Finding images inside free Sparks of Art-spiration is like spotting objects and characters in the clouds.  In this one, I saw Bed Head Betsy, a very happy woman waking up excited about the wonders the day holds for her.

In the video, you can see how I bring the image out and use it to build an art journal page.

Watch How to use a Spark Art-spiration in an art journal on YouTube.

What are Sparks of Art-spiration? They are a printable snippet of a larger piece of art play and a new one comes each week in my free newsletter.  I use them as a zero pressure way to warm up and start playing.  Want to get the exact same Spark I used? Just click the button and the computer elves will send it to your inbox.

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Using a pencil, I sketched around the image that I saw. No fancy drawing skills needed.  Truly.  Look at her hands.  They don’t exactly have the “proper” number of fingers.

What happens if I “ruin” it or detest my sketching? I just say OOPS and print out another one.  That’s the beauty of a Spark – since another can be printed in snap there is no pressure that it has to be perfect.

Once I had her sketched in, I used a thick white paint (heavy body) to cover up the areas around her.  What about the ink smearing when painting over it?

I print Sparks on cheap copy paper on both my ink jet or laser printer.  Both work well for this play. Ink jet prints need to be sealed if you want to be sure zero ink will smear. I put a very thin layer of gel medium on ink jet prints.  I’ve made a video for how to quickly do this in the free workshop, Permission to Play.  If I’m using a laser print, no sealing is necessary.

Is it better to cut it or rip it? Whichever way you want to do it is the best way!  It might be wise to wait until the paint is dry to cut it or rip it, but I am not that patient.

What can you do with that Spark?  Anything you use paper for so a card, collage, ATC’s, art journaling, and more.  This felt like the start of an art journal page to me, so I followed that impulse.

It was created on cardboard, for a journal like the one I share how to make in the free workshop, Permission to Play.

When art journaling, I like to include words.  I am not a big fan of my own handwriting so for titles I often use stencils, like my Now Is the Time stencil.  A touch of scribble journaling captures my thoughts about her waking up, full of wonder about what the day holds.

Another perk of using Sparks of Art-spiration is that you can do more than one thing with them since you print more for your personal use.  Using the Bed Head Betsy, I made a card that I’m going to send to someone I know who has a hard time getting out of bed!

Want to play with Sparks?  Use the button below to have this one sent to your inbox now plus you’ll get a new one each week in my newsletter.

Yes, I want the free download!

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!

InLinkz.com

The plan for this canvas went horribly wrong. The idea in my head did not translate one bit the way I intended on the canvas.  That is a polite way of saying “Yuck, it was rear end ugly!”   But it was just an O.O.P.S., an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly, that started the journey of this canvas.

After saying O.O.P.S., I ripped off as much of the glued on elements as possible and grabbed more paint.  There is freedom in ugly, because there wasn’t any way that I could make it any worse.

The texture of the ripped off elements inspired me to add more texture with modeling paste and my Words to Live By stencil.  If you’re new to modeling paste and want to know more of what it can do, take a look at the Modeling Paste Play mini workshops.

Once the modeling paste was dry, the rainbow play began.

That thing that I detested so in the beginning, became a playground for layering color.  That cardboard was pure rainbow joy to me, but it was about to be sacrificed when the muse pointed me in new direction.

As more color was added to the canvas, the muse kept saying make the colorful cardboard circle a glowing white moon. How on earth was I going to cover up that magical rainbow on the cardboard.  I couldn’t! I wouldn’t!

As I fussed at the muse about this, she gave me a head slap and the idea to just remove the cardboard.  I used a knife and carefully ripped it off the canvas as if I was removing a piece of the Sistine Chapel.

She was right, I had to admit. The circle was much better without the cardboard because it let the rainbow texture next to it stand out more.

The direction the muse pointed me in was a crazy silly dream that I had about the man in the moon dancing and conducting a symphony of butterflies fluttering about the world.

The title, courtesy of my Vintage Typewriter Alphabet stencil from StencilGirl, became the final element.

This went from so-ugly-I-didn’t-even-take-a-picture to something I adore all because of an O.O.P.S.

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming!

InLinkz.com