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Welcome! I’m Carolyn Dube – This colorful journey is all about the freedom of play!

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The Fine Print

Some of the links on this blog are affiliate links and I receive a small percentage. It doesn't cost you anything extra and helps keep all the free tutorials and videos coming! It's a win-win! The website is copyright Carolyn Dube, and that is kinda common sense since this is my site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Waiting for that Perfect Idea

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What’s the play for today?  It’s all about wanting and waiting for that perfect idea.  Perhaps you’ve been wishing waiting for that too.  I was treasuring an art journal page and waiting for that “perfect” idea to appear out of thin air. After waiting quite a while, I realized  play was the perfect idea!

So I grabbed what was nearby and let loose.  In the video, you’ll also see tips and tricks for how to glue tissue paper into an art journal without ripping it.

Watch Art Journaling and Tips for Gluing Tissue Paper on YouTube.

Art Play Prompts mentioned in the video can be found here.

How did this page start? It was just spray ink and my Arched Aqueduct stencil. Nothing fancy, but I loved how it looked on the page. I could have stenciled it again as many times as I wanted, but for some silly reason, where this one started felt like a treasure.

What are the 2 important things to know about gluing tissue paper into your art journal?

  1. Use a runny glue.  Use whatever brand you have, the most important part is that it is runny or fluid.  If you have regular gel medium, just mix a bit of water with some of it it create a more fluid glue. You’ll want to keep your tool wet so that it glides over the tissue paper.
  2. A spatula tool.  Compared to a paint brush, it really reduces the ripping and tearing of the tissue paper.  I use the Catalyst one and it only takes a light touch.

If you’re going to journal over glue or paints, you want to wait until it is dry.  But I didn’t have any patience, so I simply scribble journaled in any of the black white spaces on the page.

So how did I get that printed tissue paper? It was stenciled with acrylic paint onto plain white tissue paper using my Wall of Words stencil.  You can use any color you want, it’s like creating custom book text only with bolder print.

The bolder print allowed me to create titles and text on this page that stood out, even with all the color happening.  You might notice that I’ve rearranged the words from how they are on the actual stencil.  That gives you even more options as to what you want to say!

Next time you have an art journal page and you’re waiting for the perfect idea, give play a try- it just might be the one you were waiting for!

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!


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How I Dealt with Being Completely Stuck

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What’s the play for today?  It’s all about being stuck and what to do about it. I was in my head.  One minute I loved a certain part of it, then the next, I didn’t like that same part.  Overthinking big time.  I was never going to get anywhere as long as I was thinking this way.

I needed to get out of my head and get in to the play. How did I do that? I did something that couldn’t be undone.  I took a risk.

Watch How I Dealt with Being Completely Stuck on YouTube.
Click here to get the free weekly Art Play Prompts that were mentioned in the video.

No take backs.  That’s how I get an adrenaline rush.  Tom Cruise jumps out of airplanes for his, but I do something that can’t be undone. I put white paint all over a background with a big brush.

Big brushes make it hard to do fine detail work.  This is the kind of wisdom and insight that will change your life. Aren’t you glad you’re reading this, so you know the secret now?  Using such a large brush made it tough to paint right up next to the stenciled Sketchy woman.

Not just one little circle of scribble journaling, like I had expected.  It was round and round filling a large part of it.  After taking the big risk with the white paint, I was excited to take more risks!  Want that adrenaline rush after all.

If you’re ever playing and find yourself in that stuck place, try taking a risk and see what happens!  No matter what happens, at least you won’t be stuck anymore!

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!

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Playtime with StencilClub

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Honored to be sharing the play with you this month as the artist for August’s StencilClub at StencilGirl Products!  The designs were inspired by games of old, like jacks. I do feel rather vintage admitting that jacks were one of my favorite games as kid.

How can you use these to play and explore things like composition?  That’s all in the exclusive video for StencilClub members. In that video, I’m sharing the only 3 rules I never want to break when I create.

If you’ve seen many of my stencil designs at StencilGirl, you know how much I love using masks.  The 6 x 6 stencil is 5 nesting shapes to give you a world of possibilities.

Over at StencilGirl Talk, their wonderful blog, you can see more about this month’s release.

New to StencilClub and wondering what it is?  It’s from StencilGirl Products and each month you get the following:

  • one 9″ x 12″ EXCLUSIVE stencil.
  • one 6″ x 6″ EXCLUSIVE stencil.
  • one 4″ x 4″ EXCLUSIVE stencil.
  • An EXCLUSIVE video for MEMBERS ONLY provided by the designing artist. It’s a class in itself!
  • A downloadable PDF with basic instructions to go along with the video for that month.
  • Entrance into a SECRET Facebook group for MEMBERS ONLY! A place to share, inspire and talk all about stencils!
  • Plus, as a MEMBER, you are eligible to purchase ANY past month for the membership price. Email stencilgirlproducts@gmail.com with a list of which previous StencilClub sets of stencils you would like to purchase and John will provide you with a bill through PayPal.
  • For every month you are in the club, you will be receive a 20% coupon code (one time use) for the StencilGirl Products website (stencil purchases only).

 

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