This month’s kit features the super talented artist Maria Zaidi, you can find her on Instagram @marudles

I have had my eye on her gorgeous work for a while now, so was delighted when she said yes to being a guest artist! Her art journals are absolutely beautiful. I adore her use of bright abstract and floral colour, contrasted with her intricate pen work.

So what’s in the kit!? 

PAINT

CANDY CRUSH - A bright pink

MUSTARD -  A ‘mustard’ yellow

TANGERINE - A vibrant orange 

JUNIPER - A deep green. This one is highly pigmented, a little really does go a long way. I wanted a cool colour to complement the other 3 rich warm colours and I think this green does it perfectly.

STICKERS  - You have two sheets of stickers. The first is a set of squares using Maria Zaidi’s beautiful artwork. The second a set of journal words, perfecting for layer over collage, watercolour backgrounds, pens doodles etc

JOURNAL CARDS - You have 8 journal cards, all featuring guest artist, Maria’s gorgeous artwork. I love this small size of journal card, perfect for adding a touch of colour to a journal page.

COLLAGE ELEMENTS 

• 2 x black and white card prints
• 1 x printed sheet of tomoe river paper. Perfect for tearing up pieces for layered collage.
• 1 x spotty black and white tissue paper
• A hand painted sheet of ‘sticky washi paper’. The painted elements are again inspired by Maria’s use of colour, contrasting black and white and mark making. I used acrylic paints, white gesso and a black paint pen to create the effect. I used sticky back washi paper as I was imagining it would be cool to cut the piece up to make ‘washi strips..

STENCIL

I wanted to include a mark making stencil as these are something I love to use in my journals. They are such a quick and easy way to add some mark making to a journal page/art work.. Something I love to do is make a watercolour background first and use either black or white gesso to stencil over the top. I’ve included a small sample of each for you to have a go. I like to use a makeup sponge wedge for this, so have popped one of those in for you too. You only need a small amount of gesso on the sponge, no need to add water and just dap through the stencil.

Another thing I love to do with a mark making stencil, is to again use a watercolour painted background, but this time rub a baby wipe over the stencil to lift some of the colour away.  

BLACK PEN

I just had to include a black roller ball pen for you, hopefully Maria’s artwork has you feeling inspired to get doodling!