Saturday 15 June 2013

Happy as a pig in mud!

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:1

I made three sets of signatures from kraft cardstock and then used book binding thread to sew them all back into the original cover:

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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:5

I used some cool rub-ons I’ve had for ages to decorate the heart:

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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.78

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.9

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!10

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!12

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.

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All I did was trim it up… add a stamped quote and the date tags and I was done!

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Here’s a close up:

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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!

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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!

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Then I dried it and decided it needed some more detail using charcoal pencil and watercolour pastels:18

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!

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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

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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:22

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!

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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

2 comments:

  1. 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 :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely would have loved that class! I'll be watching out for more ideas to 'borrow' off you as well.

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