Celebrating Life

The new challenge is up over at Southern Girls Challenge and this time it is all about Celebrations.

For my Design Team Project this time I have made an Art Journal.  I am joining in with an art journal circle swap that begins in the New Year and as part of the swap I needed to make a journal that I could send around to everyone in the swap so they can complete a page in my journal and in return I get to do pages in everyone else's journals. We each have to pick a theme for our journal and even though I have headed this post Celebrating Life that is not my theme. I have not done a lot of Art Journaling so this is really stepping out of my comfort zone and the Art Journal I have made is celebrating the fact that I am going to celebrate each and every day and each and every challenge that comes my way.  The only way to grow as an artist and a person is to try new things. 

So here is the front cover:

and here is the back cover:

To begin the journal I took an old A4 book and pulled out the pages leaving the covers and the spine.  This bookswas an illustrated book of cats.

I then tore off some textured wallper and glued it to the covers.  Once that was done I used a stencil and some texture paste to add some dimension to the piece.

I then added some more texture paste through another stencil and glued in some chipboard and wooden pieces.  I then covered everything with gesso.

Once the gesso dried I covered the whole thing with a wash of blue paint and I then drybrushed colour over selected areas of the cover.

I covered chipboard flower shapes with dictionary paper and then inked them with distress inks. I added a doily and some can tabs to the large purple flower and a cabochon with a dragonfly into the centre of the sun.

I glued chipboard letters to pieces of card and then coloured them using gesso and acrylic paint.

I covered the bird, butterfly and lizard with embossing powder and heat embossed them.

 

 

I really enjoyed making this journal and I am looking forward to sending it off and eventually getting it back full of gorgeousness.

I hope you are encouraged to join in the challenge at Southern Girls Challenge and I look forward to seeing your creations.  Please check out the other projects from the girls on the Design Team.