“Spring is Here” Journal Page  with Nicole Austin

Spring is one of my favorite seasons (right behind summer!) and to celebrate, I thought it would be fun to put together a spring themed art journal page for today’s Crash the Stash video!  My inspiration started in the dollar spot in Target with these pretty, spring-themed floral napkins! I know, it’s supposed to be “use what you already have,” but they were only at $1 and they fit my theme! Haha!  But I was “good” and I did not purchase anything else and used the paints, stencils, sprays and collage sheets I already had at home in the studio. I like to start off on a journal page that already has some paint scrapes and splatters on it.  If you are starting with a blank page, just take a few of the paint colors listed (or your favorites) and lightly scrape them onto the page with a palette knife or old gift card. I like to scrape paint on because then it dries faster and it provides a more even surface to start on (as opposed to big chunks of paint).  Once that is dry, cut out and arrange your collage pieces. I started with the window pane and then layered butterflies and flowers and some of the floral napkins all around (be sure to peel back all the layers and only glue down the top layer of the napkin). I placed the floral napkin with the sentiment (“Spring is Here”) in the center.  Remember to take a photo with your phone or camera so that you can recreate your collage. Then, glue everything down with your medium of choice (I like glue sticks because they are quick and easy, but be warned–if you use water over the top, there will be some curling. If you want something more secure or are working on a canvas, use gel medium or Mod Podge).  Once you’ve glued everything down, you can begin to get creative by filling in the flowers and butterflies with a little bit of color using paint (and your fingers or a Q-tip), paint daubers and/or paint markers. Keep the marks a little fun and loose for a more impressionistic style. Outline your flowers, butterflies and the window frame with the black Stabilo pencil and then go over that with a waterbrush to darken and add shadows.  Use the High Flow Acrylic (or watered down acrylic paint) and a spray bottle to create “drops” of rain. It’s ok to get the frame full of color, it shows through the cracks of the crackle paste in the end! The last steps are to add the crackle paste on the window frame (only the parts that are showing) and let dry. It’s such a nice touch to have the window pane look like old, weathered wood! I hope you are inspired to try some of these techniques and crash your stash!

Enjoy the video!

Products used:

+Stencils: Doodle Flowers Individuals Stencils/Masks

+Collage Sheets: Flowers from “Collage Pak for Sunday Inspiration 11-13-16,” “2 Pane Frame,” and “Butterflies” (from the Resource Library) if you are a subscriber you will have acces to the library, or you can subscribe HERE

+Paint: Hand Made Modern (Hot Coral, Robin’s Egg, Azalea), Golden Fluid Acrylic (Hansa Yellow Medium), Golden High Flow acrylic (Teal), Hero Arts daubers (Neon Pink, Neon Red)

+Spray Ink: Mr Hueys (Plum Thumb), Dylusions (Calypso Teal), Hero Arts (Neon Purple)

+Paint Pens: Liquitex  paint pens (15mm tip in Fluorescent Pink, Lime Green, Bright Aqua, Fluorescent Red)

+DecoArt Media Crackle Paste

+Stabilo 3-in-1 Woody Pencil (Black)

+Waterbrush

+Paintbrush

+Baby wipes

+Spray bottle

You can see more from Nicole here: