Journal Craft Inspirations

Over at Artella they are having a 50% off sale at their Vintage shop until November 30th.

Click on the image below to visit the Artella site to find out more

“The final day we’ll accept vintage orders in 2009 is November 30. Our new vintage store won’t be open until Spring of 2010, so if there are any vintage goods that interest you, now is the time to get them at 50% off…AND enjoy all the inspiring ARTSgiving bonuses below!

In addition to getting EVERY vintage item in Artella Mae’s Vintage General Store at 50% off, with each purchase, you also receive a Gift eCertificate good on ALL Artella eProducts:

Plus! EVERY purchase over $15 receives the fun ARTsgiving 2009 Holiday eBasket, including these fun, inspiring goodies:

The NEW Artella eBook, “Artella’s Step-by-Step Vintage Holiday Cards”

Our fun and useful eBooklet on making “10 Christmas Crafts in 10 Minutes”

Our beautiful collection of downloadable “Christmas Carol Background Papers”

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Download a FREE copy of the Artella eBook, Stunning and Simple Seasonal Salutations, an eBook featuring 10 beautiful handmade cards, complete with photos and descriptive “how-to” instructions, showcasing a variety of techniques such as rubber stamping, collage, and innovative paper and mixed media arts which will also be useful inspiration for your Christmas journaling.

Download your copy here!

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Head on over to d’Blogga the site of Dawn deVries Sokol for NaNoJouMo – National Nonstop Journaling Month.

“I was just contemplating my own version of NaNoWriMo. (For those of you unfamiliar with this term, NaNoWriMo is held during the month of November, encouraging writers everywhere to write a 175-page novel by midnight, Nov. 30.) …. .. but I’m also starting NaNoJouMo, an idea borne out of a Twitter conversation between myself and Pam McClung and brought to fruition here…It stands for National Nonstop Journaling Month!

Each day during November, I will post a word to get you art journaling. A journal jump of sorts—one word a day to inspire or get you thinking. The goal is to journal SOMETHING in your art journal. DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A FULL PAGE…can be a doodle, maybe painting some backgrounds, doing some collage…just SOMETHING every day in your art journal during November. Even if it’s just moving a pencil across the page in a crooked line…”

Dawn is the author of 1,000 Artist Journal Pages: Personal Pages and Inspirations, and will be providing a journal prompt a day during November – entries are being posted in a NaNoJoMo Flickr group

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Have you been journaling lately or are you stuck in a creative rut?

Image from Caroline’s Crayons (see bottom of post)

Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin recently posted these 7 Creativity Boosters on Ezinearticles.com -

For creative people like us, a sure way to greater happiness is to allow ourselves to become as creative as we can be. But that’s often easier said than done. Here are 7 practical and usable ways to increase your creativity and make yourself happy, starting today: (more…)

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So, here is a challenge for you all – to sketch your favourite sketching supplies.  What are the items you use most when sketching ‘out-and-about’?

Vicky has has come up with some innovative uses for a sock cuff and an SD card holder… and created a wonderful journal page too.

From the Journal of Vicky Williamson – click on the image to view more of Vicky’s work Image copyright of the Artist

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For those of you who were disappointed when the premier edition of Art Journaling magazine sold out, there is some good news - it is now available as a digital download here for just US$9.99

You can also pre-order the Winter ‘09 edition.

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Trish Bee has put together some wonderful prompts for your art journal inspired by the alphabet.  For each letter you will find ideas for Themes, Colours, Art Products and Techniques – take a look at the examples for A -

Theme Ideas: Altered, Assemblage, Abstract, Alphabet, All About Me, Africa, Ancient History/Civilisations, Animals, Angels, Around The World, Art, Art Nouveau, Asia, Autumn, Antique, Aircraft, Anatomy, Aquatic, Apostles, Artemis.

Colours: Aquamarine, Amethyst, Aubergine, Air Force blue, Alabaster, Alice Blue, Alizarin, Almond, Amaranth, Amarillo, Amber, Anaranjado, Antique White, Apple Green, Apricot, Aqua, Aquamarine, Army Green, Ash, Asparagus, Atomic Tangerine, Auburn, Azul, Azure

Art Products and Brandnames: Angelina Fibres, Adirondack, Acrylic Wax, Alcohol Inks, Acrylic Paints, Acetate, Archival ink, Adhesives, Air-dry clay, Acetone

Techniques: Angelina Fibers/Film, Airbrushing, Acetone Transfers, Alcohol Ink Smooshing, Antiqued Vellum, Acrylic Paint Backgrounds

So if you are looking for some inspiration for your Art Journal, head on over to her Squidoo page for B to Z….

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 A great way to create an interesting background for your journal pages is to add colour.  However if use a wet medium such as watercolour or acrylic your pages may warp, unless you have good thick paper in your journal.  Another option is to use soft pastels.  The new PanPastels are ideal for this as they are soft and creamy and produce very little dust.  You can create very soft blended effects – this example uses Yellow Ochre, Turquoise Shade and Hansa Yellow Shade, and was then lightly overstamped with Colorbox Chalk inks -

Of course, PanPastel are also designed for the serious Pastel Artist – see information page for more details, a short video demonstration and an example by Pastel artist Donna Aldridge.

This week is the last time to purchase PanPastel at the special introductory price!  Head over to the Journal Craft store to take a look.

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Try to engage all your senses when completing a journal page – add fragrance to your page.  Scents and fragrances are wonderfully evocative and bring back memories in an instant. Melissa’s page was completed in response to a challenge posted on Michelle Ward’s Street Team Crusades – a fantastic site encouraging artists to try new things (warning – music plays when the site loads).

Snow
“I am working on loose sketching with watercolor in my art journals these days. I used 140 lb cold press paper, permanent Pitt pen to sketch, then colorized with watercolor. I added an oil scent to the page, called “Fir”, which of course, smells like pine.  The scent is a way to take you back, when you view it later, to the time and place which you originally created the piece.”

Lavende
“I bought pure lavender oil in Provence this summer. I wanted to save some forever, so I did this page, and added drops of the oil on each of the colored spots at the bottom.”

From the journal of Melissa Sabin
(Click on the images to view originals)
Image copyright of the artist

If you have enjoyed this post please leave a comment for the artist

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Keep a record of the books you have read by creating a journal spread.

“Just finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ and felt inspired to do a journal page. I wanted to try out a new material – Safmat, a transparent film, from Letraset that you can print onto. I edited a couple of photos of winter trees in photoshop and printed them onto the Safmat. I then peeled off the backing and stuck the transparent film with the printed image into my Moleskine sketchbook. I had used a grey PanPastel on the page first, deliberately patchy, to create the dusty landscape depicted in the book.

Quite pleased with the Safmat, it is very thin and ‘almost’ invisible, so a good way of getting photos into your journal without creating too much bulk.”

From the journal of Gill McCowen
(Click on the image to view original)
Image copyright of the artist

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