Art Journal tutorial

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pamcook
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Art Journal tutorial

Post by pamcook »

Supply List:

8 sheets of found paper (cardboard, cardstock, cardstock, pieces of wrapping paper - whatever). There is NO need to go buy a journal. Your pages can be all the same size - or not. They can be all the same paper - or not. Gesso your pages (unless they are already gessoed or are "backgrounds in progress" . Now - consider whether you want to add envelopes or tags in the binding and then bind your sheets of paper together.

**Please realize that "8 sheets of found paper" is a random choice of pages. I just think it's a doable number.**

Supplies you might want to have on hand -
gel medium of any sort - there are many and most of us have a selection
rubber stamps and black archival ink (staz-on is good)
Photos of yourself or your neighborhood or city or...
an assortment of acrylic paints
a few quotes that speak to you - go ahead and print them out if you want
decorative napkins or tissue paper (printed with a design or stamp your own with your staz-on)
glaze medium, book pages

If you don't want to use photos, find images in magazines or books that speak to you - or maybe you have postcards or flyers from your city.
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

Post by pamcook »

Step 1 - Adhere book pages or collage pieces to your pages and allow them to DRY. You can use decoupage medium, spray adhesive or any liquid glue.

Step 2 - Color wash your pages with watered down acrylic paint in a color of your choice. DRY
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Step 3 - On a palette or in a small cup, put a small amount of gel medium, a drop of a yellowish paint and a couple of sprays of water and mix it well. Layer this over your pages. You will be making more of this solution as we go.

Step 4 - Add bits of tissue paper wherever they look good to your eye. Now - personally, I don't like how mine looked. I used clothing pattern tissue and it was just too dark on my pages. If you want, you can use StazOn ink and stamp a design on white tissue - Tim's tissue paper looks great with this or use any printed tissue paper. The effect we're going for is to have the layers look embedded into the background. Just do what looks best to you. Now, use your gel medium mixture over the tissue paper and allow this layer to DRY.
NSD 2.jpg
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Step 5 - Add another paint color to highlight your pages (edges, corners...).
NSD 3.jpg
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

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Step 6 - add a relatively thick layer of gel medium - thick enough so that when it's almost dry, you can use a rubber stamp (no ink) or any shape to impress a design on your pages. Allow it to DRY.

Step 7 - use the Glaze medium with a drop of brown paint mixed together and cover the pages allowing this to get into the embossed (debossed?) designs. Wait a bit (hours in NC - nanoseconds in AZ) and wipe with a damp paper towel or baby wipe. The idea is to get the brown glaze in the recessed areas.
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Step 8 - use stencils and modeling paste to add texture/interest to your pages - no modeling paste? then use texture stamps and an accent color of paint - or bubble wrap and paint - allow to DRY

Step 9 - Back to using the gel medium mixed with a dot of yellow paint - give your pages a light coat and before it dries completely, embed your photos/quotes/images giving them a coating of this mixture. (Place the quotes/images/photos where you want them and cover with the tinted gel medium). If you're worried your quotes or copied photos will bleed, give them a quick mist of Workable Fixative first. When it's dry - you're finished!
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I hope you've enjoyed using up some of your supplies.
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

Post by pugmom »

Thanks, Pam, I needed those pictures. I don't have glaze medium (I believe that's the last step). Can I substitute something else?

Ooops, not the last step, just the last thing on the supply list.
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

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pugmom wrote:Thanks, Pam, I needed those pictures. I don't have glaze medium (I believe that's the last step). Can I substitute something else?

Ooops, not the last step, just the last thing on the supply list.
Hm...let me give this some thought...try just distress ink and a distress tool to rub the ink into the design and then give it a light brushing over the whole page. You should be able to remove any excess with a baby wipe.
Please let us know how it works!
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

Post by mpizzazz »

Wouldn't glaze medium be the same as a thinned down gel medium? or some other white glue type thing depending on if you want a shiny or a matte finish? You just need to add the paint or ink color like you did with the gel medium layer.

My question is what is different about using the watered down acrylic paint versus using the watered down gel medium with the paint in it in one of the early steps-before adding the tissue I think? If the idea is to glue the tissue down in that step then maybe I made mine too thin because I could not adhere the tissue with it. I had to use straight gel medium after the watered down one dried. I hope this makes sense.
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

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I'm so proud of you ladies! :happywave:

Marianne - I have no idea what the difference would be without actually doing side by side comparisons and even then, I doubt I'd know the difference. I just like tinted glaze over a page so I added it in. Sometimes it makes a huge difference (to my eye) and sometimes not so much. I tried to come up with several layers - the more supplies the better :lol: . You can always skip some of the layers - its a personal choice in the end - no wrong or right way.
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

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Pam, did you read Judy's comments about gesso in the Masks and Stencils post? She said, Then we used stencils and I learned that gelatos wipe right off of gesso with a baby wipe. She was referring to Liquitex gesso not Golden. Could this be your problem with the nondrying pages. Metallic gelatos might be even worse not sticking to gesso.
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

Post by mpizzazz »

mpizzazz wrote:
Monica wrote:Okay, for the idiot trying to figure this all out... please give me an example or two of a gel medium... and a glaze medium...

I used Glue & Seal for adhering pieces to the gessoed pages. I also have Claudine Hellmuth matte multi-medium (using that for the tissue paper), Golden bead gel, some medium gloss gel I got in a Swirlydoos kit, and acrylic medium from LuminArte for paper, plastic & walls. Oh, and Glossy Accents and Crystal Lacquer... and several bottles of Glimmer Glaze and Glimmer Glam...
Since my theory is that they are all basically the same thing, I would say you could use whichever ones are a matte finish for building up all the layers so you can add paint or whatever over the top of each layer. Then for the glaze use either matte or glossy depending on your preference. I've never thinned down Glossy Accents or Crystal Lacquer but you could give it a try, adding the hint of paint color and put it over some scraps to see what it does.
:anyone:
I tried an experiment with a glossy product. I don't have Glossy Accents but I have Perfect Paper Adhesive. I mixed in a bit of paint and painted it on my page in spots. It has dried to a very nice sheen, not super glossy. I like it a lot but I don't think it looks the same as the glaze.
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

Post by pamcook »

Farley - the variety of techniques, styles & sizes are what appeals to me the most about art journals. I also love that we all have more than enough supplies on hand to complete some amazing works of art.

I honestly thought twice about whether to post photos of my pages in the instructions because again, there is simply no "wrong" way to do them.

This was a lot of fun. I hope we can do it again soon (no reason to wait for NSD!).
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Re: NSD events - Art Journal project!

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I found this article interesting and thought other art journal newbies might, too. It applies to journal pages, paintings, collage, anything and breaks it down into 3 steps. http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs ... ayers.aspx
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Re: Art Journal tutorial

Post by Monica »

I've compiled the directions and some of the relevant posts all into this one thread. Have fun creating your art journals, and remember... there is no wrong way to do this! :creating:
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