For me, an art journal is a place to try out new ideas without any boundaries. It’s a place where I can be a bit extreme without ruining any photos or expensive supplies.
After trying out a new idea in my art journal, i can then apply it to something more “practical” like a card or scrapbook page.
An art journal is a great place to take an idea all the way, while practicing for a more scaled down, practical version.
Tags: altered books, art journaling, card making, collage, painting
Earlier this week Emma gave me a challenge (which didn’t end up on the blog) to do creative journaling on a scrapbook page. Great! I thought. A chance to put all this mixed media nonsense aside and do those baby book pages I need to get done. A nice clean page. So here is what I came up with.
Sorry for the bad quality pictures, I got fed up with my camera and used my ipod. New camera coming in…two weeks!
I know…there’s gesso on the page. I just couldn’t resist.
As for the creative journaling, I decided to use song lyrics. That is actually turning into a theme for this album, because my daughter really likes music.
I made this page to go opposite the other but I’m not sure if it’s done yet.
Maybe it needs more gesso and collage…
Tags: gesso, journaling, Mixed Media
We will excuse Emma this week since Nora isn’t giving her time to scrapbook!
Instead, this is a technique I have been experimenting with and would like to share. It’s very easy and cheap, but the results are stunning. I have used it to cover my new art journal made from a recycled book, but you can also vary this idea to use as the background of a layout, card or ATC, to matte or frame a picture, to create dimensional embellishments, etc. It’s very versatile and you can make different textures and shapes with it to suit your purpose.
You will need:
Acrylic paint in 3-5 varying shades
-You can also use spray paint, markers, glimmer mist, or whatever else you have as long as it’s opaque and permanent. I just used acrylic paint because that’s what I have.
Paint brushes
Glue or Gel Medium
Aluminum foil
A base to work from such as a book cover, cardstock, chipboard, etc
1. Cover your base with glue or gel medium, using a paint brush to ensure equal coverage.
2. Crumple a piece of aluminum foil into the desired texture. The more you crumple, the smaller the “mountains” will be on the page.
3. Stretch it out as desired and press it firmly onto your glue-covered base, being especially careful that the corners are glued down securely. Let it dry.
-repeat step 3 if you want additional layers for extra volume and texture.
4. After the glue is dry, cover this with a base coat of paint. I used white gesso but I figured out too late that I should have used a darker color, because the white kept showing through forevermore. You want to try and cover all the foil so none of it shows through. Let this dry thoroughly, otherwise it will just come off with the next coat of paint.
5. After the base coat is dry, mix other colors on top to achieve your desired color combination. I used greens, blues, and a bit of burgandy for this step. Use as many coats as you need. I think it looks best to apply the darkest colors first then work into the lighter colors, because this will show off the texture beautifully. You will see what I mean. 
You will see in this picture that I’ve added layers of foil even over the base coat. You can always go back and add more at any stage as long as you paint over it all in the end.
6. Take some gold paint (or white, silver etc….something very light), and very gently brush it over the whole thing, so that the paint only highlights the raised tips of the “mountains.” Watch as the layers magically pop out under your brush!
Here is my finished book cover using this technique. I might add some embellishments but I’m not sure. I don’t want to go overboard again! 
Some other ideas on how to use aluminum foil for papercrafting:
-Use chipboard or other dimensional letters to lay down a title, then stretch the foil over them and paint it. The sides will slope down interestingly and give kind of a leathery look.
-Completely over chipboard letters or shapes using foil, crumpled or not.
-Mold the foil into shapes (flower, heart, etc) and paint over them.
-Try a light to dark paint sequence instead of dark to light as I have used here. I’ve never tried it but it should be interesting too!
-Paint black watercolor, watered down acrylic, or ink, then blot it so the foil shows through. It gives an interesting burnished silver look.
-Scratch doodles or text into the foil before painting it. You can use a pencil or old credit card for this (just be careful not to rip the foil!)
-Check out youtube and other blogs for ideas and inspiration.
Have fun!
Tags: Altered Art, altered book, art journaling, backgrounds, ideas, Mixed Media, painting, thrifty scrapping, tutorial
Emma was spot on with her challenge to me last week. Lately I have been obsessed with art journaling and altered books. I had become so obsessed that I was spending all my spare time watching tutorials on youtube, and even dreaming about it. Last week Thursday I woke from my trance, finding myself in the local Panduro Hobby, where I was compelled to buy some art journaling/book altering supplies that I had googled endlessly beforehand. I have probably mentioned art journaling to Emma before, but she didn’t know how obsessed I had become or that, the day before she gave me my challenge, I had already started making a mini altered book/art journal.
Basically, art journaling is exactly what it sounds like…journaling with art. That can include traditional paintings and sketches, or collage, doodles, stamping, scrapbook style embellishments, and countless other mixed media techniques.
Altered books are also what they sound like. Take a book, old or new, and change it to suit your fancy. Make a scrapbook out of it, a found poetry book, a recipe book, a travel diary, etc, or…an art journal.
I’m a bit nervous about this post. It’s kind of “out there” and doesn’t really resemble scrapbooking. It was an experiment, so if it looks like random nonsense (or just a big mess), then it probably is. I think the pages got better as I went along because at the beginning I really had no idea what I was doing. But it is what it is. And what it is, is FUN. So without any further disclaimers, here you go.
I tried my best not to overthink anything, but just to go with the flow. I could have scoured the internet looking for images to collage but in the end I limited myself to things lying readily at hand, like junk mail and the Panduro bag I bought my supplies in. There was no theme to the overall project…I was just experimenting and trying to figure it out.
I used as many recycled or otherwise unusable materials as I could. The book was an old board book (too old for me to be comfortable with Olivia putting it in her mouth). I really wish I had taken before and after pictures, but alas, I didn’t think it was something I would be posting. Let’s just say it looks VERY different now than it did when I started.
Other than that, I used acrylic paints, gesso, varnish (I got a little varnish happy as you can see from the glossy pages), markers, gel pens, and collage bits from junk mail, stickers, old scraps of patterned paper, etc. The words on the front cover were cut off a box…that something came in. I probably should leave it at that, haha…the sequins were from an old skirt of mine, since I’m not much of a sequin wearer so I took it apart instead.
I loved working on this project and I already have plans for three more altered books – a travel journal/scrapbook for our Italy trip this summer, a regular art journal for daily journaling (a habit I need to get back into), and a faith centered journal for personal impressions, scripture notes, etc.
Thank you, Emma, for this wonderful challenge!
As for your challenge. Summer is in the air, so I want you to go floral! You can interpret that any way you like, whether it’s pictures of flowers, or using flowers as embellishments: paper, cloth, or otherwise! Or, you can go in any other flowery direction that your creativity leads you. Enjoy!
Tags: Altered Art, altered book, art journaling, mini albums, Mixed Media, painting
Scrapbooking supplies (especially my favorite papers) don’t often come cheap. Here’s a few simple suggestions on how to stretch the paper kits you love so that you can scrapbook without worrying about financing your hobby.
Tags: Papers, thrifty scrapbooking
This was a bit of challenge for me! But it was fun and very rewarding to see that I could cope without my pretty papers! I didn’t have a whole lot of time to spend on this so It was a bit of a mad dash and I make no apologies for not having it completed with Pics in. I began early and then held off a few days as it was making me a little bitty emotional.
I picked up this butterfly book a while ago with my mother in mind to make her a little keepsake in memory of a little friend of hers whom she cared for daily at the school she works, a girl who touched so many lives as she suffered pain daily with the worst form of EB, read more about that here. Adana passed away at a tender 10 years old. My mother would bring Adana for visits to my work (Woolies store) where I could always be sure of a healthy dose of cheeky banter and wicked wit for a soon to be ten year old wrapped from toe to neck in bandages to stop her skin from being damaged further and prevent infections as the slightest touch hurt this little lady and made her blister.
My mum would tell us stories daily of Adana, I know funny little things like after mum had eaten a pack of cheese and onion crisps for break Adana would ask mum to breath on her because that was her favorite flavor of crisps that Adana could rarely have the chance to eat as due to her condition she had was fed through a tube in her navel. I know that for Christmas dinner her request was to have macaroni cheese, that her favorite color is pink and that at Halloween I caught a glimpse of a pink furry little creature being pushed in her wheel chair. I could go on but these things I have to work on a way to add into this book.
I wanted to keep the book bright and lovely like Adana herself, also I believe that she is soaring in the most beautiful heaven happy and pain free.
xxx
Alaina,
For the next challenge I want you to create some ‘altered art’ recycling at least two things!
have fun!
x
Tags: doodles, inks, mini album
It was fun being a scraplifter this week! It made me think about all the creative women in my life who inspire me. You know who you are (I hope!).
For our workshop last saturday we chose this layout. I love the layering and especially the pinwheels, which somehow I didn’t even end up using. Here is my version:
Not very similar I admit! But it was inspired by the pinwheel page, anyway.
I was just going to leave it at that, but I ended up doing another one too. I subscribe to a lot of creative/scrapbooking blogs on google reader so that I can scroll through them on my ipod any time I need some inspiration. During the week I came across this post. I loved the way she used the tags and colors! So, I became a scraplifter again. I went back and forth on how to use the idea but in the end I decided to get “down to business” with my daughter’s baby album and do the dreaded milestones page. So I went crazy with circles to go with the mile…STONE….idea. Lame-o I know! Anyway here it is.
It took me a while to try and figure out how to attach the baby hair from her first haircut. There wasn’t very much as you can see so finally I remembered I had this little bottle to put it in.
So Emma!
I was thinking this week about the items I use a lot, on every page pretty much. Double sided tape, ink blending tool, textured cardstock…you get the idea. My “staples.” So I was thinking it would be fun to challenge you to identify which tool or type of supply you like to use the most, your favorite! And NOT use it for the next challenge. Is that mean? I guess challenges are about stepping out of the comfort zone. And you are free to choose WHICH item you are going to do without. Have fun!
Alaina
Scrappy wife
alainapaina
