Experimental Journal

It’s amazing how in the few short weeks since I acquired this book my perception of it has changed.

It is no longer simply a book I bought from Amazon …. it has become my treasured experimental journal. It has gone from being a pristine empty tome, to a highly colourful extremely tactile piece of art. It still has lots of blank empty pages waiting to be experimented on, but they are slowly disappearing.

I can’t remember the last time I got hold of some pens and just scribbled with them …. but I really must try to do it more often – it’s so liberating!! And it looks good as well 🙂

The left hand page above is the revese of the right hand page below which was made by made by scribbling on texture plates with a pencil (the left hand page below uses wax crayons over the texture plates)

I’m getting quite addicted to cutting holes in pages …. for this hole I used a grungeboard key as the template for the first hole, then made each successive hole a little smaller. I’m quite pleased with the way it came out!

I stuck the cut outs on the facing page.

I still have lots of fun pages to do and some major wrecking processes to try out, so keep watching!!

Sew a Zentangle!

The minute I saw the instruction to “Sew this page”, I just knew I had to try to sew a zentangle! Check out the Zentangle website for all the info … but simply put it’s a styalised doodle! I’ve been drawing Zentangles for quite a while now (check out my flickr set if you’d like to see what I’ve done) but this is the first time that I’ve tried to sew one! It took a lot longer than a hand drawn one as I had to prick out the design with a pin before I sewed it, but I like how it turned out!

But I wasn’t happy with it as a journal page! So I got out my water colour pencils and coloured the facing page, then gave it a water wash and squished the two pages together to transfer some of the colour. It looked much better, but I still wasn’t completely happy so I added some Webbing spray in gold ….. et voila!!

Most people would leave it there, but once I have an image scanned into my computer … I just can”t resist having a little play!! This is my favourite digital enhancement (I pressed the Invert Button!)

Altered Business Meeting!

Today I took my ‘Wreck This Journal’ book to the Thanet Venture Group’s monthly meeting with a simple request ….” Would they please each do something on the ‘Hang this Journal in a Public Place’ page. I provided lots of coloured marker pens for them to play with and they added some coffee/tea and biscuits. The original intention was for them to complete it during the break, but the book was passed round continually throughout the meeting causing much hilarity and raising some really great issues. It definitely made for an altered business meeting! This is the result 🙂

The book is starting to look really battered now ….

…… but there are still plenty of pages left to have fun with – keep watching this space for further updates!

Take some wax crayons, a foil takeaway container, a pair of tongs …..

Take some wax crayons, a foil takeaway container, a pair of tongs and a sharp knife.

Use the knife to scrape some shavings from one of the wax crayons into the takeaway container (don’t use more than one colour or you’ll end up with a muddy brown colour!). Holding the takeaway container with the tongs, carefully heat the container on the cooker until the wax melts (it only takes a few seconds).

Remove the container from the heat and drip the melted wax onto your paper. Repeat in different colours until you are happy with the result!

The wax has a lovely soft feel to it. I may go back to it later and try scratching a pattern into it 🙂

All This Book Altering and Journal Wrecking …

All this book altering and Journal wrecking is having a profound and very freeing effect on my artistic endeavours. I’ve started this experimental journal …. and the first thing I did was cut a hole in the cover!!

The title I made from recycled magazine images and the flower from an old newspaper. The inside of the cover I created from an old book page crumpled and inked with alcohol inks.

The next page, Learning Curves, I cut the title from a magazine article. The facing page has a torn magazine image and some crumpled inked paper together with an aperture cut to accomodate the butterfly image which I stamped on the waste I cut from the cover of the Journal. [this is recessed within 4 pages]

On the next page I have used a complete newspaper page cut down to fit, then I coloured it with water colour pencils. I gave it a wash with water and shut the book to transfer some of the colour to the facing page.

Although it wasn’t planned, I seem to be documenting my work in this journal … it will be interesting to see how it develops!

Wrecking Havoc!

On Saturday morning ….

… this book landed on my doormat. If you’ve never heard of it, check out the website! I think it’s a really brilliant piece of creative inspiration. Since it arrived I’ve been busy following instructions on how to wreck it! Here are a few of the pages I’ve worked on so far 🙂

The Instructions Page was coloured with water colour pencils, brushed with water, imprinted on the opposite page, then stamped for added texture.

Following the instuctions I attached to the Office Supplies page: treasury tags, staples, paperclips,hole reinforcers, labels, post-it-notes, elastic bands, corrugated card and large split pins !

I had great fun poking holes with my pencil in this page. I drew some flowers on the page, then brayered some ink over it all to give it some colour.

It’s becoming an addiction … I just don’t want to stop!! So watch this space for further developments!

Take one Vintage Book …

Take one vintage book, a sharp knife, some sharp scissors, a photo of your choice, a word to sum it up and a few embellishments, add some lumiere paint and a huge dose of inspiration from Kelly Rae Roberts in her book Taking Flight … and this is what I got 🙂

It took a lot of courage for me to cut the book up like this … I was brought up to respect and almost revere books by my schoolteacher father … so damaging a book in any way goes right against the grain for me … but I’m really glad I took the plunge! Dad might be turning in his grave, but I’m really pleased with the new life I have given to this old book!