Friday, August 20, 2010

Handmade Art Journal and a Layout

Happy Friday Everyone! So glad to have made it through the week. Did this one seen longer than usual?

(Click any of my photos to see the details)

As I've mentioned before, I've been taking two classes from the always inspiring Alisa Burke and I finally put some of the lessons to practice. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has been doing an awesome series on art journalling and I decided to make my own journal applying the techniques I learned in class.


Yesterday I sat down with the pages from a homeschool catalog and some Kmart flyers and got painting. It took a chunk of time to paint both sides but by doing more than 20 at once (I know, crazy!) I could start painting the backs of the first ones right after completing the last.



The paper has a glorious not-paper but not-plastic tooth to it. It's really strong too, which is a good thing as I'm going to beat it up :-)



Once dry, I bound it all into a book. I used page protectors to make the cover waterproof, duct tape to join them and sewed through the spine several times to hold it all together:


Here's the binding:


And a few more pages, the first two show the insides of the front and back covers:



The great thing about this is it's all the fun of a journal without the "scary" blank pages. 



I really can't wait to start filling it up with photos, fabric, ephemera and the bits and pieces of our life.


Not into Art Journalling? I couldn't resist making a scrapbook page with one of the sheets. This page was created with one sheet of card stock, a K Mart flyer and cardboard from a box of pasta. Pretty cool to keep it out of the landfill.


Wow, if you made it to here you are very sweet. 

Thank you. Have a great weekend.

10 comments:

All of my Todays said...

What a cool idea. x

Claudette said...

awesome work....great finished layout page of son.

Nina said...

Seriously, girl, you are the coolest of the cool. That is just one yummylicious journal. Can't wait to see what you fill it with. =)

And cool bonus layout too! =)

Danielle Leal said...

I love it! you are so talented! It looks so wonderful!

Lisa said...

awesome!!!!

Eileen The Artful Crafter said...

I'm impressed that you did all 20 pages in one sitting! The inspiration just gushes out of you!!

Wish I could do that. For me, it's one page at a time. Stop. Think. Rethink and procrastinate. I'm real good at procrastinating . lol.

Carmen said...

This is just amazing. I bet it has a real touchy feely quality to it. The scrapbook page is amazing too. Going to stop recycling my junk mail now. *g*

CuddlyBunny said...

Excellent! Beautiful AND Earth friendly! Yay!

joyce rodli said...

YumMO on the AJ, have wondered from time to time how you would do an AJ, can't wait to see how you go on. great idea on the page protectors as covers. LO's are always good toooo. Happy happies.

Anonymous said...

For sure guys!! This really is probably the most intriguing piece of writing My spouse and i ever previously read! Very beneficial. Keep it up.