I am going to gush a bit here.  I am a huge fan of Brené Brown and her message about shame and vulnerability.  I loved her And I Thought it Was Just Me…and The Gifts of Imperfection changed how I saw the world…and Daring Greatly spoke to my soul.  So I wondered what on earth she’d have in Rising Strong.  It is hands down my favorite Brené book.

She writes so personally, as if she is just sitting across the sofa talking to you.  That’s on the inside but I wanted the outside to feel just as personal. Brené isn’t going to stop by and do that for all of us…she’d have to be better than Santa Claus to make that happen.  But I could make the cover personal.

It has a paper book jacket and paper calls for paint in my world.  Out came the brushes and paint.  I gave it light wash of white and then started with the colors.   Then, I followed the letters in Rising Strong with yellow paint.  I used the lines as guides, not as rules, so if I didn’t fill it all in or went over the line a touch it was just fine with me.

After brushing on the blues and pinks around letters I wanted a very imprecise painting tool for the orange…the Q Tip.

This was just like art journaling but instead of starting on a blank page or in a journal it was on a book jacket.

So now when the book is on my nightstand…the minute I see it I have a visual reminder of her message. Thank you Brené for Rising Strong, another insightful and life changing book!

I am absolutely addicted to the fineline applicator. Why? Because it lets me write on just about anything in any color I want.  The way the tip is designed, it doesn’t clog which is critical for me because I am not willing to clean.  Not one of these has clogged on me yet.  Beth Figiel left a comment on the blog asking me to explain more about these little bottles so I created this video.

Watch How to use a Fineline applicator to write on wet paint on YouTube.

When you buy it, it arrives empty and you fill it up with any runny color you want.  I fill mine with either acrylic inks  or high flow paint.  The rule I follow is if it will come out the tip then it is a good paint for the fineliner.

No matter how rough a surface, I can write on it with one of these.  A felt tip pen would get roughed up writing on this surface and a ball point pen will jump and skip on all this texture.

How hard you squeeze determines how much comes out the tip.  There are 2 sizes of the bottles, and I prefer the finest size because it can give me the thinnest line.

This is my go to way to write on wet paint because I don’t always want to wait for paint to dry and I don’t want to ruin a traditional pen.  I know, you’re shocked that I haven’t learned to be patient and wait for things to dry!

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 you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!