All posts filed under: Creativity

What am I going to use for a tiny art journal?

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We are in a new season over at the Get Messy Art Journal community and the journal is to be small, nay, tiny.   Always up for a arty challenge I am going to try and do the tiny and see where it takes me (new glasses most likely!). I am not sure I am going to like working small, but I will do my best and I always have options to use a larger journal if I feel the need!  In fact I am not planning to use a journal in book form at all, I am very drawn to using all kinds of papers, cards and ephemera of a small size for my tiny journaling. So what are my options? I could use a small journal, lots of brands make perfectly good little journals full of lovely paper.  Or I could branch out and see what I can find and use. The more I looked the more things I saw that I could use, vintage photos are usually small, paint chip colour samples, …

Get Messy Season of Seasons week 7

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This week I have embraced more collage in my Get Messy Season of Seasons journal and I have been messing about with spray paint, lace and doilies as I have been creating along with Caylee and Lauren in the Creative Bug daily practice classroom. I bought a pile of lacy doilies and vintage trimmings at an estate sale this weekend so I could wait to get printing and stenciling with them. Happy Thursday x  

Get Messy Collage time!

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This month I have been playing along with Get Messy Art Journal’s Caylee and Lauren over at Creative Bug where they are hosting a fabulous daily class through September.  Each day a video is released with an idea and direction to take inspiration from and make it your own. This week Lauren used some collage materials on her page in unusual ways so I thought I would have a look through my mountain of vintage National Geographic magazines and see what I could put together! I started by selecting a pile of ‘background’ images and a pile of ‘character’ or ‘foreground’ images.  I cut out the characters and started to pair them with the backgrounds until I started to find some good matches.  Of course they are far from matching but I like them together, so I call that a match! I like to use original images so I don’t copy them, I just get right in there, cutting,  ripping and arranging. To add a little more ‘me’ I did some extra sketching on some …

Daily Moleskine 2018. August pages

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Into August in my daily Moleskine planner where I make some kind of art (sometimes this word is used loosely!). I am still enjoying faces, mainly this month starting with an acrylic base shape and some ink for the features.  I made a couple of new stamps and mess about with them.  Some stuck in pictures and leaves along with some paint smooshes! I hope your month has been creative and your year continues in it’s creativity. Happy Wednesday x

Get Messy Season of Seasons week 2

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A few pages and cards from week 2 of the Season of Seasons over at Get Messy Art Journal.  In this found book as journal, I am covering some pages completely and some I am embracing the original page.  Thankfully the paper is not too thin so it is pretty nice to work in and the spiral binding is not getting on my nerves like I thought it would. So hurrah! I have been making marks and using these pages as collage as well as using some flowers I have been playing with as a pattern on top of collage, paint and gesso (the page with the flowers was a hot mess and needed a layer of gesso very badly!). As well as the book I am working in, I have a pile of old library catalogue cards which I am painting and doodling on.  I got hold of some glassine bags which fit the cards in perfectly so I am pleased with that. The season of seasons is rolling on and I am enjoying …

Daily Moleskine 2018 July pages

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Seven months into my daily Moleskine practice and I love how my little planner is getting fat and full! In July’s pages I have been continuing my stamp making and playing, practiced some faces (not sure what everyone is looking at on the last pages!), adding some simple collage elements and messing about generally. This is one of my favourite things about this practice, I get to just play, the paper in this book is thin and the pages end up crinkly and with the image before or after showing through, and because of this there is no pressure.  If I want to paint  face with strange hair and wild eyebrows, I will and I will pretend that is the image I was going for. Ha!  This is where I will try new supplies and ideas, I will test a new stamp or stick in a fresh gelli print or print right onto the page.  It is a wonderful and precious record of where I am at and what I am doing with my art. …

Get Messy Season of Seasons week 1.

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The season of seasons is upon us over at the Get Messy Art Journaling community. I have to admit that it took me far too long to decide on a journal to use for this season!  Eventually I decided on the Airfoil instruction book and a pile of vintage library catalogue cards. I thought that this way I can work in the book and on individual cards which I have recently been enjoying.  I have some glassine envelopes on the way so that I can include the cards in the book and ensure a cohesive journal. Well, I can’t promise cohesive but at least it will be all in one place. Once I had decided on the journal (s), I wanted to make a little ‘kit’ to see me through the season without having to decide which supplies to use for each page, of course my little kit got bigger and bigger and I am pretty certain that my vintage typewriter will have a major part to play too. I am still sure that this …

Using a ‘found’ book as an art journal.

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Firstly I ask myself is a ‘found’ book the same as an altered book?  An altered book is one which you transform with your art into a new experience which could start with an old book from the antique mall, a kids board book from the thrift shop or a clothing catalogue which you use as a base to sketch and paint in. A book is a book is a book and all are ‘found’ by whoever owns them.  So for the new season of Get Messy Art Journaling which is the ‘season of seasons’ we are going to use a found book, which sends my head spinning (in a very good way). Why? Because I just can’t decide! Then, someone mentioned cards to use for the season and my head went off on it’s axis again, what a good idea, old playing cards, vintage flash cards, postcards, postcard books. Oh boy this could take a while! So far I have narrowed my search (and pile) down to the following -a 1976 diary from “St Louis Photo” …

Get Messy season of story week 8

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I can’t believe another season at Get Messy Art Journal is almost over!  Almost two months of the season of story and it has flown by.  I took a while to get going on this one but I have really settled on a coherent ‘theme’ in my journal and I love to include the vintage photos and clipping out random words and arranging them into poems of a sort is sheer joy!  I am really loving it! Making art in my handmade books is so exhilarating, I like to work through and fill them up with art journal spreads as well as sketches and practice pages like the portrait over a spray painted background.  It is a place to try things and keep them all, good and bad, a place to learn and improve. I have been trying to add more sketches to my pages to make them ‘mine’,  but it all takes practice and that is what I intend to do. Happy Thursday x

Get Messy Art Journal, Season of story week 7.

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I am loving how this handmade sketchbook is filling up during the season of story.  I am no where near full but I am happy to keep going with this one and see it full of journaling goodness. Almost every page so far has begun with or included a vintage photo of someone or something.  The top page here has a 1923 note from a ledger of the time, an antique post-it!  The parrot has no rhyme or reason except that he is so cool he had to be included and he ended up on the first page, which I never start with.  I don’t know why, but I never begin a journal at the first page, I usually dive in wherever I feel like it and work out until it is full! I photocopied the reverse side of the photos of Dorothy Jean, so the writing could be included in the page.  One of the many things I like about old photos is the writing often found on the back of them. If you …