Monthly Archives: July 2013

Art Journaling Basics – 5 Ways to Create Backgrounds

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Art Journaling Basics - BackgroundsSo far, in our Artful Adventure into Art Journaling Basics, we have covered:

Now, let the fun begin!

Let’s look at some ways to get started on a page. Here are three methods of creating your page.

  1. Create a background and then decide what you’ll put on the page as you move forward.
  2. Have something already selected that you want to make sure your background will work with.
  3. Work on part of your page and as it evolves, fill in the background.

There, now that doesn’t sound so hard, does it?

Today, we are going to look at some ways to work with the first method – starting the background first. With all the products available, look around at what you already have. Grab something and let’s go! You can use watercolors (cheap ones will do!), acrylic paint, or patterned paper.

Don’t worry if you don’t know what the page will look like.  At this point, we may not have any idea, and that’s fine. Stop looking at the blank page and just get started!

We would love to see your backgrounds!  Share them by linking in the comments, or come join us on the Facebook Group!

You may also be interested in:

Art Journaling Basics online class with eBook bonus!

Click the image for more information

Until our next Adventure,

KS

 

Wednesday Wonder – True Scrap Kids

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truescrapkidsHow about spending a day treating your kids, and yourself, to paper crafting goodness! True Scrap Kids is a virtual, online event coming to you July 27th.  Everything will be recorded so you can play it again, or if you’ve already made plans for that day you can watch everything later!

True Scrap events bring fun and interesting teachers and activities right into your own space. There is no need to travel or leave home to participate.

I have loved every minute of the True Scrap events I’ve participated in. There are crafty kids in my life and it is going to be a blast sharing crafting time that is especially geared to kids this time!

 Just click the button below to get all the info you need!

Hurry now to get an early bird discount!

More Info Please!

KS

Art Journaling Basics – Adhesives

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Today’s stop on our Art Journaling Journey will be a stop to visit our good friends – adhesives. You may not need adhesives on every page you create, but when you need something, you’ll want to know just what to use!

You may only need to stick something down on your page with a double-sided tape, or tape runner.  If you are a scrapbooker, or paper crafter, you probably have plenty of this type product. Glue sticks are also a quick way to adhere paper to your page. Double-sided tapes and glue sticks are best used on paper to paper surfaces.  If you need extra strength, something like Sticky Strip will provide an even greater bond.

Glue dots are great for adhering small embellishments, and will give you a little more bonding strength.

If you want to add a bit of dimension, foam adhesive is an option.  It is sticky on both sides, and actually has a nice amount of stickiness!

Craft glues can be used when you need something with a little more strength. They usually are created to become a little more tacky to give some grab to help hold your items together. In my opinion, a glue that gives you just a moment to get your items exactly into place before it really begins to bond, is best!

Collage techniques are a great option for art journaling. What works best for that type of work?  There are several types of products that are great for this technique.  ModPodge and DecouPage are similarly priced. ModPodge leaves a bit of a film and remains a bit tacky in humid areas.  Matte Mediums are probably a bit more costly and come in a liquid version, something a bit more creamy, and products that are more of a gel consistency.  Remember, we are using art journaling to try different products and techniques.  You may fall in love with a product that someone else doesn’t particularly care for. Not only is there no right or wrong way to art journal, there are also no right or wrong products to use!

We’ll soon be trying some collage techniques, so try to grab something soon.

Enjoy the journey!

KS

 

Art Journaling Basics – Gesso vs. White Paint

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gesso

Liquid gesso is a good choice for art journals.

As we continue our Art Journaling Adventure, we’ll step back a minute and look at gesso, before we move ahead into discussing some adhesives.  While we used gesso in turning a book into an art journal, you may be wondering why we didn’t just use white acrylic paint, instead of the gesso. So, we’ll talk about that now.

Although white acrylic paint and white gesso may look a lot alike, they are different.  Gesso is made to actually seal a surface and still provide a very slightly textured surface, also known as “tooth.” This gives paint something to grab onto. That means that you can use gesso on all kinds of surfaces and be able to paint on it. Without the gesso, many surfaces would absorb too much of what you are using, such as paints, ink mists, and adhesives. Gesso also has more of an adhesive property than acrylic paint. You can use it and then work an artful creation on many surfaces which your paint or other mediums would not normally stay on very well!

Different brands of gesso have varying degrees of a textured surface when they are dry. In our art journals, we can just use one that does not really have a lot of noticeable texture. A liquid gesso is easy to use and will work well in an art journal.

As we move forward, you’ll also find that mixing a little white gesso into a paint will change a paint color in a different way than white paint will change it.

So, don’t be afraid to grab some gesso at some point, even if you have decided to purchase your art journal instead of using our recycled book idea! I promise that as we move through different Artful Adventures, you will have a use for it.

See you on our next stop on the Art Journaling Adventure,

KS

Art Journaling Basics – Art Journal from a Recycled Book

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The second stop on our Artful Adventure into Art Journaling is learning how to recycle a book into an art journal.

Not only is it economical, it’s a very “green” thing to do! Read, watch, or do both! It’s up to you!  You can find the first episode here.

We have a thrift store nearby that always has an excellent selection of books, and I periodically stop in to see what there is to choose from. For this episode I stopped by and found a fun book by Erma Bombeck. I always loved her column and her take on looking at life with humor. The book was only 99 cents, and was a pink tag item. Pink tag items were half off today! So I picked up a hard back book for 50 cents. However, as I began to flip through the book, I decided I would rather read it before I turned it into an art journal. Yes, this is problem you may have when selecting books that you don’t own.  You may decide you want to read it first, and then you have to select something else.  I found another one that was a similar size and that I could live with taking it home to turn into a journal today! Actually, I think I read that book before! No wonder I didn’t mind turning it into a journal!

After you select your book, you need gesso.  That’s it!  If you want to use a brush or a sponge applicator, you may. However, I will warn you now, you will have to clean them!  So, I just prefer to use my hands to spread the gesso.  I use a liquid gesso, and it makes it so easy to smooth onto the pages.

Before you start applying gesso, you’ll want to thin your book down.  As you work through your art journal, you’ll be adding layers of paint, paper, and who knows what else!  So you’ll want to thin out some pages so there is actually room for your art journal pages to live within the covers, and still have a chance of closing it.

As you look through your book, there may be pages you want to keep free of gesso, and leave in the book.  That way, you can have some text backgrounds, or some titles or phrases peeking through that really “speak” to you.  You don’t have to, it’s just an idea. Again, I remind you, there is not a right or wrong way to art journal!

Now, you are ready to start weeding out pages and thinning down your book.Leave a few pages, and then take out 3 or 4. You can carefully tear them out, or use an craft knife to cut close to inside edge of the page.  Keep the ones you remove to use for text pages in your journal or for other projects.  Just repeat the process until you have made your way through the book.

Next, pour a little gesso on an open spread of 2 pages, and just smooth it out with your hand, brush, or applicator. Leave it open until it is dry. You may need to hold it open by clipping a bit of the edge with a clothes pin, tiny clamp, or binder clip. If you are in a hurry, you may like to use a heat tool to dry it.

You can take the bit that is left on your hand and smear it onto the next page, and it will act as adhesive and you can adhere two or three pages together to give more strength to the page.

That’s it! Acrylic gesso cleans up with water, so just clean up your hands or brushes with water!

The next stop on this art journaling journey will cover different adhesives we can use in our art journal for decoupage, collage techniques, or just sealing things down.  So stay on board, I’m sure you’ll want to know about them!

Oh, we’d love to have you show or tell us about your journal you create with this method! Feel free to connect in the comments, or over at the Artful Adventures Facebook group!

Until our next stop,

KS