All posts filed under: Art Journaling

I made a giant book!

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I had a case of FOMO this week or keeping up with the Joneses or whatever you want to call it. I saw two different Instagram friends post two books they had made, one was super chunky and amazing, the other was a small pamphlet stitched book made with kraft paper and what looked like old book pages. Well, you know me, old books and bookbinding, I loved them both and wanted to make something similar to combine the chunky and the vintage paper. As this is the beginning of the season of play in the Get Messy art journaling community, I decided to go for it and make a basic structure so I didn’t loose my mind but make it nice and full so I didn’t run out of pages (ha! no shortage of pages here). I used a fancy paper bag as the cover which I reinforced with a cereal box and I cut and folded 17 signatures each with five sheets. The pages are from an old cookbook, an encyclopedia, an old …

Get Messy Season of Kindness Week 7.

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I have been practicing my faces this week guided and encouraged by the talented Katie Smith from Studio Katie and Get Messy Art Journal in the run up to the new class called ‘Sketching Faces’ and hosted by Get Messy. The top ladies are painted in black ink using a sumi brush and using a template provided by Katie which I put under my paper as a guide.  I like to put my own style on my faces and I am learning so much from this class and getting more confident at faces which are not straight on, like profiles and turned to one side slightly. I used my new favorite paper for these sketches which is ‘Tomoe River’ paper, it is lightweight but still stands up to ink without warping too much. The middle faces are painted onto vintage ledger paper which has a nice rough texture and absorbs the ink giving an interesting look. The last girl has painted botanicals in her hair and I used a stencil with ink in a mister to get …

Get Messy Season of Kindness Week 4.

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This season of Get Messy Art Journaling I seem to have hit on a winner as far as my most enjoyable page goes – simple, simple, simple with an extra shake of simple. I like a white background and I like colour but I am not good at layers or explosions of colour. Some people are amazing at both of these things, but through my journals and over time, I have come to realize that I am a simple art journaling soul! This two pages were made using collage components cut from gelli prints of vintage doilies along with some humans from old National Geographic magazines. I don’t often use red but I like it with the black here. If you are interested in learning more about Get Messy, click here. This post contains affiliate links which are at no cost to you my lovely reader. Happy Thursday x

Get Messy Season of Kindness Week 3

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I noticed these strands of seeds on the ground when I was walking home from my pilates class this week and picked a few up thinking hey, they would be good to draw.  Yes, this is how my mind works! I carried them carefully home in my gloved hand in the rain and it turns out that they were a lovely addition to my season of kindness journals. This season I am making a concerted effort to let myself experiment and do whatever comes to mind in my journals.  If I want to make another journal, I shall, if I want to use the same quote on two pages, no problem. I don’t often use quotes or words in my journal, but I have had this one from JM Barrie written down ever since I read ‘Wonder‘  to my boys a few years ago and I made a note of it in the diary for future use. I am very guilty of doing ‘what I think is the correct thing’ sometimes instead of what I …

Get Messy Season of Kindness Week 2.

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  I am enjoying this Get Messy season so far, and working in my little hand made journal is a good place to be. However, I seem to have started a trend last season when I made a small journal and then I made a big one to give myself more options and ended up filling them both (bear in mind that I don’t put hundreds of pages in my books!). Following this apparent new tradition, I made another journal this season too!  I really do like to work in different sizes and on different paper when the mood/idea strikes.  For my new book I removed the text block from a children’s cook book and replaced it with hot press watercolour paper and a couple of pages of brown paper from a grocery bag. The new sketchbook (on the right) is a book I found in a thrift shop and it is the American version of my first cook book when I was a kid in England. I remember making food from it and I …

Get Messy Season of Kindness Week 1.

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A new year and a new season for Get Messy!  The kick off season for 2018 is the Season of Kindness which is an ideal start to the year in my opinion. I made my journal using a vintage book cover and half ‘warm white’ paper and half ‘cream’ paper.  It has six signatures each with four pages and the book is pretty small at 4 inches x 8 inches. I decided to make the whole season about being kind to myself and my art journaling as I sometimes put pressure on myself to try all the techniques and then I wander off from what I actually want to do.  This journal is going to be full of stuff I want to do and I think it is going to be pretty simple.  I am not an ‘add all the things’ person, so I will be embracing the keep it simple method I like best! The first page has literally three components, a cut out window, a gelli print on vintage ledger paper and words …

My year of art journaling

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All of the journals I filled in 2017 including my daily Moleskine planner. Books I used solely for art journaling. Books I filled as daily challenges, travel journal (Cape Cod Folks), general Moleskine sketchbooks and my daily Moleskine.   I was looking back at my art journals from last year and I was surprised at what I found.  Even though the years seem to fly by, a year ago can seem so much in the past and some of the pages and even the sketchbooks seemed so distant to me. When I was pulling out journals, I concentrated on the handmade ones because that is what I thought I had used all year.  I didn’t realize that I had spent the first three or four months using random sketchbooks including a Moleskine and a  Dylusions book.  I like these sketchbooks a lot and what I made in them, but I really enjoy the handmade books I made for each Get Messy season and for some of the monthly challenges I played along with via Instagram …

Get Messy Season of Nature Week 2.

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  It is the second week of the Season of Nature in the Get Messy community and I have got started in my hand made sketchbook.  I have been gelli plate printing seed pods and leaves and dipping pages in hand made ink from black walnuts and red cabbage. The page I enjoyed making the most is the sketches of the dried seed pods and I like it next to the printed same seed pods. So far, a lot of the pages are just started, a print or a colour added.  I like to do this just to be rid of the dreaded blank page, then I can come back and add to the page or spread later. If you want to see more Season of Nature art, go to #getmessyartjournal on Instagram and if you want to see what I have been making I use #catseatdogsgetmessy. Happy creating and happy Thursday x

My Daily Moleskine 2017. November Pages.

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Giant bubble wrap is a brilliant tool to use with the Gelli plate! I am putting far too many leaves into the planner!  The opposite page is a ‘ghost’ signature which is a word or name which is treated like an ink blot to make a shape or creature. I went on a creative field trip and used the train and museum tickets for this page with a gingko leaf added. Cut out from the newspaper and some colour added! Face painting with sumi brush and ink. Blind contour drawing and some brush script. Some birthday wrap and labels along with a rose petal. Gelli plate print of a fern leaf and gingko leaves. My colleagues at the library bought me a birthday treat! A ‘mini masterpiece’ inspired by the Fluid Art class along with some doodles. Can you believe we are almost at the end of the year?  I have loved filling up this planner and it is so satisfying to see it nearly full. Happy Thursday x

Handmade sketchbook for the Season of Nature

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I am beginning to get a bit obsessed with making books!  I love to make all the sketchbooks with different papers in different sizes with fold outs and accordions.  The more I make the more ideas I get for another one or two or three. We are about to start the new season over in the Get Messy Art Journal community and it is going to be The Season of Nature.  I found a book called ‘A Field Guide to Animal Tracks’ not long ago and thought it would be perfect to make into a sketchbook for The Season of Nature. Once the pages were out I was ready to go! I made two signatures and stitched one to each inside cover of the book so they open away fro each other.  I used pamphlet stitch to fasten them onto the edge of the cover. I have made a pretty backwards book which started by stitching the papers onto the opposite side than expected, but I like the way the two books are working together …