Login | Manage Account | Join
Bet you weren’t expecting The Crafter’s Workshop to start making die cut products, were you? Many of their dies, and some of their new stencils are geared toward Project Life and the current pocketed page protector craze.
You’ll also see stencils by their brand new designer, Ronda Palazzari. And of course, there’s plenty from Dina Wakley, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, and designer and founder, Jamie Echt.
Watch Ryan Reaveley give a full demo of art journaling with her new stencil and mist products at CHA 2013.
Stencils are definitely a huge trend in scrapbooking and papercrafting and The Crafter’s Workshop makes so many beautiful ones! You’ll find stencils by well-known designers like Dyan Reavely and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer!
The Prima Press was in the top 20 innovations for CHA! Sharon shows it to us, along with their new Mixed Media Albums. They have a resist effect, which can be used with any color art medium.
One trend that’s been building over time is the use of stencils! Julie Fei Fan Balzer has released a huge amount of stencils with The Crafter’s Workshop, including stencils that are intended for layering! In this video she demos how these layers can work together.
We’re so lucky to see Dyan Reavely art journal a complete page, start to finish! She’s a new signature designer for Ranger and shares with us the fantastic new supplies she designed!
One of my interests with art journaling has been to explore the dangerous female mythological creatures with supernatural powers over men.
It’s ironic because for most of human history, men have dominated over women. Yet these mythological creatures reveal how weak males can feel when it comes to the sensuality of women.
So I’ve been cutting up models who look like they’re in a — ummm — certain state (something else I find funny, since they’re just getting their pictures taken), and making fantasy-like pages.
I don’t know if I’ll add more to this second page. I originally planned to color her legs with my copic markers since there are letters on them. But I don’t seem to have the same success with copics on sleek magazine surfaces like Teesha Moore seems to.
Also, I like it the way it is, even if my only alteration to the magazine cut-outs were the fairy wings. It’s my own journal page and I can do what I want with it, right? It’s not like I’m selling it as art or anything. So I might just leave it as is.
I had this ugly, plain boring lampshade and I just painted what I call, “Abundance Circles,” onto it.
BEFORE
The idea came from this doodling on a receipt in my car…
Doodling the random things that catch your eye can lead you to lots of different ideas later — especially if you keep your doodles together some place. I keep mine in my scrap journal and my sketch book.
The doodle started when I was pulling out of a parking space, and an unusual pedestrian path caught my eye. I grabbed a receipt and sketched it on the far left, and then I had a spontaneous desire to add the circles and make it a tree. I was feeling whimsical.
I liked the tree top, but not the trunk, so I tried again on the right side of the receipt. And you can see that two days later I tried again a third time and was really happy with the results. I made a note that the tree top felt like abundance to me. Later when I flipped through my book and saw it, I added a note saying I was calling my tree an Abundance Tree.
Later I sat down with a Copic Multi-Liner and tried making a tree that I could actually use for scrapbooking and mixed-media art. In the process I devised a trunk I really loved, though my tree ended up looking more like a mushroom. I made a mental note that the circles were too tight and tried again, this time adding color with my Copic Sketches…
Here’s another example of where doodling has led me to an eventual hand-made embellishment for scrapbooking…
Grocery List Doodle: Happy Mushroom Colony…
Refining the Happy Mushroom Colony in my Scrap Journal…
Making a Happy Mushroom Colony as a Scrapbook Embellishment…
I’m sure I will eventually use my abundance tree in a scrapbook or mixed-media project, and I’m already making more.
The key is asking yourself the question in the first place — “How can I translate this piece of inspiration into something else?”
I’ve been asking myself how I could translate my Abundance Trees into a painting project. Because I had the question in my head, I got the answer when I saw this dress on Elsie Flannigan. I saved the dress to my Art Inspiration board on Pinterest and decided I would use it as inspiration to dress up my boring lamp shade. I practiced first in my art journal…
I didn’t try to copy the pattern on Elsie’s dress. I took one more look at it before pulling out my paints, and then closed the picture. There are two reasons I rarely try to copy directly when doing artistic projects…
This is how I use inspiration for my scrapbooking as well. I almost never scraplift, but I sometimes do think back to a layout I liked recently and I recall the overall idea of why I liked it. If you do that, you benefit from the inspiration of others, but you’ll make projects that are completely your own.
So now, from noticing a pedestrian walk and and doodling it into my scrap journal, I’ve developed some art I can use for scrapbooking, for mixed-media projects, and for painting projects as well. It’s amazing how it all flows for you when you pay attention to your environment, act on your observations and idea bursts, experiment with them, develop them, and ask yourself how-questions.
I user a broader definition of “art Journal” than what is trending right now. Most people these days use art journals for artful experimentation and play, which will then be the foundation for written journaling. I do so much writing and journaling into my photos, into my scrap journal, on my blogs, in my fiction, and onto my scrapbook pages, that I don’t have any interest in adding it into my art journals.
Plus, as a writer, I naturally look at it for a different purpose. Many fiction writers keep writing journals, where we’re just practicing or warming up, and if we’re lucky, you might find a jewel there to embellish into a short story or novel. But mainly, we use writing journals for practice actual fiction. So it’s more natural for me to think of my art journals this way — a warm-up place for my art.
And I’m still trying to discover who I am as an artist. Mixed media? Collage? Copics Markers? Paint? So far it’s all of the above, but pure paint continues to stir up more passion in me than the others. I’m also still trying to find my colors, and I have yet to really commit to larger focal images and that I create myself. I have very few completed pages. I guess I’m still working on that fear thing.
While my smallest book has the nicest, sturdiest cover, which I really like, I can’t stand it’s size. It’s too small. If you haven’t bought yourself a journal yet and are planning on it — don’t go for small. It’s very limiting and there is a lot I want to do that won’t fit in that tiny book. Fortunately I have the two larger books you see on the bottom.
If I can fit what I want to do it the small book, I’ll use it. Otherwise, I really love the big ones, even if they don’t have nice sturdy covers.
So far none of the art you see here are finished except the tree in the book on the right-hand corner.
Speaking of the book in the right-hand corner, I originally turned that old unwanted novel into a journal — a place for me to write a few thoughts and to add a scrap or two from the day. A receipt. A thank-card. A napkin with some quick notes I jotted down.
That’s why I call it my scrap journal. Then I found myself brainstorming in it. Brainstorming began my image-making, because who brainstorms with words only? I liked the aesthetics of the images on top of the text. I liked using my book to just doodle, too. I’ve found that the doodling generates new inspiration.
And then I bought my Copic Markers and I found that I love the copics on top of the text and manila colored pages. So now my scrap journal is also an art journal. It’s my everything book. But it’s still not the typical current popular type where you art a page up and then journal on top of it. I have pages with only journaling. I have pages with scraps or brainstorming. I have pages with sketches and copic color. I just do whatever it is I need to do in this book.
It’s not about making the book pretty, although there are some pretty things in it.
I also keep two sketch books. One is 14×17 with thin pages — great for practicing drawing larger images, and suitable only for pencils. I also have a one that is 12×9. It’s easier to carry around with me and its pages are a thick material so I can use my Copics in it, as well.
I have a few playful experiments I’m excited to share — hopefully next week. But what about you? I’m curious to know how much of the Paperclipping audience does art journaling, is interested in art journaling, or has no interest at all?
Congratulations to Jana Olivera, who submitted an art journal that we chose to highlight this month! Her art journal a response to challenge topic #4 – Let’s Get Artsy.
Jana’s pages come from the paper towels she used to clean up her paint during the July 13th Paperclipping Live event when Jackie and Reenie filled in for me. Jana used toilet paper rolls as the foundation of her pages.
Next week’s Paperclipping episode will be a tutorial on how I’ve made my own handmade journal by re-purposing those gorgeous, colorful paper towels, but it’s very different from Jana’s and I’m loving the way Jana put her own book together. You can see more pictures of Jana’s gorgeous art journal by watching her slide show.
We think this is a beautiful art journal. There are so many textures and elements. The layering and details are complex.
There are so many colors in this book but what prevents them from overwhelming us is the balance of color intensity. Each page has a brighter, more intense feature color that pops from the foundation of softer hues.
We love the texture of the soft crumbled paper and the subtle lines of stitching around the pages, which contrast with the shiny hard texture of the beads.
We especially love that this unique piece of art has been made from what we normally consider trash, which proves that art can be made from almost nothing.
You can find Jana in our community, The Crop Circle. You can see more of her at her blog, 2 Worlds.