Art quilt blocks for community quilt

Every year I participate in the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival community quilt. Women from all over the world participate to create a themed quilt that is then raffled off at the final concert. It is always beautiful, inspiring and lots of fun. Women and girls spend the week of the festival embellishing the donated quilt blocks before it is bound and presented for the raffle drawing.

This year's theme was "What do you love about Michfest". Where do I start or end? I love the woods, I love the singing, I love the music, I love the ferns, I love the spirit and the women and the community. I love the drumming and the silence. It is a time of peace and healing and community.

I ended up making four 6" squares, Just because I couldn't stop at one. And they are also fabric journal pages...or prayer flags...or just art.

Time to pick up the journal again.

Soon you will be dancing on top of the world"

I'ts been one of those busy years, productive, fun, and just plain busy. The weather has turned cold, the holidays are over and peace is settling over the renewing season. Winter is a resting time, a time for seeds to sleep and get their winter treatment and a time for trees to dig deep into the earth and hold those buds ready for a bit of warmth.

I make a cup of tea, throw on another log, pick up the journal and work out a few thoughts.

Take advantage of a bit of ephemera to start a page. Last night's fortune cookie got me started. "Soon you will be sitting on top of the world." I like dancing better.

(This is an armchair shot. I held the journal out and took a few snapshots, no need to get up and waste all that warmth from my lap robe. I am really nesting!)

I am an artist!

I just spent a week at a women's music festival enjoying friends, singing, drawing and of course great music. New friends would ask what I did and I always answered with my job. But that is not who I am. I am an artist. As I age I identify more and more as an artist.

Why is it so hard to say those words....even to a stranger? Art is what feeds me, keeps me happy, keeps me engaged. I love having a project to mull over in my head as I drive or fall asleep at night. I love the inspiration, the planning and the creation and of course the satisfaction of the finished item.

So what do I do? I am an artist. What do you do?

Round Robin Journaling

What a fun idea. Start a page, pass it to the left. Take the page passed to you and add some fun. Then pass it on.
We may try this in a future class. Try it with a friend, try it with yourself. We all have an alter ego.

Check out this blog.

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2014/01/art-journal-every-day-art-journal-round-robin.html?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=handmadeart

Week Four and Five - Lettering and Style Journals

Lettering

Last week's class was small but fun. We explored using lettering in our journals as a design or focus point in an art page. Write big, trace over your letters. Use magazine letters to spell out your message. Print using wide letters, stretch out your cursive. Mix upper case and lowercase. Mix thick and thin. Practice different styles until you have developed your own style. Have fun!

Style Journal

Teag, a fellow Craftser member created a journaling techniques journal, a place to keep ideas so she remembers them and can refer to them when inspiration hits. Her pages are art in their own right and she has lots of great ideas to share. Take some time to scroll around the site as there are even more ideas to get your going in earlier and later messages on this Craftster message board. 

Art Journaling Techniques by Teag 1  (scroll down the page to find teag's post)

Art Journaling Techniques by Teag 2  (scroll down the page to find teag's post)

I have mentioned Craftster.org before and I encourage you to visit. It is an amazing place to wander around in and if you want to join in, membership is free.

Week Three - Have a song in your heart?

Or your head. I always have fragments of songs running through my mind. The direct result of choir, women's singing circle, radio, TV and even that constant music overhead when shopping.

Those fragments of songs make excellent starts for a journal page. Hand letter the words, decorate around them with drawings or collage, add some color over the top. Or write out all the lyrics (if you know them, if not, try Google) across the page and paint or collage over them, leaving your favorite bit free.

Tips for lettering:

1. Cut out words and letters from magazines to spell out your message.
2. Write lightly and big in pencil. Draw an outline around the letters with pen and color in.
3. Start with a highlighter. Write or draw your letters, outline and add embellishments.
4. Write big with a pen then go back and make some strokes darker and thicker.
5. Print out your words and tear or cut them out to paste down. Break them up in to individual words and place down one side of your page or flow across the page.

So as you listen to that song in your heart, pick up a pen and put it to the paper. Visit the gallery for some examples of lettering. Or visit these links for more ideas.

Jennibellie: turorials on making books, lettering and recycling into crafts: http://www.youtube.com/user/jennibellie?feature=watch

Easy lettering techniques: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th_2HvOnoO4


More lettering techniques: http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs/clothpaperscissorstoday/archive/2012/06/25/how-to-make-art-journal-lettering-look-like-art.aspx


More: http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs/clothpaperscissorstoday/archive/2014/01/17/handmade-cards-an-easy-creating-lettering-technique.aspx

Week Two - In Love with UpCyling

I recycle all I can and probably could do more. But my favorite is turning trash into art. Making those cardboard cereal boxes into books. Transforming magazines into pages of our lives. You get the idea. Check out this link for other ideas.
http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs/clothpaperscissorstoday/archive/2014/02/03/5-upcycling-ideas-for-your-trash-amp-stash.aspx

Journaling through the snow

 We are looking at lot of snow time this week. Snow always seems special to me, snow transforms a gray/brown landscape into something astounding. And there is always that feeling of specialness....breaking the routine. Brew a cup of hot chocolate with little marshmallows and try some visualizing exercises.

• Take time to look at the patterns trees and snow make. Can you mimic this in some way in your journal with strips of paper or streaks of paint or pencil?
• Look at the shadows, what color are they? Look at the neutrals in the trees and ground. Use a monochromatic (shades and tones of one basic color) palette in a page.
• Use an old artist trick and look at the landscape through a small empty picture frame or a camera viewfinder. Frame your world. Look at the balance of light and dark. Use the shapes of light and dark in your page.
• How does a snow fall make you feel. Like a special day? Closed in?
• Focus in on something small. A bird print in the snow, a twig poking up. And have you noticed the buds on the trees starting to swell? They know spring is coming.
• And oh yes, use some of your stash to add to the fun. Corrugated cardboard makes a great forest background. 

And check out the gallery!

Week One Thoughts and Assignments

What a fun class last night. It was so great to see you all dive in and play. I think we all needed a chance to access that pesky inner child in a creative way.

Keep on Journaling

Your assignment for the next class is to have at least 4 pages completed (or mostly completed) by Feb. 18th. If you are comfortable, you can share with the group.

Things to think about and do:

• Experiment,experiment, experiment! Dig through your drawers and desks and see what you have on hand. Try every pen, pencil, marker and look for fun paper finds.
• Create several back drops. Cover pages with collage, paint, scribbles. Add another layer. Paste down something from your ephemera stash. 
• Start gathering that ephemera. You know you want to keep those pieces of paper, envelopes, labels, tickets, etc.
• Use a prompt or key word and write over one of your (completely dry) back drops. 
• Fill a page with stream of consciousness writing. There is a reason why therapists have you do this kind of exercise, it loosens up the thought process. Then collage over the top, or tear up and use in a collage.
• Go to the links page at the top of the blog and click on a few links. Treat yourself to a few a day.
• Go to YouTube and search for Art Journal Pages or book binding. Get a cup of coffee or tea first, there is a lot to see.
  

Gathering the Bits and Pieces of Your Life

Collecting the ephemera of your daily existence consists of holding on to those interesting bits and pieces that come your way. Interesting labels, bottle caps, bags from a favorite store, receipts from a book purchase, tickets, fun post-it notes, box tops, brochures, pages torn from a magazine, fortunes from fortune cookies. This material is called ephemera.

“Ephemera (singular: ephemeron) is any transitory written or printed matter not meant to be retained or preserved. The word derives from the Greek, meaning things lasting no more than a day. Some collectible ephemera are advertising trade cards, airsickness bags, bookmarks, catalogues, greeting cards, letters, pamphlets, postcards, posters, prospectuses, defunct stock certificates or tickets, and zines.” Wikipedia

Keep an envelope with you to corral these interesting bits of life. Admit it, you usually keep these items in the bottom of your purse or pocket, or the floor of your car! Check that stack of papers on the kitchen counter or coffee table...you know what I am talking about.

Incorporate them into a collaged journal page, tuck them into a small pocket on a page or attach with a small brad. Browsing through your journal these bits will bring back memories, make you smile, add texture to the page of life.

So, give yourself permission to keep the flotsam and jetsam of daily living and re-purpose it into art.

January Assignments

Start your Practice Journal

This is your sample journal, your junk journal, your "give it a try and let it fly" journal. Use a notebook, an old address book, an old day calendar.

Keep an envelope with you or in your car to gather ephemera, the throw away items that mark our life. Receipts, tickets, brochures, post it notes, fortune cookies, shopping bags, junk mail, greeting cards, anything can find its way into your journal.

Jot at least one thing in your journal every day. Complete a page each week. Pages in your practice journal can be transferred or used in a more permanent journal.

Exercises. Pick one or more a week to try:

• Build a page with collage around a prompt.
• Use only one color on your page. What mood or subject does it suggest.
• Cover a page with any negative or critical thoughts that have popped up when journaling. Cover with positive images or words using collage, paint or markers.
• Pick one object on your table to draw. Draw it again, use color to enhance. Draw it again. 
• Trace an object...your hand, a spoon, a key. Make a pattern of the object. Add words.
•  Use every type of pen you have on a page. Write big, print, write small, write with your left hand. Test out each pen. Find your favorite.
• Doodle. Simply doodle. Start with a shape, repeat it. Go in another direction. Leave no space unused on your page.
• Become a teenager again and write your name over and over. Try different signatures, draw your letters.
• Artists choice.

Make no judgements. You are practicing and exploring. No one learns a craft in one day. 

Welcome Art Journalers

What is an Art Journal?

A journal, diary or smash book is a journal that has a strong visual element to it, an expression of your artistic creativity and imagination, not filled just with words. It's using your art to express your memories, dreams, and thoughts. There are no rules. You can paint or draw, use pen and ink, photos, collage, add lettering, doodle, stickers, found objects, crayons and colored pencils...anything and everything. 

One thing I have discovered is that an art journal must be what you need it to be. Search for art journals or art journal pages and the variety is astounding and a bit intimidating. A range from drawings only to mostly text, collages and found objects, paint, crayons and markers. Even fabric and sewing makes a statement. 

So let's start our journey into the world of art journaling. Find prompts, exercises, quotes and links here. Share your thoughts and experiences with us as well. 

Welcome.