Journal cover

I've been adding to my junk journal for a while.  I made an introductory page early on (see this post  ) but have been too scared to work on the actual cover.  But the other day I plucked up the courage to change this plain (but pretty) pink cover into something more interesting 

 

So I gathered together some items I thought would work together and arranged them on the cover ...

Like this, they looked interesting but too varied in colour, so I covered everything with gesso then two layers of paint (first pyrrole red, then a wash of dioxazine purple.  I followed this with a liberal spray of distress mica spray in antique bronze.  When dry, I glued on a bookplate holder and added a tassel and a hanging key.  I'm really pleased with how this one turned out.

 I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but holidays and other real life activities have kept me busy.  But I'm busily creating again now so will be blogging again soon ...

Playing with paint

I don't often use paint on my scrapbook pages, and when I do it's normally quite restrained, but this time I tried something a little different.  Inspired by some recent challenges to use paints and inks on layouts, and needing a little something to go behind the photos on this patterned paper, I got out my paints and just started mixing (a cream/buff colour and a green) and simply splodged it on to the paper.  I added a few stamps and simple embellishments, and it was done ...

    

Junk journalling again

I'm loving the concept of a junk journal and I've made it my own, an excuse to try out new ideas, revisit old ideas, use new products and rediscover old products.  This page I made the other day is a mixture of all of these things ...

I bought some new goodies on a recent trip to Art From The Heart (some new (to me - they are second-hand but only lightly used) stamps and some cute little self-adhesive washi-tape shapes and strips) and I wanted to try them all out.  I also had some rice paper that I'd used as a mop-up sheet from a previous crafting session; it was covered in such beautiful colours that it was just crying out to be used.  So, I had a rummage through my stash and found some old rub-ons I forgot I had, an ephemera pack that hadn't been opened since I bought it, plus some lovely bits of text paper.  I added a bit of coloured texture paste (texture paste is one of my new obsessions!), and voila - an eclectic mix of old and new.

Plain and simple

Although I'm enjoying my journey into mixed media and new techniques, sometimes I return to my plain and simple roots.

I'm busy compiling scrapbooks of my favourite family photos from each year - one book per year, 20 pages per book - so I'm limited as to how many photos I can fit in each.  I could fill a whole scrapbook with the photos from our amazing trip to New York, and I probably will sometime soon, but for the purposes of my summary-of-the-year book, I needed to limit it to one page.  I chose three of my favourite photos and eventually found an arrangement for them that seemed to work.

As the photos are very different styles and colours, and I wanted to include some other memorabilia from the trip, I decided that a fairly plain and simple layout would suit them best.  So this time there are no paints, inks, stencils or stamps; I've stuck to papers and simple embellishments.  But in this case, it works for me. I'm sure the messy stuff will reappear next time ...    

Junk journal - collage

I saw a video on YouTube the other day of a collaged junk journal page being created, so I thought I'd try it out too.

My youngest son bought me a lovely new charm for my Pandora bracelet, and it came with some really pretty packaging - being a crafter, I couldn't throw it away ... so this page contains some of the outside of the bag, some of the pink ribbon  that tied the top of the bag together, plus some of the black cord which formed the handles.  I rooted through my stash and found a paper pad that I bought several years ago but haven't used for ages, and it had exactly the right colour palette that I needed for this project, so I cut and tore some pieces out of that ...

... add in a couple of charms from my stash and a little distress ink (used to stamp the sentiment and to add some texture to the edges), and you have a page created mostly from junk and leftovers.  It was great fun to create and I'll definitely use this style again.

Junk journal - continued

So, having started my junk journal (see previous entry), I've been working on some pages for it.  For this page I decided on something in the style of an art journal, reminding me of my increased interest in experimentation in previous months.

I started by using gesso on the page to hide some paint that had been accidentally transferred when working on the previous page (any tips on how to prevent this gratefully received!).  Then I added brushos in various colours and let them move around a bit, blotting the excess with some rice paper.Once dry, I added some texture paste through stencils in various places.  Once this was dry, I used brushos mixed with water to addd intensity to the colour in a few areas, then I added some random stamping using watered brushos, red paint and gold ink.

Throughout, I was mopping up any excess inks or brushos with rice paper.  When the rice paper was dry, I stamped the sentiment on to part of it, tore it out, then adhered it to the page.  Finally, I added a photo of a recent piece (documented in my first post in this blog here ) and a little bit of journalling to explain the page.

   
I thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating this page and want to work on improving my techniques and composition, but I'll have fun doing it ...

Junk journal

I've discovered the concept of junk journalling.  In its purest form, it involves using only junk (leftovers, scraps, found objects etc) to create the book and all its contents, but everyone as their own version of what it means to them.  So I joined a group on Facebook, had a look on Youtube and Pinterest, and decided that it was something I wanted to try.

My version is going to be a cross between art journalling, scrapbooking and junk journalling and I'm going to use it to experiment as well as to record events and reactions and store ephemera.

So, I bought a lovely A5 journal blank (from Pink Pig) with really thick, quality art paper inside, and here is my introductory page ...

I found some chipboard letters I forgot I had, plus a frame and a cameo from my stash, glued them down and then covered it all with gesso.  Then I mixed a purple colour (I didn't have a suitable one ready made) from pink and dark blue and used it to paint the whole thing.  I dry brushed with three different shades (pale pink, black and silver) and then added stencilling and stamping in pink (the same one I used to mix the purple), black and silver.  I also used "glue and seal" to attach two small fragments from an old dictionary (bought from a charity shop ages ago to use in my crafting and then forgotten about until now), choosing the sections that defined "junk" and "journal".  

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and am looking forward to getting sticky and paint-covered when I produce future pages.  This is definitely a craft form that I want to explore further.