Ever have one of those days where everything that could go wrong goes very wrong? That even the littlest things upset you? That’s where I was – and my day was miserable because of my mood.

But how can you shift a mood from mean and cranky back to being who your really are? Through the power of play.

As you watch this art journal page go through its layers, in the beginning every little thing irritated me. You’ll see what everyday thing irritated me so much that I purposely made brown. It was one of those days.

But just taking a few minutes to play, even making mud kind of play, helped shift my mood. By the end, you’ll see how I handle paint smearing from the stencil that is very different from how I handled things at the start of this page.

This didn’t start well thanks to my frustration that the paint had to dry before I put the next color on top. Yes, that was a huge frustration.

Paint having to dry is not something new or unreasonable, I was the one who was unreasonable in expecting that paint wouldn’t have to dry. So out of irritation and frustration, I made mud. Ugly, yucky, mud.

Being in a bad mood doesn’t lend itself to the clearest thinking.

After the mud was made, there was instant regret. Oh, that was so very ugly. It had to be covered up, so I turned to a vintage book.

Sloppy, messy, don’t tell me what do kind of gluing down of pieces of text to hide the brown. I still had a bit of attitude in me.

As I painted the paper, I was careful to not mix my colors. I was bound and determined that the colors would not mix together, I was even careful with the brushes to make sure they didn’t accidentally pick up stray paint.

With my mind so busy being in a bad mood, how on earth could I possibly have the ability to choose the paint colors or decide what to do next? Is it magic? Nope, it’s understanding the principles of art journaling.

Knowing what those foundational principles are makes it so much easier to make decisions, even on one of those days.

If you’d like me to walk you step by step through those principles so that you can apply them when your art journaling so that you never have to be stuck no matter what happens on the page the check out my online workshop called Art Journaling FUNdamentals.

The brown has been banished, the colors have stayed separate and then it happened. I made a big O.O.P.S. with black paint.

I had an idea and as soon as I stenciled just one word of the idea, I knew it was an O.O.P.S. It was an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly.

When I started this page, in the sour mood, it was tough for me to appreciate an O.O.P.S. but I kept playing. The more I played, the better my mood. So by this point in the page, I could see the opportunity in the horrifying black smudge.

What had started as one word, became the random background using my It’s Time to Play stencil that I designed for StencilGirl Products.

There are 5 quotes about play on here. But the goal this time wasn’t to read the full quotes, but to have parts and bits of the sayings fill up the background.

That’s one big reason why I love words on stencils– they can make lots of different looks from a title on a page to background to – well, you’ll see in the next photo how these words get used.

I had worked so hard to keep the paint from smearing and it did anyway. Not from my brush or the wet paint on the page but from the palette. The edge of stencil was dipped into the paint by accident.

O.O.P.S. in the best possible way! Just yellow had been on there but now I went all in and actually added more to the back!

That created the random splotches of paint here and there. Stencils can do anything. Maybe not anything since they can’t do my laundry- but they do a whole lot in an art journal!

By this point in the play, my mood had shifted from extremely cranky and frustrated back to calm and reasonable.

If you ever have a bad day try getting out your art supplies and just making something. Anything. Just using your art supplies can help shake off a rough day because that is the power of play.

Stenciling I know. Sewing, not so much. Taking Home Economics in middle school 30+ years ago can only help you so much. But how hard could this be to take a stencil and turn it into dolls? Famous last words.

The stencil used to make these art dolls was inspired by Henri Matisse’s The Dance painting. His figures were not about proper proportions or exacting realism so it’s fitting that these dolls each ended up with their own shapes. I am not the most skilled seamstress and making really small arms had consequences.

Dancing with Matisse stencil

Stencil the figures on to white cotton fabric with Marabu’s Fashion Spray. The less spray you use, the crisper your image will be. The more you use, the more likely it is that the color will go under the stencil. That’s not a good or a bad thing, it’s just what happens depending on how much spray you use.

Once they’re dry, flip it over and pin a piece of plain fabric to it- with the right sides facing in.

After each color, blot the stencil dry using scrap fabric this way as you’re cleaning off the stencil, you’re also using the negative of the stencil to make patterned fabric. Every drop of Fashion Spray gets used!

Next, sew around the shape but be sure to leave an opening so you can turn it right side out. You might think it’s obvious to leave the opening, but I got so wrapped up in the sewing that I totally forgot to do that once.

I’m not a precise free motion person, so that means there were some interesting shapes in the end. The extra wide spots and extra narrow spots made each doll unique.

Smaller areas, like arms can get very narrow so it is tough to pull the arms out. So I started giving them some very wide arm pits- just to make it easier to get the arms out.

On those dolls where I accidentally made the arms extra narrow, they just didn’t have one or both arms. Let’s just say I was making them like the ancient Greek statues who always seem to be missing arms.

Once they’re sewn, trim off the excess fabric. Then the fun begins – turning them right side out. Needle nose pliers and a pin are handy to have for this process. It’s an exercise in patience and one I didn’t always have. That’s why some arms seem rather short or completely missing.

Now it’s time for the stuffing. Putting in little bits of it a time is best, but that takes patience so sometimes I did that, and sometimes not so much.

Once they are stuffed, then stitch up the opening with some hand stitching. After making these, I have a new respect for doll makers and anyone who can make 2 that look like!

One of my dogs thought I made new toys for him, so he secretly got ahold of one of the art dolls and took it outside. When I found it in the grass, a silly thought popped into my head- this would make a great piece of installation art!

So I turned a little portion of my backyard into a soft sculpture garden representing the feeling of getting lost in the weeds. But only temporarily, as my dog was way way way too interested in chewing on them!

Here are the supplies 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! The colors of the sprays in the images below are a bit weird, so go by more of the colors in my video or photos than these thumbnail images for colors.