Polar Bears Jungle Journal Page

These bears are having a fabulous time in the frosty jungle of snowflakes and foliage... Made by blending paint through stencils, stamping bears, painting bear fur, splattering paint, drawing in eye highlights, adding thoughts, and blending a smoosh of texture paste.

List of treasures used ...

• Dina Wakley MEdia Ledger Journal (or a Dylusions Creative Large Journal or other surface you wish to alter).
• Dina Wakley MEdia white gesso
• Dina Wakley MEdia acrylic paint
• Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions acrylic paint
• Distress white texture paste
• Dina white glossy, eyedropper lid
• Dylusions Bigger Back Chat Stickers
• Dina Wakley MEdia stamp set, Scribbly Bears
• Ranger Archival Ink Pad in black
• Stamping Acrylic Block
• Blending Foam Tools
• Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat with mixing palette
• Tim Holtz wide flat paintbrush (or use Dina Wakley MEdia long flat wide brush)
• Paintbrush with small round brush tip for smaller details, no.3-4 (we stock Dylusions, Princeton, Willow Wolfe)
• Black marker or pen

Stencils - Dylusions Ice Queen (large), Brushstrokes (large), Snowflake (large, retired), Darkroom Door Handwriting (large, retired), Dina Wakley MEdia Curly Fronds, Branches, Tim Holtz Grunge.

Paint colours -
Background : Dina Watery, Dyan Blue Hawaiian, Lemon Drop, Dina White, Dyan Balmy Night.
Jungle : Dyan Jungle Leaf with tips of Balmy Night.
Grunge border : Dyan Balmy Night with Black Marble around edge.
Three Bears, highlights : Dina white, Dyan Rainy Day for shading.

Follow along and enjoy the arty process ...

Starting with a blank page and a dry wide paintbrush, brush on a thin layer of white gesso.

Brush the gesso roughly over the page to create a thin layer, one that makes the background lighter but with the background still visible. It will help the bears stand out a bit clearer.

With another dry wide flat paintbrush, brush on a thin layer of Dina Wakley MEdia 'Watery' pale blue acrylic paint.

Then using the same paintbrush (without washing it as it's not necessary because both paints are blue) roughly brush on small amounts of Dylusions 'Blue Hawaiian' acrylic paint. Once done, wash your brush. 

Once the light blues are dry, apply Dylusions 'Balmy Night' acrylic paint through a wintery looking stencil with designs of raindrops, snowflakes or icicles. I used my Dylusions 'Snowflake' large stencil.

Using a large snowflake stencil like this Dylusions 'Ice Queen' design, apply Dylusions 'Lemon Drop' ultra bright acrylic paint over the page.

I was going to use a lime green for this, but the gorgeous neon yellow is such a wonderful contrast with the dusky blue (Balmy Night).

Above is a close up of the ultrabright neon yellow with the dark and pretty blues :) Underneath is the wonderful vintage handwriting of the ledger.

Using the Dylusions 'Brushstrokes' large stencil and a clean foam on your blending tool, apply white paint over the dried background. Try to keep it thinly applied so it is more like a hint of white.

Blend Dylusions 'Jungle Leaf' and 'Balmy Night' acrylic paints through your favourite leafy stencils to grow a jungle of foliage. Apply the dark green then apply highlights of the dark blue to create duotoned leaves.

A closer look at the foliage over the snowflake background. 

Stamping bears! Pop each of the Dina Wakley MEdia 'Scribbly Bears' stamps onto an acrylic block, ink up the stamp and press to print in place. Let dry!

Use any of Ranger's black Archival ink pads ... it is available in Tim Holtz Distress 'Black Soot', Dylusions 'Black Marble' and Ranger 'Jet Black'.

Using a small round paintbrush, colour in the bear shapes with white paint.

The three bears (above) while their fur is drying, after the splattering of Dina Wakley MEdia's white Glossy Acrylic was thrown about. To create shadows or shading, brush on a wash of Dylusions 'Rainy Day' acrylic paint.

Using the dark blue foam on the blending tool, mix 'Balmy Night' paint with one drop of black paint. Blend this darker blue through the Tim Holtz 'Grunge' stencil along the base of the page and along the top.

The bear above is wearing a pretty blue bow tie, made by drawing a tie shape in black pen (and let dry). To add colour, simply paint the white around the tie, leaving the background showing through.

These two bears don't want bowties, they reckon they're bad-ass enough without embellishments! lol :)

Above is a close up showing the thin layer of white texture paste with the other snowflake layers.

Above is a close up of the grunge marks, green branches and white spatters... I love layers of colour!

Add thoughts however you wish - handwriting, typed labels, alpha stickers, die cut alphabets, stamps, stencils, collaged words from magazines, or Dylusions and Idea-ology stickers.

The quotes I've used are ...
- You live, you learn, you upgrade.
- I love how bad-ass we think we are when we're together.
... "written" using the fabulous Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Bigger Back Chat Stickers :)

I hope you like this page and it inspires you to have a go with your favourite arty treasures! Sing out if you need a hand or have questions.

Thanks so much for reading this far :) Have a creative arty crafty Happy day!
:)
Jenny