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Kate Palmer, also known around at “Sparkle Tart” is based in Queensland Australia and she shares her multi layered art journaling process with us, with stunning results.

Take it away, Kate…

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 Hi – I’m Kate Palmer better known as Sparkle Tart, I’m a mixed media artist, Sparkly Experimentalist and lover of all things colourful – you can find me online at www.sparkletart.com  I was a slow starter when it comes to art and sort of fell into creating, while self taught for much of my life, in the last few years I’ve been extremely fortunate to have taken classes online from some amazing women and just recently, my first in person class with Tracy Verdugo.  Tracy’s class opened my eyes to the depth that can achieved through layering, and while this page does not follow her process it was inspired by it.  I was determined after these amazing experiences, to find a way to make to large scale canvas ideas work on smaller scale art journal pages, cards and the much smaller projects I love to create.  So without further rambling from me, this is how I have created ‘Make a Wish’ double page journal spread.

What I’ve used:

• Stencils:  The Crafters’ Workshop – Mini Punchinella, Mini Flower Garden, Mini Flower Piecing.
• Copic Markers – R27, R29, R39, Y32, Y35, Y38
• Copic Multi Liners 0.3 & 0.5
• Golden Fluid Acrylics: Iridescent Gold Deep Fine & Carbon Black
• Jenni Bowlin Acrylic Paint: Malted Milk & Brown Sugar
• Adirondack Acrylic Dabber: Watermelon
• Molotow Signal White Paint Marker Fine tip
• Jumbo Zinnia Set (flower stamp) from Stampendous
• Create with Abandon stamp from Stampington and Co
• Gold Foil
• Stippling brush
• Ranger’s Sticky Embossing Powder
• Silks Acrylic Glaze in Vavoom Red
• Liquitex Matt Medium

What I Did:

Draw and colour a simple page of doodles using Copic Multi Liners and Copic Markers – I used R27, R29, R39, Y32, Y35, Y38  and Multi Liners 0.5 & 0.3.  This shouldn’t be some amazing work of art – just background colour.  You can also use copies of previous pages, collage or even magazine photos for this step if you are not a ‘doodler’.
Make a colour copy (or scan and print) your art onto a piece of paper.  Complete all of the following steps directly onto your original doodle (after scanning or photographing) as well as the facing page – to complete a matching 2 page spread.

Cut the copy to size and glue onto facing journal page using Liquitex Matt Medium Gel and leave to dry – coat front and back of copy with Matt Medium for added strength.

Paint Vavoom Red Silks over the darkest Copic coloured areas and let dry, you will find this makes all the other colours appear more vibrant.

Time to get out those stencils!  Choose 3 patterned stencils and 3 colours of acrylic paint – use one stencil and 1 colour of paint at a time and dry between colours.
Apply paints through stencil onto page to break up the original pattern.

Add colour no 1 (Watermelon) & allow to dry, you can use a heat gun to speed this up.

Add colour no 2 (Malted Milk) & allow to dry.

Add colour no 3 (Brown Sugar) & allow to dry.

Ink text stamp with Golden Fluid Acrylic Iridescent Gold Deep Fine (I used a sponge to apply the paint) and randomly stamp text onto page.

It should look a bit like this – it won’t be as crisp as it would be stamped in ink, but you will still get a lovely impression.

Ink flower stamp with Carbon Black Golden Fluid Acrylic Paint and use this to stamp flower onto page multiple times.

Using Carbon black paint, paint all of the page around flowers, until only the flowers are showing colour.  You may want to draw stems and leaves on before doing this and paint around those as well.
Leave paint until completely dry.

I know I know – I’ve just painted over most of my background!  It’s really an important step though, as without these layers and elements, your flower would look pretty flat and boring.  Have a look at this close up image, you can see each layer that has been added, every colour each layer of paint and it all works together to create something with complexity and interest.

Ink the centre of flower stamp with Versamark ink, using a stamp positioner stamp over flowers and add sticky embossing powder – carefully brush off any excess powder.

Heat sticky embossing powder with a heat gun until clear, and while hot add gold foil.  If you don’t have these items (foil & sticky e.p.) you may choose to skip this step and embellish the centre of your flower some other way, glitter, paint, gel pen, micro beads etc.

The gold foil is massively blingy – it may not be to your taste, it turns out looking like this.

At this stage your page will look fairly unappealing, the colours don’t pop, the image is not very defined – this is UGLY stage.  Don’t give up, as the only difference between this and something stunning is a little white paint!

Use a white gel pen (my preference is the Molotow White extra fine nib) to edge the design in white,  colour the patterns in the centre of the flower, draw around each individual petal, the stems and leaves (if you drew any) and add doodling and text as desired – all in white so that it stands out.  You may need to go over the doodling more than once to make the white really pop.

And when you look at the 2 pages together, the result is something like this…
doesn’t the white gel pen make a difference!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick tutorial and that it sparks some ideas for your own creations.

May your day sparkle,

Kate