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!

July Junk Journal Challenge 2025 - #JJJC2025

 I have been taking part in a July Junk Journal challenge on Leigh's Art and Journal Wonderland where you have prompts for each day and then create a page around the prompt.  I particularly enjoyed this one as it was only on weekdays, so that you could catch up over a weekend if you needed to.  Leigh created a video for each page and had a big list of other people who were also doing the same, so there was always plenty of inspiration.  Below are some of my favourite pages that I created and I tried to make the pages interesting with flaps, fold outs, tip ins, tucks and pockets, so that the journal has ended up being quite interactive.

The prompts for these were A Touch of Gold (although the gold does not show up well in the photo!) and Botanical, which uses one of my slow drawings, a piece of embossed card, a piece of scrap book paper and a piece of a paper bag from a shop.

Something Vintage included a copy of an old photo (I bought a set of old photos on ebay and have scanned some in so that I can keep the originals), an old postmark and various vintage book pages. Tag on the right was using inspiration from Alison Bomber from Words and Pictures.

Bird on the left has a flap and Tea Bag on the right has a pressed blueberry leaf from last year under a tea bag on top of a piece of paper painted with tea marks.

On the left, you can see the flap lifted up, with stamping, the negative of the die cut bird from the front, a digikit image of birds and a feather in a 'slide'.

On the left is Ticket which has a combination of real and digital tickets, while on the right is Book Page, which has one of my carved stamps as a focal point, over watercolour. It folds out to reveal...

A leafy stem drawn with a brush pen and another hand carved stamp.

This was a lovely challenge to take part in and I really enjoyed it.  Working in a small scale meant the blank page wasn't too scary.  I found that sometimes leaving a prompt to the next day helped me to come up with a better/more interesting idea, rather than going with my first thought. 

Here's to #JJJC2026!

Index Card a Day 2020 (ICAD) - Week Two

Here are the cards from the second week of ICAD.

The prompts were: Suzani patterns (I had to look this up - traditional embroidery from Uzbeckistan and Tajikistan); Bookshelf; David Bowie.

Tiramisu (featuring a photo of my Granny and her sisters when they were girls);  Brocade; Kite or Rhombus; Chamomile.  Just in case the Chamomile one doesn't make any sense, I used camomile tea leaves, which I added to texture paste and applied through a stencil and the tea bags were glued in strips.  I then added drips of acrylic paint and watercolour pencils for the colours, finishing with gold speckles and a bit of glitter. (I had this brainwave having watched a Youtube video where teabags were made into a mini journal.)
On to week three...