Hi everyone :)
Warning: There are a LOT of photos in this post so you might want to grab a coffee LOL
Remember how I said yesterday that I wanted to get into my craft room and get creative? Well after doing some school work this morning I decided to have some ‘me time’ and I got into my craft room and I’m as happy as a little pig in mud!
When Mum and I went to Creative Escape Downunder I was pretty thrilled with Donna Downey’s class… so many cool techniques… but for some reason my art journal just wasn’t working for me. I wasn’t sure what it was and so it’s been sitting on my craft table looking a bit neglected… until today!
I finally figured out what wasn’t working for me and there was a super simple solution! It turns out that what wasn’t working for me was the way the signatures were held with ribbon in my book… so I got out my book binding stuff and had a look through it and hey presto… problem solved!
Here’s my book with the original signatures taken out of it… all I had to do was undo the ribbon:
I made three sets of signatures from kraft cardstock and then used book binding thread to sew them all back into the original cover:
Now they fit really well and the whole thing opens like a ‘real book’ which really works for me.
Then I started taking apart the original pages I did with Donna and putting them into my ‘new’ art journal.
Page 1
Here’s how it looked in the original book:
I used some cool rub-ons I’ve had for ages to decorate the heart:
I decided that I quite liked Donna’s idea of ‘dating’ her work so I grabbed out a date stamp that I’ve NEVER used (it’s been in one of my drawers for years) and put the date of the class when I started the page and then today’s date since that’s when I finished it.
Page 2
The next page was one where we just painted the background using a variety of techniques. I loved the colours so I trimmed it up and got started.
I did a whole heap of stamping… added a photo (from my One Little Word album) and punched out some circles from old dictionary paper. I also got a bit creative with Indian Ink… love that stuff!
The quote reads: What if your FEARS and DREAMS exist in the same place. Would you still go there?
Then all I had to do was add the page to my journal… easy as pie!
Page 3
This page was even easier than the first two because it was the one page in my original journal that was pretty much finished.
All I did was trim it up… add a stamped quote and the date tags and I was done!
Here’s a close up:
Page 4
(and the final one for today!)
This page took quite a while because basically all I had was a background of texture… no paint, no gesso… nothing!
I got it into my head that I was going to paint a tree… mostly since I’d just found an owl that I’ve had stashed away for ages!
Then I dried it and decided it needed some more detail using charcoal pencil and watercolour pastels:
It was at about this point that I had a ‘hissy fit’ with myself because it wasn’t working… and when all else fails I just bring out my ink sprays and hey presto… happy!
After I dried it off I stamped an image in the centre between the two ‘tree trunks’ but the background was too dark and you couldn’t see it… no problem I just added some paint for the ‘moonlight’ LOL
The quote reads: The world of reality has it’s limits but the world of imagination is limitless.
Then I stuck the page into my book:
It has been a highly productive afternoon… and I’m really thrilled with how my art journal is taking shape. I’ve still got a few more ‘Donna pages’ to work on before I start any new ones but it feels GOOD!
I couldn’t resist taking a photo of part of my table this afternoon… just to remind myself that this is IMPORTANT to me! I’ve re-discovered my creativity and I’m feeling really good about it!
I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and I’ll catch you back here again tomorrow with my Project Life update.
Happy Saturday xx
Now you would have loved the Crafters workshop class too. LOL. Your journal looks great and must get mine out again, and find my rub ons - great idea thanks :)
ReplyDeleteI definitely would have loved that class! I'll be watching out for more ideas to 'borrow' off you as well.
Delete