Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Junk Journals or Why just do it like everyone else when you can learn from every mistake in the book?

I rejoined Pam's Facebook group Art Journaling. One of the members, Patti Tolly Parrish, had shown some journals she was making out of her amazing GelliArts monoprints. She mentioned videos by Shannon Green about binding the journals so I watched those and Shannon mentioned some videos by Teesha Moore on her fantastic 16 page journal made from a 22" x 30" sheet of hot pressed watercolor paper so I watched those. All of which just sounded like FUN! In the very few minutes I've had on garden days and on those blessed rainy days when I couldn't possibly be expected to get wet since I might melt, I've been playing.
My first mistake was making too many signatures in too large a torn up hard bound book. Three signatures x seven sheets each x two pages per sheets x two sides per page makes for 84 sides of pages to get ready to journal on. I could have done the math first!!
The second mistake was using a shiny calendar for some of the pages. Not much sticks to it unless I rough up the surface.
And Shannon did say what glue to use but of course I had to try what I had which sort of made the pages curl.
But the great part is that it is so much fun and I have been able to relinquish control and just let things happen. Which is a major accomplishment for me! Here are a few shots of the sewn in signatures and some of the spreads I like a lot that won't require a whole lot more. Decorating the covers and the pages will come later.






This last one is the 16 page journal made from a sheet of watercolor paper. It's a nice break from the other journal as the pages are painted and need to dry. I'm going to follow Teesha Moore's instructions as closely as I can but I'm not all that good at following instructions. Always have to add something to make it my own!!

4 comments:

lilyandthelotus.blogspot.com said...

oh Sharon I love this. I love simple life don't you.of course maybe it is my age lol but just love your journal and you are way a head of me in the green thumb department lol
hugs

Titbelsoeur, mixed-media addict said...

I have made one with junk envelopes, but never tried with so different papers... interesting and temptating !
thanks for sharing

Dieverdog said...

Wow -- that is really neat! So funny to hear that you didn't do the math! LOL that sounds more like me! It looks awesome and so wild and colorful! You should post the links to those videos, though I think I can dig them up from what you mention. So glad you are getting neat ideas from joining our FB Journaling group, it's really taken off and there's some really neat work going on there. I can't wait to get to doing more gelli prints again, I've started collecting some acrylic paints so I'm ready to go again (plus the ones you got for me to get started with). I think I duplicated a color or two so you can have them if you don't already. :)

House of Bears said...

We love this. We just started a Smash type journal and we're feeling inspired after seeing your work,