focus on gratitude

Here is a flip through of my journal for November and December using the papers described here. The focus will be on gratitude and thankfulness. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. Colorful pages that will be fun to write on and add photos and things to, collage, maybe even a little doodling! While I don't love spiral binding, I do prefer working on pages that lay flat.

My current art "journal"

I hesitate to call this a journal because I'm not writing much in it. It's like a sketchbook except I don't sketch. It is simply a book where I make or adhere art. Some pages are "finished"; others not. 

That's not to say that I'll go back to finish them ... I may or may not. I guess I could call it my "Art Play Book". 

I hope you are having a creative weekend!

My (not so) love affair with Art Journaling

Once again, I'm faced with the fact that I love to look at artist's art journals but I do not love to create them. Let me be more specific. Pages with paint and collage and images and words do not come easily to me, nor do they particularly "speak" to me or "say" what I necessarily feel. I've done plenty of these pages, including several of Kelly Kilmer's classes. These pages take a lot of effort and rarely am I pleased with the outcome. These are not books I return to look through. Books I pull down from the shelf and look through are:

• Visual Journals (where I "record" my life)
• Doodle Journals - mandalas, creative doodles
• Travel Journals
• Art Journals that are more art-y than collage-y

So, with two recent books, I realize this isn't my thing. At least the Journaling by 5's book hasn't taken that much time due to the 15 minute sessions. And I have a full book (35 pages!) either finished or ready for the next stage. All done within a 2 week timeframe ... this would have taken months to do. So ...

What I like about this process: Working in one medium at a time ... paint, stamp/stencil, random collage, pen/marker work. Working on several pages at a time (although not in the same book unless I figure out what to put between the pages that won't stick). Timed sessions - gets you out of your head and into the process quickly.

What I don't like is: the timed sessions for "focal points" ... Actually I don't much like the focal points. I realize that I love to create backgrounds. That's what I really enjoy (backgrounds that I use to make scrappy journals). I also don't like ruining pens and markers trying to write on paint and medium. 

So, these pages are ready for me to do whatever is next. At this point, I have no idea where they will go (if anywhere). I will spend some time with this book, not considerable time. But there is the challenge of bringing it to a point where I feel good (or at least better) about it ... and feel a sense of completion (which is one of the BIGGEST challenges I have as an artist).

And I'll continue to enjoy looking at other artist's pages ... but I think I'll let this go. I'm ready to move on.

Journal by 5s, steps 3 and 4

Step 3 Stamp and Stencil. I somewhat enjoyed it; however really felt time constrained. I mostly used stamps with ink pads. On a few pages I used gesso through stencils. When finished, I fought the urge to go back through with a 2nd round, and forged ahead. After each session I've gone back and dried the pages and glued down anything that needed it. 

I think I "cheated" on Step 4 Imagery and Text. I went through a large stash and cut out more than I would need. Then I stuck the focal image in the page it would go (this took about 10 minutes). I also cut out lots of words but didn't place them ahead of time. So when I set the timer I had my glue stick ready which I used to adhere things quickly. On a couple of pages I switched images but pretty much went with the first layout.  After I got all the images partially adhered, I went back and added phrases or words. I got through the 18 pages in the 15 minute timeframe.

Then I spent time glueing things with a watered down Elmer's glue. I'd used that with step 2. The difference is that in this step, I was using magazine images and words. The wet glue made for lots of wrinkles! About halfway through I switched to soft gel medium which caused less wrinkling. I'm not pleased with the wrinkling and therefore would change this step to basically take 15 minutes to place images on the page, not adhere them. 

Some pages are beginning to take on meaning. Most, however, are open to more. Next step is details with pen, pencil, markers. 

Flaps and Folds

I just finished a book inspired by LK Ludwig's The Big Time Book. While I didn't use this binding (because of the complexity of the folded pages), I did create folded pages in 8 of the 10 signatures. Some pages have one folded flap, some two. Two signatures are full page sheets that are folded "up and around" creating many different ways to view the pages.

painted papers: bristol paper colored with acrylic paint and spray inks, texturized with drops of rubbing alcohol

trifold pages 5 x 7

trifold with a flap (paper was 17" so there was 2" extra)

full sheet folded in half and thirds with one section removed for interesting folding within book 

full sheet with no sections removed - shows a variety of folds

rubbing alcohol added to sprayed inks

The cover is a cardboard box cut to size and covered with scrapbook paper. Hand bound using sewn tape binding with waxed linen.

tapes were glued on and also sewn on. buttons were added to front cover tapes before glueing.

colorful backgrounds

A couple of things I'd do differently. I hadn't planned to glue the front and back pages to the covers. However after binding, that seemed necessary to increase stability (there was a large gap between the covers and first/last pages.) In doing so, I lost two "pretty" pages. Next time I'd just have the front and back covers plain. Also, the first folio is a folded one ... next time I'd make it a single spread like the back one.

I love this book! I can't wait to use it. My (current) intention is to use it for altered photos. I'm taking a class at the local adult school in Photoshop Elements 12. I'm also interested in doing some hand manipulation of photos.

I'm off to class! Back to School for my granddaughter and me. She's entering 5th grade. She looks way too grown up in this outfit!

21 Secrets 2013 inspired art

This is inspired by 21 Secrets 2013 workshop by Cathy Bluteau called Doodling Our Way.

Beautiful Spirit

Detail. I added a fabric flower and petals.

Detail. The paper was an envie that I got from Mary Ann Moss in her class, Ticket to Venice.
 I love the color it adds - painting with paper.

Detail. The flowers are mostly scrapbook papers.

Detail. Small flowers and butterfly collage were from a Mary Englebreit calendar.
I used dimensional paint in  some circles.

What I enjoyed most about this process was breaking the page down into sections and treating each section as a small piece of art. This made it easier to pull the collage together. I enjoyed doing this so much I've completed two more; one on paper to be framed, the other on a small 5x7 canvas.

New Scrappy Journal

Here is my latest scrappy journal. 126 pages waiting to record and document life.

The papers are varied: Trader Joe and other brown bags, scrapbook papers, painted papers, deli paper, wrapping paper, calendars, paper towel. Love the textures. I'll probably add beads to the waxed linen threads used to bind.