I have finally gotten time to post my Italy travel journal! I took it with me on the trip and wrote every few days, putting in postcards and anything else I collected that could possibly be put in a journal. I have waited so long to post this because I was thinking that I would “finish” it, i.e. put in some pictures, do a bit more journaling in the end etc. But I don’t know when I am ever going to do that, so I thought I should go ahead and post the current version.
Tag Archives: mini albums
Italy Travel Journal – Before
8 AugI’ve finally got my travel journal ready to take to Italy with me. And here is the post, as promised.
I’ve used random patterned papers in sort of an Italy-ish color scheme, with some envelopes, pockets, and ephemera printouts. I’ve used tons of distress ink and water on pretty much all the pages, and my sister told me it looked like the whole book had been in a flood. But that feel seemed like Italy to me so I am happy with it, and can’t wait to start filling it up.
Here are some details, and a video at the end.
Altered Art Journal and Challenge #8
17 Jun
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!
All about me!
6 MayWell, this has been a surprisingly difficult challenge for me. Difficult, and very fun that is. These days, all my scrapbooking energy has been thrown into my daughter’s baby album. It seems like she is the only one being photographed in our family anymore, because let’s face it…babies are just a lot cuter than anybody else. On the rare occasion that I am not working on her baby album, there are so many other things to make like cards, layouts for other family pictures, etc.
BUT…for this challenge, Emma asked me to make something…a layout, mini book, etc…all about myself. Very hard to do. But when I asked google for ideas (a habit of mine), I found that the “Book of Me” is a pretty common concept among scrapbookers. I didn’t want to do a layout since I don’t know what album I would put it in, so I decided to go all out and create a mini album (my first!). The concept is, that the album will display several of my “favorites” – books, movies, music, etc – to give a little snapshot of my personality.
Here is my disclaimer…I’m not actually finished with the album. Not by a long shot! But, luckily, Emma is a kind friend and since I’m doing an entire album for this challenge, she has agreed to give me until next friday to finish it. So this is actually only a preview of what will be the finished album. For my slowness I will blame…surprisingly not laziness this time, but actually it’s just the fact that I’m a “slow scrapper,” something I hope to remedy through these challenges. It just takes a while for me to get the creative juices flowing.
The album is aptly named “A Work in Progress,” not just because I’m slow (haha), but also because the phrase is a pretty good description of both my life and my personality. I don’t claim that I am “done,” but I hope that I will continue to change and progress as my life goes on.
On to the pictures. I apologize for the bad quality, as I don’t have a fancy-pants camera like Emma (yet).
Front cover
To make these flowers, I cut out the shapes using my Slice, inked the edges with my Ranger Ink Tool, crumpled/bent them, and glued them together with a pearl in the middle.
To make the letters, I cut them out with my Slice, and again used the the Ranger Ink Tool with a slightly different “dabbing” technique to get the heavy bronze look. It’s actually just plain brown paper.
The first layout…featuring my good friend Moomintroll and a paper doll of me that my mom made when I was little. I printed Moomintroll directly onto the background paper, and I love the effect…looks like a rub on, but it can basically be any black and white image I choose. Again, google is my friend. I plan to use this idea on several more pages which you will see next week.
I’m also planning on attaching some ribbon to each layout in order to have a messy ribbony effect at the end. I will probably put something on the rings too.
I made the butterflies with…guess what? My Slice. Seriously, love my Slice. Not very expensive and actually a money saver since you don’t have to buy all those punches in different sizes instead.
Anyway, so I cut out the butterflies, doodled on them, and inked them with gold ink (Ranger Ink Tool again…I will post about it sometime because it deserves a post all its own). I wanted to use butterflies since they have a special significance in the Moomintroll books, but it’s kinda funny because the paper started out purple, but now it’s pretty much just brown because of the gold ink, and brown butterflies are actually bad luck in the books. Sorry, Moomintroll!
The next layout had a Linnea theme, which is another favorite book of mine as a child. My mom actually made me an outfit just like Linnea, and took this picture of me which she won a prize for. The images to the left are from my computer, including the cover of the book and some Monet paintings (my favorite painter, and Linnea’s too).
Well, that’s all I have so far, but I will post the rest of the album next friday!
Scrappy wife
alainapaina
