There isn’t enough space in my studio.  A common problem for me since I seem to collect all sorts of things.  To remedy this situation, I have given myself a deadline to use it or lose it.  Whatever spray paints from a long ignored drawer I don’t use up today, get donated to a local art studio that works with kids.  What freedom to destash this way!

Why did I have such a build up of spray paints?

• I only saw spray paints at WalMart and the such and they didn’t have the exact colors I wanted but I kept trying to find colors I loved.  They weren’t expensive at all so it was easy to just try a new one.
• These are oil based which means they really build up on stencils (but I can’t resist using stencils with them!)
• They leave my hands super sticky if I don’t wear gloves.  I hate wearing gloves.
• They stink of spray paint chemicals.  Not a surprise, but still a strong odor.

At some point I learned a better way to spray paint.

A water based spray paint had less of an odor, would wash off of stencils after being soaked in water, washed off my hands with soap and water, had my colors and always had my colors available, not just for one season.  Here’s the brand I use most often now.

With the attitude of “Use it or lose it” I was totally free to see what happened, to experiment, and to have fun with color even if they weren’t my usual rainbow colors. Here is just one of papers I made with the Dream Landscape stencil while attempting to use up 30+ cans of spray paint.  You can see more of what I was up to over on Instagram.  I’ve recently jumped into that and am becoming quite enamored with it! @carolyn_dube

Reality check after a full day of play.

There’s a lot more paint in one can than I expected, let alone 30+ cans.  The cans that were full enough to donate have been given away and I extended my deadline by a day to use up the last remnants in the almost empty cans.  Off to play some more!

It was just a piece of book text for wiping up leftover paints.  Just a place to test out if the I had reinked the ink pad enough.  This wasn’t meant to be anything.  It was junk, but then it wasn’t.  I saw a conversation happening between all these people.  They had a message for me too.

I didn’t want the people (stamps by Kari McKnight Holbrook) just floating around in space so I started to put doorways around them using my Arched Aqueduct stencil and an ink pad.

But I didn’t have the perfect size arch for the bigger people. Oops! I didn’t think that far ahead.  A mistake? A failure? Nope.  An Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly.  I was going to make a larger one using the smaller ones.

I started by using a larger arch on the stencil but that only covered part of the person.

Then I positioned one of the smaller arches so I could use the straight side as the edge to extend the arch the full length of the person when I added the ink.  After doing one side, I just slid it over and did it to the other side. It worked so well, I did it again at the top of the page too.

A bit of Sharpie marker for the journaling and suddenly these people had a message for me.

What message did they have for me?  Doorways of opportunity are not always what you expect, and that can be a good thing.

**Disclaimer** When I journal, it is scribble journaling and sometimes I can read it and sometimes I can’t.  And sometimes it makes perfect sense in my head but seems garbled when it is written out.  Either way…I got the message even if I didn’t write it perfectly.

Sharing with my friends at Art Journal Journey!