Journal Disaster Recovery

I am a novice at making art journals. I only know the basic stitch to bind pages and that’s all I really need. But, oh boy, this one made me mad and sad.  I don’t have all the pictures, because I was having a pity party for myself once the disaster struck.  I’ll try to describe it as best I can.  All I can say is BIG lesson learned.

Some of my Facebook friends may remember this 11×14 page I decorated using black gesso, then white acrylic paint through a stencil, then watercolors. I doodled around the flowers with a white Uni-ball Signo pen.  I just loved this and I wanted to do something with it.

It hung out a while until I decided to make a journal out of it using manila folders as my filler paper. Great.. fun… can’t wait.

So, I cut my manila folders down to size and poked my holes with an awl. Used binding tape for the binder, then sewed my signatures in.  Loved it. Yay. Happy.

Ok.. looks good, right.  Well, now I wanted to seal it.  Here it comes. AND I don’t have pictures.  I start to brush on some medium. I can’t recall if it i was Golden polymer medium or Collage Pauge or even self-leveling gel, but as I brushed it on I didn’t even think anything was wrong.  I thought the white streaks were the medium and I told myself it would dry clear. NOPE NOPE NOPE.  It was the white pen ink streaking.

Imagine something like this, below, but all over my flowers.

I was heart broken. I thought maybe if I gently rubbed, I could save it.  No can do people. It was ruined.  Especially after rubbing it.  So I continued to rub it all off.  It was so sad.. after trying CPR and first aid, it was too late.

OK.. let’s get to happier times now….

Sooooooo.. the obvious thing to do was cover it up.  I found some art papers from my weekend class with Jane Davies a year ago called “Big Fat Art”.   I cut them to size, glued on my new covers, added some texture and here it is.

  

Yes, I love it.  Big and bold.  I have fond memories of my flower cover, but the show must go on, right? If I were to do it again, I would have sprayed a finish on it.

Well, thanks for listening to my saga. I hope you enjoyed it and learned from it, too.

As always, I love hearing from you and thank you for your tremendous support of my art adventures.

Judy  ♥ ♥ ♥

Blog Hop with StencilGirl and Seth Apter

Here I am again, doing another Blog Hop with StencilGirl for the NEW RELEASE of Seth Apter’s stencil designs.

I just love Seth’s art style and for him to create stencils.. well.. is a bit exciting. Take a look at his blog HERE.

I will be using Seth’s “Timeless” stencil. I love these markings he’s made and the words… and what better way to use all this texture than with polymer clay.  Are you surprised?

When I begin the process in my head of what I will create for each blog hop, most of the time, I don’ t know what I’m going to create until I sit at my art table. This time was no different. I knew I was going to use clay.  Let’s see.. bookmarks, buttons,  journal… yes a little funky journal. Let’s HOP to it.

I started with a package of beige polymer clay. Then conditioned it by softening it with my hand and through my clay dedicated pasta machine. Not loving that it is not getting soft. I’ve been through this before. Maybe my basement is too chilly or the clay is old.. not sure. But, let’s go with it, shall we?

Once I got a good sheet of clay soft enough, I sprayed the clay with water and put the stencil on top. Put my pasta machine on a thinner setting so I could get a thin cover for a journal.  Cool, huh?

FOR A CLOSER LOOK, CLICK ON ANY PICTURE.

Now, I have to think about what shape of journal I want. At this point, I still don’t know and let’s face it, I don’t have a lot of options. So, I’m gonna split the clay in half and make a “shard” shape, as if it were ripped. Get them even enough so the front and back covers somewhat match.  I wanted the words to be engraved into the clay. I took a pencil and went over the letters to indent them. I did this because when I stain the clay, the paint will sit in them.  That’s coming up. I put holes at the top of the covers and now it’s time to bake in my clay dedicated oven.

While the clay was baking, I had to choose some pages to go inside of the journal. I had some scrapbook paper from years ago that was double-sided. A neutral color to go with the covers. I stamped a clock image and a “remember” rubber stamp over the pages. Now, I had to trace the covers on the paper so I could get the same, sort of, shape. Then punch holes with an awl into the paper to match the holes I put in the clay. I used a distress stamp pad to darken the edges of each page.

 

Now, it’s time to “antique” the clay covers. I took brown acrylic paint and with a bristle paint brush (or an old toothbrush), I smooshed the paint onto and into the clay getting into the deep lines.  Let it sit for about 30-45 seconds. Then wipe it off with a damp paper towel until you like the look. After this was dried, I brushed a coat of Liquid Laminate over the front and back covers (cuz, I can’t find my Future Floor Polish… ugh).

Time to add some color.  I took acrylic paint and started to make the covers look purdy. Going over the parts of the design that are risen.  Turquoise, red, black, orange.  After the paint was dry, I put another coat of Liquid Laminate over the covers again.

What do I use to bind this funky journal? I tried binder rings, too shiny and clunky. I had some twine and using a dental floss threader, I ran the twine though the holes with the inside pages in between.

  

Here is the final journal… you likey???

Well, thank you, Seth for creating such fun stencil designs.

Before you go off to the next artist, let me tell you about the giveaway…

All comments on the hop are eligible for the giveaway. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win.  Giveaway will close on Sunday, May 4th at 11:59PM Central Time.

PRIZE:   2 lucky winners, each will get a set of Seth’s new releases.  Seems pretty cool to me.

Before you leave me to go to Leslie’s blog, I want to thank you, as always, for stopping by and supporting my crazy work/life/unbalanced world.  Ok, now you can  go to the next person on the list….  Judy ♥ ♥ ♥

StencilGirl Talk

Seth Apter

Mary Beth Shaw

Mary C. Nasser

Linda Cain

Carolyn Dube

Kirsten Reed

Linda Kittmer

Janet Joehlin

Judy Shea (U R HERE NOW)

Leslie Tucker Jenison (NEXT)

Paula Phillips

Blog Hop with Mary Nasser’s Map Stencil from StencilGirl

Well, here I am again..and what a summer it was. I’ve moved to a new home, turned a year older, sent my girls back to college and now I’m ready for some art making… .and what better way to begin again?  By doing a blog hop with StencilGirl designer, Mary Nasser.  Mary just designed 4 new stencils.   I was so excited to participate in this hop with many other artists you can see below, in a minute.  What a fantastic crowd to hop along with.  Thank you, Mary, for asking me to participate.

I chose this stencil:

A journey came to mind when I saw this stencil… and how perfect for me since I just moved to a new city.  I decided to make a journal with covers out of polymer clay.  A “Journey Journal”.  This measures about 3 1/2 ” x 4 1/2″.

Let’s begin our own journey with this process, shall we?  Hang on tight, grab your favorite comforting beverage and enjoy the ride, cuz it’s a lot of pictures.  Hey, it’s my comeback..  I’m going big.  Chop chop.

I started with, of course, Polymer Clay, in my favorite color, turquoise.  Condition it until is soft and pliable. I used my pasta machine, that is only used for clay (not food).  As a matter of fact, anything you use for clay from your kitchen, should never be used with food again.  Click on pictures for close ups.

  

I took the stencil and the clay and ran it through my machine together so the map would impress the clay.

  

Cool, huh?  I did this twice for the front and back cover of my journal.

Now, I needed a book template to follow, so I took my trusty coasters.. the ones I collect from restaurants and made sure the clay was as big as the coaster.  Now, these are my covers.

  

Next up…making the pages to go inside.  I used Bristol paper and traced the coaster onto the paper and cut out about 8 pages.

  

I stacked the pages together, but had to make them a bit smaller than the covers.  So, I scraped the sides with scissors and roughed them up… you can see the edges below (a “Distrezz it All” tool would be perfect for this).  Then I had to make the holes for the binding.  I took my awl and poked 3 holes on the top side using the coasters as a guide.  In the meantime, I baked my covers in my clay dedicated oven. Let cool once done.

 

Once i had all the pages aligned, I clamped them together.  The used my big puncher (god, what is that called), to punch the holes in the clay covers.

With me so far?  This is not even the fun part.  Stay with me now.

Once the clay covers had their holes and lined up with the pages, it was time to antique them.  What is “antiquing”?  Well, it’s taking brown acrylic paint and pushing into the grooves of the textured clay.  Then you wipe it off and leave the paint to sit in the textured valley’s, if you will.  So, it looks old and vintagey.

 

Now, once you get the paint to where you want it, then let it dry.  Time to make it shine.  I used “Future” floor polish. I know, right?  Just brush on one coat with a soft flat paint brush, let dry.

Nope, not done yet…more fun coming your way.

It’s time to make those covers come to life.  First, I glued one page to the front and back cover.  I made a bunch of my  “button n’bellishements”, cuz I needed more… especially hearts…. then added a few metal charms.  I used glitter glue to highlight a couple of the highways and I even cut out the route sign shape from Mary’s map and made a clay piece from that.  I also took a text rubber stamp and stamped onto the covers.  I used Elmer’s Squeeze Caulk to adhere the paper down and Helmar Glue for any embellishments.. I just love that glue.

       

ABOVE:  With a small alphabet stamp set and with white acrylic paint, I stamped the word “journey” on the cover over a black acrylic edge.  Let me say that this journal went through many transitions.  I had ugly moments, or as my friend, Carolyn Dube says.. an “OOPS”!  Oh yes.. many of those.

I had a piece of suede leather rope to tie the book together, but then I thought it needed a solid binding edge to grab onto.  I made this twisted piece of clay,.. baked and antiqued it.  Then tied 3 separate pieces of the suede through each hole.

 

That’s it, my friends.  I really hope you enjoyed this “journey” with me.

Now, it’s time to go visit the other blog artists to see what they did with Mary’s stencils.  I can’t contain myself.  I’ll meet you there.

StencilGirl Talk
Mary C. Nasser
Mary Beth Shaw
Jessica Sporn
Janet Joehlin
Heather Haymart
Judy Shea  (that’s meeeeeeeee)
Pam Carriker
Nancy Wethington
Talk2TheTrees
Corrine Gilman
Rose Wilde
Nancy Curry
Kristen Powers
Carolyn Dube
Maria McGuire

AND.. that’s not all… screeeeech…. halt……  There will be a give away for this hop.  Yup, it’s true.

Mary and StencilGirl will be giving away a set of four of her new map stencils.   ALL the comments on each blog, above, will be eligible for the drawing.   Just leave a comment by 11:59PM Central Time on October 4th.  The more blogs you comment on in the blog hop, the more chances you have of winning!

As always, thanks for stopping by.  I love hearing from you and appreciate your comments.

Judy ♥ ♥ ♥

Winner of Journal Give-a-way!!!!

Random Generator chose a winner for my journal give-a-way….   And the winner is……………

Kathy Abraham….. congratulations!!!!   send me your address at judysheart@gmail.com and I’ll get it right out to you.. and of course I have some other goodies to add to it.  How excited are you?

Ok.. ready for the next give away?   It’s this handmade journal.  Here is how I made it.  But below, is how it came out in the end.  With handmade polymer clay “button n’bellishments” and the paper beads on the edge.

1, 2, 3 go………..

Thanks for stopping by and please pray for Boston that they catch the 2nd bomber brother. PLEASE CATCH HIM!!!!!

Judy ♥

Stencil Test Drive – Starry Night – Stencil Girl Products

Well, it’s my turn again to test out one of Jessica Sporn’s new stencils called Starry Night by Stencil Girl Products. This time around, I used the stencil creating two pieces.  I didn’t start out thinking I would do two, but it just seemed to fall into place that way.

PART 1 – First, I’ll show you my collage. I took Bristol Paper and made a paste of Super Heavy Gesso and Hansa Yellow Medium acrylic paint by Golden. Then I used the stencil to push the yellow paste through it onto the paper.  Let dry.

 

The result is below left.  Then I took Patina Green Glaze by Golden and spread it over the textured page.  

Now, let’s start collaging.  I added some lace ribbon down the left side and then did a leaf stencil with the heavy gesso on the bottom right.

 

I had put some of the same stencil on other cardstock (as you’ll see in my next project), painted it blue and ripped it, and put gold leaf pen on ripped section then put down the right side.  Now, I’m adding more papers and fabric and end with one of my polymer clay “bellishments”; I chose Mr. Moon. Here’s how it developed
I pounced some titan buff acrylic paint through some dry wall tape.  Love the dots.
Added some rhinestones on the pink paper; fabric under Mr. Moon.  Store bought embellishment on top of the gold embossed paper.  Made the embellishment a flower with lace stem and magazine paper leaves.  Added another “bellishment” at the bottom right.  I like the orange contrast with the rest of the collage.

Final collage.

If you want to learn how to make my handmade polymer clay “Buttons n’bellishments”, come join us in my online class that starts in February on Joggles.com

PART 2 – Handmade Journal

I started out with other 1/2 of the Bristol Paper from my collage. I used my palette knife and spread extra heavy gesso all over it and let it dry.  I love the texture this gesso leaves.

Then I took Ultramarine Blue acrylic paint by Golden and scraped it on the gessoed paper with a old credit card.  Just look at that texture.  It almost looks 3D.   Just beautiful for any texture queen.  Click on the pictures for a closer look.  Hard to believe it’s just a piece of paper.  My daughter thought it looked like denim.   
Then I took the same yellow paste I made above with the heavy gesso and the yellow acrylic paint and used a palette knife to push the paste through the Starry Night stencil.  Helloooo.. is this cute or what?
I took Liquid Laminate and brushed a layer over the entire page to give it a shine and strength.  You’ll notice that I only covered 1/2 of the page.  Once the laminate dried, I took some lace paper and put a few of my favorite spirals on the back then took a black sharpie pen and outlined the stars and swirls.  See the shine?  
I took Wausau paper (cardstock like) that I got at an office supply store and made one signature of 5 pages.  I ripped around the edges for two reasons.. one to make them smaller than the cover pages and two, to give them a roughed up
look.
.

Now, it’s time to sew the pages and cover together.  As I told you in my last post, I am not a journal maker. This is basic in one hole and out the other sewing.  I used black wax thread.  Then I sewed one of my polymer clay buttons to the cover.  Sprayed some Dylusions Ink to the front and back covers pounced some titan buff paint through the stencil and
called it done.   Badda Bing.. Badda Boom!

   

Front and back cover

Well, that was fun.  I’ve never been sad doing art.

Check out Jessica’s post this week test driving her stencil.  Then go check out my partners in stencil crime, Maggie Nemetz and Revlie Schuit and see what they did with the Starry Night Stencil. Here are the Stencil Test Drive players:

December 6: Hebrew Calligraphy

Carolyn Dube and Michelle Rydell

December 20: Medieval Leaves

Carolyn Dube, Corrine Gilman, Maria McGuire and Ronda Palazzari

January 23: Random Squares

Seth Apter, Kristin Dudish,  Corrine Gilman, and Diana Trout

February 27: Fun Borders

Marjie Kemper,  Nataša May, Maggie Nemetz and Christy Tomlinson

March 14: Retro Flowers & Circles

Nataša May and Maria McGuire

April 2: Embrace the Rain

Carolyn Dube, Marjie Kemper, Nataša May, Michelle Rydell, and Revlie Schuit

April 18: Flying Tulips

Kristin Dudish and Carol Merveille

May 2: Cascading Leaves

Nathalie Kalbach,  Michelle Rydell, Judy Shea, and Roben-Marie Smith

May 16: Apples & Pomegranates

Carolyn Dube and Revlie Schuit

June 6: Dots & Dashes

Jane Davies, Maria McGuire and Carol MerveilleThank you, Jessica, for inviting me to be part of the drive.

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear from you.
Judy ♥

More Gelli Plate Fun & a Gelli Journal Give-a-way!!!

Hey, I’m back with another video on some gelli’ing.  It’s now the end of the Gelli Print Party with Carolyn Dube, but I’m just loving the prints and making some cool art from them.  Go check out Carolyn’s blog and see her videos, then check out her linkys to see what others are doing. 

Now, check out my latest video.

In my last video, I took some of my favorite prints and made nice strips with them.  Maybe bookmarks? Click picture for close up.

   

As much as I love my prints, what am I going to do with them all?  I’m going to make a journal with them and give it away, that’s what.  Yahoo!!!

First, let me be clear…. I am NOT, I repeat AM NOT a journal maker.  So, I am just taking the pages and sewing them together.  Nothing fancy.  Make one signature, sew it to a cover and then they can be journaled on with backgrounds already for you.  Thanks to my friend, Raine, for showing me how to do this a long time ago.  She makes amazing journals.  I don’t even know the name of the stitch I’m using, that’s how much of an non-journaler I am.  In and out, that’s what it’s called.. the “in and out” stitch.  No, not really.  I kid, I kid.

So, here is the journal I stitched together.  Simple, not fancy and ready for your mixed media fun and journaling, collaging or whatever you want to do with it.  You could glue a blank page to an inside page and journal on that OR paint some squares of lighter paint to write on.  So many ideas.

       

I gathered all the Gelli papers together and ripped them down to size with a metal ruler and just pulling strips off so they would have torn edges.  A few pages are smaller than the others, just for fun.  Then I made a cover page and coated with Liquid Laminate (love that stuff) to seal.  I made 3 holes in the binder and used wax thread and an upholstry needle to sew all the pages together.  Again, in one hole, out the other until I used up the thread and the pages were nice and snug.  Strung some fabric beads I had made on the binder edge and added one of my “buttons n’bellishments” to the cover.  If you want to learn how to make one of these embellishements, take a look at my online class and join us.

I hope you enjoyed our party.  Thank you, Carolyn, for a great Gelli Print Party!!!

If you want to win this Gelli Journal, leave me a comment here and then if you have a Facebook page, like and share my post there.   I’ll pick a winner this Friday, 1/11.

Thank you for stopping by, as always.  I love to hearing from you.

Judy ♥

Art is YOU…Me… and We!

I’m back from Art is You.  What  a fun time.   As you know, this was my first art retreat.  First ever.. and I went alone.  Yup, just me and my talking GPS who kept me company.  C’mon, raise your hand if you think the GPS is awesome?  Wow, one, two, three… see there are a lot of you out there.  “Navigator” on my smartphone rocks!  Love her.

This is what we wore around our necks for the weekend.  So fun.  How could you not smile with that on you each day?  Each morning, we were greeted with a wonderful breakfast buffet and the same at lunch.  It really was a sense of community.  You can read about Art is You and about Sallianne and Ellen, it’s creators, HERE.  Thank you, ladies and anyone else involved in helping make the event a success.

Let me start by saying that as soon as I met my roommate, Jessica, I knew we were a good fit.   As soon as I walked in the room and saw that she had her journal pages and her art supplies all over the bed, I said, “ok.. now we’re talkin”.   Miss you JS.  Hey, we have the same initials.. that has to mean something, right? You can read Jessica’s blog post about AiY HERE.  I love it.

Ok Ok.. i’m getting to the fun stuff.

Saturday was a full day workshop with Serena Barton called Waxing Literacy with Charlotte.  We took an old hard cover book and used encaustic wax, creating a display piece.  Serena is such a great teacher and person.

Hi Serena.. our wax queen!

This class was so much fun.  I had never used encaustic wax before, never mind entrapping a book in it.  Serena gave us frozen chartlotte dolls that were going in a niche that we cut out of the book.  (click on any picture for larger image)

    
on right:  this is the inside of Serena’s book.. anything look familiar to you.. on the left in the center…hmmmm? She used one of my ‘bellishments.

  
This is the inside and out side of my book.

More books from the class…..

    
Far right:   I love that Nancy used a small child’s book.

    

Wasn’t that fun??  Thank you, Serena!

Getting ready for vendor night…  This place was packed.  Lots of walking around… my feet are still recovering. : (

  

Now, let’s move on the Sunday’s workshop with Mary Beth Shaw.  What can I say about Mary Beth?  We’ve exchanged emails back and forth about meeting. She’s fun, outgoing and a great teacher; making classes fun… oh and she plays some great music in class.  I’ve been wanting to meet MB and take one of her classes for about 2 years now and both were  more than what I expected.

Mary Beth’s class was called More is Less.  What a journey that was.  Making textures through stencils with paste.. my favorite thing to do.  I wish I had brought smaller substrates.  I worked too big and I think it was a bit overwhelming, to be honest.  So, I finished two.  Fair enough, let’s compromise.

Mary Beth gave me permission to take pictures of her demo.  Here’s a peek.

  
Yummy Wood Icing and pasta, yes pasta!

    

These are mine…

… and some of the rest….

          

..and here are Mary Beth’s 6″x6 boards… beautiful.

Thank you, Mary Beth!!

So, there you have it.. my two classes. Two full days and nights of just fun and camaraderie.  I made new friends and I was able to meet new artists in the mixed media world and say hello to the ones I have taken classes from before.

The ladies in my classes were so talented and fun to be with.  Just imagine being in a place where we all think about art the same, all want to learn and share.  What else could you want?  I plan on keeping in touch with many of my new friends (you know who you are).

..and… can I just say that I need a full body massage now?

Thanks for joining me in this art journey and stopping by.  I love hearing from you.

Judy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥