Postcard collage

 Another small collage using one of my Hahnemuehle postcards.

 

Printed and painted tissue, book page, scanned sketch,
gold gel pen, machine stitch (6" x 4")

The Collage Journal continues ...

 I have come to the end of my collage journal, although I am tempted to re-do the first couple of pages which are very uninspiring.  However, I am glad I worked through that stage and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge - thanks to Lydia Rink for sharing her process.

Now I had better get on and start replenishing my files of painted and printed papers for future collage experiments.

More "Collage up your Journal" pages

 A couple more pages from my collage journal.

I liked the colour of this magazine image of a bowl and tied it in
with a background of some of my painted papers

A couple of sliced up/re-arranged lino prints on book pages

Another Collage Journal page

 

I tried using wallpaper paste as suggested by Lydia Rink - much easier to spread on thin/tissue papers than PVA, also allows a certain amount of re-positioning.  However, with several layers of collaged paper my pages became completely saturated and took an age to dry and flatten.  I now mix the paste with some PVA which provides a less watery consistency, but retaining the advantages of the wallpaper paste.

Collage journal continued

 Another couple of collage pages completed.

Paste paper, printed papers and a scanned sketch

The printed and stitched tissue paper background was done
a while ago, I just added the lettering shapes and 
the lino printed face

Collage Journal

I mentioned earlier that I was following an online course by Lydia Rink.  The first task was to construct a simple handmade journal for our collage work.  Lydia uses text, letter shapes and found images - you can see some of her work here.

The first couple of exercises related mainly to shapes and composition and I must admit my initial attempts are not worth showing.  However, I will persevere and hope to improve by the time my journal is complete.

Collage Journal cover (approx 6" x 8")

Book pages and hand-printed tissue

More printed tissue paper, scan of watercolour sketch
and hand-cut lettering

INKTOBER 31st - Finished!

I managed to get my last page finished just before the stroke of midnight!

I much prefer the first side which is more cohesive. The background of the second side proved to be too busy and distracting, although it did make me experiment more with the ink based products in an effort to clarify the sketches.

The last page and title page (Uniball Eye pen plus gold gel pen)

The complete second side

The first side

The folded book giving me 32 sides measuring 4" x 6"

Diary or daily journalling

I am following Karen Abend's "Sketchbook Revival" videos - over 12 days about 25 artists share some of the ways they use their sketchbooks. I was interested in Carla Sonheim's layout for daily journaling, particularly as I had been thinking of sharing images of the diary layout I have been using since 2012.

Apart from when on holiday, I hadn't given much thought to keeping a diary, but realising I was beginning to have trouble remembering events that happened a few months previously (or even weeks previously) I considered the idea of starting a journal.  I only wanted to make very brief notes about each day, so I opted for a monthly page utilising one of my painted backgrounds to make it a bit more interesting.

I wanted to have each month in A4 format to fit in a plastic folder, but decided that was a bit small to fit in 31 days, so I now decorate an A3 sheet of 100 gsm computer paper and use it horizontally, allowing for a fold out flap to increase the available space.  Once a year is completed I make a sturdy painted card folder for the 12 pages.

A rough guide to layout.  (Several of the spare strips of decorated paper were
used for the basis of this glued spine book)

I am not concerned with precision and my writing
has to be very small, sometimes over-running its
allotted box

The fold-over flaps give room for added decoration

A few of the yearly card folders

A simple pop-up book

Having seen an  image of a simple pop-up booklet by Paul Johnson,  made from one sheet of A4 paper, I decided to try my hand at making something similar.

I carefully did a trial run to ensure I knew which bits to fold and which to cut and in which order. Needless to say, the first cut I made on the original artwork was wrong!! - it should have been a fold. Luckily, I was able to tape it up without it looking too obvious.

The cover and closure band were made from a scrap of hand-printed and painted paper - finished size approx 3" x 5"

Inside -
Fine-liner ink drawings with Inktense and watercolour pencils

A purple, circle book

Yet another of my circle books, made for a special birthday.  I chose two shades of purple card for this and, due to the thickness of the card, I opted for six pages instead of eight.    Gesso was used with my own linocuts for the decoration, with added highlights and handwritten message in silver and white gel pens.  The purchased gift bag was embellished with toning paper flowers fashioned from old book pages.

Each circular page was 5" in diameter

The folded card fitted into the smaller handmade gift bag

Latest circle book complete

I have now finished the circular book mentioned in my last post.

When open, the booklet measures 5" across and 2 1/2" high, fitting into the quadrant box when closed.

Materials used: 100 gsm cream paper,  computer printed text, hand-printed with acrylic tinted gesso foam stamp, edges cut with "deckle" scissors and stained with acrylic and gold ink.  Quadrant box - cardboard covered with red mulberry paper, decorated with gold ink and collaged stamped image.

A fold booklet

A few days ago I tried out some acrylic printing with handmade foam stamps on an A3 sheet of black paper.  At the time I had no plan on how to use it, but subsequently decided to try out a simple fold structure.

Foam stamps, acrylic and inks

Folding and cutting template - an A3 sheet produced a 4" x 6" booklet

Once folded, the printed area formed the inside 8 pages, but the front and back were the reverse of the sheet and, therefore, blank.  I decorated those pages and added some rose-related quotes on the inside.

Outside cover

Inside of booklet

I was quite pleased with the outcome, although a slightly thicker paper might have been better - this was 135 gsm.