Wednesday 18 September 2013

Art Journal Cover

Well, finally I made it and dived into art journalling! It took me quite a while to find the appropriate approach for me without feeling that this is not "me" but "art journalling as it is done". I admire so many art journal artists, who do a lot of colourful painting and drawing and doodleing... but "my style" is different and it took some time to unravel it from all my impressions found in blogland.

But now that I feel confident with what I do, I dared buy an art journal to work in!!! And today I created the cover to turn this wonderful empty piece of card art into my piece of art. (And by doing so I understood my pupils' fear of plain, white paper for the first time *lol).


Yes, you are right - it's the awesome art journal from finnabair's collection! And it is such a well thought-out design - with all its pockets, the manila and card pages, the envelopes and bags! Just brilliant!


I went for a rather reduced colour scheme and covered the cover with a thick layer of white Gesso for a start. I also coated some metal embellishments with white Gesso for later use.

I used a scrap from a journal page that I had overdone and therefore cut to scraps for use with a different project. Sometimes these cut out pieces look so much better than the whole page you cut it from!

I glued it to the cover after some heavy spritzing and playing with some Mr. Huey's and Chalk mists and also some diluted acrylic colours.

The wire stamp is from BoBunny (love it!). It is from the "Distressed Textures" clear stamps set and also available at SimonSaysStamp over here.

Why do I tell you this? Because by doing so I can enter their actual Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where "Stamp-tember" is celebrated with a group blog-hop!





The "inspire" quote was applied through one of my new awesome Red Lead stencils!

I just love their stencils as they are perfect for art journalling!

I also rubbed some DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Gold rush" onto some areas of the gessoed cover, creating kind of stripes with my finger.


The washi tape is from a sale at a home decorations store.














I also applied some white and gold decorating paste through a stencil for more texture.
To add some more texture I stamped a border onto the cover's edge, using the lovely leaf stamp from 3rd Eye!





























I also enter this cover to Artful Times' challenge "Scrap Art" as the center piece of my creation is a scrap from a journal page that I messed up and cut to pieces.

Did I mention that I love to use scraps from messed up paintings or pages? ;)

Thank you for staying with me this far and I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Hugs and happy crafting/journalling/... !

die amelie x

17 comments:

  1. (came here from SSS blog)
    It looks absolutely awesome! the colors, the textures. You have unique style.

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  2. OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!

    grenzgenial superschön!

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  3. Hi Claudia, this is stunning, really love the textures and colours and those beautiful embellishments. This is very inspirational. Hugs, Anne x

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  4. Stunning design Claudia, everything is perfectly placed and I love the arty feel of it with the textures and the dripping and everything. I really look forward to seeing how this journal journey of yours will continue!

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  5. Wow Claudia! What a stunning journal cover! Love all the texture!

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  6. ...loving your journal cover Claudia from the colours to the textures it's perfect...Mel:)xx

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  7. Amazing journal cover. so many textures and beautiful colours to admire

    Chrissie x

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  8. Job well done; looking forward to seeing more. I am about ready to do the same thing; I start in a week at a local class. I needed that push, to be with others.

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  9. Very nice, job well done. I am about ready to do the same thing; I have order a journal and have joined group who gets together monthly at a local scrap-booking stop. Wish me luck!!

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  10. Beautiful cover! The textures are wonderful and I love the colors. Can't wait to see what you fill it with! I'm sure it'll be spectacular!

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  11. Fantastic work again, Claudia - this will inspire you every time you pick up your journal to play. Gorgeous textures and paint effects - the minimal colour palette is wonderful, and I love those gesso'd embellishments. Got to go and check out Red Lead stencils now, you tempter!
    Alison xx

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  12. Ja, ja, ja... Es wurde Zeit, dass Du mit dem Journaling anfängst, liebe Claudia. So finde ich ganz viel Inspiration bei einem Besuch bei Dir! Zuerst aber mal Dankeschön für Deinen lieben Kommentar bei mir! Ich hatte schon Sorge um meinen Geisteszustand, weil meine eigene Tochter meine Werke schon gruselig und grenzwertig findet. Dabei macht man sich ja nur ein paar Gedanken um die "Werke" die man bastelt, stimmt's? Deswegen freue ich mich um so mehr, dass auch Deine Kunst von tiefgründig bis verspielt reicht, Du viel experimentierst und keine Angst vor der "weißen Leinwand" hast. Ich bin ganz verliebt in Deine Art Journal! Vor allem Farben und Texture haben es mir angetan!
    Vielen Dank fürs Zeigen! Schönes Wochenende und liebe Grüße
    Manu

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  13. Hope you get many hours of journalling with this delightful book you have now made.
    Hugs, Neet (Artful Times) x

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  14. Hach ist das schön. Die Farben gefallen mir besonders und das Cover ist bestimmt richtig schön haptisch!

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  15. What a fantastic start to your journal. It's gorgeous.

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  16. Oh wow this is fabulous, I love how you've altered your journal & there are so many wonderful details to look at :)
    Thanks for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
    hugs
    Mandy xx

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  17. Wow Claudia, I can’t believe I missed so many fabulous posts here... today I took time and look around your blog and I love everything you made...from fantastic Vienna photography to fantastic unique creations....very creative, like always!!
    Thank you for great inspiration!
    Hugs

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