Wanderlust 2026 - weeks fourteen to twenty-six - Paper Alchemy (part two)

Here are the other pages I particularly enjoyed making from the Paper Alchemy theme of the art journaling course.  Above is a collage of printed vellum, magazine transfers onto sticky tape, material, and photos. It was all about our past. 

We made 'paper leather' for this lesson, using packaging paper and coating it with a mixture of acrylic paint and glue. For some pieces, we added oil and scrunched it up and flattened it out many times which gave it a very 'leathery' feeling.  We also encased thread and sequins in tissue paper, which was rather messy, but fun!

As I make cards, making these cards was right up my street.  Abstract painting, painting an animal (our much missed cat, Scruffy) and then painting the background for one and finally using packaging to make a collage card.  

I used a matcha chocolate wrapper.

Watercolour flowers with added tissue paper foliage and gold accents worked really well.  Painting in the background made the flowers pop.

I did another version in watered down acrylics which worked well, but seems to have lost a bit of expression/spontaneity along the way.  I still like it though!

Making bunting using paper and material was a really enjoyable week.  I chose to make a single piece so that it could go in my journal. Alcohol inks on the gel plate made some lovely papers.

Finally for this theme was looking at the Japanese art of Kintsugi - taking something (usually a ceramic) which has got broken and then mending it, highlighting the cracks with gold.  Crackle paste came out to play here.  The photo in the centre is of Tupholme Abbey.

The crackle paste worked really well.  Our next theme is 'Stories Unfolded' - I think this may be another good one for me!

Wanderlust 2026 - weeks fourteen to twenty-six - Paper Alchemy (part one)

 I was really looking forward to the Paper Alchemy theme for the art journaling course, as I really enjoy working with paper and was eager to see what we would be creating.  It didn't disappoint as these were some of my favourite weeks so far.

Making journals has featured several times in this theme and this journal has pages made using calico, cotton and tracing paper.  The pages sometimes have various layers on them, including gesso mixed with plaster of paris and texture paste, as well as collage.

We worked on the pages, poking through them with an awl and burning through them (this shows one of the tracing paper pages on the right).

We also put items behind the pages and then sanded off the gesso/plaster of paris mix, leaving the image - in this case, paperclips.  The journal is small and introduced me to lots of different techniques, including the binding, where the pages are sewn together, the covers placed over the top and the pages are folded back and glued over the spine. I loved making this!

Another journal made using a masterboard.  The black squiggles represent ancient writing and we had to run the page under a tap before the writing was dry so that the writing was faded and blurred, which worried me initially but which worked well, as the paper had been layered with collage and acrylic paint first and been left to dry.

Collage decorations were added to the pages.

The words on this page were taken from the scrap of book page I used and they jumped out at me.  I love serendipity!

Collaging a scene was enjoyable too, and we added details to our collaged paper. I have a large collection of painted pages, so it was good to be able to use a few of them.

Another journal, but as my main art journal was getting rather bulky, I decided to recreate smaller pages on the page.  (I have since decided to make the extra journal but not add it to my main journal, so this may feature in another post).

Top left is a pop-out/exploding/flower page with stamped art words. 

Behind the starry door is a stamped eye.

The collaged book page door reveals a fold out.

Finally, a gel plate printed door reveals a spinner (with some of my favourite bought tissue paper on the left, echoing some of the colours).

More to come in part two. 

Wanderlust 2026 - weeks seven to thirteen - roots and wings

As promised, here are the other pages of my Art Journal course which I particularly enjoyed, from the first theme of Roots and Wings.  Above is a nameless photograph of a member of my Dad's side of the family.  We have a lovely Victorian album but absolutely no idea who any of these people were, which is really sad.  The photos were taken in studios in Scotland.  We had to look into our ancestry and choose some art work to turn into stamps.  I chose ancient Celtic symbols carved into rocks.  We also incorporated some weaving which was fiddly, but the end result is very pleasing.  

Using vibrant watercolour inks was the next media to use to create a sort of map of challenges and happy things in our practice. 

This week was all about creating a Polish style of hanging decoration.  As I am keeping everything in my journal, I  translated this to a 'washing line' style of decoration.

Creating our own inks was the next challenge and I used walnut ink and tea for the backgrounds and stamping, with the bright yellow turmeric ink for highlights.

Probably my favourite week was the one by Alison Bomber who I follow on Youtube.  We used a multitude of media for this triptych and I used crackle paste for the first time.  It was very satisfying (once I had got the lid off - and Chris had to help me with that!)  I added pressed leaves and flowers from the garden, which I had collected last year.

Finally, this week was a gentle journey into collage and thinking about a safe and happy place.  

So, on to the next theme which is Paper Alchemy (should be right up my street!)

Wanderlust 2026 - First seven weeks - roots and wings

The art journal course I have been doing for several years is well underway and the theme was 'roots and wings'.  It has moved to intermediate skills and slightly away form always being pages in a journal.  However, I am keeping my work in a journal because I don't have space for 'things' to be on display.  It will be a challenge for some weeks, transferring 3D to 2D, but that will be fun in itself.  As last year, I won't show every week, just the weeks I particularly enjoyed.  Above was week one, where we were encouraged to use a big sheet of paper and be free, then cut it down.  I enjoyed making all the swooping brush marks.

This week was about someone who inspired us, so I made a tribute to my Granny. There are scanned watercolour paintings from when she was at school as well as a watercolour from when she was in Australia.  I have inherited a love of art and nature from her as well as enjoying sewing.  

Creating natural dyes was the focus of this week. I used walnut ink, tea and the bright yellow is turmeric. 

I so enjoy making books and journals too, so this week was really right up my street.  My little book has a pocket to live in.  We were encouraged to think about our dreams and what we hope for ourselves in the future.

This is the front with a handmade bird stamp, texture paste and a little fabric collage. The binding thread is decorated with beads.

Inside the book are pages including stamps, material, cut outs, tracing paper pages and quotes.

Found poetry on the left and a material flap on the right...

...which shows the word dream through a cut out page.

More stamps.

A final quote.  More to come in another post...

Wanderlust 2025 - part four

The final twelve weeks of the art journaling course have been full of challenges.  The theme was 'Leaps and Bounds' and a lot of the lessons involved working outside a journal, on canvases,  etc.  However, I didn't want to make 3D objects as I really don't have the space for them, so I had to think how to translate them to 2D, to be able to keep them in my journal. (I think I will be doing the same next year when the course is aimed more at intermediate artists and will be focusing a lot more on 3D).  Above was Kate Crane's lesson on inchies, twinchies, ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) and Moos (half a business card size), so working small.  This lesson took me more time to complete but I really enjoyed it.   

Making ATCs from a masterboard was the next lesson and I turned the page over to cut it out, so the images really were a surprise.  Adding gilding flakes to each card made them look even more special.

Making matchboxes and filling them with interesting little bits and pieces, based on a printers tray, was the next week.  My 'printers tray' is flat, but I was happy with how it turned out.  I added a stamped image from one of my hand cut stamps, a piece of paper I made a few years ago with flowers and foil added into it, cut into a heart, some leaves and flower heads from the garden, a key die cut, an old postage stamp, a tile cut from a magazine, a piece of my handmade felt cut into a star and a tiny letter. 

Working with and on teabags was the next week's focus and sewing the teabag and stamping on it was included, so I had a go. It was tricky, but I got there!

This was based on an assemblage in a rusty tin, with another tin containing lots of bits and pieces. I made my own 2D version using die cuts, embossing, texture paste through a stencil and lots of bits of ephemera. 

Making a wrap closure for our journals was the next lesson, so I altered this into making little fabric 'cards' in pockets instead. I kept the same four seasons idea.  I used calico as the base, painted, collaged and sewn on. The backs of the cards have book pages stuck onto them for added strength.  

You can see the 'cards' better here.

A canvas family tree with photos attached inside painted lids was what I transferred into a journal page.  I used an embossing folder to add some texture to the die cut frames.

Finally, something completely different.  There is a load of writing underneath the paint, but no-one can see it now, which was the whole idea. Reflecting on things that have gone well, or challenges overcome was one side and 'what if...?' questions on the other.  I kept this simple and was going to add some words but decided I liked it as it is.

I think next year's course will provide me with more challenges - we'll see how I get on!

Wanderlust 2025 - part three

Here are my favourite pieces from the last twelve weeks of the art journaling course, Wanderlust 2025.  The broad theme was 'Storytelling' and within that, we had 'Journaling', 'Capturing Moments' and 'Taking Inspiration'.  Above was all about gratitude and using different ways to capture things we were grateful for.  I used a die I bought earlier this year to make the mini clipboard and a die for the paperclip. 

More journaling opportunities with this page. I used a napkin for the flowers.  Simple, but enjoyable. 

I think this was a 'capturing moments' lesson.  We used a photo and then drew the image on tracing paper.  The flower is one of my cosmos flowers. 

I used magazine transfer for this page.  The magazine images didn't really like the textured watercolour card page, but it gives a faded and worn look , which I like.  The images are of the Eden project in Cornwall and views of Florence and Rome, all places I have visited. The birds stamp is one I have cut from lino and it is one of my favourites to use.  The word is also a transfer, using magazine letters onto sticky tape, which was a new technique to me.

Memories of a holiday to Egypt turned into the next page, with tickets, money, and photos.

We looked at Expressionist artists as the inspiration for this piece.  We were asked to just go with our intuition and not worry what the image was going to be.  You can see the Van Gogh influence in the lines here, I think.  I am still not sure what the three hill shapes mean, but I enjoyed the process of this one. I think the face is somewhat enigmatic too.  

We chose a favourite poem or song lyric as the inspiration for this page.  Mine is 'The Way through the Woods' by Rudyard Kipling.  Again, I thoroughly enjoyed the process on this one too and am pleased with the end result. 

Finally, this interesting page.  This is very much in Dyan Reaveley's style (she was the teacher for this one) and she does have a recognisable style in her work.  She told us about something she does every six months or so, which is to go through magazines and pull out pictures which appeal. It should be an intuitive process. My pictures include cake, gardening equipment, flowers, a woman reading, a pen, a vase, a mug, some blue glass, a cat face, a silk scarf and some jewellery.  It depends what magazines you have used for the images you might find.  I loved creating the collage, although it took a bit of time to get it right and I had to take a photo of it  before I started glueing things down. 

On to the last twelve weeks of this year's course - the broad theme is 'Leaps and Bounds'.