Art Journaling 101

I belong to an altered art group that meets monthly at a local scrapbook store.  Someone always volunteers to show us a fun technique or project and we have a great time.  This month our “teacher” was Lucy, who is an amazing talent.  She taught us her painted collage background technique, which was super fun – and messy!  Getting creative with paints and inks is, for me, the only time messy = fun, ’cause I hate getting dirty otherwise.  🙂

I was inspired to do Lucy’s background for a spread in a round robin journal. The journal’s owner is a Buddhist who loves Asian art, so I tore up text from an old Chinese book and some of my treasured origami papers and added a bamboo stencil and stamped cherry blossom. A pretty geisha printed on fabric made a nice focal point. (I’ve been wondering what to do with her for the longest time!)

Afterwards I had several torn-up papers left over and didn’t want them to go to waste, so I decided to do a similar page in my own art journal, which I just started a couple of weeks ago.

I made my own journal from a photo album found in the clearance bin at Books a Million.  After ripping out the glued-in photo pages, I punched holes in the spine with a Japanese hole punch and sewed in a dozen sheets of folded watercolor paper with waxed linen thread.  Voila!  A beautiful art journal with a snap-shut cover for under five bucks.  I think if I had paid a fortune for a pre-made journal, I wouldn’t be having nearly as much fun; I’d be too worried about “ruining” it.  And it was really satisfying to make my own; I highly recommend it!  🙂