrast between the round shapes and the purple background, so I doodled some black dots with a Sharpie and shaded with a little more purple (applied directly from the blending tool to the page).  Can you tell that I get a lot of use our of my blending tools!?!

Before adding words cut from a magazine (“Come as you are”), I could tell that the background would be too light to make the words pop — so I added additional yellow to the circle shapes (with a blending tool, of course!)  I completed the collage with a few postage stamps, and incorporated them into the page with additional doodling and shading around them.  Lastly, I added a little washi tape to bring a splash of yellow into the upper left corner.

Again, there was no “plan” for this page.  It developed step by step on its own.  To art journal, you don’t have to be able to do a whole page, you only have to take one step at a time until it looks “right” to you.