My Art Journal

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing some shots of my personal art journal.

I'm using a composition book I got during a back-to-school sale. I painted the cover with acrylic craft paint and added a strip of antique feed sack down the binding. It was a scrap left over from one of my grandmother's projects. I'd intended to use blue flowers on the cover, but changed my mind, so the blue in the fabric looks a little out-of-place, but that's okay. The vintage glove belonged to my principal's mother-in-law and I bought it at a rummage sale our school was holding to raise funds for the United Way. I wrapped the thumb around and hot glued it to the back. A bit of vintage seam binding became the bow - no clue where I got it, and the flowers are from a grab bag of left over bits and pieces I bought at Hobby Lobby for 99 cents. The backdrop behind the journal is an old piece of a quilt my grandmother made. As it became too worn to use as a quilt, she cut out the "good" spots, added binding around the edges and made several mats. I remember she used them as chair pads (instead of cushions).

This is the first page. I don't remember where I found the piece I quoted, but it seemed appropriate and fit my wacky sense of humor. I've used vintage images throughout the journal. I love looking on Wikimedia Commons and the New York Public Library sites especially. They have a great many images that are in the public domain. I've also used pictures pulled from the web of some of the women who inspire me - Princess Diana, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt - strong women who were ahead of their time in many ways - women I'd like to be like. I haven't done anything to the inside cover yet. I'll cover it in some way before I'm finished with this journal.

This is a spread in my journal. I'm not posting in any particular order, just what ever strikes my fancy. I started this journal after watching a Youtube video by Tangie Baxter. I recommend you watch her video. She has some good information about setting up the pages and getting started. I chose to glue 2 - 3 pages together for strength because I knew I was going to glue a lot of stuff on them and wanted them to hold up. The background on this particular spread was made by painting the pages with cheap acrylic craft paint in ivory, then scribbling all over the pages with water color pencils in a couple o different colors. I wet a wide brush with a little water and went over the whole page, blending the scribbles and colors into a nice even coat. I used a large rubber stamp (3" X 4") with small squares and different designs in each to stamp over the whole page with black ink. The stamp doesn't have a name on it and I bought it at a yard sale, so I can't identify it. I used some clear stamps (flourishes) to cover the page on the right - stamping over other designs to just cover the pager and give some dimension. I also added some of the flourishes to the other page. The quote is e.e.cummings and one that I particularly like. I typed it up in a word document and printed it out, tore it out and inked the edged with distress ink. My choice of adhesive varies with my mood and the materials. Sometimes I use the photo glue sticks from Hobby Lobby. Sometimes I use gel medium both under the piece and over it. Other times I use The Ultimate glue in a bottle and I have used Yes! paste, but I find it a little difficult to get smooth and even. I used pop dots under the photos and inked the edges with distress ink just to bring a little attention to them. The pieces of corrugated cardboard around the edges is packaging from a new set of pots & pans I'd just bought. They were already cut into triangles, I just hit the top of the ridges with distress ink and glued them down. You may notice the ridges go in random directions and I did that on purpose (really!) for added interest, but to be honest, at first the different directions bothered me a little, but I was trying to work outside my comfort zone. Now, looking back, I think they look pretty cool. The hand lettering was done using paint pens. I've bought a lot of different brands a lot of different places, but I'm really pleased with the Sharpie Poster paint pens. The white is pretty opaque which is difficult to find. I also use a lot of Painters opaque paint pens by Elmer's.

Just a few more spreads done about the same way. I'll post more later along with info about how I made them. Take care until next time! Ann & Katie

The Tree Page is finally up!

With spring break over and me back with my 4th graders, I've finally got the time to post the lovely tree page. This is the water color picture I did so poorly and went back and rescued it with some acrylic paint, markers and leaves stamped on various green papers. I added a quote from e.e. cummings I picked up at the Quote Garden web site. I thought it turned out rather nice. I didn't do so bad on the second water color forest, so that page will complete the spread with the tree as-is. I can't wait to finish the rest of the pages and bind the whole thing into a book so I can start writing!

Just one and a half weeks until my kiddos start art journals. Our big stakes test here in Arkansas is the week of April 12. After that, we are going to relax and have some fun! Our reading focus for the 4th quarter of school is poetry, so I'm going to incorporate it into our art journals. I'll post some of the kids work here. Every year I'm amazed at the art these guys turn out.

First Journal Entry

I'm so excited - I've started my first entry. After school started again in January, I felt like I was burning the candle at both ends and getting nowhere fast. We are constantly analyzing data and changing our teaching in an attempt to meet all the needs of all the kids. What this really means is that we are constantly chasing our tails trying to stay caught up - never mind getting ahead. It was pretty depressing to work so many extra hours (no extra pay - teachers are under contract and on salary). I'd come home, eat a bite & fall into bed. Finally last night I decided I was going to get a page done in my journal even if I had to stay up til midnight (which I did).

I'm using a school composition book, 7" X 9 1/2", the kind that is saddle stitched in the middle. Because the pages are very thin, I've glued 2 pages together to make a heavier area to work on. I used a photo safe glue stick from Hobby Lobby and did several pages. I closed the book and weighted it down for a couple of days.

Next, I tried some painting on the pages to make a 2 page, double spread. The first spread I used regular kids watercolor paint pans. They looked okay, but the paints are so cheap that painting the 2 pages used all of the 3 colors I was using. So back to the drawing board. I have a lot of acrylic paints in the small plastic squeeze bottles (like Apple Barrel brand), so I tried watering some of them down on a paper plate and applying them with a 1/2" wide brush. This looked okay, but the colors didn't blend the way I wanted them to. I tried a couple of 2 page spreads and got a lot of really dark colors. I was wanting a pastel, swirly, blend of colors for my backgrounds. So I tried another 2 page spread using pastel paints that had been thinned with water. I applied one color at a time and let them dry in between colors. This was closer to what I was looking for.

Last night I flipped to the last pages I'd painted and started pulling some scrap paper from my stash. The paint is light peach and watery blue. I found a scrap of darker peach that had flowers punched from it. I though it would make a good boarder, so I tore the piece down to size to fit on my page. I love the way the paint shows through the flower cut-outs. I inked the edge with Jim Holtz Distress Ink in antique linen, then glued it with glue stick and let it dry for a couple of minutes. I used my Zig Scroll & Brush pen in Fawn to write over the whole thing. This entry was my gratitude page, just some of the things I'm grateful for. Doing the page helped my clear my head and I slept well for the first time in weeks - no nightmares about school or lying awake thinking about all that I need to get done.

I don't know that I'm finished with the page. I may go back and doodle some. I don't draw realistic pictures well, but I love to doodle and have discovered that I'm not half bad at it. Already the book is beginning to swell and won't stay closed, so today I plan to decorate the cover and put a closure on it. I love ephemera (papers & other junk that was meant to be used once and thrown away like ticket stubs, post cards, advertising logos, etc.) and I know that some of my collection will be working its way into my pages. That's going to add bulk, so I'll just plan for that in my closure.