Lately, I have been slightly obsessed with making small “art pieces” for my journals. It started with tags of course, but I thought it would be fun to make small pieces on background paper too.
…and use up some of the small bits I have been storing over the years. I could say hoarding, but it really is more of a case of collecting too much stuff and not enough time to work with them.
Believe me, I definitely have a little stash of hoarded goodness I will get out and play with someday soon, but need to get through some of these bits first.
Here are some tags I decorated while watching my favorite artists on YouTube. I thought it would be fun to make some of these for my shoppe, but I keep using them up…better get to work!
An example of an “instant page” so to speak.
As you can see I prepped the page with gesso, tinted matte medium, and stenciling. I like to prep my backgrounds to get the wet media out of the way to be able to work on my collage…but if the background is done ahead of time, and the collage is done ahead of time…I could very well be creating some kind of art journaling time warp!
The future is bright!
For your entertainment.
I’m loving these florals created by Kathryn at “Art Paper Joy” on YouTube. I printed them out on clear table paper and cut them out, Lovely!
My last post for Junk Journal January and I have mixed feelings. I miss participating with so many people from so many places around the world, it was fun being a part of such a large project.
Day 25: “One Colour”
These birds inspired my color choice, I absolutely love that parakeet! I prepped the page with gesso then stenciled the geometric dots in gradations of blue paint across the page. I used the neutral moths? butterflies? to fill in space… and annoy the birds.
Day 26: “Wordy”
I had so much fun with the paint gradations on the “One Colour” page, I experimented with rainbow colors across this one, using a stencil of random words, then did a few black paint splatters.
Day 27: Earth Tones”
I really struggled with this one. I googled “Earth Tones” and it looks like it’s anybody’s interpretation…so this is mine. Paint scrapes, fussy cuts and postage stamps, the usual suspects.
Day 28: “Antique”
Thais one was fun! The book I used was from 1927, so not really considered an “antique”, whatever, I’m a rebel. Children’s book images, stenciling, fussy cut florals, and a little ephemera cluster…keeping it simple.
Day 29: “Musical”
I found a page from a music book titled “January” and thought it would be perfect, unfortunately the photo isn’t. I’m going to have to pull out the “artistic license” on this one because I’m too lazy to take a new pic. Truth be told you’re not missing much, but I couldn’t leave a hole in the group, if you know what I mean.
Day 30: “Unexpected”
I had a lot of fun with this one. I started with those images of children singing, I thought they looked as if they were amazed at something “unexpected”. I had a plan with a few things I had gathered, but then looked at my mess of a desk and decided to use what was already spread across the surface. Sometimes those are the best page spreads, making do with what’s at hand. I was amazed at how clean my desk was when I finished.
One of the easiest videos I have ever filmed. Intro – high speed creating – outro… easy peasy!
I hope you enjoyed my Junk Journal January adventure as much as I did! I’m still working away in my art room making fun things to share. Participating in J.J.J. has really jump started my creativity, along with following lots of new creators on YouTube and Instagram. So much inspiration, so little time…and energy!
Hello, I’m back with another installment of Junk Journal January 2023. Although the challenge has finished up, I hope you will find a little inspiration with these pages.
Day 19: “Handlettered”
If you look closely at the first page spread, you can see my handwriting underneath the tissue paper. I’m not a huge fan of my handwriting, so I added scrapbook papers with handwriting along with my writing. Probably not quite what the hosts of this challenge had in mind, but I had fun doing things my way.
Day 20: “Texture”
This was a struggle, mostly because I am determined to use what I have on hand. I have purchased too many supplies only to give them away, so I’m very hesitant to purchase more until I use up more of what I already have.
I looked in my fabric stash remembering this upholstery fabric from years ago, it has a great raised weave. On the first page spread I painted the fabric with gesso and scraped a little paint over the raised bits. On the second page spread, I adhered tissue paper and pressed it into the weave to enhance it. Both of these pages are very experimental for me, I’ve been trying to get back into my more “artistic” roots lately
Day 21: “Experimental”
This was a funny happenstance. A couple of days before creating this page spread I had experimented with rusting up paperclips. I used to just stick them in water for a couple of months, who knew you could do it in a few minutes in a peroxide/salt solution. Ah, the wonders of YouTube!
I dried the paperclips on dictionary pages to see what would happen. It looks a bit of a mess, but I had a lot of fun with it.
Day 22: “Old and New”
After two very messy days, I was ready for some simplicity. Old photos from my garden and a feather I found on our porch that morning.
Day 23: “Stickers”
Okay, now this was FUN! I got out stickers I’ve had for years and took out all the transparent ones. I just layered and layered until I ran out. I’m going to see what else I can come up with this technique. Maybe some tag embellishments instead of an entire page?
Day 24: “Scenery”
Some of the prompts were quite a challenge. For the most part I tried to avoid seeing what other people were doing so I could see what I could come up with. Here I was imagining a little scene from a cruise ship heading to Japan…with a ginormous butterfly.
I have been working pretty hard everyday on my little art journals and I am really looking forward to showing you what I’ve been up to, so one more blog post about Junk Journal January then we move on..Yay!
I have been having a heck of a time keeping up with all the things that I want to do, so sharing here has been a bit of a struggle. I almost blew off posting the rest of this project because it’s already February. But, I’ve decided that this challenge was way too much fun to shelve…
…So let’s press on shall we.
Day 13: “Hobbies”
I have had so many hobbies over the years, I was amazed when I took the time to write most of them down. I ran out of room in that little “Tally” piece. They are as follows: Macramé, Doodle Art posters (the original coloring for “big people”. I hesitate to use the phrase “Adult Coloring”, it makes it sound a bit sordid), Wreaths, Quilting, Crochet, Art Journaling, Gardening, Stitchery, Planner Decorating, Memory Keeping, Vintage Pottery Collecting, Thrifting, and a few things I can’t remember right now.
Day 14: “From the Day”
Since at this time all I was doing was working in this journal, and drinking tea, there wasn’t much to glue to the page. We all had our interpretation of the prompts. With this one I kept thinking “Remains of the Day”, a project I participated in many years ago where you art journal with the paper pieces you accumulate throughout the day, with journaling.
Day 15: “Barcode”
I went into a different direction with this one “Anti-Barcode”. I love finding things in the thrift stores that still have the original price tags on them. I peel them off and use them on my pages, so I had a lot of fun with this one. I was inspired by other participants to use alternative “barcodes” by adding some striped tissue paper.
Day 16: “Folded”
Another page spread inspired by Joie De Fi. It’s awesome how you can create a larger surface to work on in your journals with this technique. This is where I started my second journal for this project, so I decided to change the look little bit (less Kitsch).
Day 17: “Top Five”
Decided to list “Top Five Art Supplies”: Florals, Butterflies, Stenciling, Tissue Paper, and Coffee/Tea Dyed Papers
In this second journal, I included a smaller “half page” between most of the larger pages. This made working in this journal fun, but a little daunting because each page spread had a smaller page to work on. So almost every page spread has two photos to go with. This is part of the reason I almost decided not to share anymore of this project…
These posts are super photo heavy!
Day 18: “Maps”
This page spread was so much fun! I tore/cut the map pieces to fit across the “half page”. Again, I’m using up so many supplies that I have had but really didn’t have the inspiration to use. This particular page got an honorable mention by one of the challenge’s hosts in an Instagram post 🙂
So, that’s six page spreads (and 10 photos) quite enough of one post. It’s funny, I never thought I would complain about having too much content to share!
I have a lot of catching up to do on this here blog! Although I’ve been able to keep up with the J.J.J. challenge and posting to Instagram, my blog has been a quite a bit behind. I just don’t have the “go-get-’em” mentality anymore. If I can fit it into my life, it happens. Every time I watch some of my favorite YouTubers I am amazed they have the time and energy for it all!
That being said, let’s get to it…
Day 10: “Intricate”
I received some lovely Happy Mail last year when I was still a part of “Fussy Cuttin’ Cuties”. I have never worked with these types of beautiful die cuts before, so I was at a loss as to how I would use them. But, because this project has made me really think outside the box I was able to come up with a few ideas for them.
Pretty sure that bear doesn’t appreciate his lunch jumping over him, but that’s life sometimes!
Day 11: “Folded”
This was one of my favorite page spreads! Inspired by Joie De Fi on YouTube. I am officially obsessed with her channel! She does so many wonderful projects with paper. Consider yourself warned about her channel, you will more than likely become obsessed!
I hope you can see all the pockets included on this fold out. I’m actually making some pretty good progress on using up stash.
Day 12: Throwback
All of these prompts are an opportunity to stretch your creativity. It seems like everyone had a different interpretation of “Throwback”. Mine was at first a throwback to my younger self and different things I’ve owned and used in my art journaling almost from the beginning…including that old photo of my Grandmother’s friend “throwing back” a beer. Lol!
I made a process video of this page spread if you would like to see how it came together, just go here or hit the link in my sidebar.
As of this posting, I am up to Day 27, some of my page spreads take a bit of time. This has been like a creative boot camp for me, something I definitely needed though.
Patty Radish 