Welcome to today's guest designer, Jo !

Today we are welcoming Jo from Let's Art Journal as our Guest Designer. Jo was the winner of the Ombre challenge and was therefore asked if she'd like to join us for a day. So, let's move on to meet her !

Hello everyone, I’m so excited to be here at Stamps & Stencils as Guest Designer for their It's been a while... challenge this month.

My name is Jo and I blog at Let’s Art Journal. I live by the sea in the North West of England with my hubby and I started Art Journaling nearly 3 years ago as a way of expressing my life through words and pictures. I love using mixed media for all sorts of projects, with stamps and stencils often featuring in my designs. I’m captivated by the variety of techniques and materials that can be used to create so many different styles of art. I’ve always been a creative person, and this has now become a passion of mine which I like to share with others.

I am often inspired by things I see and do, so my art journal page today is inspired by rainbow colours and sunshine to mark the end of summer. I had so much fun layering all the different stamps and stencils to create my page, I hope you like it!

I started by adding strips of old book pages, washi tape and homemade sheet music decoupage paper to the centre of the page using matte gel medium.

Then I applied Faber-Castell Gelatos by scribbling them onto the page and smudging the colour with my finger which I wet using a baby wipe so they blended together easily. I find that using a baby wipe to wet my finger provides just the right amount of moisture to ensure the gelatos smudge perfectly.

I stamped a sponge stamp design from Finnabair and also a Collage Numbers stamp from Gummiapan Stamps using black Archival Ink. Next I used a baby wipe through a dot stencil to erase some of the gelato colour and create the white dots.

Then I stamped a circle stamp from Gummiapan Stamps using black Archival Ink and added high density white gesso through a Wheels stencil by Dina Wakley using a palette knife.

I took an old book page and stamped some butterflies by Graphic 45 from Hampton Arts onto it using black Archival Ink and fussy cut them out.

The butterflies are stuck in place using matte gel medium and when dry, I added more detail to them using a black Uni Posca paint pen. I splattered black and white acrylic paint over the page with a paintbrush after adding the motivational words which are rub-on transfers. To finish, I outlined the wheels with a black Uni Pin marker so they stood out more.

Here are the materials I used to create this page and you can also find a full list of materials on my blog here.

Thanks so much, I have really enjoyed spending time with you today and I hope that you are inspired by this month’s It's been a while... challenge too and are able to join in the fun!

Thank you. Jo x

Wow Jo, thank you so much for such a fabulous project ! There is still time to join us for the It's been a while challenge !