24Steps Art and Design

This easy art journal page is fun to make with Inktense pencils, gelatos and a cool stamp masking technique. This is another page I have created to give an example of a response to a quote on one of my courses. The quote that I chose was:

Everything is hard before it is easy.

and I chose it because I find it a good thing to remember on difficult days. It applies to learning a new skill or understanding a concept or even getting over a bereavement or even a breakup. Arguably some things never get easy but what I take from this quote is that there is the possibility of something being easy eventually. I hoped this would also give a sense of hope after working on this idea.

Easy Art Journal Page Techniques.

The easy techniques I used on this page were:

• Blending gelatos with a baby wipe to create a vignette effect.
• Using a paper mask to prevent a stamp making an impression on selected areas.

Blending Gelatos

To create a vignette effect on my page I applied gelatos near the centre of the page and then used a baby wipe to blend them gradually out. To make this technique work watch how much colour is being applied by your baby wipe as you move outwards on the page. Use a clean bit of baby wipe to dilute the colour further.

Stamp Masking Technique.

You can mask stamps by applying tape to any area of the stamp you want to remove from your print. For this page I masked my stamp by cutting some copy paper the same shape as the chick. By doing this I could make the chick appear to be in front of the flying birds that I stamped around her without having to be fussy about where I placed the stamp. The mask was placed on top of the image and held there while I applied the stamp. I also did some ‘ghost’ prints with the stamp around the edges to match the vignette effect.

Here’s how you can apply stamp making to card masking.

Easy Art Journal Page Process

I start the page by tracing down my image and I encourage you to try your own designs but if you’re not a confident ‘drawer’ you can use any printed image and be selective about the bits you trace. Next I blended out my gelatos to create a vignette and then used Inktense pencils to colour my chick and nest. I chose to make my chick really colourful as I love bold colours. I repeated the Inktense process till I was happy with how the colours blended. To get soft edges between areas of colour lay them down while the previous one is still wet. Or to get hard edges wait for the previous area to dry. I use an alphabet stamp set to add most of the quote then finish with Inktense pencil. The stamp masking technique is the next step and I cover my chick with the mask before using my 3D printed stamp of flying birds to the background. Finally I add white gel pen details to the bird.

Easy Art Journal Page Video

Below is a video showing the key stages of my page:

Here’s some more Inktense art I have made:


I hope this quote has inspired you to give something you find difficult a chance to get easy and maybe try masking stamps to make them more your own. Hugs, Ceri xx



Tagged as: Tags 3d printed stamps, birds, Flintshire Wellbeing Brochure, inktense, inspiration, quotes, stamping