Pastel Journal Page Tutorial

Hello stampers! We had a very interesting and fun weekend. The boys and I took the train to a big family gathering, with descendants from my great grandparents, in the small farming community where they lived. 92 people came, and we could have been even more, if the two family branches in the USA had been able to join us. The previous gathering was quite some time ago and it was great to see all old and new faces again. The whole area is also very special to me, since we spent a lot of time there with our grandmother when we grew up. The boys hadn't been there before, so I told them a lot of stories and showed them some of the special places. 

I also have many new photos, and I am planning to do a minialbum soon.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a 'S is for' theme. Lots of different options! It is the last week for our August guest designer Alison Bomber, and don't miss her wonderful project, with many s-theme ideas.

I was inspired by a new box of Scribble Sticks, and also used stamps and stencils, on this pastel art journal spread. It was done in Dina Wakley's White Media Journal, which just arrived here. It's a 6x6 in journal, with heavyweight cotton-rag watercolor paper. I love how thick and sturdy the paper is, almost like watercolor chipboard. 

I did a fun watercolor stamping technique here, which happened almost by accident. At first, I stamped with Jet Black ink, but I didn't press hard enough, and the paper is pretty textured, so the impression was terrible, so I decided to start with Distress Ink instead.

There are three sets of Scribble Sticks now (set 1, set 2, and set 3), and I love all of them. They are easy to use and can be used for many techniques.

Ink up one of Dina's Interesting Faces with Ground Espresso, or another dark brown, Distress Ink. Stamp on the page, and don't worry about how awful it looks.

Use a paint brush and water to start blurring out the stamped lines. Since Distress Ink reacts with water, the stamping with turn into watercolor. Don't overdo it, you can always add more water later. I used the Scribble Sticks 3 set, which consists of pastel shades and metallic shades. Pick the pigment up with a paint brush from the tip of the crayon and start watercoloring.

Color directly on the paper for the background and top, and dissolve the crayon with water. Don't worry if it still doesn't look particularly nice, it will change later.

Start adding some shadows to the face, such as under her chin. Add darker shades of color at the top and bottom of the background, using crayons from Scribble Sticks 1 and Scribble Sticks 2. I also added some metallic shades here and there, such as in her hair and in the shadow areas.

When everything is dry, add lines with a black pen. Don't worry about getting it perfect, we are aiming for a sketchy and lose look. I later added some white to the right eye, since it was too dark. 

I had fun, so I decided to turn the page into a double spread, stamping and coloring a bird with the same technique. 

Add some more scribbly lines with the pen and stamp here and there with texture background stamps. These are from Tim Holtz's Tiny Textures set.

Finally, I sponged white paint through the Gradient Dot stencil here and there, for extra texture.

I used a mix of stamps, stickers and the new SSS Sentiment Strips 4 for my sentiments.

Use a white gel pen to fix mistakes, here you can see that I added some light to the right eye.

Use a background stamp to add pattern to clothing. You can see some of the shine from the metallic crayons in the upper left corner.

The background scene continues into the second page, making it look like the woman and the bird are looking at each other across the landscape.

Dina's Scribbly Birds are some of my favorite stamps. 

Here's another look at the metallic effect. It's a little hard to photograph, but adds an interesting touch to the otherwise pastel page.

I hope you will join us this week in our S Is For challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

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