Art Journaling Lately

 

Art Journaling Lately

This morning I received an email from Holly Schrader. Holly teaches middle school art in Stevensville, MD. Holly came across my "I Am" mosaic art journal page while looking for ideas for an art lesson focusing on social emotional issues. 

Holly adapted it to fit her lesson and this was her students first project of the year. Holly also submitted one of her students projects to a virtual student art show that was hosted by the First Lady of Maryland. Each county was allowed 2 entries and out of 24 counties her student's work was selected! You can see the sample Holly made for her students below along with the artwork her student, Chloe, won the award for. I love it when something I make can spark creativity in others. And I REALLY love it when they share their stories and art with me! Thank you Holly! And congratulations to Chloe!!!

Chloe's project

Mrs. Schrader's example

I am slowly trying to finish my 100 Day Project. When I took a break from it to do the Thessalonians Words Challenge I had 19 days left. I am now down to 9. I have not been working on it steadily, but I intend to finish it! My project this year has been #100daysoffoundwordscollage. Here are a few of my favorites from days 1-50. All of my pages from the 100 Day Project can be found on my Instagram feed (@foundonbrighton).

Day 38

Day 33

Day 39

Day 41

Day 43

Day 4

Day 10

Day 12

Day17

Day 21

Day 23

Day 90

I had a few projects in mind for September, but honestly there hasn't been a lot of art time this month. I've taken on a new project at work helping with resources for families in our school district while we are doing remote learning and the development phase of that has taken a lot of time. I have also been getting out of the house more and going to estate sales. I ran into some great ones so make sure you check out my Etsy shop. I'm always adding more items. Especially vintage books, papers and office supplies to use in collage and art journaling. 

I hope you are enjoying the start of fall - my favorite season! And I hop everyone of you is healthy and safe. Thanks for following my creative journey!

It's ICAD Time Again!

ICAD 2018 began on June 1. This is my second year participating in this art challenge done on index cards. It fits right in with my love of using office supplies for art, especially vintage ones! 

Last year I did my ICAD challenge on 3x5" Rolodex cards and displayed them in a vintage metal Rolodex card holder.

This year I'm using a vintage wooden card box that I received for Christmas from my friend Jean. 

I'm not going to do the daily prompts that are provided, but rather make art based on the weekly theme. I'm using these vintage index card dividers, with their lovely yellow tabs, as my weekly dividers. They are alphabet dividers, but I'm using the reverse side. The challenge can be done on 3x5 or 4x6 cards. I chose to use 3x5 again this year as that is the size that fits in my box.

Here are my cards for days 1-4. This week's theme is to use typography or words or found text.

A little typography geometric collage using vintage magazines.

Made my own painted typography paper for the background.

Found text...with a bird, of course!

Because I love vintage office supplies and using them in art, I buy them whenever I see them at estate sales and flea markets. I made a section of my shop specifically for this years ICAD challenge. It's full of vintage items  that can be used to display your index card art or other supplies, such as dividers.

I also carry themed paper packs and other ephemera that can be used in collage and art journaling. Check out my Etsy shop here: www.etsy.com/shop/foundonbrighton.

Circles and Walls

In my last post I mentioned that I was taking a class by Tammy Garcia at Daisy Yellow Art that was introducing me to new products and techniques. I have loved painting with my fingers ever since I started painting circles (see post here and tutorial here). So when Tammy introduced her technique called The Wall, and she did it with her fingers, I was hooked! I thought I would share a few insights and tips on the pages I made from this technique. I didn't plan on doing this post so I didn't take pictures along the way. I also will not share many details of the actual Wall technique in order to not infringe on Tammy's class material.

This was my first attempt at The Wall technique:

I loved the grungy look that resulted from the technique, but I don't think I used enough paint on this one. In figuring out the differences between the heavy body acrylic paint I was introduced to in this class, and the craft acrylic paints I usually use, the opacity of the heavy body acrylic requires using it a bit more and in layers to achieve the look I want. I tend to like the text of my background paper to peak through the paint. I usually get this effect by painting the paper with gesso before I paint it with color. However, it was recommended in the class that for these techniques that we NOT use gesso. At some point, though, I will experiment with gesso and the heavy body acrylic paints.

The next session added circles on top of The Wall technique. Now, if you have followed me for a while then you know how much I like circles. They pop up often on  my art journal pages, often without any forethought or planning. So, I was all about this project!

As I played I decided to put my own twist on the project - also no big surprise for me! But I think that is the beauty of taking classes or using tutorials - we learn new techniques and then add our own unique styles to them, rather then making cookie cutter copies of the artist's original. In the class we are using an altered book art journal for our class projects. I decided to do this piece on a loose piece of paper. One of my favorite types of paper to use to make background pages for my art journals is index pages from older atlases.

There a few reasons why I like this particular paper:

• It's large - anywhere from 9x12" up to 12x16".
• It's heavyweight, especially those from the older books. The weight of the paper holds multiple layers of paint well. And I enjoy building on layers of paint to achieve the types of backgrounds I enjoy.
• The text is tiny, like in a dictionary, but dictionary paper is usually fairly thin. Tiny text makes for a wonderful subtle background. 
• The older books generally used a cream paper, which ages to a nice tan-ish patina, while newer atlases use a brighter white paper. I'm sure it doesn't really matter too much what color the background paper is since I cover most of it with paint, but in my mind I think that the whiter paper affects the paint color. I'll have to test that theory at some point. Besides, I just like the patina of aged things!

I played for a long time, layering the paint, until I achieved the look I wanted. Then I tore the finished Wall page into strips and glued them slightly out-of-line onto a page in my class art journal. Although it's subtle, I like the effect of the torn, out-of-line strips on the background. I then added my circles using my favorite types of vintage ephemera, and used both a black Stabilo-All pencil and a black Neo-Colors II watercolor crayon to get the shading around the circles. The finishing touch was spattering paint in black and white.

I was quite happy with the results, and for a change, I didn't add any words to this page. I think words would actually take away from it rather than enhance it.

I had enough of the Wall paper leftover to make a background page in my Traveler's Notebook.

As always, you can find packs of ephemera papers in my Etsy shop. I may even create packs of vintage index pages since I have SO many atlases! Give me your thoughts on that in the comments below.

Thank you to my friend, Diane Kundrat, for encouraging me to write about some of my techniques and tips on my blog. Diane lives in Arizona and we have been online friends for 5-6 years as a result of my blog. A few weeks ago we finally got to meet in person in Cleveland where we spent an afternoon art supply shopping together!

Advent Art Journal Tutorial

I have a "thing" for office supplies. Walking into an office supply store or a paper store is a little slice of heaven! So over the years I have combined that "thing" with my other "thing" ... art journaling. That combination of "things" appears in my Advent art journal this year. This summer while hunting vintage items with my sister, I came across some wonderful old pressboard report covers. I purchased them and stuck them away for a future project. Amazingly while in the midst of a creative slump, I got the inspiration to make a journal out of them and use it for my Advent project this year.

I began Advent rather early this year as I had the opportunity in August to join Kris Camealy's pre-launch group for her newest book, Come, Lord Jesus, which is a daily Advent devotion. Using Kris' book, which has 25 devotions, I will make an art journal page each day through the Advent season. My journal has pages set-up that open like a Dutch door.

There are 12 pages that are decorated on each side which will give me 24 pages to use for daily art. I intend to use the inside of the back cover for my entry on Christmas day. As I said a few weeks ago (in this post), I had some report covers left and decided to make a tutorial of my art journal and offer a few limited edition kits for sale. The tutorial is now available on this site. Click on the tutorials link in the menu above. I have a few of the kits left after initially offering them on my previous blog post. They come with a choice of cover paper: A (Christmas pinwheels) or B (winterberries).

Each kit contains a pressboard report cover, the papers to cover the covers, the mini prongs which make the dutch doors, 14 pieces of vintage book pages for the background papers, and a print-out of the tutorial. You can purchase a kit in my Etsy shop. Journey with me through the Advent season beginning November 27 as I make art based on quotes and Scripture from Kris' book.

In the Waiting - Guest Post for Kris Camealy

Yesterday I had the privilege to write a guest post on Kris Camealy's blog for her new book, Come, Lord Jesus. I have been a member of her pre-launch team for the past few months, reading the book in advance, and now promoting it here on my blog. Pop over to Kris' blog to read my post. But don't forget to come back here to read about my Advent plans!

For a number of years I have used art journaling to help me slow down the Christmas season and really immerse myself in the Advent experience. I will generally use an online devotion or book as my prompts and then make art in my Advent journal as a response. This year I intend to use Kris' book of daily devotions. 

I have made an art journal for Advent in one of my favorite manners: I altered an office supply item. I took a pressboard report cover and altered it's layout to make pages that open like a dutch door does.

I have had a blast making this journal and using Kris' book for my art prompts. You can follow along on my blog. I'll post daily beginning on the first day of Advent, November 27. I am also going to offer a free tutorial on how to make this type of journal. It will be available here on my blog a week or so before Advent begins. PLUS, I have enough materials left to offer a few limited edition kits for this journal. The kits will  include a pressboard report cover, the paper to cover the covers (in a choice of two patterns), the mini prongs which make the dutch doors, 14 pieces of vintage book pages for the background papers, and the instructions on how to make the book.

All of this for $12.00! As I said, the kits will be available in my Etsy shop probably in the next week or so. I currently have 9 available and may have 5 more in addition to those. The number I have available is based on the cover paper I have on hand. If you are interested in claiming a kit in advance of the release of them in my shop then send me an email at marybrack@gmail.com.

If you are interested in reading Come, Lord Jesus through Advent there is also a four-week Advent book club taking place on Christina Hubbard's website, Creative and Free, beginning November 27.  I plan to participate in the book club as well as my art journal.

So, those are my plans for Advent this year! Check out Kris Cameally's blog. If you go back over the past few weeks you can read what other guest writers have to say about the book and about waiting on God in general. Watch here for the release of both the Advent journal tutorial and the journal kits in my Etsy shop. Plus, why not take a minute and share with me in the comment section below how you slow down and experience the Advent season. What are your Advent traditions?

Art Journaling Lists

I am a list maker. I make daily to-do lists. I make lists of things I'd like to do. I make lists of observations I see when studying the Bible or reading a book. And from time-to-time I will participate in making art journal lists. In April and May the "Get Messy" art journaling community is doing a season of list making. I'm not doing all of the lists, but am selecting one or two each week. I'm making my art journal lists on large shipping tags and inserting them in my DLP journal. Here are a few of my lists from the "Get Messy" art journal prompts.

In April I changed the format for my weekly Documented Life Project (DLP) pages as I wanted wider spaces to write in. I'm working on getting caught up with April and May.

Pop over to my Etsy shop and check out the new altered book art journals I listed this week.

I'm off to make a few more lists! How about you?