Soft & Cuddly Fabric Covered Journal!

Hello my friends!  It has been a few days since I’ve posted.  What have I been up to?  Thank you for asking!  I’ve been working on a cloth journal – hand made, from start to finish, with the help of Julie Prichard’s awesome online instruction!  I have to admit – this was not an easy book to make.  I think this technique of book-making probably takes a lot of practice.  BUT, I am pretty happy with my final result.  See what you think:

The back cover and spine:

Some inside details:

That’s it for now!  Thank you so much for stopping by. 

I’m working on my “Fabulous Faces” skills now.  Let’s see if my results are blog worthy.

I took 2 of Julie’s online courses – Layer Love, and Super Nova.  She is currently offering a class along with Chris Cozen – they are calling it “Project Deconstruction”.  I would love to take this course!  Take a peek here.  However, I plan on winning it, but you can try if you want.  🙂

Handmade Art Journals!

Hello my fellow Artists!  I am learning how to make my own journals.  I have always wanted to learn bookbinding, and it was one of my goals for 2010 – to learn some new art-related skills.  So, I found Julie Prichard’s online classes, and I am totally LOVING her teaching methods.  The techniques I am learning are so inspirational!  Right now, I am doing her Art Journaling Super Nova class – Part 1.  Part 1 is teaching me how to make 3 homemade art journals.  I have completed 2 of them.

Book 1:

This is actually the back of the journal.   I covered the mat board with some beautiful handmade paper that my hubby gave me for Christmas.  I didn’t plan to have that circle in the centre of the cover, and I don’t really like it there, but it’s okay for the back.  The inside pages are hand stitched, using waxed cotton string.  The pages are 120 lb watercolor paper.  The outside spine is covered with duct tape, which is all I had on hand.

Here’s book 2, which I LOVE!  It is 6″ wide by 11″ tall.  I covered the mat board covers with handmade paper.  The spine is vinyl woven gaffer tape, which I like much more than the duct tape.  The inside pages are made with white cover stock, and every page is collaged.

I have almost completed Julie’s Layer Love.  There are nine lessons within this program.  I am still adding some finishing touches to the 9th lesson, and I will share it once it is complete.

Here are a few of my completed projects.  Keep in mind – the idea of this course (Layer Love) was to learn how to layer Golden Acrylic Fluid paint, and how to use the various Golden mediums with the paints to create a grungy, distressed kind of background.  I plan to use them in my art journal.  The photos do not really show the depth and texture of these pieces.  I absolutely LOVE this look!

This one is actually gray and blue – it looks almost brown/bronze in the photo.  We layered in Ranger Distress Crackle with the various acrylic mediums paint to get this effect.

That’s all for today.  I have lots more to share, so check back tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that 😉

More Art Journal Love!

Hello my fellow artists!  It’s been a while since I blogged…because I’ve been taking an online mixed media painting course with the Uber Talented Julie Prichard!  I’ve seen her name mentioned on various blogs and art journaling networks, and have tried to find her blog, but I had been spelling her name wrong!  So, I finally found her, and I’m so glad I did!  I have been taking her Layer Love course, and absolutely LOVING it!  She is such a fabulous teacher, and her work is so very inspiring!  She is being featured in the current issue of Art Journaling, too!  I just picked up my copy today, and can’t wait to devour it!  I have purchased the last 2 issues, and have read each one at least a dozen times!  What a fantastic magazine!  Actually, picking up my first issue of the mag is what got me started art journaling!  I highly recommend it – not only for art journalers, but for anyone who wants some inspiration.

So, I’ve completed the first 5 lessons of Layer Love, and here are my results of Lesson 5.  Keep in mind, I have very little experience working with acrylic paint and mediums, so I have a long way to go!  I do think I’m getting a little better at Julie’s techniques with each lesson.  Her style is grungy and aged, which is quite different from my usual style.  That’s the reason I took the course.  I have tried to get the look of grungy, and just haven’t been successful with it, despite reading several books on the subject.  I guess I’m more of a “show and tell” kind of learner.  I need to SEE the process.  Still life photos just don’t do it for me.  So, the idea behind this lesson was to use the techniques learned in the first 4 lessons and interpret an inspiration piece in the layered and grungy style that is so Julie Pirchard.  We had to choose something to inspire us – anything at all that had a pleasing colour combination.  That was the easy part for me.  I found this photo online (a photo by Gail Crosman Moore).  Aren’t the colours absolutely YUMMY?

Okay, so I proceeded to put paint on my paper, and it didn’t start out so well.  It just looked a bunch of blobs of colour on a piece of paper!  lol  This is when I got stuck, and sought advice from Julie.  I was about ready to start over, but with her encouragement and advice, I kept painting.

Here is Day 2.  A little better, but I still didn’t really like it.  I added some collage elements, and more layers of paint, and acrylic mediums, but it just wasn’t doing it for me.  Again, Julie gave me some very helpful tips. 

Here is my final version.  The photo isn’t great.  The colours are a bit more vibrant than they look here, and the texture just cannot be captured in a photograph.  I’m surprised that it turned out “pretty good” – Julie gave me a gold star!  🙂  I tried a bunch of different techniques, and mediums, including Neocolor II watercolor crayons…*YUMMMMMMMMMMMY*. 

On to lesson 6!  Thank you so much for stopping by!  Please let me know what you think!  It’s definitely grungy, right?  🙂