I have this little sketchbook where I do nothing good. I have it to play and try new things in it. It feels so good opening this book knowing I can do anything. Yesterday I was inspired by a house in our village. It's an old traditional Swedish keyhole-house.

 It's a rough and fast sketch in gouache and colored penciles but I had so much fun while doing it.

Love Julia

I recently got a notebook. Not a fancy one but perfect for play and just to have fun in. I work in it those days when I just don't make it out to the studio but still want to paint something. This book is not meant to be "good" but a place where I can draw my faces and try a new medium; gouache.

 My thought on gouache is that I think I really like it! I like the look of it together with watercolor and that it is so opaque. However I feel that when I paint with these Panduro Gouache that something is wanted. That they are missing something. I know that when it comes to paint you get what you pay for and in this case I think that is very true. So on my Christmas wishlist this year; a set of gouache paints, a nice set!

 I  have come up with a few steps that I follow, a receipt if you will, in this sketchbook:

1. watercolor background

2. Pencil in the face 

3. Paint the lady with gouache

4. Add details with color pencils. 

5. Start over... 

 I'm having so much fun testing out this new, to me, medium. I love the look of all of these different mediums coming together and just how opaque the paint is!

 I love the end results of my ladies with the different layers and texturs. I'm having so much fun testing out different colors, shapes and stiles!

Love Julia

Hello!

So today I made this art journal page to all of you! I have had comments about my other pages and that some feel that they want the look but can´t paint (rubbish!) So I thought I´d share with you a super easy way to get that look!

 Now I did this page really plain so that you could really she the reindeer but of course you can keep building. I started with a napkin that I painted over, this way I have a guide to help me with the "hard" part.

 When I was happy with how he looked I took a lighter color and added highlights without trying to blend them. This was you get that painterly-implosive look

 The last thing I did was to add stamping "randomly" (of course it´s not random but you get the drift) in black to bump up the contrast.

I hope you liked this quick tip and give it a try. Have a great weekend And I hope to see you all soon!

Love Julia

Have you had a bad day? The best way to cheer up in painting with your fingers! It´s a proven fact!

In this part of the world November i just another word for grey and rain witch makes me long for summer, the sun and flowers. One of my all time favorite flowers is the hydrangea, one flowers with so many colors. So I started a page in my story art journal. 

 White background and word-stencil with modelingpast made it so easy to start dabbing paint with the fingers.

 I used turquoise and green for the leafs and turquoise, white, light pink and magenta for the flowers. I love this combinations and sens I never dried the flower the colors blended beautifully. 

 I then sprayed the spread with a pink glimmer spray, to pull out the colors and it also the text-background to stand out. And bye the way, when is a pink spray ever wrong?!

Now Have a great weekend and have some fun with finger-painting!

Love Julia

I haven´t scraped allot in a while, but I have spent allot of time in my storybook. If you follow me on instagram you have seen some wip and pages. Today I thought I would show you how I did one of my favorite pages; Frost

Whit this page I wanted a winter feel with snowflakes but with an unexpected color. I would never have picked flesh but I did and I like it.

 This is a very easy page, paint, stencil and some messiness.

 Stencils don´t have to be expensive and made out of fancy plastic. I saved the scrap from when I die cuted the snowflakes and now I can use it as a stencil, spraying and modeling past.

 Lindy´s Stamp gang truly makes amazing sprays that drays like watercolor and the shine! This peacock-color is my favorite and is perfect for this page.

 White lifts. That is a thruth so on this page I used 3 different, paint, modeling past and a pearlesent have body paint. I only used my finger and dragged it across the page. This lights up but doesn´t hide the other layers.

 Contrast... = black ink. Yes I love my liquid black acrylic ink I needed some contrast and what better way then ink splatter?

Hello! It´s finely the weekend.
Today I have four more use-up-scraps tags/cards to show you:

The first one I made more like a card, with light colors and allot of bling

 The rest of them are more mixed media feel, all with a big-tip black alcohol pen.

Love Julia

Now I have come a bit on the way with my Summer-Book so I thought I would show you my book. HERE are the video so you can see my flip through it.

Let´s get started:

 Luckily my book has this elastic band so I can close it...

Love Julia

Hello and happy summer!
This week my brother and sister went on their summer break and as the nice sister that I am I thought I would give them a gift.

I wanted to give them something that they can work with and remember their summer. So I thought that a journal would be perfect, they can put photos in, journal, draw and well what ever really. (Here you can see me working on mine...)

So I got 3 book, (I think they are 7*7), 3 sheets of letter, brads and allot of papers from my stack.

I´t took some time to put them together and I´m just now finishing my book so that I´m on time. My brother and sisters books comes with a little package witch has, double-sided tape, brads that match the letter and pearls & bling.

 I have a video up so you can see more of the books and I think I will make a video so you can see how I´ve made mine.
The way I have planed to use mine is like a journal, a entry every day, where I can make simple layouts and paint. I just have to say it´s a good thing that this book has that elastic band around them...

I hope you like it and check out the video HERE

Love Julia

Do you watch the Live with Prima videos? Well I do as often as I can, just love them! So the other day I see this one: Here with Jamie Dougherty and I just had to try it out!

And Here there is a video! But I didn´t get the end, I hope you like it :)

I don´t have any Bloom girl stamps so I draw one.

 I used "spiced marmalade" to make her like the sun. The book pages I added for more texture like clouds.

 And sense she is the sun the title is "Rise and Shine" , written, dymo and washi tape.

 Her crown is a round metal flower piece cut in half, the other half becomes her necklace.

I really happy with here and I´ll hope you like her and the video :)

love Julia