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Saturday, January 10, 2015

Art Journaling For The Senile

I have adored art journaling from afar for far too long. I keep telling myself I'll start - and I have bought a million art journals that sit blank in my studio, mocking me.

There are a million reasons I haven't started:

  • I am scared of blank pages.
  • I like to create art in small spaces - that's why I like cards. 
  • There are too many pretty art journals out there for me to make an attempt.
  • I haven't found the "right" journal yet.
  • I don't have good handwriting.
  • I have nothing to journal.
  • I love France Papillon and no way can I make anything like what she makes.
Well we've been chatting - the reluctant art journalers - in the Mixed Media Forum on Splitcoast and we have decided to quit putting it off. So earlier this week, I took some books to sell at Half Price Books - and I got $26! That's unheard of at Half Price. I guess old Slavic Linguistics books never go out of style!

I spent about $1.50 of my haul on two books I thought would make good candidates for an art journal.:

Oh - book worshipers - avert your eyes! These books are going to get arted! Sorry if you're already on the way to your therapist.

Today, after class, I decided to get started, with some nice bright colors to combat our horrid grey skies. Homegirl needs to see the sun - STAT!

I decided I would do art journaling for the senile. Traditionally, people do two page layouts - I thought since I do like the smaller space of a single page, that I'd do one page, and keep color notes on the other page in case I stumble on a combo I want to recreate.

First, I coated both pages lightly with a credit card and American Journey Gesso - I love this gesso because it's the only one that was made to work with watercolor - traditional gessos don't work with watercolor very well. I dried it with my heat gun. I made sure to let the original book page show through - I like that the soul of my book will still be there, although the book worshipers will not be mollified by this.


On the right, I stamped the image from the new Sale-A-Bration set - A Happy Thing - in Yellow Citrus Chalk Ink. Then I painted it with a combination of Golden Fluid Acrylics (I love these because they behave more like watercolor), Lukas watercolor, acrylic paint and graphite (all paints listed below.) I dried it all with a heat gun, and stamped the greeting from Hello Life on top.

On the left is the senility map. I took an old gift card, cut it into three long strips, and used those as palette knives to swipe cool colors I used upward, and warm colors downward. As I used them on the right, I added them on the left. When I was done, I labeled all the colors with a Pitt Pen.



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I think this method will work for me because it's more of a technique journal than a book full of diary entries.

I really enjoyed it and completely forgot about the cold rain and grey air outside.

Here's a list of the things I used on this spread in case you can't read my writing:

When I was done, I glued each page to the page behind it with Liquitex Matte Gel medium. That makes them sturdier and flatter. 

 So it's no France Papillon, but I like it, and I STARTED! The rest is easy.

 Fun way to spend an afternoon.

I'll be back tomorrow with my class projects and the WINNERS of my Season's Giving drawings - some of you are going to be very happy!

Loveyameanitbye.

13 comments:

  1. Love it! Still not buying it!

    Love you more than the lemon

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  2. Art Journaling scares me too. So glad you started!! It is beautiful!!

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  3. I'm in the same boat...I've always wanted to expand into art journaling but many of your reasons apply to me, Lydia. I love how the page turned out! It's quite inspiring.

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  4. Gorgeous, Lydia! I've started dabbling in art journaling myself...intimidating and fun all at the same time 😊

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  5. Great Looking Pages!!!! Yea... you Started... Journaling is Best when you make it your own....

    Faith

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  6. wonderful. Angela Bode and I both started art journaling this year also. We joined up with Journal 52 and both have enjoyed the process so far. :)

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  7. I have not started a journal for a lot of the same reasons as you, but I could totally see doing it as a technique journal. A way to try something to see how it would turn out. I mean its only paper...and you can rip it out if you don't like it...right?

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  8. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cooooooooooooooooooooool Lydia.

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  9. The scariest step is the first step! Now that you have taken that step it will be soooooooooooo much easier from here on out! Awesome colors!! TFS!

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  10. You should check out irreversablymoi's fb page and blog!

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  11. Who won your Clearsnap seasons givings blog hop prize please? Thanks

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  12. Very nicely explained. You scored with your book prices. Lovely journal page.

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  13. Lydia, I would LOVE to hear what you think your must-have supplies are in terms of Gessos, Multi Medium Mattes, Acrylics (Heavy Body or "High Flow") - in a set or separate colors, and WHICH colors. I'm not a fan of dark colors - I love what you've used in your pages so far. Do you get your Golden Acrylics from Amazon for $10 each? And I LOVE how you put your supplies on the left hand page while still making it look nice!! Lydia, you really need to teach a class on this stuff. You've already got your first student. LOL! Is this a good place to ask these questions, or is the Mixed Media Forum a better place to ask?? Please reply @ moot96 AT aol DOT com. Thanks!! :-)

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