Color Wash, Gesso, and Stencils

I am enamored with spray colors in my journal!  I'm having fun with a couple dif kinds but I have to say Adirondack Color Washes by Ranger are my favorite.  The colors and the way they react with Gesso just make them way TOO COOL!
I've learned so very much about art journaling from my friend Paula, aka Journal Artista. Check out her blog HERE.   Not only will you see some great journaling but you'll find links to her YouTube and UStream videos where you can find a wealth of info on art supplies, techniques, and art journaling.
One of the key things I've learned from Journal Artista is about layering.  I'm nowhere near as fearless as Paula when it comes to layering but I'm working on it!
Here's a journal page I made using many layers of Gesso and Color Wash:

I used Wild Plum and Stream Color Wash.  And I was using White Gesso made by Daler and Rowney.  The stencil I was using is a Tattered Angels stencil - from their Ironworks package of stencils.  

I started off this journal page with a layer of Gesso on the page.  Next I just played around with spraying over the stencil with Wild Plum and Stream Colpr Washes, and Gesso.  The cool thing about Color Wash and Gesso is that when  you paint Gesso over anything with Color Wash the Color Wash bleeds through.  My final layer with the stencil was where I sponged Gesso over the stencil in an area where I had got a little heavy handed with the Wild Plum and it was really dark.  Be sure to either let each layer dry or dry with a heat gun if you want the colors to not blend together.  

Along the left side I  painted a vertical stripe of Gesso and while still wet rubbed with baby wipe to blend some of both colors of Color Wash.  I couldn't stamp over it as Color Wash would bleed through the Gesso and the stamped letters would be hard to see.. So I used some Grungeboard letters from a Tim Holtz idea-ology pack called "Mixed Minis" for the word COURAGE.  The little key and the two florishes are from that same Grungeboard pack.  Painted them all white with Gesso and glued them down.  Hit it with a few light sprays of the Color Wash so Grungeboard pieces aren't so stark white.  

You might need to click on the picture to enlarge if you want to see it, but, I hand wrote "Courage is KEY" as that is what I was thinking about as I made this page.

Thanks for taking a look!

Hope you are all having a creative week!  

What I want to try next is Tim Holtz Distress Stains.  Looks like one could get some cool backgrounds with those.  I don't have any yet but I noticed they are on sale at one of my favorite online stamp companies - Red Lead Paperworks.  Check out the sale HERE.  Soon as I have some spending money I'll be heading there!