My Handmade art journal(with tips for making your own)

The most basic art journaling supply is a good journal.I have used 3 sketchbook moleskins, 1 watercolour moleskin and an altered book so far. This is my first ever art journal I have made.My next planned one is like this one on journal girl( http://www.journalgirl.com/httpwwwjournalgirlcom/2010/2/17/diy-wednesday-wire-bound-journals-can-be-cool-and-easy-to-ma.html).

On to my actual made journal. Above you can see the cover.It is made from some ikea fabric with a scrap fabric colour wheel on it.I thought this was such a cool idea.This art journal has 44 pages, it is made half from watercolour paper and half from drawing paper.I really love this combo, as i can switch between the two kinds of papers depending on my mood.Here is a quick description of how I made the journal, sorry I didnt take any during photos.The reason why I am not turning this into a tutorial with images is cause I learned how to make it of a friend as I went along.Any way, first I folded the paper down to size and sewed up the folds. I loosly attached the segments with thread ans then glued the spine using white glue.I let it dry and cut a cover from book board.Next i cut a thin strip for the spine.I cut holes in the cover and thread 3 pieces of woven fabric through it. Glue down.Cover spine with bookcloth sandwiching the spine bookboard and glue.Make the coverquilt.Glue down cover and DONE!!

The back and pages!

So here are my tips for book making:

1. Make your cover personal in some way. You could sew a fabric cover, paint some fabric or paper, cover in paper and then paint once on cover.Try to dipict some symbol or the colour wheel that reminds you of what your art journal means to you.For me I want to grow as an Artist and show all the colours of my life in it.
2. When glueing, protect pages with some baking paper
3. Wash glue brush well with soap after glueing or you will kill it(talking from experiance)
4. Use your favorite papers in a combo that works for you

The beautiful inside paper!!!

5.Save any scraps you may get(like from the above paper) to use in collage
6.Use a bonefolder to create lush folds

Hope these tips and Images inspire you to try your own handmade art journal.

Makealife XO

Studio Thursday 18.3.2010

Today these are mz last pages in mz altered book art journal.I have finished mz art journal I was making.Next week I have a post planned, where I will tell you more about this and give you some usefull tips for making journals.
But anyway on to the above picture:This page was all about me exploring in writing what my fave colour is.It turned out to be no colour but colourful things.I am going to make the prompts bold.I made them up myself.



This was on a friday, I was just writing down all my feelings from the week.And did a bad picture of a person. the reason why i dont like it is the skin colour is to brown like mud(i ran out of red so had to use pink).




After seeing the movie alice in wonderland, this is my page to express what I thought of it. If you have not seen it yet, go do so. It is so f*** fantastic:)





My page were I talk about cosmetic animal testing, which is a topic dear to my heart. Did you Know that it can result in death, bleeding, swollen eyelids and liver problems(for the animals)?Make up is not a necassity. Humans should be tested on if they want it.Also currently the makeup company L'Oreal tests on millions of animals each year.They do test on rabbits, that have been secured so they cannot move, in which they out an igredient for the cosmeticsl product in their eye. They use rabbits as they do not have any tearducts, therefore they cannot realive the stinging or pain. If they die , the ingrediant is bad, I f they live its okay.So there. These are just some quick facts about animal testing, if you want to know more, I can create a post dedicated to this topic with an artsy twist.







A page about loving and exploring myself, the way mother nature made me(see the weird but cool face).I used watercolours for the tree and if you click on the image, it will appear bigger and you will be able to see a bit of shimmery green. This is metallic watercolours. A new thing I have discovered. I have now order a beginners set and once I have a bit of experiance , I will post a review.




Some weird doodles and todo lists.Do you like my Marie
Antoinette with a key in her hair?


So there, see you next week , when I will post my art journal that i made. But I will post a value post before that. Not quiet sure about what yet...Any ideas?What would you like to know about art journaling?A book review?Prompts?Product review?Colour mixing? Part2 of paintbrushes? A post about how to use trash as cool artsy supplies? What do YOU want?

Let's talk about the product: Paintbrushes PART 1

A^ny artist needs paintbrushes, no matter if she paints wonderful country scenes or just messes around in her art journal.There are so many brushes out there, by the time you have finshied reading this post , you will know which one is for you.So let's get started. Paintbrushes can be made from many diffrent knids of hairs, this will effect the way the paintbrush will work for you:

• Kolinsky sable: Is a harsh climated region of southern Siberia. This paintbrush is very strong, but still supple and springy.
• Red/Pure sable: Made from selected Kolinsky hairs, these brushes keep the springyness of Kolinsky but add there own softness to the paintbrush.Ideal for painting detaIL.
• Squirrel Hair: Cheap, but don't point well and have little resistence. But this may be perfect for painting backgrounds.
• Oxhair and goathair: Sturdy brushes but do not point well.these brushes are strong making them great for ruffer treatment such as drybrushing.
• Synthetic fibers: hold less colour than real hair, making them cheaper.

There are also a huge variaty of combo brushes, these combine two or more of the hairs above.

CARE OF BRUSHES: This is very important, if you treat your brushes well they will work better for longer.if you do not, hairs may fall out, points broken or all the hairs stuck together in a gewy mush! So here are some top care tips:

• Keep tehm in a box or stand them up in a jar so that the points to not get ruined.
• Wash after use.First rinse the colour out a bit, then mush the hairs into soap and work it in with your fingers.
• Clean tha handle to
• Moisten brushes before use or else a film of paint will build up , which kills paintbrushes.
• Do not leave in water for to long or the hairs will become distoreted and the paintbrush handle paint will flake off.

More in part 2

StudioThursday 11.3.2010

As I told you guys a while ago, I have started working in an old book about Indians. It is fun to use an old book, but i think I prefer using a blankbook.Because you don't have to worry about priming a page first or strenthening it in anyway. Also you cant draw or sketch very well, which i like to do a bit of sometimes. But it is a really good way to recycle and not spend any money and you should definately try it!!
Above is my page where I alowed myself to use only blue and the horse picture, that was already in the book. its fun to leave pictures or information showing that you like.



This next page was one I worked on over about a week doing a little bit everyday. There is another face!!I love painting and drawing fantasy girls. But you should draw people live to get the practise. This is a very good way to grow as an artists. Remenber though that if you make any mark on paper , that has a meaning to you, you ARE AN ARTIST.




This is just a nice pale page witha tone of doodling on it. This can be a very fun thing to do infront of the telly or in bed. Prepaint a page and them grab glue, scissora , magazines and pens and get to work.





This was my first every page in this art journal. i like the indian girl as far as shading goes, but i do not like her face shape but oh well.
@PAPERPHANTOM: Would this be an okay face to show you how to do shading on?That is to say do you like it well enough?

Okay guys, see you next thurs with more of my art and with other stuff before that.
XO MAKELIFE

I will leave you with a few prompts that i have thought up but not tried yet:

• When you start a new art journal create a page about the techniques or prompts you want to use in this journal and at the end a page about what you acctually achived.
• write a story and illustrate in your art journal
• pick an animal, object or person and write all you know about this topic(you can pick any topic you like)
• create a page around one word. This will be the only word you get to use on this page.
• write down words that have to do with your day: what you did, weather, what you wore...
• glue in colourful labels
• try drawing faces or picture inclusiv shading using water solouble crayons

Have fun!!!!!(this is what I will serve you every week , my art and prompts or tips or quotes)

TUTORIAL: How to mix skin colour

I love painting faces in my art journal and even though I may not be the best it is so much fun!But what I have noticed is that a lot of my friends just use face coloured paint from the tube. I love mixing colours and I personally consider this to be part of the creative process. So here you go:

First you will need three basic colours: red(but not a pinky tinted one, just a plain bright red), yellow( not a lemony yellow, just plain yellow) and white.NOTE:WHEN BUYING PAINT IT IS BETTER TO GET A FEW TUBES OF COSTY PAINT AS THIS WILL MIX BETTER THAN THE CHAP STUFF(DUE TO IT CONTAINING MORE PIGMENT.Any way back to our skin colour mixing.

Mix a pink.Use lots of white and only a bit of red until you get a pale salmony skin coloury colour.But don't worry if its still a bit dark we will get to that in a mo.Just make sure that it is the darker version of the colour you want, this is kind of hard to explain but after playing around with mixing a little bit you will understand.Practise makes perfect.

Add a tiny bit of yellow to make it turn from a tshirt , samon pink to a skin colour pink.Compare with a professional portrait (on a postcard) if youre one for perfectness. But again after a bit of experiance you will get the hang of this.

Lastly add white until it is the exact shade youe want. Tip: Test on a scrap piece of paperthat is the same kind as your piece you want to paint on.I have a page reserved for this in my art journal and then I use itr as a multicoloured background.

Happy painting!Would you like me to do more on how to paint a face so the next step, like how to draw it and paint in the shading?Or is there another colour youd like to know how to mix.I'm sure i can help, I have been painting for 5 years.

Before I go , you may have noticed the new feautre on my blog.Below just tick what you think of my post if you havent got time to leave a comment.IT would help me so much when writng future blogposts. Remeber I can only give you advice on things you tell me you want to know.

XO MAKEALIFE

Book review

March is book review month on my blog.Starting tuesday i will post lots of artsy and craft book reviews!!!
These will include:

Collage Unleashed
Acrylic revolution
Green guide for artists
1000 Artists journal pages
Zakka sewing
The decorated journal
knitknit
Sew darn cute
Sewing green
The naughty secretary club

See ya tuesday
MAKEALIFE

Really cool face drawing tips from journal girl

Check it out:



Have fun drawing!!!!!