Art Journaling Session: Crackling Campfire

If you’re UK-based, you’ll be well aware that it’s Bonfire Night on 5th November. For those in other places, you may not know that this is our way of commemorating Guy Fawkes plotting to blow up the Houses of Parliament back in 1605 during the State Opening, intending to kill King James I. Rooted in religious discontent which carried on for centuries, it’s now an excuse to let off ridiculously loud fireworks and compete for the biggest conflagration in the area.

So, it is with this inspiration that I have chosen the theme of ‘crackling campfire’. Blessedly silent, this layout incorporates crackle paint to add the appropriate texture to logs and flames, and aptly named distress oxide inks. A bit of sparkle brings the text to the fore and is a nod to firework displays up and down the country.

Crackling campfire art journaling layout with crackle paint texture and distress oxide inks
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Bible Journaling: Peace & Refuge (BJ-39)

I’ve selected five verses on the theme of ‘peace and refuge’ from the huge number of possible choices from scripture. I tried out a few new tricks I have learnt on Adobe Illustrator whilst creating these, such as warping the shield with the dove on it to gain perspective and the ‘lean’. On the Psalm 91 verse, I also read ahead and incorporated elements from later in the verse in the illustration (the rampart and shield combo). As ever, the templates are available as a free download – scroll to the end of the post. And while you are there, check out what’s happening next month!

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Bible Journaling: Redemption & Salvation (BJ-37)

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.

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Bible journaling: Creation & nature (BJ-36)

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:

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Art Journaling: Cloth Collage (with step-by-step tutorial)

When I’m looking for potential techniques and ideas for my art journaling sessions, I often reach for analogue sources: books. For this evening’s session, I took inspiration from ‘101 More Mixed Media Techniques’. In the fabrics & fibers [sic] section, there is information on sticking and covering elements and pages. And so my cloth collage theme was born and this is what I came up with:

Fabric collage art journaling tutorial with stamped calico and matte medium.
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Art Journal Session: ‘Industrial Grunge’

This month’s art journaling session was on the theme of ‘industrial grunge’. I thought it would be a great chance to revisit rust effects, drips and runs and also use up some of the matte black vinyl I seem to have inadvertently collected over the years… I also exercised AI skills using Microsoft Designer to create the graffiti and worked with ChatGPT to develop the colour scheme, selecting the base colours with my Nix Mini 3 digital colourimeter. Here’s what I came up with:

industrial grunge art journal page
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Art Journal Session: Twinchies

Back in the day, when there were still many crafting magazines available, free clear stamps were included as a cover gift. Somehow I still have a collection of these, which are all still clear and functional. Finding them in my stash, I came up with this month’s theme for the art journaling session at The Studio: twinchies. For the unfamiliar, twinchies are 2″ square elements for crafting and the giveaway stamps fit perfectly. Using mixed media and appropriate papers, I created this:

Series of 24 twinchies (2" square pictures) arranged in a sketchbook as an art journaling project.
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Art Journal Session: Christmas NBU

This month’s theme for the last art journal session of the year is ‘Christmas NBU’. A long while ago, I suggested the tag #nbu for ‘never been used’. I’m not sure it caught on… So this wintery layout uses items that have not been used yet alongside other bits and bobs that came to hand:

Christmas NBU - the completed layout.
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Bible Journaling: Secure in God (BJ-29)

These five illustrations were used in this week’s Bible Journaling Session on Monday evening at The Studio to reflect on a loose theme of ‘secure in God’. At some point, I will need to find the confidence to do the illustrations myself from scratch, but for now, I still have an image in mind and then search for it online. For this month’s templates, I have also used text-to-image AI to generate some of the graphics – this takes just as much time to tweak the prompt and generate tens of possibilities to get the image I have in mind. Overall design, text and colouring are all done by me.

The templates are available as a free PDF download via my online shop here.

Bible journaling examples (5) on the theme of secure in God.
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Art Journaling Session: Watersolubles

This evening we are playing with all sorts of watersolubles for our Art Journal Session. I’ve raided my stash for media that we don’t use often in the sessions, with pencils, paints, crayons and gelatos on the menu. The session is all about experimentation and the different ways the water interacts with the pigments on the page. We’re adding some stamping and hand-drawn embellishments to adorn the page:

Watersolubles with mixed media in an art journal spread.
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