I have now filled a mini sketchbook and we are only at week 5 of the Season of Ubuntu over at Get Messy Art Journal. Not too difficult really as my little book is only four and a half inches by three and a half! These last pages incorporate prompts and tutorials from the current season and I really enjoyed making them. I will be making another mini journal to carry on this season of art journaling! Happy creating and happy Thursday x
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” …
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 …
I have been wanting to make stamps for ages now and I have had a couple of goes with some success but nothing amazing. Boosted by the fact that I said that one of my goals for May was to make a stamp set, yes, not just one lonesome stamp, a lovely friendly set of them, I got to work. I am not a get the equipment and dive in kinda girl, I have to look at at least one book on the subject if possible. I checked out ‘Carve, Stamp, Play‘ by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and ‘Making an Impression‘ by Geninne Zlatkis from the library and got studying stamp making. Of course I don’t get far into any books about making stuff without wanting to jump in and have a go. I grabbed my carving equipment and some stamp blocks and decided what I wanted to make a stamp of. I love to use sumi ink with a sumi brush so I wondered if I painted a basic design on each of my three …
This week has been full of flowers in my sketchbooks and art journals! I am so happy to be a student in the Botanicals in Art Journaling class hosted by Get Messy Art Journal and taught by the wonderful and talented Alicia from Vine and Thistle. I love to draw and sketch flowers and botanical everything anyway so this was obviously the class for me. So far I have been making botanical bits and bobs in my art journal, my new sketchbook and some vintage ledger paper. My favourite technique is from the free class and involves replacing heads with flowers and I can assure you it is super fun and you may not be able to stop once you have started! I am looking forward to completing the class and filling my sketchbooks with all of the botanicals. What classes are you taking at the minute? Any recommendations? Happy Thursday x
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
Clare Davis Etheridge 