How to turn your art gallery trip into a goldmine for your art journal

Above is my page I did last summer after being at a seurat exibition.Here are some fab ways to do similar stuff in your art journal.

• Take notes of what you think of the paintings; this can be techniques, colours, tralent or motiv.When you get home use these notes to write about it in your art journal.You could also add your favorite painting as a postcard.
• You could get inspired to paint you own picture.Either a complete copy or just copy the colours, motiv or technique used.
• Grab all the free broshures about the exibition and make a collage from them.
• Pick your fave picture and buy a postcard of it.Look at it and write down all the colours used, the motiv and why you would chose it.Why do you like this painting?What could have inspired the artist to do this?At the end you can combine this info to a wondertful page full of your thoughts about your fave picture.
  

A close up of the above. You can see I have tested his dotted technique.

• Learn about the artists life and use this as a preompt for your art journal page
• Copy the painting in a diffrent medium. So for example if the original is an oil painting recreate oit in clay, embroidery , collage or watercolour.
  
  

Close up of how I think he does his horses.

Tip: Buy a guide to go round the gallery with as you will gat a lot more out of it if you know what
each painting is about.

My art studio:What artsy stuff have I been up to?

I am a bit behind on taking photos of my latest art , but they are coming!So here is just an update of what I was up to about two weeks ago, sorry:)

Above you can see a single page I did to try out one of the art techniques i found on http://www.thepaperphantom.wordpress.com/ .It looks so cool!Love the technique.Now the reason I was not working is because I started making this lovely journal from scratch myself!!Its so amazing when you make your own art journal, you feel conected to the art you do on it in such a special way.Have you ever made a journal?I am planning a post soon, as I am now almost done.So anyway I needed to have somewhere to work, so I just used some paper.Now I have got this old book about Indians that is my art journal.Cause I'm still working on my journal.(Yes i have been working on it for about a month now, but whatever!:))

This is the cover for my sketchpad(not my art journal) with a really good quote on it.I want to grow as an artist and the best way to do so is to work on what you are bad at(so with me sketching from real life, not photos).Here is the quote:

It is only by drawing often, drawing everything , drawing incessantly , that one fine day you discover to your suprise that you have rendered something in its true character.

Camille Picasso

Lastly here is a watercolour pencil drawing of a falamingo I did.So see you soonXX

MAKEALIFE

Bring Nature into your art journal

As spring is coming up , at last as I am soooo fed up with all this snow, I thought I'd share my thoughts on this new idea I have had.So warning: None of these ideas have been tested!
Isnt't it lovely to go for a walk in the forest?I came up with this idea , where you collect things from the forsest and use these in your art journal.Here 's a list of a few ideas how you could do this:

• Let the colours of the forest inspire you next page
• Pressed flowers and leaves(cellotape in to stop them from crumbbling into your journal)
• tree rubbings, bring some paper and a pencil or crayon.You could even colour in the white areas of the rubbing to add a bit of colour
• Any scrap of paper you may find during your walk
• Take photos of any animyls, people or plants you see
• Flat stones can be stuck in
• random stones can be painted and used as decor or a paper weight
• Make artsy nature terrariums.I plan on doing and posting a tutorial on this, nce the weather warms up a bit.If you have any ideas for this please comment below!
• Draw animals or humans in the forest.Or if you don't feel confindent with your drawing skills, draw a tree or something.then now one can tell you it doesnt look like them!!

Yeah, thats all my ideas for now.If you have any please leave in a comment below and then I can do a part 2 reader ideas . that would be so cool thx.

Let's talk about the product!: Neocolour II watersoluble crayons

Today I am going to start a new series on my blog.Every so often (at least once a month)I will tell you all I know about a product.This can be my own techniques and ideas on how to use, links to good resources or videos that show you techniques.The art product I'm talking about today in NEOCOLOUR II.
I love watersoluble crayons they are so highly pigmented it is lovely to just smuch them onto a page in a random way and then add a bit of water and they will transform into a fab background base.Of course you can also draw patterns and then let them blend.The Neocolour II is the only kind of watersoluble crayon I have tried so in this post all my results will be with these.

In my many months of art journaling I have found that:

• These crayons work on any surface, cardboard,paper,canvas,silver foil , coffee filters just to name a few.Experiment!I'd love to hear what surfaces you have tried it on.
• They are a bit sticky.I have figured out a little technique to stop their stickyness.Instead of water solubleing(is that a word?) them with water use watery white acrylic paint or gesso.This tones the colour down a bit but stops any stickiness(although sticky ness normally occors before you put water on them ,but whatever).
• Most gel pens don't work or at least not well over them.Ones that do work:Tip ex pen, other crayons.If you user the technique above pretty much all pens work though.

Now reasons why you should buy some:

1. They are fun to play around with
2. They are clean
3. As they are in crayon form you can take them anywhere with you

Some fab links:

• http://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2009/12/tutoriallast-minute-pressiecollaged.html I show you how to make collage bookmarks using crayons as a base.
  
• http://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2010/01/make-art-with-friends.html I share pictures of some things I did using neocolours and my friends
• http://thepaperphantom.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/5-ish-art-journaling-supplies-week-4-watercolors/ A very good post about crayons with a fab video over at paperphantom

Note: Neocolour I is not water soluble and Neocolour II is, just remeber thaat when you go out to buy some.
So that is all I know(or can think of now) about neocolours, so go buy yourself some and start using them and comment below on how you use your crayons.

Makealife

Link Crazy 14.2.2010

• http://www.galadarling.com/ :Lots of lovely links and funny content.This is a find your styleblog with cupcakes:)
• http://psimadethis.com/ : This blog shows you a paste picture of whst the writer is in to and then gives you a quick fashion related tutorial for something really cute!
• http://www.colourlovers.com/blog : this is the place to go if you need colour inspiration.Eye candy!!!!
• http://belleandburger.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-make-fabric-valentine-book.html How to make a super sweet fabric book(not just for valentines day)
• http://digital-photography-school.com/11-tips-for-beginner-photographers In context with yesterdays post, these are 11 great tips
• http://almastoller.typepad.com/almastoller/2009/09/how-to-create-a-zine-tutorial.html Ever wondered about making a zine?Check this out and you will find it hard not to make one
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=DE&hl=de&v=-vhDPc9VzlM This is such a cute, simple and lovely dress tutorial.I want to make one -NOW!!!!
• http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/a/drawingmistakes.htm 10 top tips for drawing .These really helped me!!!

So there you go next week you can write a zine and take your own photos to go in it.Make a lovely dress, click around some good links and do a bit of drawing.Create a fabric book, create some art journal üafes with fab colours and make some fashionable accessories.Sounds good?
Just make some cookies and a film and its perfect_Joke:)
Happy valentines day!!!

Why being creative is all about the process

too blurry

What does creativity mean to you?To me it is: making your mark using somekind of media on some kind of surgface.This can be anything from art journaling to baking bread or modeling stuff out of Fimo.The main thing about creativity is that no matter how bad or good your finsihed fôroject is , you will always learn from your process.Through out this post are pictures of me attempting to take a perfect photo of some pencils.

too much flash

None of them really turned out how I wanted , but i did learn a lot about my camera.I learned how far in I can zoom before it gets blurry, I lerned how to switch flash on and off.This whole exercise had no point to doing it whatsoever.I felt like trying to take a photo of my pencils-the idea came to me a few minutes before I had to go out, bad timeing!!!But thats just how I am.

too far away

No matter what kind of craft or art ,whatever you want to call it, you pursuit you will probably have done a completly random project sometime like this one.But as you can see i lerned a ton about my camera in this pointless exercise.So it wasn't pointless after all.When you do bad art, just think about what you dont like and think how you can fix it.If you are really pissed off with some art you have done, think about what you have learned from doing it.

not bad

creativity is all about the process-what do you learn form it?-the fun of it-and yes it is nice when you can look at a piece fo work you did and think yay it looks so cool, but remeber its all about the process!!!!

Creative challenge:

• Do some thing for the process not the product
• Listen to a podcast on a creative topic
• Try out a new material
• Find some thing that is in no way related to your craft and use it- so if you paint=embroidery thread the hairect.

Book review:The artful Storybook

Today I am going to be reviewing the book The Artful Storybook by Terry Taylor.

I first saw this on ihanna's blog and thought it looked good, so then i ordered it of amazon.And I can tell you it is good!!

The firts few pages tell you about the storybook basics and these include:

Brief history,Where to get your story from, How to plan out your book,A few diffrent solutions to what kind of book to use and some techniques for illustrating and writting in your book.This section contains some lovely ideas and tricks such as how to create a simple pamphlet and how to do a acrylic heat transfere.

Then we move on to the second and bigger section of the book:a gallery of diffrent books that have been craeted by so many diffrent artists.each one has lots of pictures, a materials and tools list, some tips and the wholw working process.There is a very wide variaty of both stories and books.Some of my favorite include: a fabric book about a person that was obseded with knitting socks, a marie antoinette mannequin book , a matchbook storybook, a field journal about birds that has a story layed out in a way like a diary and a book about aztecs with a bone cover-cool book!!

I am a beginner in book making and story writing and illustrating, though I have not acctually started an artful storybook yet(as I am am busiliy working on my next art journal, which i am making from scratch), I am very inspired to start one and I think this book is perfect for beginners-teaching them basic skills and inspiring them, but perhaps not foe advanced as it only tells you some basic techniques.BUT all in all this is a very good book , but it could do with some more techniques.I do not regret buying it though.

Green up your art studio part 2

• make yourself a paintbrush rack using some leftover wood
• Avoid buying art supplies with lots of packaging
• host a supply swap with your friends
• Cut up magazines and the recycle the scraps
• use an old telephone book as a paintbrush wipe
• Collect your leftover paint in a cointainer, this will give you a brown colour you can use
• Use an old non fiction book with pictures as and art journal:you can reuse some of the images in the background
• Use some cardboard as apalette
• use junkmail in your art
• give oold boxes new coats of paint and use again
• Go to the zoo to sketch animals:help preserve endangered species
• Reuse envelopes as collage files

Do you have any green tips?

Tutorial:Cute Camera Case

This project was quiet an adventure to make.A whila ago I went to IKEA and bought this cute flower print fabric.I wanted to make something small and cute out of it, so as I hadn't came up with an idea yet, I just left it in my sewing room and almost forgott about it.But then I saw this post on daisyyellow(http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/vividlife/creative-experiments-9-february.html) and the thing that inspired me was the go for a walk with your camera and take a photo of whatever intrests you.I think this sounds very fun and I want to do it.So I decided I would need a Shoulder bag for my camera.As my camera never had a case I decided it must be padded , so that the camera was protected.By combing these two things I came up with this sweet camera case.:)



1.First , grab your camera and lay it onto your fabric, about an inch in n all sides.Now in this photo I added a bottom, but as I sewed it together, I found myself cutting that same amount of fabric away, so you dont need a bottom.Flip your camera and trace the front.Now add a flap onto that, which can be as long as you like and it can be squared or rounded.





2.Cut out your piece of fabric and cut out a second one from batting, this will make the lining.You will also need to cut down some velcro , as a closure.



3.Mark using pins , where you need the velcro to go and attacxh them on by sewing a square shape on them twice (it needs to be sturdy).BE careful see 5.!!!!

4.Pin them right sides together and sew all the way around, leavinng the smaller end open.Turn right sides out.




5.I encounterd a small problem here.I had sewn the velcro on thê wrong side of the patterned fabric, so that when i had sewn the batting on top it was coverd.So either learn from my mistake and sew the velcro onto the batting, well only the side with the flap or you can do what I did.First cut a square out of the batting, so that the whole piece of velcro is visable(above), now just sew around the hole and voila! fixed.



5.Sew a top stich to hold the sewn sem in place and sew down the sides , closing the whole thing.male sure your camera fits inside snug.

6.Get some bias binding and after cutting to the lehgth you want, fold in half and sew.

7.Attach to your case.I sewed it doen making small squares of stiches and sewed it on just where the flap starts.




DONE!!!

This project took me about 30 minutes.Have fun making it and if you do please share photos.

Makealife

3 Artjournal Pages and A List of Things You Can Use in Collage

Doodling is so much fun and I find it very relaxing.It doesnt take up much concentration to do it and you can think about other stuff as you go along.But if you wnat you can put a lot of thought into each and every line you draw and then it can distract you from things.
The green stuff is me trying out the recipe for homemade sparyink over at paperphantom(see side bar), a new site which I totally love.



Lately i have been into collaging a lot.I really love cutting up old magazines for lovely images and cool fonts.Collage is the perfect way to use these.Here is how i build up my collages:

1. I give the background some colour which sets the tone for my page
2. I gather pretty paper that match the mood or colour of the page
3. I cut up magazines searching foe images and i check my collage file and my inbspiration board
4. next i look for other random flat things I can use in my collage.
5. Now i stick it all down and keep adding stuff until i feel its done
6. Sometimes i add a layer of paint to the top
7. Tip:you can draw your own collage elements too

This is my haiti page and my fingernail with my fave nailvarnish(redlove) on it:).I set the tone as chaos and destruction on my page adding lots of random notes and scribbles.Have you done a haiti page?Id love to see it if you have.


Things You Can Use in Collage

• Photos(which can be alterd in some pretty cool ways, i plan to do a post on this soon)
• maps
• ticket stubs
• old newspapers
• scanned in fabrics
• scanned in art journal pages
• calender pages
• scrapbooking paper
• sweety wrappers
• clothes tags
• lables
• reciepts
• little drawing of your own
• old coins
• dried and flattend flowers and leaves
• tree rubbings
• flat stones
• paint swatches
• painted coffee filtters
• lace
• wrapping paper
• diagrams from old books
• book paes
• and much, much more......

Inspiration:Hearts

This would be a cool project.Paint a picture with 7 hidden hearts in it.I want to try this idea soon.

As Valentines day is coming up, here are some cute heartsy things to inspire you:

Ps:I found some cool ones on flickr but they dodnt work when i typed in the URL.Because i couldnt get the pictures to open on just a blank page.Can any one help?If so please leave a comment below.

Cute stuff

Isnt that a supercute cat?Just wanted to share...



here is a cute watercolour jelly fish i did.CUTENESSSS

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thank you paperphantom