Just Me and My Art Journal

Viking Woman

2010-08-16T00:56:00.000-07:00

Viking women were not allowed to take part in battle, but if they conquered new land, women would have to come so that a permanent settlement could be build up.Women would have taken their children and all their live stock with them, so the voyage over the sea would not have pleasant. Women would only have gone on peaceful immigration trips, rather than raids.
But for example in england, there is evidence(in the form of women's jewelry)that viking women were there by the 10th century.The viking word for woman was Ginna. Pagen graves are wonderful, as they give us insight into the cultur of the vikings. In scotland there were two female graves found, of very diffrent women: the young, stout and wealthy mother of newborn twins from Westness, and the high-status, elderly woman from Scar, buried in a boat along with a younger man and a child, a matriarch, perhaps even a priestess of Freya.
The mythological poem Rígsþula, written down in medieval Iceland, accounts for the divine origin of the three main social classes. But it also gives us a snapshot of daily life in the Viking Age. The woman of the slave-class wears 'old-fashioned clothes' and serves bread that is 'heavy, thick, packed with bran... in the middle of a trencher', with 'broth in a basin'. The woman of the yeoman class wears a cap and a blouse, has a kerchief around her neck and 'brooches at her shoulders', and is busy with her spindle, 'ready for weaving'. The aristocratic woman is just busy preening herself: she wears a blouse of smooth linen, a spreading skirt with a blue bodice, a tall headdress and appropriate jewellery, and has very white skin. She serves silver dishes of pork and poultry on a white linen cloth, washed down with wine.The standard Viking Age house was rectangular and had just one room, in which everything took place around a central hearth. This house type has been found from Sweden in the east to Newfoundland in the west, in both rural settlements and in towns such as York and Dublin. As in most traditional societies, women spent much of their time indoors in such houses, cooking, making clothing and caring for children and the elderly, but they would also have had responsibility for the dairy.
Some women made their mark through exceptional status or achievement. One of the richest burials of Viking Age Scandinavia is that of the Oseberg 'queen', buried in a very grand style with a richly-decorated ship and large numbers of high-quality grave goods in 834. Later in that century, Aud the 'deep-minded' lived a veritable Viking Age odyssey. The daughter of a Norwegian chieftain in the Hebrides, she married a Viking based in Dublin and, when both her husband and son had died, took charge of the family fortunes, organising a ship to take her and her granddaughters to Orkney, Faroe and Iceland. She settled in Iceland, distributing land to her followers, and was remembered as one of its four most important settlers, and as a notable early Christian.( source:BBC )

Yesterday I drew the viking woman above and I just love how she turned out and enjoyed the way in which I drew her. I want to draw one girl like this a day. What I do is take an image from a magazine and draw it using a cheap biropen. I cannot rub any thing out and have to accept the flaws and this really helps me love my drawings. When the image is complete, I have a good look at her and if she looks to me like something, in this case a viking, I add the feature needed to show this, in this case a viking helmet. I use an artists pitt pen to colour in one feature that I want to stand out. I love drawing in biropen!!

My first ever video: Stamping technique using a loorolltube

2010-08-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

Here is my first ever vid!!!!
This is just a cool technique I thought of and thought it would be fun to share!!

Extra ideas:

You could vary the colour paint you use
You could stamp it in a way, so that it gives you a flower shape
You could use to create a border
you could use to stamp a circular template either on patterned papers or on cardstock, which if you punch a hole into it makes a fab gifttag
You could stick in a photo or image and use it to circle something you want to draw to the viewers attention
You could paint a big fish or other animal and use these to create the eyes
You could use as a way of creating a circular template over an image and then you can glue down like an inchies page, but just circles, instead of squares
you could cut little triangles out of the rim of the loorolltube before you stamp and then you will get a broken lined circle( do you get what I mean)
you could stamp an image(using a normal stamp) and then customize it with your loo roll stamp( for example, by stamping it down and then painting over the image exept for the part with the cirlce around it)

The possiblities are endless and free!! Loorolltubes are not the only item of waste you can salbage for your art! What do you like to use? If you try this technique, please share photos,what are your suggestions on how to use?

Art supplies i am loving at the moment , a journal page and handcarved stamps!!!

2010-08-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally got round to carving my own stamps. YAY!! I simply bought a piece of lino, cut down to size, drew on image and started to carve away. It was so much fun and very simple.I did find this vlog video by samantha kira very useful.But it really was so easy and fun. If you have never carved a stamp before, I recommend you watch the video by samantha kira, go abuy the supplies and get carving. I carved an arrow and a Mighty Boosh head( if you do not know this, watch a vid of it on youtube and you will laugh your head off!!!Link at end of article).

I have also created this cool journal page. I had so much fun creating it. First I scribbled around a bit with watersoluble neocolours and then I dry brushed some gesso over it. I did a biro pen drawing of a girls face and added a coloured bookpage t-shirt. i created the flower and then played around with pen and ink. Lastly i coloured in a few things with artists PITT pens.

These are a few art supplies I am loving lately. Mini alphabet stamp set(reat for spelling out words or to use for journaling instead of your own handwriting.), neocolours II in lots of cool colours, artists PITT pens in lots of colours, my brand new aluminum tape, pen and ink, gel medium and carving stamps!!!

What art supplies are you into at the moment?
Do you have any blogpost requests?

LINKS:
The Mighty Boosh: The power of the crimp(I think this is the best intro episode)

Cobra water mixable oil paint review

2010-08-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

I saw this free sample Cobra paint tube today, when I was browsing my local art shop. I took a sample of course and as soon as I came home, I started testing out roughly how they work. But basically they are water mixable oil paints. It also says on the packaging that they wash out of fabric with water. This makes me so excited, because I am always getting acrylic paint on my clothes and this puts me off painting a bit, but only 0.1%. All the same, if it will wash out, this makes me super happy!!!
Anyway, I tried the paint out and it acts like a mixture between acrylic paint and oil paint. It still takes a while to dry, it has than oil paint glossiness about it and lets itself blend together like oil paints, but it blends well with acrylic paint (i did do this, but with an orangish red acrylic paint) and I have worked with both acrylic and oil before and when working with this, it just feels like a really fantastic feel to it. I friking LOVE this paint, when I next go there, I will buy myself some of this.
Now onto the next claim: it washes out of fabric.I am so happy about this factor and I tried it and it works. Above you can see before and after of a piece of fabric which I put some paint onto and then washed out. There is a kinda orangish tint to it, which was not what happend, the glue (I used my homemade glue, yay it glues fabric to:)), which I brushed over it, blended the colour onto the fabric. But before I glued it on, it had one tiny spec of paint on it. Click on the image and look at it in big and take a good look at it, you will see the effect.

So over all

99% of the paint washes out
It takes long to dry
It blends well
It works in conjuction with acrylic paint to
It feels like working with a mix of oil and acrylic paint

I give these paint 8 out of 10. I will go buy some more of this, will you?
Have you tried this paint before? What did you think?

Their website is here.

Ps: Here is a fab new podcast, I have discovered called the VooDoo Lounge. Click on the podcast sidebar. and this website Carla Sonheim: Snowball Journal

have fun creating Art!!!

Being a Vegetarian- 101

2010-08-05T02:08:00.000-07:00

I have been a vegetarian for about 6 weeks and it is therefore high time to tell you all what it means. Basically if you are a vegetarian, you cannot eat any meat, shellfish and sometimes fish( I have decided to eat fish for now) or glycerin( in jelly and gummi sweets and marshmallows) and you cannot buy any leather. So you need to make a few lifestyle changes.You cannot continue your normal diet and just leave out the meat. Because you body needs the nutrients in the meat to function,, so you need to eat other foods to replace theses nutrients.Lets have a little look at at what nutrients you need, why you need them, where to get and how much of it to eat.

Carbs: This stuff gives you energy and heps in bone/cartilage/nerve building and general body maintenance. Sources of carbohydrates are potatoes, root veg,bread,grains, pulses, whole grains,cereal, pasta, rice, noodles, fruit, oats,lentils, fruit, dried fruit, some dairy(such as milk), nuts, seeds and mushrooms. Should be a third of your daily diet.

Fruit and Vegetables: Prevents diseases,boost immune system, good for hair, skin, bone strength and is packed with vital vitamins, minerals, fibre, calcium, zinc and potassium.Every fruit will contain some of these, so just make sure you eat about 6 pieces of fruit or veg per day.

Milk and Dairy(calcium): Strengthens bones and teeth, contains lots of calcium, nutrients and minerals. Everything dairy so milk, cheese, yogurt, soy milk,soy beans, leafy green veg, sesame seeds, tahini, almonds, tofu, bread, oats, watercress, dried apricots,figs, brazil nuts, pistachios, pecans.Eat about 2 portions per day.

Protein: Growth, muscular repair,metabolism( essentials for growing and maintaining health).Complete protein found in quinea, egg whites, soy beans, soy protein. Incomplete protein(which has to be combined with another food group to release proteins) in dried/tinned beans, chickpeas, lentils, tofu, nuts, seeds,couscous, bulgur, wheat, whole grains, cereal, eggs,baked beans,yogurt, hummus, milk, cheese, broccoli, beans sprouts, peas, seaweed, sweet potato, dried apricots, avacado and miso. Eat 2-3 portions a day.

Fat: Essentials foe maintaning the body's processes- energy,activating vitamins and insulation. Can be found in butter, vegtable spread, soy milk/spread/oils. Cheese, cream, olive, rapeseed, sunflower oils and avacado. Eat 2 portions a day.

Iron: Low-iron diets can cause anaemia( its hard to focus, you feel and look flaky, no energy). Iron needs to be aeten with Vitamin C , so your body can absorb it. Vitamin C in orange/juice, kiwi, strawberry, potato, cabbage, broccoli, tomato, melon, asparagus, peppers, mago and black berries.Iron in Nuts, seeds, raisins, eggs, spinach, kidney,beans, chickpeas, black treacle, lentils,peanut butter, hummus, wholemeal flour, watercress, broccoli, spring beans, okra, spinach, breads and olives. Eat 2 portions a day.

Selenium: Boosts your immune system. In nuts(2 brazilnuts a day would cover it), wholemeal bread, eggs and brown rice. Eat daily.

Vitamin B12: Needed for nervous system and to keep blood healthy.Can be found in Eggs,dairy products, Vegemite, Marmite, soy milk, veg and sunflower seeds. Eat daily.

So there you go , that is a basic outline of what you can eat. If you want me to, I will create another post with some recipies and ideas on how to get all these foods into your diet.

RESOURCES
Vegetarian shoes
Peta

Make your own Glue

2010-08-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

Today I made some glue from this cool book called: Green Guide for Artists by Karen Michel.I made her recipe called: Rice paste. It was really fun to make, so her is the recipe:

95 grams of rice flour
26 grams of sugar
175ml of warm water
essential oil( this preserves the glue and stops it from smelling weird you can use Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, Tea Tree or Sandalwood)

1. In a pot, combine rice flower, sugar and water. Stir until there are no lumps.
2.Stir over low heat until mixture has thickend. My glue was way to thick at this point, so I had to add more water, but once I had it was fine.
3.Remove from heat and mix in a few drops of essential oil.
4.Allow mixture to cool, then pour into a jar. You should have about a butter-cream consistency.

Apply this glue with a paintbrush , I dipped my paintbrush in water first and then apply to paper. This product last for several months:)

Above you can see my page for GPP Street-team Crusade entery, which I glued down with this cool glue. It woked wonderfully

Have fun!!!

Creative Block?! GET YOUR WARPAINT ON!!!!!

2010-08-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

Over the past two or three days I have just been sitting round reading magazines and watching youtube videos on how to sew clothes( yes I want to try) instead of acctually creating anything. I did do the picture above in my art journal, but it is horrible!!!!Ans more importantly I made myself do it and it was not fun. It is time to rise up and put some warpaint on ( aka liquid eyeliner) and get creative.
First let's go onto iHanna's art journaling catagory and see what ideas that gives us...
Hmmm... Maneki Neko Sketch ,
Sounds fun huh? So I went on google and found a cool pic of this cat and drew it.

Better than the girl painting and it was fun!!YAY!! So my tip for creative block: Go onto one of your fave art journaling websites, pick a post they did that looks fun and for which you have all the supplies, turn the music up and start mindlessly working.And voila!!!
At the moment I am really into japan, so i did a bit of research about this cat.
Basically:
Maneki Neko: means Beckoning Cat aka Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money Cat and fortune Cat.
The raised paw is not a greeting, but has a meaning. If the left paw is raised it means the statue or image will bring customers into a shop( they are commonly placed outside shops for this reason)and if the right paw is raised, it means wealth and good luck. A lot of people think that, the higher the cats paw is raised , the greater Luck or the greatest distance good fortune will come from.The cat normaly has a red collar, which may be red because it reminds of the red flower hichirmen, which was popular during the Edo period when it was first created( 1603-1867) and a bell and/or bib. The bib may be something to do with the bib which grateful parents are said to give to Jizo Botsatu, the protector of sick children.
The histiory of this cat is mysterious. It could be because emperors and other important people say that someone passed a cat, that was waving at him. thanks to being distracted by this cat, the man did not walk into a trap. Thats why cats are considered wise and lucky spirits.

I can't argue with cats being wise and lucky spirits!
I got the info from Wikipedia, there you can also read about the 3 legends around the actual cat statue.

So that did it for me. How do you go to war with your creative block?

My own sponge adventure

2010-07-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

Today I was down the town and went into a shop for lunch. On my way out I saw a pack of 13 sponges for 1 pound and so I bought it. They are multicolored makeup sponges (in pink, purple, white and blue). I came home and sat down to start playing with them and to watch Samantha Kira's Studio Vlog. Then what do I see? This week she is playing with sponges too. How weird is that. I thought my makeup sponges were amazingly cool to work with, they got me an awesome i smudged the paint with my fingers effect , but I did not get my hands dirty. I also found some bubble wrap and used it to create to prints and covered in paint applied with a makeup sponge. I had earlier today, drawn an Owls head. so I decided to cut it out and glue it down. I also used my red and orange shimmering H20 watercolours, a strip of patterned paper and some gelpens and pen and ink. To finish off this page, I wrote about me becoming a vegetarian. I have been for 3 weeks now and I think its fab.
Play with something cool in your journal and leave me a comment about it.

XXO MAKEALIFE

Strip Ease

2010-07-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

click to see lArge

I enjoyed last month crusade so much, I decided to give it ago this month to. Above is my page.
First i followed the "instructions" on the site. I took a few patterned papers and paper from an old newspaper. I randomly ripped strips from the papers and glued +these down with gel medium.Next i stamped all over it using my large diamond checked stamp.
Then not quite sure how to continue I left it be for a week and worked on other pages.When i came back to it, all I did was randomly layed white gesso onto the page and then I drew a face with biro(using a magazine image as a giude to where her features should go.)I then gave her a tribal feather headpiece and then covered the excess gesso with orange paint. Lastly I cut the word adventuerer and leader of the pack from a magazine and glued it down.
:)

A quick idea. Art journaling club

2010-07-12T03:17:00.000-07:00

Would anyone be interested in taking part in a virtual art journaling club? What would happen is every saturday one of the members creates a background and scans it in or takes a photo& posts it on their blog. Then that person continues to work on it. All the others go onto the sote, print out the background & complete it in their own way. Then we all upload our images by the end of the week & voila!!
If you are interested... Leave a comment& i will organise. :)

I have a few new products(YAY!!)....

2010-07-09T03:40:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I went to this amazing little craft shop, that sold so much cute stuff. It was really hard to limit myself to a few things.In the end, i left the shop with one bottle of cosmic shimmer mist, a Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad and a new paintbrush. I am also including gel medium and Gesso to this post,as I just got them a few weeks ago.
The paintbrush is a flat bristled brush in size 4: this brush is fab, you can do dry brushing with it and treat it rough, as long as the brush is cleaned properly at the end, it will last for a long time. This is my new favorite brush.
My Gel medium in gloss: is my new bestfriend. You can use it to create texture(combined with paint will add colour), its a great glue and can even be used to create image transfers,
The white Gesso: is a worthy investment and very different from acrylic paint. It can be used to cover up the whole layer underneath, but it can also be applied in such as way, that parts of the underneath layer shine through. Dry brushing works really well with this.
The Distress Ink Pad in vintage photo: is a lovely colour and so far is great to use around the edges of my journal pages.I want to do a bit more experimenting with this, as I just got it the other day.
Lastly the Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Gold is so .... well shimmery. You can use it as I have done on the journal page above, in the background to add the wow factor to your pages. I want to experiment with this as well.

Have you ever used any of these products? If so what do you think of them? Please share in a comment below.:)))

Book review and upcate: Creative Wildfire by L.K.Ludwig

2010-07-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

I have been on a mini road trip away from the computer. I have had a lovely time, reading books and coming up with creative ideas. I bought this fabulous book and will now review it for you.

I picked this book up because it had a lovely vibrant cover page, but when I saw the title: Creative Wildfire: An introduction to art journaling-basics and beyond, I thought it would be to basic for me. I was wrong though, it is full of fab content. This book is divided into 6 chapters. I will give you a rough outline of what is in each one.

Chapter 1: gathering fuel: How to get started
This first chapter is about choosing a journal structure and the how to on a few different ways to bind an art journal.

Chapter2:
The tinderbox:page surface techniques
This chapter contains many cool and new to me techniques such as scraped paint,reductive stenciling, different ways to work with gesso, and more. Each tutorial is easy to understand and offers a million suggestions for altering the idea. This book is full of ideas.

Chapter3: Building fire: Using Imagery
Also full of ideas on ways to add imagery through collage,image transferes and new ideas such as drawing on images, printing onto tissue paper and gelatin mono printing.

Chapter4: Bursting in into flames: Creating meaningful content
ideas about sources for fodder, topic art journals,begin with masters, how to stop creative block and more.

Chapter5: Feeding the fire: adding details
Ideas on how to use text, add pockets, envelopes, tabs and embellishments.

Chapter6: Keeping the fire burning: Fueling your creativity
This is about artists dates and finding the time to be creative.

Each chapter also contains interviews with many artists such as Katie Kendrick, Teesha Moore and Misty Mawn.

This book is very inspirational and leaves me bursting with new ideas. I think it is the perfect book to bust you out of your creative blocks and is therefore essential to every art journalist.

End of week round up 25.6.2010

2010-06-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

My latest journal pages( check out and try the photo mono printing, if you want me tp post a tutorial on photo mono printing, just leave a comment,)

Hello
First of have a lovely summer!!! The warm weather has just kicked in for good where I live, so i hope this will open a whole new door to my creativity: getting inspiration from the great outdoors.

But for today I want to bring you all the creative things that have been passing my mind lately. first of all this amazing video by journalgirl, about reflecting on your day is super inspiring when you need a topic to journal about and it has already made my art journal more true and juicy.

Click to make the above image bigger, it was inspired by her video:
www.ustream.tv/recorded/7661471

Then these two links have a lot of potential: how to make flowers to use in art and a magazine canvas. Check them out.

The photo mono printing journal page is also my Grid page prompted by GPP Street team prompt. I just created a grid around my photo mono print, which I had doodled on and then in each grid a drew, doodled or wrote the first thing that came into my mind. This was a cool exercise.(click on the yellow journal page at the top to get a bigger picture).

To finish off some ideas on my todo list:

1. a journal page in red
2. create a zine about animal rights
3. make and use some homemade clay
4. Make some artists trading cards
5. Art outside
6.work on my secret journal house(i will be sharing my slow progress soon.)

Have fun!!!
One last question to every one plaese leave a comment with the answer, I will post a comment with my answer in it:
What is your all time fave art supply and why?

Art must haves for journaling in the garden

2010-06-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

So a few posts ago, I posted a very cool page I create in the garden. I LOVE DOING So during the summer. IT is just so inspiring and fun! So, if you want to spend some time makin art in the garden, just grab a little table and chair or sit at your picknick table. Now garb a lunchbox and fill with goodies:

Camera(to take inspiring photos)
acrylicpaints( TO paint with:))
suncream(you dont want to get burnt and it can be used like gelmedium as a glue)
paintbrushes and water
pens for journaling

I only use these basic supplies and then just create whilst listening to craftpodcast such as craftsanity and craftypod. What pod casts do you like to listen to?

Arthistory Crashcourse part 1: Impressionism

2010-06-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

I am launching a brandnew series about art history. Every tuesday, I will bring you the history on a time period, artist, art matêrial or piece of art.

The Impressionism offically started in the mid 1860's, when the first exhibition was launched containing impressionist pieces by artists such as Monet, Degas, Cezanne and van Gough.It was a personal way pf portraying the light and colours of the world.The art style was more about painting a reproduction of the true spirit rather than coüpining nature down to the barest detail. I think that art journalers can learn from them that you should depict the world as you see it and never be afraid to include the truth no matter how ugly that might be.

Impressionism is baout how the artist sees the world in that very spilt second and the ever changing reality. Colour was very important, ^the colours should convey the atmosphere of busy life in pure brilliance. It became more popular to go out in the fresh air and to paint face to face rather than being in a studio. These artists also figured out that the sun is not a single colour, but a sum of pure chromatical values.Light was important to impressionists and they use brush strokes to represent the vibrations of light.This could make a fun prompt: try painting a scence, by onld painting in the light or apply a thick layer or paint and then consoiusly create brush stroke texture.

Black became regongnized as a colour of its own and was no longer banished from the palette.Colours were applied in fantastic new techniques that either allowed them to blend or spilt the dark from the light.Basicly they paint reality as it is in the eyes of the painter with emphasis on light and colour. I think this is a cool attitude to have towards art journaling to.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief history crashcourse, as you have noticed, I will throw in some artsy inspirational ideas that came to me when I learned about it.

Now go make art!!!! Do you want to adda ny ideas you get from impressionism, please comment below and share.In order to promote commenting on my blog, I will post everyone's blog adress on my side bar, who leaves a comment.¨

XXO MAKEALIFE

Get outside that studio!!!

2010-06-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

My work space outside, a pretty flower,a photo and the painting of the thing I painted.

Today it was warm weather and I had time and I had no ideas of what art I should create, so I went outside. I have a table and chairs outside, so I grabbed a few supplies: my art journal, camera, ipod,acrylic paints, watersoluable pencils, pain tbrush and water and a pencil. Then I simply sat down and started to create a wonderful impressionist painting of this part of my garden.I focused on the wonderful colours and basic shapes of the painting. I let go of thinking, oh that isn't very good and I think that itz turned out great. Yes, I know it does not look really realistic, but I love it. My painting really captures the colours of my garden. The coolest thing is that now that the light has changed, the colours did to, so I have captured my garden in an absolute unique way. The colours will never be the same. Try this experiment to, I took a photo and compared the colours, guess what mine were nicer, more saturated and just generally more realistic, colour wise. Ask yourself what do you feel, is the colour and feel more important to you or is it more important to you for the image to look realistic.To me, the first is way more important when it comes to art.

I dare you to try it to, grab your fave supplies and head out to your garden to create an impressionist painting or some fab photos. Another new thing I ma in to lately is Craftsanity, a fab podcast.I especially love the episodes about artistic people. I love listening to podcasts whilst I create art.

Lastly sorry I have been away for a while, but first I went on a trip to italy and then lately, Until now i did not feel like blogging and to me, it should be fun. But I am back!!! YAY!!!!Here are somethings that will be coming up lately:

Some info on great artists, both from art history and present day people.I am hoping to interview some people to, so if you are interested in being interviewed please leave a comment.
Ways to grow as an artist, such as how to start my own spin on summer projects
More things about art quilting and other creative fabric things
How to get active about animal rights( check out www.peta.org.uk )
Awesome links

Please leave a link to some art you have done outside.:)

Makealife

Quick prompt 24.5.2010

2010-05-24T03:48:00.000-07:00

Drawing really helps you grow as an artist. I think everyone should draw something at least once a week. I do. I sit down with one of my friends and we draw say the pot in front of us. When we are done, we compare and talk about our drawings. You should try it.
Here are my fave drawing links:

Here ,
here

have fun!!!!!

End of week links 23.5.2010

2010-05-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

I will post a few of my fave links at the end of each week from now on.

Lets start with daisy yellows 20 things dare, the comments are bursting with inspiration on cool things you could use in your art journal here and here. Have fun with thema nd be sure to comment to.

Over on paperphantom she shares an awesome idea about using foodcolouring and water to create an awesome bubble effect on paper. This would be perfect for a journal background or as patterned paper.

This is a super idea to, painting on brown paper. Who would of thought it could hold so much paper?

If you have never t¨ried splattering in your art journal, this will make you want to.

Using your electronics to help your art!

2010-05-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

Yes! I admit, sometimes I'll go on the computer and get sucked in for hours, when all I wanted to do was get some quick inspiration.But there are some things gadgets can really help you with.

Computer:

If you just need inspiration a tip:Google the first thing that comes into your mind, but search the images. As soon as you have found one to your likeing, print it out and switch your computer off. Now see where this image takes you...
Search for quotes you could use in your art
Set yourself say 10 mins(on a timer, i use the one on my phone) to surf the internet and then go off and be creative
If you have just bought a new art supply, search it in google, till you find a cool technique and then go and try it out
Print out alphabet sheets: Just go onto word, select a font and blow it up to the size you want, now print and voila!You can now cut these out and use in your Art journal

Moblie Phone:

Use as a timer for the above
Connect it to your computer and print and use the photos on it. Your phone will have the best (not best quality) photos on it, as you can just grab it and snap a picture when it seems right

Iphone:

Listen to music
Get a quote app, randomly select a quote and use this in your page
Keep a list of things you love or hate or something like that and use this in your art

Those are my ideas on this subject, if you have any ideas please leave in a comment below also leave any requests for futur blogposts below.

MAKALIFE xo

How to create a Inspiration board

2010-05-08T05:14:00.000-07:00

An inspiration board is a very important iteam in any crafty or artistic persons life.On this board you will pin everything and anything that inspires you. Then when you need a little boost with your creative flow, grab an image and go from there.

You will need:

Things that inspire you
Pinboard
pins

1. Gather quotes, images(from fashion magazines or artwork you admire), colour samples, postcards, photos, emphemera from your daily life, fiber and fabric, numbers, letters you like absoloutly anything!

2. Arrange the clippings in a way you like: this can be in catagories like fashion, art and nature, by colour, size or just however looks right

3. pin thesedown and use as inspiration.

SO How can this help inspire me?

You could write a story based on one of the objects, this could be a made up one or why and how it inspires you
Use this image as a base for a collage
Let the theme or colour of a picture inspire your next creation
Draw the image
Capture the feel of it on a page
Use the quotes of lyrics in an art journal page
Use that awesome picture of a lacebag as inspiration for your next skirt
If it is a fabric or fiber swatch, use this fabric in your next project

And there you go, an inspiration board is basiclly the place you store all the inspiration you get, when you are to busy to use it and the place you raid for ideas, when you have time but no clue what to do. How do you use your inspiration board?

" Spring is natures way of saying lets party!"-uNKNOWN

My Anti Cosmetic animal testing painting and some cool ideas to use in your art journal

2010-04-30T11:50:00.000-07:00

I love this painting, the first half is a normal girl and the other half is what she would look like if she had to go through the painthat animals do, just so we can look"PRETTY"?!

Here are some ideas For art journaling that I am loving:

work with some ink and just add a few accents to your pages
practise drawing
think outside the box, look at every material as a potential piece of art journaling gold
cut and paste down a random sentance from a book and use this as your prompt
buy yourself a pot of gelmedium and experiment
use paper chains(handcut) in your backgrounds
Date your art work
experiment with splatters

Have a good and creative weekend!DO you like it when i just post a piece of art and some prompts or should I give you more techniques or something?

Prompt:Childhood friends

2010-04-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

(Click for a biger version)

Did you have a favorite childhood toy? An object you thought was real?I did. I had this cute Bunny Rabbit called PEter Rabbit. Todays prompt: document this childhood friend. If you have a photo, stick that in, if not try drawing it from what you remember it was like or draw how you remember it feeling like.
I think this is really fun to, just play in my art journal and let myself explore meyself.Start with small things like toys, fave tv shows, books ect. Then dig deeper.What are you passionate about and waht are you opinions on religion, technology ect. Experiment with writing, using quotes, lists or even drâwing a comic strip.
Have fun

Check this out

2010-04-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

Awesome!
http://vimeo.com/teeshamoore

Love the tutorials for fabric journals!!!Go tesha Moore gogog!!!!!!!!

Book review: Mixed Media Mosaic by Laurie Mika

2010-04-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

This was one of those books where you have just found an amazing book shop and as you browse the aisle looking for nothing like this, you find a magical book.Above you can see the title page and my very first attempt on making a mixedmedia mosaic box.It was so fun!
But what kind of stuff is inside?
Well, all the instructions come with photos and are very easy to follow. Though I think this is more a book where you read everything through and then just experiment.Any one can follow the instructions. Look at my box , I am a complete beginner in mosaic and look how cool it turned out, even if I do say so myself.Back to the book,it starts of by showing you how to use a few diffrent techniques in your mosaic making. She makess hers from polymere caly and also uses bought glass and clay tiles. She shows yu how to cut, paint and stamp on bought tiles. Then she shows us how to make your own basic tiles, how to transfere onto them, paint them, add little extras such as mica powders and gelpens.Then leran a few reallly cool ways to use mica powders and stamps and how to add beads to your tiles and much, much , much more.

Her next chapter is full of inspirational project ideas such as using the tiles to decorste a box, mirrow, make jewelry or create shrines.

This is an absoulute gem of a book and i think that evry art journal/mixed media artist should own it.Also one tip from me: I wanted to get started, but I did not have any mica powders, so instead I used artists pitt pens in brush and then wiped them with my finger, to create a matt, subtle colour like on the tile, on my box, with the x through it.

Avalible on Amazon:

XXo Makealife

Earthday: Go green and save he earth and animals

2010-04-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

Today is Earthday, yay! So please please do your bit for animals or the enviroment today.There are so many simple things you could do today:

Go on threadbanger and watch this for some places where you could find eco friendly clothing and accessories

Check you cosmetics for cosmetic animal testing and download this fab app for your iphone(http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cruelty-free/id313825734?mt=8) its free!!!
Reuse old thing in your art: cut of trimings and buttons from old garments, join stash swaps with your friends, reclaim the matierials used in you WIPs
Cut up old magazines to create collage and find other ways to recycle in art like many of alsia burkes creations(http://www.alisaburke.blogspot.com/ )
Switch off unused applications and lights
Bring your own bag shopping
Use old books as art journals or make your own from recycled paper
Buy recycled stationary( I have some reviews coming up)
Use flowers,leaves and other natural things in your art
Create staemeent art to show people how bad things are
Support charities
Eat less meat
Buy organic food and make your own over buying

These are just some supersimple ideas, so please do at least on of these or another earth or animal friendly thing today and remember, your art is your voice to.Chronicle where you found that nice veggie resteraunt or eco friendla hair salon, make art about the animals you saw today, inform your self about how bad your art supplies are for the enviroment and make some changes, use natural collage elemsnts and use rubbish such as old tickets from your everyday live and get active!!!!

Prompt yourself up part 1

2010-04-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

A new series:Prompts from my head to inspire you to create art in your art journal and in other mediums.Try exploring possiblities such as clay, canvas....If you dont have any clay, why not make some salt dough clay?Be crreative!!

Use your art to document a favorite childhood toy
Tell a story about a family member such as your grandma
Create a self portrait.It is open wether you want to grab a mirrow and do an exact study of your face or if you just want to capture your identity in an abstact image
Think of a few key points in your life and create art about them= artistic biography
Explore your mind set on consuming, religion, animal rights and the like
Take a photo of you wearing an outfit you like and explore why
Use things from your everyday life such as stamps, ticket stubs and candy wrappers.Why not try to get one piece like this per day and collect and add to your journal
Draw something once a week, to improve yoiur drawing skills

Have fun!!!!

Start drawing 1

2010-04-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick drawing of my cats head whils he was lieing on the chair.It was so fun, but at the same time hard as he kept moving.I am not really a good drawer but after listening to this fab podcast(http://dannygregory.libsyn.com/), I really wanted to draw.So I am going to make it a weekly practise, that I draw at least one drawing per week.Drawing really lets you grow artisticly and dicover yourself.All you need is paper, a pencil(I recommend 2H) and a rubber(I recommend a kneadable putty rubber).So i will be posting a few drawing prompts over the next time.Starting today:

DRAW YOUR PET OR HOUSEPLANT OR ROOMIE AND WRITE YOURSELF POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITASIMS, SO YOU CAN WORK ON THE BAD PARTS AND BE HAPPY ABOUT THE GOOD PARTS:)

Etsy Loves 7.4.2010

2010-04-07T03:57:00.000-07:00

Cute art doll made with Air dry clay can be found here

Super cute art doll made from fabric and plaster with moveable polymere clay arms.Can be found here

This super cute Forest girl painting can be found here and was painted by marisolspoon.

This cute nurse kitty was painted by tanyabobd and can be found here

StudioWednesday 7.4.2010

2010-04-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

I have decided I will not post my art pages on thursday.I will post them whenever, but
I will do so once a week.Okay guys?

Anyway:

Below is my first art journal page in my new handmade art journal,I have already done way more but I am always abit behind with uploading photos.But who cares? I did this page by first taking my neocolour IIs and appling them to the background and adding water so that you get that lovely blend of colours. I love having lots of colours on my pages.Then i tried out tape trasfer for the image.The way you do so, is take some clear packaging tape, the wide kind and laying the image onto it.Wet this and rub off the back layers of your image.This leaaves only the top layers of paper and therefore the image on the cellotape.The reason I have lines going through mine is because I did not have wide tape , so I had to improvise with normal tape.I still think it turned out fab, don't you? I want to buy some clear packaging tape, so I can try again.

After doing all this, I sat infront of the telly with scissors, a glue roll(very handy) and my box of patterned papers.I just sat there and cut and pasted pretty images the whole evening.Very relaxing. At the end of it all I decided not to add any words as I find this page is like a picture of some secret coloured water.The girl looks like she is under water and it seems to tell me a a million things without any words and i did not want to ruin this.I really like this page.

The next one, is my version of journalgirl's prompt(what makes a miserable art journaler?).I used many layers of paint and paper scraps to gat the background, but I really do like the background.Then I just added my list :

1.She tries to exactly copy other peoples art.Just copy the elements you lika nd combine into your own style.
She tests everything out before doing it. You should react frominstinct. Your art journal is you place to be free from judgement on how good things are.
Isn't ever happy with what she creates.Sure we don not always create good pieces, but If you dont like the page, you at least liked the process right?
She does not capture her personality and feelings in her art journal
She always does the same basic thing. So say, text in corner and picture at top.Have fun and play with placemnt¨
She lays one layer of background and then is done.Layer you back grounds.Layering is fun!
She plans out her next page!Just be creative

At the moment I am challenging myself with daisyyellow april creative challenge, Make a list of 100 ways to use a paintbrush!It is hard,but very funa dn really makes your brain think creatively!I have 25 ideas so far!!!:)

Book review:Collage Unleashed

2010-04-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

I really love this book.I got it a few months ago and have reread all the techniques and ideas over and over again.This book has 6 chapters, so first I will give you a quick round up of what is in each chapter.

Painting Paper and Fabric: This chapter is all about ways to put paint to paper and fabric.Traci treats both mediums as one.I find this very inspiring.In this chapter she shows you how to die paper towels, how to make crayon cupcakes,how to use an iron to melt crayons and then use them as art and much more. Each idea comes witha step by step tutorial with clear photos and extra ideas.At the end of each chapter she gives you even more ideas to try such as to use your painted papers for colour swatches, name cards, Bookcovers, scrapbook paper or roll up beads.
Printing, stamping and using transparencies:This chapter gives you loads of ideas such as layering prints,doodle monoprints and how to make and what to do with transparencies made from your own art.She introduces the concept of fabric collage with transparencies and offers many attachment methods such as making transparency sandwiches with dired flowers in them and some fab ideas for a texture toolbox.
Freestyle lettering and Doodling:This chapter really inspire you to go out and buy a million gelpens and to get lettering and doodling.She has a fun doodle warmup, how to turn your doodles into wonderful colouring pages,lots of ideas for funky calligraphy and doodling prompts.She also really incouraged me to use everything and anything to doodle with like sumiink and a pipette.Lastly she offers lots of handy tips for writing on fabric.
Combining Collage styles:How to create fusion dyed collage,ideas for collaging with symbols and fabric paper patchwork collage.At the end of this chapter she shares collage starters and themes.A truely inspiring chapter
Stiching bindings and funky embellishments:This chapter is all about how to make journals,She starts of by offering a clear tuorial on making signatures, offers lots of unique binding methods such as free form crochet,bead macrameor latch and rug hook binding and hand and machine sew embellishing stiches.I know where I am going to look for my next art journal ideas.
Projects combining techniques:Shows you how to make many journals, wall hangings and bags with the techniques learned throughout this book.

I think this bôok is fab!Anyone who loves art journaling and wants to venture into working on fabric aswell, or any one that just needs paper and fabric inspiration should buy this book!!!!!!!!!!!!

Autor; Traci Bautista

Travel journal inspiration

2010-04-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

I am going on a 5 day trip soon and thats why i want to make and keep a travel journal.Here are my links:

I hanna's post on keeping a journal.With many cool tips
I want to sew the pages like ihanna did.So here are some good tips
Travel journal writing tips
Fab tutorial

Spring cleaning Quilt- Along

2010-04-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

I am not a tidy person.At all.But when the weather gets nicer, I do get into a Spring Cleaning mood. But it is still kinda boring.Then I had an idea!Why not make a quilt as I go along?The idea was born.Let's get right down to it:

Get all your fabric out.Everything, scraps, felt....

Put on some good music

Now start off by drawing a pattern for all your squares of your future quilt.Cut it out and you have your pattern

Grab your first fabric.Get a bag ready fro scraps even if you already have one, get a new one.Have a rubbish bin at the ready to.

Spread your fabric out, cut of any dangly bits that are in the way and are to small to be used in a big project and put these in your scrap basket. Trace around your pattern 2-4 times, use the scraps if you can.If not then just cut it out from your main fabric.Cut around this roughly and set aside.

Cut a small sample piece from your fabric to. Fold it up and put away in what ever way you choose, a basket, clear bag, box, shelfing unit-Whatever
Repeat steps 4-6 for all your fabrics.If you have some jersey or silk that is not good for a quilt, then just do the same steps , but do not cut the squares out. Make sure you cut out a sample though.
Once you are done, you can pile all your tester pieces, add some elastic, to hang it up by and staple the whole thing.Now you have a handy refrence to exactly what fabrics you have.
Go through your scrap bin and sort to bin, new scrapbin or if they are big enough to fit your square blanket pattern on them, then draw around it again.
Sort all your felt into scraps(seperate felt scrapbox) or new fabric.
Cut out all your squares

I will continue this soon.If you decided to take part, just leave a comment below with a link to your site and i will ad you to the toolbar.Be sure to share photos so far.At the ens of this project I will also post links to how to use fabric and felt scraps:)

XO MAKEALIFE

Talk about the product:Paintbrushes Part 2

2010-04-01T00:52:00.001-07:00

Okay, let's continue were we left of.
There are many, many Paintbrush sizes out there and you have to just experiment with different sizes, until you find your perfect size for you. It will also depend on what you want to do with it. For painting details such as fasces, I like to use a round sable brush in 4, 6, and 8. But if I want to just paint the background, I prefer to use a bigger size flat, sturdy brushes like size 10 or 12.

The last thing that you need to know is that there are different types of brushes, which get divided into 3 categories.

Round brush: Exactly what it sounds like. Rounded with a pointed tip. Works well for painting details, but when bought in a big size also good for big surfaces and flat washes.
Mop brush: This is similar to a round brush, but just a bit more flimsy. This is used for laying large areas of colours quickly.
Flat brush: You guest it, this brush is flat. It is good for painting large areas.

That's what I would call the basics. Now this is the same with almost every art supply and technique.T he best way to learn is to just experiment. A last tip: do not buy cheap brushes, or else the hairs will start to fall out and stick to whatever you are painting.

Colour mixing 101

2010-03-31T02:45:00.000-07:00

I have realised by watching the journal girl video yesterday, which is brill by the way and you just have to watch, that a few art journalers really do not know how to mix colours.So it is high time for a crashcourse.All this info is from my own brain, so sorry if its formulated in a weird way.

Above you can see the cover of my current handmade art journal.It is a colour wheel.You probably know that red, blue and yellow are prime colours.This means that you cannot mix them.Therefore they are basic colours!White and black are also basic colours, so you will need these okay?Now look at the colour wheel now can you see that between the yellow and the red there is orange?Good, this means that if you mix yellow and red together you will get orange.Between the red and the blue there is purple, so if you mix blue and red you get purple.Lastly between the blue and the yellow you can see green, so blue and yellow makes green.

There. Now you know the absolute basics to colour mixing.I recommend you try all this out for yourself though, to get the feel for it.Now lets take the example of mixing red and yellow(=yellow) If you mix these in a 1:1 ratio you will get a pretty basic orange.If you put in more red than yellow, your orange will be a bit more redish.If you put in more yellow, it will be yellowisher(is that a word?!).This can be fun to play with.This is the same for all the colour combos, i talked about above.

If you mix all the colours together you will get brown.But you also get brown when you mix red, black and yellow in the ratio(roughly)2:2:1.Black and white cannot be mixed.If you add black to a colour it will go browny or greyish depending on the colour.Normally you only add a tiny, tiny bit of black to your colour mixing.If you mix black and white together you will get grey.Again the more white used the lighter the colour will be.The more black you use, the darker it will be.If you add white to colours they will get lighter but also go kinda paleish.So if you have blue and add white it will become a more baby blue.

Pink can be mixed by adding white to red, though if you want a magenta colour, i would buy this to as it can be very hard to mix.Basiclly when mixing if you add a colour the mixed colour will become more like that colour.Do you get me?

Lastly if you really want a colour to pop out, then pick say red and then take the colour that is across in the colour wheel so blue or green.

Thats my basic colour mixing crash course.Now just experiment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Art journaling 101:Paper and journals

2010-03-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

The first thong you will need if you want to start art journaling is a surface to work on.I like to have my art journal and then have some side projects on other surfaces.There are two basic options for art journaling:

1.A journal

2.A artbox: you work on paper and then collect in a box.

Lets take a closer look.Basicly you have to choose wether you want to work in a journal or if you want to work on seperate pieces of paper and then collect these in a box.
For the journal you have many options.But i recommend one with strong paper such as a cardstock kind or watercolour paper, though you may want to try out a few diffrnat kinds to get your personal prefrence.If you want to buy a journal, i recommend a moleskine the watercolour or sketchbook kind.Get a size you feel comfy with.At the moment i am working in a huge book.Which is nice to have so much room, but i think i like a smaller portable one best.If you dont want to buy a journal, you can make one.Just search in youtube or google and you will find many wonderful tutorials.Now lastly if you do make one your self you will be able to pick the cover decoration and the paper.Also you have the choice between a bound or a spiral bound art journal, both are fine.But in a spiral bound one, id like to try one for my next journal, it will be harder to work in a two paged spread.

If you want to go with a box: You will be able to buy lots of diffrent papers and then decide on them at the spur of the moment.The box should be big enough to hold all your diffrnt paper sizes.You can use any kind of box, a shoebox, zigarette box...Decorating the box is half the fun , so be creative.

I will be contining this series, so keep coming and reading.
Happy art journaling!!

Springtip:
Take your art journal outside or by a window and make art outside!!!!

Cosmetic animal testing

2010-03-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

I think cosmetic animal testing should be banned.Why? Because beauty products are not a necassary for our health. Why shoul animals suffer just so that we can supposingly look pretty? Animals suffer a great deal when been tested on. This can result in liver problems swollen eyelids and bleeding. Often animals die or are killed after the testing!!Currently the big makeup company L'oreal continues to test on thousands of animals each year.They secure rabbits so that they cannot move and then test an ingrediant of them, by putting it into their eye.Rabbits are used because they have no tear ducts and cannot relife the stinging or pain.Also they often forcefed a group of animals an ingrediant until they die.These are just two terrible examples.(please click on link above for more info).

Also animals are really quite diffrent from us and therefore the results are not even all that accurate!For example the blood vessels in many animals are contributed in a diffrent way from ours, making their skin react in a slightly diffrent way.

Lastly makeup is not a need. We will not die if we do not wear makeup. But if we do animlas will die.I am not trying to say that we should stop wearing makeup.We should just urge companies to stop testing on animals.There are a few alternatives:Using existing results, i mean makeup has been around for a long time , so why should we have to create even more?If companies see this as the only way to make money, why don't they use ingredients that we already know are safe?Also we could use human volunteers.You may be apaleed by this, why should humans suffer?But consider that this is exactly what we are doing to animals.

Hopefully by know you will agree with me. But how can you help?

How can I help?

A very simple way you can help is buy nor buying from animal testing companies and more importantly supporting the ones that do.Here is a very good guide on the which ones do.Here is another good resource on how o find bad companies.

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

2010-03-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

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:

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.
When glueing, protect pages with some baking paper
Wash glue brush well with soap after glueing or you will kill it(talking from experiance)
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

2010-03-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

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.

StudioThursday 11.3.2010

2010-03-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-07T03:46:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

Check it out:

Have fun drawing!!!!!

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

2010-02-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-24T12:01:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-22T07:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-19T03:40:00.000-08:00

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:

They are fun to play around with
They are clean
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

2010-02-14T07:39:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-13T06:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-10T07:52:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-09T08:07:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

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:

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

2010-02-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-01T03:27:00.000-08:00

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

here is a cute watercolour jelly fish i did.CUTENESSSS

5 followers complete

2010-02-01T03:15:00.001-08:00

thank you paperphantom

Green up your art studio part 1

2010-01-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

You can never be green enough , the world id gonna be in shambles if we go on ölike we are at the moment.So wasting all those recources and releasing so much co2.But there are some fun and easy things you can do to green up you art studio.And the best bit is that normally bering green means reusing so not spending a load of money.
Here are a few suggestions that you can do to green up your studio:

Use old books in collaging and art journal pages
Gesso over failed canvases(by failed i mean the art on them) and reuse
Use an old cd as a paint palette
Old brushes that are recked in some way and can no longer be used for painting make perfect glue brushes or you can sharpen trhe end and use it foe marking in wet paint
look for a http://www.acminet.org/ LOGO ON YOUR ART supplies(neolcolour II has one)
Paint art onto old objects
Do art beads using paper mache
Use the materials again in failed or wips projects
listen to this podcasthttp://www.craftypod.com/2009/01/21/craftypod-84-crafting-green-whats-it-mean/
go to paper phantom where there are lots of cheap and there fore better for the enviroment ideashttp://thepaperphantom.wordpress.com/
alisa burke is always reusing stuff in her fab tutorialshttp://alisaburke.blogspot.com/
use little fabric scraps to sew into art quiltshttp://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2010/01/boring-day-links-1.html
collect paperscraps to sew togetherhttp://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=1042 or use in collages
Store your paintbrushes and pens in a old jam jar or tin
keep a junk box, in here put lots of random containers that you want to reuse , so for example an egg box, toilet rolls, intresting lids etc.
take crafty notes on both sides of your paper
buy recyled craft paper if possible
sew your own tote bag to take to the art store, so you dont have to buy a new plastic bag

FOLLOWER UPDATE 2

2010-01-26T10:28:00.001-08:00

Thank you scrowl scrowl!!!!
I now have four only one more!

9 Reasons why you should doodle

2010-01-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

This is a rose doodle i did on top of a journal page.

"We can mourn because roses have thorns or rejoce because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln

9 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD DOODLE

1.Its fun

2.It will make waiting for longperiods of time seem to pass a lot quicker

3.It will improve your drawing skills and control over your pen

4.You can do it on any piece of paper-no matter how big

5.You can do it any where(so alwys bring a pen and doodle on a recieppt or napkin if you don't have any paper.

6.It will make you relaxed

7.You dont have to be good at drawing to do good doodles

8.Doodling hepls you take in information-your mind processes things you are thinking about while your hands are in a mindless action

9.It helps you unwind before you go to bed

DOODLING TIPS

Dont think about it to much, just sit in a comfy position, grab a pen and paper and just start.
You can dooodle on anything, but it would be nice to have your own little notebook(tht is small enough to fit in your handbag)to carry round with you.
You can use any kind of pen or pencil to doodle with, but i recommend finding a pen you love and buy a extra one(in my case the fine artists pITT pen) as it may get lost in the process of taking it any where
if you find it hard to start check out daisy yelllow (see link below) for some fab mandala doodles and also check out sue doodles(http://suedoodles.wordpress.com/)
Use a waterproof marker the you can upgrade your doodle by colouring it in witha water coulours
Another way to upgrade it would be to collage around your doodle or to colour it in with another medium
Doodling in neocolour is diffrent but fun!!!!

I have been reading daisy yellow a lot lately(http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/).On it you will find lots of prompts , quotes and links.So almost every post has high value.So go check it out.

Make art with friends

2010-01-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

Today my friends came round. We didnt really know what to do , so we all sat down and started collaging.I grabed my art journal and they got some paper.Then we started cutting images and words from old magazines and used some papers from my patterned paper collection.The last thing we also used is neolcolour II crayons.Above one of my friends did her picture.

My other friend made a weird but cool collage body person and then played round with neocolour.While doing this we chattted and listened to music.Its so much fun doing art with your friends.You can get ideas from each other, learn new techniques of your friends.Have some drinks and biscuits handy and get everyone to bring some music.This could easily be done at a party to.

And last but not least here is mine.First i gave the background colour with crayons and then added images and paper.

So if youre bored just call your friends for a lil crafting/art(working):)

Boring day links 1

2010-01-23T12:27:00.000-08:00

I have been planing to try my hand at art quilting for quite some time now and finally i sat down and created one.The heart says Ringo and Rosie in it , which are the names of my cats.

These are my coffee filters i painted.I got the idea from daisy yellow(see my sidebar).It was so fun to do.

Above you can see my canvas calender.

Here are the links:

http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/a/drawingmistakes.htm This is a cute little article about the 10 most common beginners drawing mistakes- even if you dont think your a beginner its very useful

tips on making your drawings more professional- its all done to the pecile skillshttp://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/a/drawingmistakes.htm

Why would you want to make drawing your pasttime?http://ezinearticles.com/?Pencil-Drawing-As-A-Pastime&id=420588

http://thepaperphantom.wordpress.com/ a cool new site about art journaling i found
http://suedoodles.wordpress.com/ a blog all about doodling

So as you can see i like drawing right now.Soon i will post some photos of my drawings and more art journal pages....

Help for haiti

2010-01-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

I am sure you all know about the 7.0 eathquake in haiti last week.It was terrilbe for the peolpe their.The local time at which it happend was 4pm so lots of people where out and about.ane then the earthquake struck leaving nothing but destructionj in its path.Lots of houses as well as the presidential palace fell.Now lets just go and see what problems this will cause for the people of haiti.besids the obvious of them no longer having homes and having to live on the road.All their hospitals have been demolished along with the few medial supplies they had in thr first place.Food and water is getting hard to find.the water they do find will be dusty and they will drink it as they are thirsty.But this will cause a lot of digetsion problems as the water is not clean.There is help coming but haiti is so small it is hard for big planes to land and as a result of this the people are stealing what little supplies there are from each other.More than 1000 peolp are thought to be dead and the graveyards are full up.So they must make mas graves with up to 18 people in one.
But now to the good part, we can help!!!Donate any amount of money to any charity helping haiti and you make a diffrence!!!!On this website i foundhttp://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/write_click_scrapbook/2010/01/a-project-we-all-can-do.html a cool poster you can download and hang up everywhere. Download this or make your own and hang it everywhere!!!!!

Creative challenge:

1.Create something to sell to give the money to haiti

2.Give the money you would usally spend on craftsupplies to haiti

3:create a journal page about the situation in haiti

Buying materials to start embroidery

2010-01-17T04:35:00.000-08:00

My grandma has came to stay and she is going to teach me how to embroider.So we wênt out together to buy the supplies.Here is what you need to get started.

Embroidery scissors

Embroidery floss(in a few basuc coulours)

Embroidery hoop

Embroidery needles

Something to embroider such as a napkin, handkerchief or tablecloth

Some chall to draw on your own images to embroider

And we also got a cute stencil for some simple shapes to draw on and embroider

A cool music video

2010-01-16T05:26:00.000-08:00

one of the weirdest things i have ever seen, but in a good way ,u must watch

FOLLOWER UPDATE

2010-01-13T10:43:00.000-08:00

i now have 3 out of my goal 5 followers.thanks amy!!And if there is anything you would like to see on my blog or any art journaling questions leave in the comments below

Stamp making fun

2010-01-13T10:26:00.000-08:00

I had a lot of fun making stamps and here are the two others i made besides the one in the tutorial.i made one in a grided shape out of craft foam and one out of bibble wrap but other wise the same as in the tutorial(the post before this).Happy art journaling!!!!

tutorial:Craft Foam Stamps

2010-01-09T04:45:00.000-08:00

So its really fun and super easy to make your own stamps.This was my first ever attempt on making any, so i choose a really simple way to make them.First gather you supplies: an old hardcoverbook(i used my old maths book hehe) craft foam, scissors, stanley knife, charcoal pencil(or any thing else that will cut your hardcover book), masking tape and ink . oh and a strong glue

So to get started, cut the inside of your book from the cover, as shown above.

Above you can see the next step, cut the spine out.Next cut out a square from your bookcover using a stanley knife.Now put masking tape around any raw edges.

Design your stamp, as you can see it took me a while to get the heart shape right.

Once you get it right draw it onto your craft foam.Next cut it out.

Lastly glue to your cardboard back, aka your old bookcover, and try it out using ink.

Soon i will post more photos of what other stamps looked like(which i also made) so stay tuned.

HOW TO USE: in your art journal, who wouldnt love personal stamp in their art journal?

I love my new crochethook and my palette knife

2010-01-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

What do you think of teh face above?I bought myself a palette knife and i am learning to use it.Well i am just experimenting really but its fun and thats all that matters.The way i use my palette knife is to just grab a dooleb of paint on to it and then to smear it to the page.

I am working on a little croched stripy bag....

This is the crochet hook i am using.It has like a padded area so when you hold it , it is softer on your hands.You should really try it sometime soon

Bubble wrap printing and a another art journal page

2010-01-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

I got inspired to have a go printing withj bubblewrap , after i had seen this blog post on daisy yellow(http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/vividlife/bubbled-brayer-backgrounds.html).Then after christmas i had some left over from one of the presents i had got.So then I just went for it.I do not owm a brayer so i just put a rolling pin over it.I used acrylic paint (i guess you could also use ink).Once the background was done, i simply cut two heads out from a magazine and drew a body.Then i wrote down my new years resolutions(http://makealifeandmo re.blogspot.com/2009/12/creative-2010.html).

Above is just a close up of one of the figures, as you cant see her that well in the above photo.Her dress was draw with awhite gelpen(i love these, you need one too, yes you do).

This is just a journal page i created.The background is watercolour, then a sketch of my room in pencil and the journaling is using a pitt pen and a gel pen.

"Perfection is not the quest for the best,

it is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves,

the part that tells us nothing we ever do will be good enough-

that we should try again"

- Julia Cameron

update on my goal of 5 followers and links

2010-01-06T04:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I now have two followers yay!!!!!This felt victory/thankup crown goes to you followers(i made it out of felt).

And here are some fab site you should visit:

GPP Street TEAm: monthly art journaling challanges: www.michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/

Sunday scribblings:weekly writing prompt: http://www.sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/

Tips on keeping a travel journal:http://www.gonomad.com/traveldesk/0712/travel-journal.html

Journal writing tips:http://www.diyplanner.com/node/878

7 ways to unleash your creativity:http://www.designsojourn.com/7-ways-to-unleashing-your-creativity/

More from my artjournal

2010-01-04T07:59:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures of my latest art journal pages.I have left lots of room between the pictures and my writing as some very helpful forum attendars(does that make any sense) said i should.

The first two pictures are both from the same page, one is just a close up on the person I drew as you cant see her all that well.This page was made over christmas , so alot of it is just trying out my new art supplies.;)

The 3rd picture is a little bit of doodling I did with my artists PITT pens.But i hate the girls lips.I still posted it , cause I think this blog should not just be about me showiung off my art but also ma failures.

The last pink picture has some pink wrapping up paper in the background.I like how its gone with all the layers.

Happy art journaling!!!!

My December faves(art supplies)

2010-01-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

This is a new monthly series i am starting.At the end of each month I will show you what my favorite art supplies of the month are and some ways to use them, which I think is cool.Cause then you can go out and get your own...If you have any questions or requests just comment below.So lets start;

1.Artists PITT pens

I love these pens and use them in almost every journal page i make.For writing, drawing , doodling and to do mandala doodle pages.I love the all of them but the essentials are just black in all four sizes.The colours are just a bonus:)

2.My little winstor and newton watercolour set:

I am really loving watercolours lately.You can use them for so much painting pictures, backgrounds , on paper and then collage it in...

3.A mini canvas and stand:

It is so cute , a friend gave it to me and I love it. But its just deco.

4.Palette knife:

You can apply paint in a cool 3d effect.And its lovely to create textures in the background and right now, i am working on a cool journal page where i have used a palette knife and a tipex pen to create a face.Post it when done.Mine is a 1018 conda.

5.A tipex pen:

This is such a cool thing, you can write and draw and doodle with it all over your page.

6. uni ball signo broad pen ;

in white(for doodling onto magazine cut outs and on a dark background and one in metallic pink just to doodle and write with.

7-A mini natural sponge:

This can be used to make backgounds and to ad depth.Like here:my collage bookmark tutorial http://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2009/12/tutoriallast-minute-pressiecollaged.html .

8.A cool . but weird double sided tape dispencer:

For sticking stuff

9.A flat paintbrush:

nr.6 da vinci-college 8740

for painting:)

So these are my faves in dezember.I will do another one at the end of january.

Happy art journaling!!!!!!

Why create in 2010?

2010-01-02T03:54:00.000-08:00

Have you ever smellt the smell of freshly baked bread?Well then you know how utterly delicious it is.But imagine how smuch better it would tasteif you had made it yourself.And what about that new hat or that painting?Imagine if you had made these yourself .Food taste better after being hungry,well this is similar.I think whatever it is , it always tastes/looks/feels better if you have made it yourself.You also have the pride of saying:"I made it myself", if anyone asks.But another great thing is you can choose exactly what is used to make thefinished iteam.Then you also gat to have a fun time making it yourself.So by now i hope, i have got you raring to go.So do, go make 2010 your creative year.Doesnt matter what creative thing you do, just have fun!!!
Happy new year

A creative 2010

2009-12-31T08:58:00.001-08:00

I am looking foward to 2010.But i have had a hard time thinking to deciede on some creative new years resolutions, cause there is just so much id like to do in 2010 and i would like to approch the new year openly and just take it as it comes, so I have just thought about some categories id like to inprove on or just continue;

ART JOURNALING:I want to just get better at it and find a nice balance between acctual art and writing, i dont just want to paint a bacxkground andf then write on it i want to add a picture.But then again I would also like to do a little more with watercolours in 2010 and as i got lots of pitt pens and neocolour foe christmas i want to use them alot in 2010.Also I want to try art journaling in a difrent format and on a homemade journal and on an old book.Oh and Id like to broaden my sight of art journaling and try journaling on a bag, tshirt, mug and candle...

RIDING:Id like to work on being on the right stride and getting my hands down when cantering.Also i want to learn more about horses and work on drawing them aswell

BLOG:I want to get better at putting together posts and try to add some extra value to my readers.I also want to aim to get 5 followers.So a little help?

CROCHET AND KNITTING:I want to do more of both of these and get better at them.I want to learn all the crochet stiches and learn how to cable knit.Oh and id also like to try doing a big project such as a blanket or iteam of clothing.

WRITING:I want to keep writing in my diary daily and also start a inspiration book.

STYLE:I want to pimp my clothing to suit my style ala DIY:

So that covers all the stuff i want to do in 2010.What about you?PS i made the bow cool eh?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

What materials to use?part 1

2009-12-28T06:01:00.003-08:00

When I first started ar journaling, the only thing I

had to go by was one two paged artical in craft magazine.It gave me a rough idea of what art journaling was but just staded use any materials you feel happy with and you have on hand.Now this is a very valid point and I do agree that you should use whatever materials you have and love, but still when you start out this can be hard.mabey you havent done much art yet and you want to learn about what materials are good to use.So in this post i hope to help any newcomers to artjournaling to find some cool art supplies and to show you all what materials I use.A while ago i did post some good videos from youtube on tthis , as you may wish to check out:http://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2009/05/supplies-4-art-journal.html

so here we go:

PAINTS: I use two kinds-Watercolour and acrylic paints.I use the Studio Lascaux acrylic paints(http://www.lascaux.ch/english/farben/studio.htm) in dark red, bright red, yellow, lemon yellow, bright blue, dark blue, magenta(pink),black and a huge tube of white which also doubles as my gesso.I hayve a small palette of waterclours(see picture).

BRUSHESand other application methods:I use a bristle brush in size6,a size 11 and 13 0f those normal round ones,two one inched flat brushes for painting walls(i use for backgrounds), a small palette knife,an assortment of brushes in the sizes 6,6,10,4 and some unlabeld, a flat brush in size6, a middle sized waterhandeld brush and a sponge roller.

TO BE CONTINUED...

TUTORIAL:Last Minute Pressie:Collaged bookmarks

2009-12-23T04:44:00.000-08:00

So just incase you have still got to get a few lastminute gifts but you have no idea what to make and acctuly you really feel like art journaling , why not make these cute collaged bookmarks?5 or 6 of them in a little set make a lovely gift along with some choclats.

1.Start off by cutting out some bookmarks from cardstock, they can be any size you wish!

2.Using watercolour crayons or pencils colour the whole bookmark

3.Using water paint with it

Now...

4.Either collect some pretty papers and stick them on or doodle a design on top of the painted surface

5.Now go over it in any colours you like, i picked black and whit, and sponge them, drip them , use handcarved stamps, use wine corks to get the round shape....

6.Write a quote on a piece of paper, either all in one block or in seperate lines...

7.Now you may want to outline the text boxes with a pen(I used artists pitt pens, brush)

8. glue the quotes down

9. add stickers and embellishments

10.Done!!!

Now this is just one way of doing it and i not saying its perfect or anything its just ment to inspire you!!!

Merry christmas!!!

PS:I found this really cool website , its got a tutorial for toiletroll angels, felt cookies....http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/

My latest artwork

2009-12-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

I feel that in the last month or so, my writing skills on my blog and also my art has gotten better.Also I have sterted to work a bit more outside of my artjournal. I am working on a collaged jewelry box and 10 collaged bookmarks as christmas gifts.Yes I am still working on them.I know i should get a move on but I think art should not be rushed.When i am done I will post some photos though.
But for now I leave you with three photos of some of my latest art work.
1.My very first attempt to make an artists trading card.I loved making it. What do you think?
2.Is a journal page.The women where inspired by the volturi in new moon.I know theres not much visual reseblance but its more the feel i got when drawing them.
3.The first picture in the series of three pictures i want to hang up in room. Divided onto each it will say Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.So for the second I am going to paint a big eye.

Merry christmas!!!!

Workshop:layers

2009-12-21T05:16:00.000-08:00

Right now i am really in to learning things about layers and also to try them out in my art journal and have lots of fun.It is going to be one of my new years resolutions to get better at layering.And I thought I may as well share it with all my blog readers.So this is going to be the first part in the series.You will learn along with me, about layers. Some of the tips will be from me but others will bw from around the web and books.
One thing I have already learned is that a good way to strat is with colour and then gesso, this starts of your page nicely.Next just keep adding not covering with every layer.I got this very good piece of advice from one of suzi blus videos.So for now i will leave you with the 3 best videos i have found on the subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1U_DB4UFmk

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You may also like:
http://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2009/12/pretty-layers.html This is one of my first layered pages i every did:
(I have decided to give you one or two links to other related posts on my blog to get you seeing all the work i have put in on older posts)

Merry christmas!!!

100 creative things i want to do in 2010(and a few makes)

2009-12-20T05:04:00.000-08:00

To start above you can see the before and after of my pencil holder, i painted.Second i made a get well sooncard and a pretty doodle page from my art journal.

I am in a bit of stress right now trying to get all my christmas presents but i got distracted and made a 100 creative things i want to do in 2010 list.Every so often i will tell you how far i am on it once the new year has started.I wonder if ill do them all.Some take longer than others, but I thought it woild be fun to share my progress.So here is the complete list:

1.Start a series on my blog about art journaling

2.Buy some FIMO

3.Decorate a mask

4.Make some 3Dfaces out of FIMO

5.try bookmaking

6.make and fill a travel journal

7.Carve my own stamp

8.Create a project using ties

9.Collect patterned and intsresting paper

10.make a zine and share online for free

11.make some of my own art supplies

12.Create a monthly calender collage

13.collage on a canvas

14.sew a plushie

15.Celebrate day of the dead and make a shrine

16.Use music lines in my art journal

17.Learn how to create deeper(feeling)backgrounds

18.Find a cool art journaling mag and subscribe¨

19.decorate school books

20.Make lots of badges and decorate school bag

21.Create some art quilts¨

22.throw a crafternoon

23.Learn how to cable knit

24.Collect buttons

25.Make my room artsy

26.Have a go at styling my old chucks...

27...and Then on my new ones and wear them

28.Find oout aabout the history of art journaling

29.Try knitting a shrug or sweater(well just a big project)

30.Collect paper scraps

31. Experiment

32.Make FIMO friendship necklace

33.Create a colour palette

34.buy a brayer

35.Journal a t-shirt

36.make a mixed media doll

37.make my own buttons

38.Try embroidery

39.Join the non stop artjournaling month(in november or call a random moth my nanojomo)

40.Make ice cream

41.Sew or buy a tutu

42.Make resin knitting needles

43.Make some scrappaper out of scraps

44.buy some crayons

45.sew a qulted blanket art journal

46.make some sweets

47.Make journally easter eggs

48.writ for a zine

49.make some cat toys

50.Collect quotes in a nice way

51.Make a mosaic using shmashed plates

52.make some atcs

53.Learn about history of FIMO

54.Buy some creatîve books

55.decorate a mug

56.get some depth in^to my art journal

57.make a resin bracelet with my art in it

58.Buy a bigbag

59.Buy a handbag( thats small but big enough for my art journal)

60.Draw a map

61.Buy some 3d paste

62.¨make my own art journal

63.try doing art on paper and then binding to a journal

64.Have a go at making my own paper...

65.But first buy supplies

66.Find a creative penfriend

67.read a GOOD book

68.watch a GOOD film

69.make a necklace with chunky beads

70.Play with shrinky dinks

71.Burn some songs and make a cd with cool cover art( mabey one a month)

72.Try dyieng hâir diffrent colours in wash outs

73.Sew a collage necklace

74.collect words

75.Collect prompts

76.try felt mosaic

77.Journal on fabric and sew a bag

78.make a page in art journal, 1 week 1o things

79.Take part in non stop journaling ,month and

80. non stop writing month

81.Find out about creative festivals

82. and celebrate

83.Buy new pens and have fun

84. make a ginger bred house

85.Make some earrings

86.Buy some glitter

87.Find an old book to alter

88.Buz gelmedium

89.Iron plastic bags

90.and make a bag

91.Create a fairy jar

92.Make some mosaic tiles from fimo

93.and use them

94.Buz some black flats

95.sew a journaled pillow

96.Create an art journaled candel

97.buz special paper thin wax to do so

98.collect vintage papers

99.buz some paperdolls to use in art

100.collage a few book marks

Merrz x/mas

My fave Art journaling prompts on the web

2009-12-17T04:23:00.000-08:00

If you are stuck for ideas of what to write just check out this website.it has more prompts than yourever be able to write about:http://www.squidoo.com/journalwritingprompts.

Tips on how to get started and great resources and more http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/abstract/art-journaling-101.html

A Heart prompt here.http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=754

A whole page of promptshttp://www.journalgirl.com/journalprompts/

7 tips for when you are baking cookies

2009-12-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

1.Add a pinch of salt to your cookie dough, salt will make the aroma strOnger.

2.When rolling your dough out, sandwich it between two coolbags instead of using floor

3.To give it a nice shiny finish mix icing sugar with milk.4

4.If you want a chocolate topping add some coconut fat to you choclat to make it more shiny

5.if you are alleergic to nuts just add some fine oats

6.Dont let your cookies cool down for to long as they may start to crumble apart

7.If were talking gingerbread add a piece of apple to the storage box as this makes it stay fresh longer.

A new cover for my art journal, a primitiv stamp and my New Moon journal page

2009-12-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

What do you think of my new art journal cover?It was so simple to make, i simply cut out random bits of paper and glued them on and them coverd the whole thing with cellotape.The tool thing(is it called a spatula?)on top of it is new and im hoping to do marie antoinettes hair withit.

I really intrested in making my own stamps so i tryed a super caveage version of it, by simply sharpening the top aof a wine cork and them stamped it using black on my journal page.But I do think it is really effectiv.Last but not least my new moon page.I did it after seeing the film and the journaling is about what the story is about.

Happy journaling!!!!!

Tutorial: Felt Bookbag with free style applicate

2009-12-13T03:04:00.000-08:00

Okay so sorry the pictures are not in the correct order , but its hard uploading on blogger.:)Anyway here comes a cool Tutorial:

1.Cut out a circle of felt and get some random felt scraps handy

2.Arrange them and sew on

3.Draw round a book and add a few inches on another piece of felt

4.Cut out some 2 inch wide straps

5.Sew bag(sew straps to sides and sew 3 of the four edges of the main pieces)

6.Add buttons to felt circle and sew on

7.DONE!!!!

This would make a great gift to any book lover on your giftlist or you may want to make one for yourself.It took me about one and a half hours.

Merry christmas!!!!!!

Gift Guide: 12 days tell christmas

2009-12-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

So with twelve more days tell christmas you shoule get a move on making presents , so here is a quick roundup with links and ideas pf my own to make and buy.Merry Christmas!!!

For...

...Your best friend:
How about these pretty FIMO friendship necklace?;http://www.cutoutandkeep.net//projects/clay_best_friends_lover_necklaces
Or some nice bath soaks or something(search in google)

...Your Mum,Grandma...
This cute http://bugsandfishes.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-appliqued-succulent-sachet.html sachet

...Wrapping paper
http://ilovetocreateblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/knit-print-wrapping-paper.html cute!

...Your gameaddictat friend(joke)
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Case-for-Your-DS-Lite-Games/

....Yourself
this fab skirthttp://soyouthinkyourecrafty-tuts.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-it-comes-to-being-turkey-its-best.html

...Knitting Friends
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=285832.0

...Your cat
my cats have tested these toys and love themhttp://myfantastictoys.blogspot.com/2009/05/cat-toy-plushies.html

...Your Tee loving Friend
http://weefolkart.com/content/tea-wallet-little-birdie-branch so they can take their teabags everywhere

...Any one who loves cts and tea
make them a catteacosyhttp://bustleandsew.blogspot.com/2009/11/sleepy-cat-tea-cosy-tutorial.html

....a lovely gift
This shrinky dinks necklacehttp://lilblueboo.blogspot.com/2009/11/teeny-tiny-shrinky-dink-leaves-necklace.html

So get crafting!!!

Book review : Journal revolution,Rise up and create

2009-12-09T05:27:00.000-08:00

Authors: Linda Woods and Karen Dinino

I really like this book.Its message is to get down to it and create personal art journal pages.It starts off by showing you some cool techniques to use in your art journal such as how to do faux spray paint and how to distress with tape.Then we move on and learn a tone about what diffrent fonts can mean diffrent things but still say the same.This like every other chapter starts off with 'Theory' , then moves on to a project and finishes witha gallery.Alot of this book is aboût finding your personality in art .There are also fun ideas to do like spy on yourself and use your information to make a journal page.Lots of ideas and tips are shared in this book about how you can journal outside your art journal to for eg.On aa paper plate or a paper bag.

In a nutshell: This is a fab book for anyone who wants to learn how to journal the truth, get comfy outside of your art jôurnal and learn lots about art journaling.

Level: Anyone will love it!

Where to get it: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Happy journaling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty Layers

2009-12-06T07:21:00.000-08:00

This is my latest art journal page.Its done with loads of layers.Ive been watchîng lots of art journaling video, reading lots of books and surfing the web a lot.Many people are posting stuff about layers, so I thought id give it ago to.And this is what came out.

My layers:

1.I cut some pages out of an old book and after cutting em done to fit on the page i glued em down.

2.I painted over it with a watery gesso (just add lots of water)

3.Then I coverd the page with some light pink ink from my ink pad

4.And stamped down a celtichorese design in dark pink.

5.I dripped some blue paint down

6.I added two layers of blue paint, not painting over the stamps

7.Next I added some tipex stars and some pencil stars

8.Then using artists pitt pens I drew the girl and gave her a tipex bow

Done!!!!

To get more inspiration about layers go to:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=art+journaling+layers&search_type=&aq=f

Have fun and Happy Art Journaling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-05T09:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some cool prmpts for your art journal:

1.Did you see a good film lately?Journali about it, add colours that make you think of it, add your ticket from seeing it and write what the story was about.

2.Experiment with diffrent new mediums like crayons or shading with coloured pencils

3.draw mandalas

4.Draw people and add your fave quotes.

5.Make a page with pictures of all your favorite stuff.Use your fave colours and photos ....

6.Design and plan new projects or partys in your art journal.

7.Grab a magazine and use it in your page in some way.

8.Make cool backgrounds and cut people out of an old book page and go from there.

9.Use photos of yourself

10.At the beginning of a new month makew a page with goals you haave for that month and tick em off as you go

11.Go overboard with your fave stamp and add glitter

12.Simply doodle

13.Cut out random words stick em on the page and get inspired from that.

14.Next time you go to an art gallery, make notes and buy postcards . Then make a journal entery about it.

15.If youre in abad mood.Go grab your art journal and express yourself in colour and words .It helps!!!

16.Draw
17.Doodle while you listen to podcasts

Happy art journalin!!!

What I've been up to....

2009-11-28T08:54:00.000-08:00

Okay so I have this cool plan to make some photo FIMO coasters as christmas presents, so today i bought the supplies.A huge chunk of white FIMO and FIMO liquid with which you can transfere photos.So stay tuned for how that works out.

The yellow art journal page was made when i was at my friends staying over, so my art supplies where limited. I painted it at home and then did the glueing and journaling at theirs.I think it turned out okay but...As you can see Bella , Edward and Jacob are on it to and this is cause im a twilight junkie and must see NEW MOON( Im going tomorrow ) and I thought later i could post a review on it. That would be fun eh?

Then the next photo is on a canvas.Its going to Marie Antoinette.I felt inspired to paint it , after watching the film ( the one with Kirsten dunst as Marie Antoinette).You should watch it to . the costumes are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!So what do you think so far?Im gonna take and post pictures as i go along. At the end i want it to be a mixed media painting.

The last page was inspired by ihanna's pagehttp://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=1016 . If you look closely you will even see I included her fab page in mine.It was so FUN.Its also a marie Antoinette meets LONDON page.

The last piece of news is that I bought the book: Journal Revolution.I will post a review later in the week.

So now you know what Im up to.Happy Art Journaling

Inspiration

2009-11-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

A problem a lot of art journalers are faced with:You sit down to art joournal but you have NO inspiration and art journaling with no inspiration is not fun!!

So where do you get some?

Well in your day to day life you can find an applethera of inspifration if you know where to look.Go through a day with me and I will give you ideas to inspire you:

1.The colours or theme of you cereal packet

2.Newspapers:Cut out intresting photos . word and headlines plus you can use the text in your background check out ihannas post on more ways to use text in your art journal pages(http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=998)

3.Adverts can give you inspiration

4.A material can inspire you to, like a pretty paper

5.A cd may inspire you

6.Or a magazine( the magazine was staring at me begging to go in my art journal)

7. Someone elses blog or art

8.A film or book or tv show

9.Food packaging

......

pretty much anything that you like the colour, texture, writing or whatever can inspire you.So once you find something that appeals to you in some way , how do you go about using it?

Well you can just let yurself be driven by inspiration.Or you can take your Magazine (or what ever inspired you) and look at it again...Ask yourself:

1.what do i like about it the colour, the theme, the font, the context, he images ...

Now find a way of using this in your page.You could simply cut out the word or image and stick it in in some special way .Or you could try to draw or paint a face like the one in the photo.Or you could write you opinion and add cut out quotes on the artical.Or you could just use the colour that is so inspiring.Do you get the picture here? Basiclly:

Find out what it is that you like and think of creative ways to use this in your page

______________________________________________________________

So above you will see the 3 photos from my art journal. The first one the giraffe is what inspired me to do the giraffe page beside it .The giraffe just keept looking at me and asking to get in my art journal so I did. This is a simple collage with doodling:Things like this can be preped and then taken to a cafe and you can journal there.The second one is based on Avril Lavignes album The best damm thing.

Happy journaling!!!!!

Tips for your art journaling space

2009-11-22T05:41:00.000-08:00

As I got more and more into art journaling, my stash of pens, papers, old books,paints and so on grew.At first I kept all my supplies in a big box, which I took out when I did art journaling and put away again when I was done.But soon this was impossible as my supplies no longer fit in the box, so I decided to make my self a crafty corner.

Your desk
DO NOT go and buy yourself a new one, as you will spill paint , glitter and tea all over it!!!Just use an old one you would other wise throw away or go and get one in a second hand shop. It should be big enough though for all your supplies.Also it helps if it has drawers and lots of room underneath to store supplies.

Lighting
Your best option is to get two lights - one coming from the left and the other from the right, but if you only have onê put on the left if youre righthanded and on the right if your left handed. Otherwise your hand will block the light hitting your journal properly.

Chair
Make sure it has a backrest so you can journal for hours on end .And it should be comfy!!!

Storing supplies
Tins or jars are a great sulution for storing paint brushes, pencils, pens and scissors.
I pile my books I use for art journaling on my desk, but you may want to put up a shelf for them.I think the best way to store stamps is n a drawer.I just arrange a lot of my stuff on my desk. But I do keep paper in a basket under my desk- I have 3-One for pretty patterned paper, one for Junk paper and one for old magazines.

Inspiration
Their are many ways you can get inspiration from your work space:
Create an inspiration board or file-simply fill with images you love but dont know how to use yet.Hang up lots of pictures and postcards that inspire you.Keep your fave books close.Arrange your supplies in an inspiring way.Have lots of magazines around you.Cut out random words in adveance and when you dont know what to journal about let them inspire you. Have some kind of music player near so you can get inspired by your fave music whilst art journaling.

Propmtfile
Keep a notebook or file to record all the great quotes and prompts from the web near so you will always have an inspiration kick!!!!

So that was just a few tips based on the way i have my artsyden organized.Tip: Have some comfy seating solutions near you, so can do the page at your desk and then journal in a nice comfy space:)
Happy art journaling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first page in my 4th art journal and more cool stuff

2009-11-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

2
3

5

1.The newest issue of lets knit.I love this magazine, okay Im really not that good at knitting but it has some nice simple patterns to and is full of inspiration for diffrent things. This issue has an extra mag with it on knitting hats, scarves and gloves.

2. This is Scrapbook magazine.I have never seen a magazine about art journaling( so let me know if you know of one) but this is really quiet good to.Every issue comes with free paper which is fab to use in art journaling. Also all the techniques used and explained in the magazine can be refunctioned to work in an art journal.

3. This the wonderful shrug / bolero my grandma knit me.Its made from eco cotton and I LOVE it. Whats really nice about it is that depending on how tighly you tie it closed it gives a completly diffrent affect and the colours are so nice!!!!!Thanks Grandma

4 and 5. This is my first ever page in my new watercolour sketchbook moleskine.Its an evil angel.I got inspired by suzi blus video on angels and orange trees to do an angel.First I drew it , then picked colours and started mixing and painting.The red background is meant to be fire and her eyes are black:)She is painted over a two page spread. Then I added the journaling which is just about my inspiration for this page . As I like mentioning this so that later when I look at it ill remeber why I did this page

Thats all if done this week . Had a lot going on ...

Happy journaling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How I got into art journaling

2009-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

One day I came across Craft magazine and bought it and loved it so much I even subscribed to it(http://www.craftzine.com/ ) . Then issue two arrived with an artical about art journaling in it.In the magazine they told me what it was and how you could to it and recommended a moleskin journal to start off in.So I went down the town and bought a moleskine. Then I searched on flickr " art journal" and "Moleskin" and came across many inspiring images. Try it for yourself.Then I had ago myself.First a page about me which was just writing and a few doodles really. Thats all my first pages where writing and doodling.BUT then I went on youtube and searched art journaling and found suzi blu.So I did what she told me dont worry about your art not being perfect just do it. Now my pages started to evolve from just writing and doodles to doodles on painted backgrounds, then collages,altered magazine images. Then as time went on the writing got less and the paint more.I bought some artist Pitt pens and started using them on my pages.Alot of my art was ( and sometimes still is) simply drawings on mixed media backgrounds. I started experimenting with doors in the pages and using pages of old books in my journal. Soon i was hooked.I could not not art journal. I found many cool links to sites and have know filled three art journals.All are moleskin sketchbooks so now Im getting a bit out of my comfort zone and am using a moleskine watercolour journal.

Happy art journaling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whats up?

2009-11-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

So as you may see I customized my blog with a few new colours.I thinks it looks cool.Just giving everyone an update.Iv (okay I admit Im late) enterd the nonstopwritingmonth and am atempting to make a piece of writing about art journaling.My third art journal is almost done.My next journal is bought, its a moleskin again but this time its a watercolour notebook.I will give you my thoughts on which is better for art journaling soon.I was delighted when I found this cool mini bargain bag in my local fabric shop.It conzained lovely buttons, ribbon , glitter stone tape and some cool bias binding.I LOVE little goodies like this:)

Some cool quotes I have found over the last few days:

"My home is where my books are"- Ellen Thompson

"Painting is just another way of keeping a diary"- Pablo picasso

Now to the pictures above:

1. I did this yesterday. Id cut the masked face out of the a magazine and it had been in my college file for a while. Suddenly i felt like using it in a page. So I did. First I painted thewhole page with a mix of red , yellow and pink. Then I glued down the face.My nest step was to while paint was still damp go over it with white paint.Then I added paper(from an old book) and painted over it in the same way.Next I hand stiched around the edge, wrote the quote in crayon(Chaos in the midst of chaos isn't funny , Chaos in the midst of order is - Steve martin) and drew lines ( with a red artist pitt pen , brush) and added journaling.:)

2. This is my teesha moore page.I did it after watcching her videos on youtube( the link is 2 posts ago).Cuttings from a fashion magazine.My quotes read: " The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts"- Markus Aurelius and "Imagination is more important than knowledge. knowledge is limited, Imagionation is not "-Albert Einstein

Tip: If you dont have a white pen ( I dont) , just use tipex( in pen form or on a paintbrush).

3. This page was created after I had a piece of music copied for school, which I didn't need anymore. Then the treesha moore videos ( before id watched) was my second inspiration.I glued old pages from a book so i could use watercolours, then i added the music border and pasted together some people.

4.Did this when I was anoided, one time. Just slapped down dark clolours, added some cut out words (from my colllection (I cut out cool words and save them to use on later journal pages))they are storm, world , focus and escape.Then I added two quotes and spirals:

"If youre going through hell keep going"- Winston Churchill and "Don't cry , just say f*** you and smile"-by my friend

5.This is another page done by my podcasts and journal method.I posted a tutorial a while back, so if your intrested check it out.Its about Dodos and Crafting for when zoure under the weather(Craftzpod(

So hope that inspired you to create zour own pages.Happy Journaling

Crafty chica

2009-11-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Heres her site(i love her passion for her country and roots)
http://thecraftychica.blogspot.com/

Cool art journaling vid

2009-11-08T01:59:00.000-08:00

COOL video about a cool art journaling technique : http://www.youtube.com/user/tracyvmoore
Its like taking a free class!!!!!!!!!!!

Links for the weekend

2009-11-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

Here is a cool toast keychain (out of felt); http://aiwa-9.deviantart.com/art/plush-toast-keychain-tutorial-64057573

Cute knitted bear x-mas decorations;http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk/free_knitting_patterns/

Knitted stocking: http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk/free_knitting_patterns/2007/06/knitted_mini_ch.html

Super cute lamb i-pod case:http://www.hipgirlie.com/2007/11/06/diy-ipod-mp3-case/

A super cool way to use up old starbucks cups or just have fun:http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2009/10/tuesday-tutorials-wilna-furstenberg-.html

Crochet a really cute owl:http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/BabyChild/WT1741%20Cutest%20Little%20Owl.htm

Retro inspired FIMO hearts:http://www.cutoutandkeep.net//projects/retro_inspired_fimo_heart_jewellery

SO THERE ARE A FEW TUTORIALS TO GET YOU THROUGH THE WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Late autumm: the cozy season Art journaling mini TUTORIAL

2009-11-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

When it dauns apon me that summers over and autumm/winter begins, i start crafting in a whole new way.So my wonderful sewing room is fab BUT its in the attic, so its one (no the) coldest room in the house, thats why i do alot of sewing in the summer and less inthe winter months.So what do i do?Well i get into things with yarns such as knitting and crocheting, I cuuddle up with a warm blanket and read books, plan projects, listen to podcasts and plan christmas presents.So one of the things iv done alot over the weekend is listening to podcasts and art journâling.Heres a quick tutorial of how I did it:Ps. photos above

TUTORIAL;ARTJOURNALING N LISTENING

So first grab you art yournal and pick a podcast(http://www.craftypod.com/2009/10/23/craftypod-102-creating-with-food-with-kathy-high/ , was my choice).

1. now take out your paints and pick colours so above i used warm colours such as red and yellow and then let them mix on my page.

2.Gather pretty papers in either similar colours or a contrast what ever you please.

3. Now get a magazine and choose an artical that your intrested in (with pictures, or if not gather or draw your own)

4. Cut out some parts of the artical or all of it

5.Arrange and glue the paper and artical on your page, as you fancy

6.Turn on your podcast and cuddle up somewhere with your art journal , a pen and a warm cup of tea

7. Doodle and write notes about the podcast(this is nive as it ads meaning to your page , ads text and is more fun than just taking notes in a boring notebook)

8.Finish off by adding embelishments such as stamps and glitter

Done!

By the way I highly recommend listening to www.craftypod.com as its always real intresting and full of great ideas.

The magazine:A goldmine for artjournaling

2009-10-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

So youve finished reading your magazine.What do you do with it?

a) You throw it away
b)You recycle it
c)You give it tô a friend
d) You keep it and read in a few months again
e)You use it in arty ways

What did you pick?
I always do e) (okay sometimes i do d) first but then i do e))

So you may ask How can i use it in an Artsy way?
Well you have many options, Im sure I dont know them all , so if you wish to ad to the collection leave a comment.

1.Cut out pictures and use them in your art journal, create gluebooks, decorate furniture and whatever else you can think of

2.Think of a theme for example Autum.Now collect all the info and pictures you can out of lots of magazines and create a collage.

3. Cut out words and use them in art

So thats what i do, but now you can use these simple ideas in any way you want.Why not decorate a canvas or piece of furniture?

Some artjournal prompts

2009-10-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

These are things iv done and now im sharing with you:

1.Is there a film you wanna see? Yes then create an artjournal page around it and add a pocket for tickets and newspaper reviews

2.Practise mixing coloured pencils and then artjournal it up a bit

3.Write down you feelings

4.experiment with new art supplies

5.paint people and draw their face as practice

6.draw spme still life in colour

7.Try to use your art journal as a way of learing for school, by using info you have to learn in your art.

8.Make a page about things you like

9.Use cartoons out of newspapers in you art

10.PLan partys inside in a creative layout.

11.Rip up magazines and use thwm in diffrent ways

12.Create a page around a quote

13. write lists

14.Doodle

15. write about art gallery visits

Cool pumpkin ideas

2009-10-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Check out this fab video