What’s the Difference?

Between art journaling, junk journaling, scrapbooking and smash booking?  Words which can be confusing to newbies and experienced artists alike. Here are definitions of these commonly used terms:

1. Junk Journaling:  using recycled and found objects to make a book in which you write, paint, etc. to record whatever you wish. Sometimes this term is used to describe putting all your emotional “junk” into a journal.
2. Art Journaling:  or artist journaling, is using a book in which you write and create art on the pages.  This is also used to record daily life, ideas, techniques, etc.
3. Scrapbooking:  using photos, writing and momentos from daily life and/or special events.  Pages are usually planned and designed, often in chronological order or by event.  For example, an album may include all a child’s birthday parties or a families yearly vacations.
4. Smash Books:  similar to scrapbooks, without the organization and planning scrapbooks usually include.  You simply use a book to write down, glue in, and add art while out and about.  These are often not in chronological order, nor planned and designed.  These are simply books used to catch the moment or experience quickly, while on the go.

In my work, art and junk journals amount to the same thing.  I create art within the book, using whatever techniques or mediums I want.  Some are purchased books, most are handmade from recycled materials (which is the type I made with my grandma as a child).  Some are more traditional diary-type books with a lot of written journaling, others are theme or techniques books.

When my children were young, I made scrapbooks.  These held photos, occasional bits of memorabilia and names, dates, and a brief explaination of what was happening in the pictures.  Smash books seem to be very like my sketch books.  These hold notes, ideas, occasional brochures, napkins, ticket stubs and an abundance of quick sketches.  I keep one in my purse at all times, should something catch my eye or imagination.

No matter what they’re called, journals offer a place to release feelings and creativity.  Use them as you wish.  Include anything you want.  Have fun making journals that reflect who you are and the world around you.

So Much Fun!

Our dear son shared his wretched summer cold with us.  Both Scott and I came down with it this past Saturday.  So I’ve been playing around with my new digitals.  These are great fun, and a bargain to boot.  Every Etsy shop I bought digitals from was having a half price sale, which added up to a huge amount of stuff for very little cost.

Today I used an old watercolor painting as my base.  I scraped gesso over the vibrant colors to tone them down a bit.  Then I added decoupaged napkins over the dried gesso.  Then I went over that with a bit of gesso.  After cutting them into ATC size, I began collaging some of my new digitals on top.  These cards are a variety of colors with only the finishing touches left to do.  Those will wait until I know where I’m using them.

Now I’m fussy cutting things out while watching You-Tube videos.  I have such a lovely variety of papers and ephemera from these very talented digital artists.  Today’s discovery was Antique Paperie.  Everything on sale for .80 cents.  Huge variety of beautiful kits for eighty cents each.  I’m telling you guys, digital is the way to go!

Tomorrow I may begin working in one of my prepared old book journals.  Now that I have so much pre-made stuff on hand, it sure doesn’t take long to make a journal.  I should have built a stash of embellishments and add-ins ages ago!

 

Love Digitals!!

This morning I have printed over 100 pages of digitals from Tsunami Rose and ARTYmaze.  And this is not even everything I bought the other day!

While I have printed my own copyright free images, this is my first try with purchased digitals.  I used the standard setting on printer paper.  Everything printed beautifully except for one ticket sheet.  And I’m sure this is my fault and not the PDF from Tsunami Rose.  I just have no idea what I’ve done with that one.  It printed full sized, in color, but really blurry.  Then the next few were very small in black and white.  Then very small in color.  And finally back to full size, but blurry.  And I didn’t change any settings that I know of…Maybe my computer did this because it updated?  Yet every other one printed perfectly…I’m baffled.

My goal was to print some of the digitals just to see how they look in person.  I fully expected the prints would only be good for backgrounds and collage, as they were just on printer paper at the standard setting.  But they are stunning!  Every bit as nice as the stuff you can buy in stores.

Seriously.  This may have become a new addiction for me!

If printing your own stuff is important to you, I really recommend This Printer.

The Epson ET-2550 is the best purchase we’ve made in a long time.  It prints a couple thousand pages before the ink needs to be refilled.  And the refills are cheap!  I printed tons this morning and the ink levels didn’t even visibly change.  We’ve refilled the black once, as you always use more black than color, but the color tanks aren’t even half used yet.  We bought this in October of 2017!  (And I also print a lot of stuff.)  Truly, I can’t recommend this printer highly enough.

So now I’m excited to play with my new printables.  I have several journals ready to work in.  Old books, composition books, recycled materials made into journals, folio journals, and a large variety of covers waiting for signatures.  I’d guess I have at least 20 I’ve prepared so far for use as theme journals.  And there are a few I started earlier, but haven’t finished.

Now that I have embellishments, pockets, tags, corners, tuck spots, journal cards, a large selection of journals, and all sorts of new digitals-I can’t wait to get back into art journaling.  Building a stash of all that stuff has given me the freedom to create with abandon!  Now I just need to decide which theme I want to start with.

 

Oh, So Satisfying!

A few years ago I made journals to sell.  No one around here understood what an art/junk journal was.  They did not sell.  Today I wanted to begin a journal.  Everything I grabbed for either the cover or the actual journal didn’t speak to me.  I saw these two journals and grabbed both.

After looking through them and removing everything I thought I could use, I ripped the signatures to pieces!  I like both covers, but nothing inside.  This was immensely satisfying.  I hate having unsold stuff staring at me all the time.  It’s just sort of depressing.  But ripping stuff apart is great!

Honestly I was surprised by everything I included in the journals from years ago.  I definitely have a style.  And several of the extras are the same as, or very similar to, stuff I’ve been making lately.  I’ve pulled those apart as well.  They need some distressing, which I didn’t do back then.  I had no ink pads.

I’m currently printing some my beautiful digital papers from Tsunami Rose.  They will be perfect for my new art journal.  This journal is inspired by my grandma’s favorite rose, Tropicana.

The signatures were made of thin paper.  I’ve collaged over some and added thicker patterned paper to replace others.  There were three pages per signature with five in the journal originally.  I’ve changed that.  I’m thinking of three signatures, three pages each, with pockets on the inside covers.  And a fabric spine.

It feels great getting back to making art journals.  Now that I have an abundance of extras and embellishments to add in, I’m looking forward to sharing a lot of art journal ideas and projects with you in the future.

Huge Sale on Digitals!

Daisy, at Tsunami Rose, is a very talented artist.  She has a you-tube channel as well as her site for her amazing digital creations.  All of which are currently half price for an order of $50.00 or more.  I have purchased my first digitals from Daisy, and they are lovely!  Since her digitals are $2.50 (or $1.25 @ half price) each, that’s a tremendous amount of beautiful printable art journaling, bible journaling, scrapbooking papers and ephemera.

ARTYmaze is also a terrific art journaler with an Etsy site.  She has a website with several free downloadable digitals as well.  Please check her out.  Unfortunately, several of ARTYmaze’s designs were stolen and are being sold as originals on Aliexpress. I guess some of Tim Holtz designs were stolen as well.

No, I won’t launch into my tangent about copyrights.  But please, remember the artists creating their work are everyday people like the rest of us.  They have families, bills to pay, and kids to get ready to go back to school.  The money they earn from their art isn’t vast, but it matters to them and their families.  Please support the genuine artists and not those who steal from them.

Off my soapbox and back to digitals!  I bought $32.00 worth of digitals from Tsunami Rose.  That’s half price, folks.  Paper, tags, mini file folders, labels, ephemera, tabs, journal cards, holiday everything, a huge variety of delightful new goodies to play with!

I discovered both these talented artists through Gayle Agostinelli.  She recommends and uses both ladies digitals. Tracy Fox, also has an Etsy shop, as does Rachel, at Roxy Creations.  Both are terrific digital (and art journal) creators.  They are also favorites of Gayle.  In fact, she may be on the design team for a couple of them.

The point is, digital items are a frugal way to purchase supplies you want for art journaling.  Once purchased, you can print them over and over.  You can change the size for small or large projects.  You can use them as a base to build on, or add to your own covers, pages and embellishments.  The creative possibilities are endless.  And they take up no room at all in your work space, because you store them on your computer until you want to print them.

As far as I can tell, that’s a win win.

 

Why Is It

No matter what size I am, I struggle to find clothes?

Because I’m having stomach trouble, I’ve lost another 25 pounds.  This brings me down to sizes I haven’t been in since high school, or even smaller.  Now, my weight fluctuates tremendously.  I can gain 30 pounds in a month for no apparent reason.  My closet holds clothes from a size 20 down to my current size, an 8 or a 6.  And at each size, I struggled to find clothes.

Is this a universal problem women have or is it just me?

I don’t think I’m unreasonable in my requirements.  I want something flattering, which fits correctly.  And doesn’t make me look like a hooker.  I mean, really people?  Is covering body parts beyond the capabilities of clothing designers?  Low rise jeans?  Unless you go commando, your underwear will show.  And shirts cut so low my bra shows.  Alot.  Like the top half of the cups.  What possible under garment can you wear beneath something like that?

Or the clothes are designed for 90 year old women.  Old fashioned, with no shape or style.

And painfully ugly.

Laurie and I spent several hours searching for tops to go with pants I bought on sale at the end of last summer.  (Laurie, graciously, changed the waistband on both the pants and skirt so they didn’t fall off me.  Since the pants are wide leg, they look fine.  The skirt change made no difference in the way it hangs.)  A couple observations:

1. The colors this season are muddy.
2. There are a lot of earth tones
3. Mustard seems to be big this season
4. The new stuff reminded us of the stuff from the eighties.  We both hated ’80’s fashion
5. Even the clothes for younger women felt old-fashioned.  One dress in particular reminded me of a dress my grandma had, and wore, in her later years.

Maybe I’ve reached the age where current fashion trends don’t matter to me.  I just want clothes that are flattering for my figure, in colors and styles I like and that actually cover me.  This is probably a pipe dream.  Nevertheless, Laurie and I preserved.

Eventually we were successful.  I found a pair of “jeggings” which will work well beneath my longer, boho looking tops.  Second store was a bust.  Then we headed to a third store and found some tops.  And a couple beautiful dresses which fit like they were made for me, but not appropriate for Gary’s funeral.

Today’s project may be several bracelets to go with my outfit.  And probably some earrings too.

 

 

Faux Flowers

I have received so many compliments on my flowers this year.  I think I mentioned I bought fake flowers from Dollar Tree and second-hand stores.  Then I filled my flower pots and large window box with them.  Very easy solution for anyone with health problems.  Or for anyone who kills every plant they touch.

Except for weeds, of course.

Gary Kroll

Personal post.  Don’t read if you don’t want to know.

 

My cousin, Gary Kroll, died a few days ago from cancer.  Gary had a tough life, but he was a kind and gentle soul.  And a hero.  The week before his death, he saved his neighbor’s life.  Gary looked after his elderly neighbor, walking her dog.  When he didn’t get an answer at her door, he entered her home. Gary found her unconscious on the floor.  Thanks to his quick action, her life was saved.

After my brother’s sudden death, it was Gary who really touched my heart.  His kindness and compassion meant so much to me.  He was, and remains, that one bright light in a very dark time.

Gary’s immediate family (my aunt and cousins) have decided to have a small memorial for him with no published obituary.  I cannot understand their decision.  Although he has lived in Florida for most of his adult life, he grew up here.  (I wanted to place an obituary myself, but Scott says it would cause problems in our family.)  So I am sharing here instead.

Gary Kroll was a good man with a good heart.   I loved him and will miss him.

Art Movement Challenge, August 2019

Pop Art Movement

One of my favorite art movements, Pop Art.  This movement was unlike the fine art produced at the time.  This movement uses images from popular culture, often exagerating a smaller part of the whole.  And by using common, everyday objects as subject matter, Pop Art closed the gap between what critics considered “high” and “low” art.  Some of the well known artists from this movement are Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Our challenge this month is to create a piece of pop art.  A four foot Mallo Cup, a dinner plate sized bottle top, a mural or painting of any popular object you want.  Use whatever materials you like.  Have fun.  Create a whimisical art piece which speaks to you.

Mixed Media Challenge: August, 2019

This months challenge is to include paint in a mixed media art piece.

There are all sorts of options for adding paint to your art:

1. Paint pours
2. Acrylic paint
3. Watercolors
4. Pastels
5. Gelatos

Any of these work well as a paint.  You can use paint as your base. Gesso is a primer, for example.  Or add at any point in your project.  You can combine different paints in one project.  Just remember the “fat over lean” rule.  This is actually the one hard and fast rule in art.  Water-soluble beneath acrylics, and acrylics beneath oils.  The “leanest” works beneath “fatter” but never the other way around.  The lean will peel off the fat.

You can add paint to just about everything.  For example, you can soak cheesecloth in paint and add it to an art piece.  You can paint paper, wood, plaster, texture paste, and fabric.  You can dip, drip, spatter, drag, pounce, pour, roll and brush it on.  Create texture by adding paint through stencils, mixed with mediums like gel or texture paste, or use tools like a palette knife, wadded up paper, and sponges to apply.

Since painting is my first love, paint is something I’m very comfortable with.  I could probably give you hundreds of ways to use it in mixed media art.  But I just want to encourage you to play around with it.  Use what you have and see what you can come up with.  You’re truly only limited by your imagination!  Paint is, in my opinion, one of the most versatile mediums available.  Have fun exploring what paint can do for you this month.