December Daily® 2023 | Paint + Play with Jill 03

Welcome back to Paint + Play with Jill! This week I am keeping it simple by showing you a few examples of how to create patterns with the stencils and stamps that have homes for journaling. My hope is that these projects will inspire you as a jumping off point to come up with even more ways to create journaling spots using this year's mixed media supplies!

XO PATTERN

For my first pattern, I was inspired by the patterned paper in this year's collection with the tiny hand drawn red and green X's and O's. I thought it would be really fun to blow up this pattern big enough to fit journaling in the O's. Then I remembered that we have a fun 6x8 Circles stamps set that would make the perfect O shape!

I chose to create this pattern in the Floral Art Journal because it perfectly fits a 3x4 grid of X's and O's and because it is an easy size to make a sample pattern in. But you could easily do this on cardstock to fit into your album.

To create this pattern, I cut out a sample X and O to help me figure out the configuration of my pattern. Then I stamped all of the O's with red acrylic paint using my sample X for spacing. I did have to fill in the stamped O's with more paint after stamping them but that's just part of the process of stamping with acrylic. Then, I took a big round paint brush and painted green X's in between the O's. I tried to keep them loose (and not perfect) to maintain the painterly look.

To finish off this pattern, I stamped the tops of the O's with "December Stories" in black Stazon ink and hand drew some black journaling lines.

COLORFUL INKED ORNAMENTS

For my second project, I pulled out the large ornament stencil because it has a nice big surface for journaling on. I envisioned a page of colorful ornaments for my journaling spots, so I pulled out Ali's crafters inks so I could use the red, pink and all three of the greens. I created most of this one off camera so if you would like to see how to use the paper pouncers with the ink pads, check out Ali's example videos in the product blog post. However, it is a very similar technique to what I've been showing you with the makeup sponges and acrylic paint. If you do not have the paper pouncers or other ink blending tool, you could try the makeup sponges for a similar effect.

After creating the ornaments in a rainbow of Christmas colors, I grabbed a white Posca paint pen and hand drew white journaling lines on all of the ornaments. Then to finish it off, I used the little "falala" stamp from the tab stamp set to add a little detail to the top of the ornaments.

LARGE WREATH STAMP

For my last project, I grabbed the 6x8 wreath stamp set because it has a huge spot in the middle that is perfect for journaling. I loved the rainbow of Christmas colors I used in the previous ornament page, so I grabbed the same colors for a similar look. I chose to do this one on cardstock rather than in the journal, because it is much easier to get a clear impression on a large stamp like this when you have a perfectly flat surface.

This wreath stamp is very large and will not fit most standard stamp blocks. If you have a stamping platform, that might be your best bet for this stamp (as Pam showed us in her first lesson). However, I do not have one so I grabbed the 4x6 block from Ali's shop and made it work! You can see that it just hangs over the edge a little on two sides so when I stamped, I just used my fingers to press down on those parts to get an even stamp. It worked out just fine, and I only had to do that for the first two impressions because the rest were just partial wreaths.

After creating a colorful grid of wreaths, I stamped "merry everything" in gold ink at the top of all of the wreaths and hand drew black journaling lines. I trimmed a quarter inch off the bottom of my paper to make it an outside of the page protector size and punched holes to add to the 10x8 album.

I hope this post inspired you to look at your supplies in new ways, and I challenge you to come up with even more ways to use this year's collection to make your own patterns with journaling spots! Let me know if you have any questions about my project and I will see you next week with more mixed media play!

You can find me on Instagram as @jill.drangsholt

SUPPLIES

• Wreath 6x8 Stamp Set

• Tabs 4x6 Stamp Set

• Circles 6x8 Stamp Set

• Paint Pack

• Holiday Stencil Pack

• Paper Pouncers

• Stamp Shammy

• 2.75" Ali Edwards Round Acrylic Stamp Block

• 4x6" Ali Edwards Rectangle Acrylic Stamp Block

• Crafter's Ink (Redwoods, Rose Garden, Willamette, Olympia, McKenzie, Gold)

• White Posca Paint Pen