And this is the second part of the demo/workshop day to be held at Kim’s Crafts (Hinckley Branch) – mini-suitcase memory boxes:
Mini-Suitcase Memory Boxes
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Tag Archives: journal
Travel Journal – journaling prompts for when your brain is on holiday
Just thought I’d share some of the journaling ideas I had whilst I was filling in my travel journal.
- Numbers – decorate your page with relevant numbers and a brief comment – I used the flight number, the weight of my suitcase, how many miles it was to my destination, in-flight meal prices, taxi pick up time etc
- Top Tips – list all the things you want to remember for next time you go on holiday or the things you would tell people coming to the same area
- Menus – sketch your food for the day, then describe it: we had ‘brown’ several times during our stay – it was either coffee or chocolate mousse, but occasionally we’d be caught out with the hazelnut variety!
- Guide Book – if you get stuck for ideas, raid your guide book and any handy tour leaflets for facts and pictures or maps and pop them into your journal
- Logos – I drew the logo that was on the beer glass every evening, and stuck in a section of the honey rum bottle label… the things you want to remember!
- Mini-maps – annotate a mini-map of your area, or the route to the beach, with the things that were memorable or significant landmarks along the way
- Write larger – if you only do eating, sunbathing and swimming, it may not seem to be enough for a journal page entry… so write larger and decoratively, it soon fills the page!
Mini Travel Journal – Maspalomas 2011
As promised, here are pics of my handmade travel journal. I decided that I would take an art journal with me on holiday and I’d keep to a plan of drawing/writing daily – after all, I’d have the time! Well, that didn’t quite work out between sun and sangria and nights of cards and local honey rum, but I have finished it:
I’ll be showing the group at the Craft Club on Saturday how to make the journal, and there will probably be a tutorial coming on here later.
Holiday angst!
I’ve just been to Gran Canaria for a fortnight’s break – and was brave enough to take my art journal with me. Almost a disaster… My art journal bag got stolen one night, and with it my first (and currently only) art journal. Happily it was found very shortly after having been discarded. Here is the resulting outpouring of artistic angst:
So there we are: back up your images… electronic or paper-based!
Paper Towel Printing – Distress Inks
I’ve carried on playing with my newly discovered technique, and thought I ought to try Paper Towel Printing with distress inks. Here’s a step by step guide:
Firstly, place your sheet of paper towel onto a glass mat or other non-absorbent surface. Wet by spritzing with water.
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Then I spritzed with homemade glimmer mist spray – good to have a background colour. I think it also helps the other colours keep in their place… This one is Peeled Paint with gold perfect pearls.
[To make your own mist – take one dropper full of reinker and add it to a mini-mister. Add a small scoop of perfect pearls. Fill with water to three quarters full, replace cap and shake vigorously. Spritz.]
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Drop on ink from your choice of distress ink reinker – this is Faded Jeans.
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Spritz each of those dots with water until they start bleeding.
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Repeat with more colours – this is Spiced Marmalade.I also added Dusty Concord.
Spritz with water.
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Start printing! Lay a tag/paper/cardstock/ATC on the towel and smooth down with your fingers. You may see water squeeze out of the edges at first – that’s what you’re after 🙂 You’ll also find the colours start to spread a little more into one another.
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All of this from one sheet? Yup – and they are all double-sided as well. It seems that the colours stay pretty much where you put them, so this would be great to carry a colour theme throughout a tag book, or art journal, or across several pieces of cardstock for scrapbooking or card making.
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And there was still some left over to do my art journal 🙂
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Close up of the tags – they’re a bit blotchy still as I didn’t wait to dry them before sharing this blog entry with you! Lots of texture on some, lovely watercolour effects. Love it!
Paper Towel Printing – for art journals and backgrounds
I’ve been playing today 🙂 And one of the things I got playing with was a paper towel. I originally planned to dye it with acrylic paints/inks for decoupaging into my art journal. But one thing led to another, and before long, I’d ended up with what I think to be a totally novel technique – at least I haven’t seen it in all my hours browsing art journal techniques online. I’ll be calling it Paper Towel Printing, and this is the result:
Space – an art journal page
A completed double page spread in my Moleskine art journal. I always gesso my Moleskine pages as they seem to be very absorbent otherwise. The background was created with Ranger’s Adirondack Color Wash sprayed onto the page, spritzed with water and then allowed to dry. At a recent art journaling workshop we were encouraged to ‘describe something’. My background reminded me of wonderful space nebulae pictures, so I chose to describe ‘Space’.
Embossed Metal Journal Faceplate
I finished this faceplate for my art journal this afternoon – I started it last night. The motif is an unmounted stamp from Paper Artsy, stamped onto copper side of Ten Seconds Studio’s double-sided metal foil using Stazon Black ink. I then used metal embossing tools to give the image some relief. The text was laid out in word processor before being printed out and traced through onto the metal. I then embossed the text. The embossed areas were filled with Ranger’s Glossy Accents before sticking the whole plate onto thick card with a smear of Glossy Accents over the flat surfaces. I let the plate dry overnight. Filling the raised areas with Glossy Accents stops them denting through wear at a later date as it dries to a structural solid – larger areas can be filled with lightweight DIY filler instead. The aging was a bit hit and miss, using black acrylic paint, a sanding block and lots of restarts. I also used Stazon Stamp Cleaner to remove the stamped outline. It’s stuck onto the Moleskine art journal with extra strong double-sided tape.
Autumn Leaves Art Journal Page
I completed this double spread in my moleskine sketchbook art journal over the weekend. It uses my own art journal elements (the leaves) and the quote is from Albert Camus. Doodles are with Unipin fine line pigment pen. Background is blended Tim Holtz distress inks on gesso.
Art Journal Elements – Autumn
Ok, so it’s nearly spring… but the colours I’d used to make the background papers inspired an autumnal theme! This is my first attempt at creating decoupage sheets suitable for many things, but I had art journaling in mind when I came up with the sketches. Please feel free to print out the sheets and use the images in your own art projects. If you share the sheets, please make sure my name is still on them. The sheets may not be copied as a part or a whole to be re-sold in any format without my permission. I’d love to know what you used them for!
Click on the images to open an A4 size version that you should be able to save and print out. If you would like a high resolution version, let me know.