Have you tried any interesting challenges lately?
I just spent the last 5 days participating in the 5 Day Art Journal Challenge with Marjie Kemper. Marjie actually has a membership site for mixed media which sounds really interesting and no doubt, a lot of fun. Based on my experience this week, I guarantee the members try a lot of interesting techniques and projects.
I decided to participate in the challenge this week because I’m always trying to add new techniques to my mixed media bag of tricks and I’ve been taking classes, joining virtual workshops, and participating in challenges to soak up as much as I can.
I’m having a blast and meeting a lot of wonderful artists and crafters.
I’m also making some things that I actually LOVE!
The purpose of the challenge class was to create 10 art journal pages out of all kinds of materials and supplies. The pages were intended to be clipped together with a giant clip or added to a ring.
I decided to create a cover and bind my pages together. I have recently taken a class with Heidi Swapp and I took one in April with Vicki Boutin on creating art journals and binding them into books.
I used some old inserts from a Simple Stories 6 x 8″ album for my cover and a piece of Vicki Boutin patterned paper and some chipboard for the spine. I added some ephemera that I created to the front after using distress ink and some gold glaze paste with a stencil and a palette knife.
I left room for a title and I will add some twine along the seam as well as soon as I decide what photos will be going into this journal.
This will look nice on my album shelf!
Page 1:
The class was a live 1 hour event each day for 5 days. The first day we spent preparing several of the pages. You need to give gesso and paints time to dry. We also made a tag to add to a page. While I tried to follow along with the colors the instructor was using, she moved quickly and did not repeat herself. Since I wanted to create along with her and I was making an effort not to need to rewatch the replay (I do have other projects to get done!), I often just pulled out a color in the family she was using!
I also didn’t have the same stencils, stamps and ephemera that she had, so the decorative choices here are choices I made. She had a pretty fabulous edge punch and I had nothing like it. I used my Catherine Pooler hexagon dies to try to get the same effect. I ended up using some velum to back mine and I ended up liking what I created! I also love this sentiment.
Art journals don’t necessarily need writing in them. The art you select is supposed to represent how you are feeling or what you are going through while you are making it.
Michael Jackson once said that in an interview with Dianne Sawyer. She told him that one of his songs was offensive to a lot of people and he said, “Good! That’s Art! That’s what art is supposed to do!” His went on to say that art is supposed to evoke emotion not just from the artist, but from the observer. That has always stuck with me. He said that art isn’t always intended to evoke happy emotions!
The instructor intended for this to be the cover page. It’s made from a paper bag with gesso and a stencil and layered on top of black card stock. She had a fabulous border punch. I just picked a border punch within reach and used that. This seemed appropriate for a journal! Here I’ve used a Visible Image sentiment stamp that I love at the top and a Dyna Wakely sentiment sticker with some Tim Holtz butterflies. The instructor had the most fabulous big butterflies to use throughout her journal.
I love that I’m using stuff from my stash. I bought it over the years because I loved it and now I am finding ways to use it.
It feels good!
This was supposed to be a giant face stamp with some artsy washi tape. Who has a giant face stamp in their stash? Not me!
I picked the giant Altenew succulent and then watercolored it with distress ink in less than 45 seconds! (I was trying to keep up and finish the page before she moved on to the next one!) I used some Vicki Boutin washi tapes that I LOVE and I really love this page. This is my favorite page of all. The stamp at the top is a 49th and Market stamp from some art journal stamps I bought way back in February knowing that I wanted to create projects just like this!
I also love this page. It is made on a cereal box piece with gesso and acrylic paint scraped on with a palette knife. The circles are made from a soda bottle lid and acrylic paint. The rest is stuff from my Vicki Boutin collection of goodies! This embodies exactly how I feel in this moment!
When she announced that we need a page from an old book, I panicked. I don’t have any old books…I have a mold allergy! As soon as I read a book, I give it away. What I did have was a book about the pedagogy of teaching. Don’t need that anymore! I swiped some tea stain ink across it to get it to appear older than it is and had fun with this page. I didn’t have all the things she had, so I used some fibers and ribbons that I have in my stash for the edge of the page. I also have some fun old wooden stamps that I purchased YEARS ago to make projects like this. My daughter was in 4th grade when I got that face stamp and now I see what I can do with it!
That Bach (?) stamp is also one I had from years ago just waiting to be used in a junque journal just like this! I finally used it! This is gesso through a stencil and lots of distress ink. I was supposed to put that gesso stencil in the upper and lower corner, but I missed that detail trying to grab things and keep up. We weren’t given a list of supplies to be used ahead of each class, so I was just grabbing the closest thing and getting to work.
I’m glad I saved all those buttons! I don’t have a bunch of Tim Holtz ephemera things in my collection so I was making due and I’m so happy!
I don’t love this page. It was supposed to be patterned paper covered with translucent washi. I thought she said to space the pieces out, but the entire page was supposed to be covered. In the end, it is an interesting experiment for those patterned papers you don’t love.
I don’t get this page. This is corrugated cardboard and It looks exactly like it is supposed to with my own tag and metal detail, but the rest looks exactly like the instructor intended. I probably will never use this in a journal again unless I’m using it to create texture in gesso or paint on a page. This is just weird!
This is a die cut from a page we covered in blobs of paint then added to an embossed black page. I added the other details so it felt finished to me.
I actually like this page a lot. Again, I didn’t have any edging stamp like the one she had, so I did my own thing here. I also didn’t have a piece of ephemera large enough, so I used a Concord & 9th stamp and created my own. Mine is a floral of course! The other stuff is all old stuff from my stash!
This is the inside of my back cover. I still have to finish this, but I will wait until I decide what will be going here. I’ll grunge it up to match the rest of the journal as soon as I have a purpose for this page!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my journey into the art journal world here. I had a lot of fun and will be doing more of this on my own with my own designs and craft stash stuff.
I will also be using them for memory keeping just in case you are wondering what I’m going to do with them!
Have a great day!
