For this release of Bible journaling illustrations, I have used a theme of redemption and salvation to select my verses. Five new templates from both the Old and New Testaments assure us of God’s love through the ages, now, and into the future. And, for the first time, I have illustrated perhaps the most central and one of the most well-known verses: John 3:16.
In this month’s session, we explored art journaling with fusible webbing – a technique that brings texture, sparkle, and surprise to your layout. It’s a heat-reactive mixed media method that uses iron-on adhesive sheets to trap colour, foil, glitter, and more.
I vaguely recall trying out this technique back in art college, some 13 or so years ago, but I came across it again recently. I had been looking through my library of mixed media technique books and found it in both Surface Treatment Workshop (p.114 – Fusible Webbing) and Mixed Media Revolution (p.41). Since I have oodles of fusible webbing available after buying a whole roll of it for quilting purposes, I came up with this after some experimentation:
The Studio is open on Tuesday evenings from 7:30pm for ‘come & craft’. The aim is for attendees to work on their own projects alongside other artists and crafters. Over the years, there have been card crafters, gift wrappers, crocheters, art journalers, scrapbookers, jewellery makers, Bible journalers and painters. The joy of the session for me is seeing confidence grow, abilities improve and enjoying the chat and interactions between guests.
This is Laurence – he has been coming to the sessions for a couple of years ago and has been learning to paint planes in acrylics. Some learning has been self-directed and some pointers from me. He has benefitted from using my kit and materials – another bonus of the sessions. Below are his paintings, and I think you will appreciate his improvement across the four pieces of art.
A potential Studio guest wanted to see some handmade journals, so l dug out some that I have made over the years. In the process, I found a travel journal that I made back in 2018 following an amazing three-week holiday in Canada and Alaska in honour of our 25th wedding anniversary (and the cashing in of an endowment mortgage policy). I don’t appear to have featured it on the blog before, so here goes:
I had a lovely weekend in London a couple of months ago, staying in a rather nice hotel. The said hotel had wooden keycards to get into the rooms, nicely engraved with the hotel name. Which got me thinking – could I make one of my own? I started researching possibilities, learning about NFC tags and working out the practicalities of making a ‘digital’ wooden business card. Here’s the result, and below, I focus on the process.
Now that I have moved into my new journaling Bible, I’m able to choose new verses and revisit old ones with new illustrations. This month, I have selected five verses on a theme of creation and nature and created art journaling designs for each:
I have a friend (in fact, several) who is big into Pokémon. So much so that when we’re away with friends, we’ll often pause on walks for some sort of game interaction. There have also been trips abroad for various Pokémon events. So when it came time to wrap a birthday present, I raided my ‘to be altered’ stash, selected a papier-mâché suitcase and customised it:
If you’re a regular follower of this ‘ere blog, you’ll know I am into art journaling. Since I’ve had several enquiries about my art journaling classes, I thought I would look in slightly more depth into the subject.
Continue readingWant to try art journaling for yourself? Scroll to the bottom to learn about my monthly in-person sessions in Leicester.
Facebook marketing works… I saw this pattern for highland cow amigurumi dolls promoted in my feed, and after an inquiry, I purchased it from Cottontail & Whiskers. Said inquiry was ‘Would you like me to make these?’ I aimed to crochet all three over three months, in time for a certain person’s birthday at the beginning of April. After several false starts (it was the first time I had done anything similar), I managed to get the largest (Tunnock) done in time.
Today’s focus is all about kerf. For those unfamiliar with the term, kerf is the sliver of material that is vaporised when cut with a laser or sawn away when cut with a saw. It’s usually the thickness of whatever is doing the cutting plus a smidge. By leveraging the kerf, it is possible to cut shapes that will then push-fit into others and remain there through friction. It’s particularly helpful when working with clear acrylic, which is tricky to glue without the glue showing up. That’s how I made these acrylic tealight holders using my xTool P2S laser and upcycled COVID screens for the main cube:
And some additional prototype designs for Christmas:
