Floating Bubbles by Megan Whisner Quinlan

February 2021

In this tutorial, Megan Whisner Quinlan shares how she adds pieces of Dina Wakley MEdia Collage Collective and Tim Holtz Paper Dolls to create a magical, floating bubble themed journal page.

Materials
Instructions

Dina Wakley MEdia Stencils: Circles for Painting and Branches (although any botanical will work)

Dina Wakley MEdia Gloss Sprays: Fuschia and Night

Dina Wakley MEdia Collage Tissue: Just Words

Dina Wakley MEdia White Gesso

Dina Wakley MEdia Collage Collective (any one of the 3 editions will do)

Dina Wakley MEdia Ultra Thick Gel Medium

Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool with Foam

Tim Holtz® Idea-ology Paper Dolls (any)

Instructions

Remember that scene in The Wizard of Oz when Glenda the good witch floats into the scene in her beautiful bubble? It was quite the entrance. How about creating that same effect on your journal pages? Follow along for some magical fun to include for your art journaling!

Floating Bubbles Step 1

Step 1: Spray your journal page with Fuschia and Night to begin your background. Let the colors mix together and saturate the page, to create some “cosmic” effects. These sprays work particularly well in creating a night time sky look. Allow to dry.

Step 2: With some White Gesso, use the Mini Blending Tool to makes some bubles through the Circles for Painting stencil. Go lightly in the center, allowing a little more of the under color to peek through. This will give more dimension to your buble. Optional: Here paint splatters were added for even more of a starlight sky effect, and some doodles in the bubbles with white marker.

Step 3: Find a complementary page from the Collage Collective and tear out. Stencil some branches from the Branches stencil (or any other Dina Wakley Media botanical stencil) onto the underside of the page. Cut around your images and you will have some great collage botanicals to use in your spread.

Floating Bubbles Step 4

Step 4: Find some images from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology paperdolls that fit into your bubbles. No need to fill every bubble, three should be plenty. Here, seated images were chosen for a more deliberate look. Standing figures would look very interesting as well.

Floating Bubbles Step 5

Step 5: Arrange your branches and paperdolls on your page. Glue down with Ultra Thick Gel Medium. Tear out a quote that speaks to you and your composition from the Collage Tissue Just Words.

Hello! My name is Megan Whisner Quinlan. I have been an art journaling and book binding for about 20 years. However I took a 10-year break from paper arts when I had my first 2 children. About 5 years ago, I came back into journaling after some big life changes, including 2 more children. Journaling had always been a part of my life, especially to work things out in life on paper. When I first started out, I really only focused on making books by hand and some basic collage and stamping. I was intimidated by the amazing art journalers out there who had elaborate mixed media spreads in their journals. But when I came back to journaling after such a long break, I decided that I was going to really push myself to learn all the techniques I had been too afraid to try. Painting and drawing have really allowed me to find so much joy in my creative process, and I now almost exclusively create mixed media every day. I feel excited to have joined the art journaling community and you can find me on Instagram @Megan_Whisner_Quinlan.