One Sheet Journal Teesha Moore Style - #100thingschallenge #2

I have had a sheet of watercolor paper rolled up in my closet for 2 years.  No, really, 2 whole years.  The receipt was still in the bag and I bought it in 2015.

That means that 2 years ago I bought it to try my hand at making one of Teesha Moore's 16 page journal's created with one 22x30 sheet of paper.

It is actually a very simple project.  I'm not sure why it took me 2 years to do it!  Here is what my finished book looks like, before it has been used at all.

My biggest problem was that my paper had been IN A ROLL for 2 years. That means it wanted very bady to remain in a roll.

I've taken off the clips that held it round, but it remained round.

 I had to weigh it down on both sides in order to measure and cut my pages.

Then my pages wanted to curve!  They would not lay flat.

That didn't bother my folding of the page flaps, but it made binding the whole thing together a little more difficult than it out to have been.

So that is #2 in my #100thingschallenge.  I'm sure you'll see it again when I start using it in its intended purpose as an art journal.

Dreamcatcher - Art Journal Monday

I've been doing my collage art journal pages than anything else lately, using my tiny journal.

Today I broke out one of my larger sketchbooks and some acrylic paint.  No collage for me today.

I pulled up YouTube and opened a tutorial, but only loosely followed it.  (Video at end of blog.)

I had painted this page blue at one point for a project, but never did whatever I had planned.  It was perfect for this paint along.

 My feathers did not turn out as nice as the Art Sherpa's.  Then again I'm not that good of an artist.  I also have sub-par (cheapest possible) supplies.

 Still, I don't think I did that bad considering my skill level.  I like them.

By the time I got to the beads I just needed to get the page done, because I had to clear off the table for lunch.  (The dining room table is the only space I have to create art.)  So they just kind of got blotted on without any detailing.

And here is my Dreamcatcher all finished.  (Or is it?) 

I couldn't help but feel SOMETHING was missing.

I hate to waste any paint, so I took what was left on the pallet and smeared with a brush all over the page in front of the one I was working on.  

One day this will be the background of a new art journal page.

OR...it might just remain smears of paint on a page for the rest of its life, but at least it didn't go in the garbage like this lovely paper plate pallet did.

 Meanwhile, after lunch, this happened.  I kept feeling like something was missing, and just had to do some of my "found poetry" on it.

So while most of this was hand painted, I ended up doing a little collage with text from a magazine.

And, here is the video that inspired this art journal page.

Journal Monday - Handmade Journal

I am an active watcher of art journal videos on YouTube.  Some of my favorite Art tubers have a certain day that they share art journal videos.  One does Monday's.  One does (or used to do) Wednesdays.

I've been toying with the idea of sharing my own art journals here on Monday's.  Sharing one (or all) of the spreads I do in a day.

I already have a collection of art journals, but thought I'd make Journal Monday here at A DIY Day even more special by making my own journal for it.

So today, between playing with my boys and going to see Ghostbusters, I managed to make this:

I think it is quite lovely if I do say so myself!  But can you guess what it started out life as?  Keep reading and you'll find out!

After watching a YouTube video where a woman was challening people to make 5 Junk Journals a week for 5 weeks, I thought I'd like to make one.  5 a week seemed a bit too much for me, but started with 1 seemed okay.

So I ran to my recycling box and I rescued this:

That's right, the base of this beautiful journal was a Kraft Mac and Cheese box!

First I opened up the box and cut off all the tabs like so:

After that I used some prints I had pulled off of my Gelli Plate using a live fern as a mask.

One print was used on the outer cover, the second was used on the inner cover.  I used Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue to glue the pages down.  I love the fast grab because it sticks quick and I don't have to clamp thing down, but it is SO thick.  I think I'm going to try to find a thinner glue next time.

The inner pages are recycled too.  They are a cardstock of unknown poundage.  They were scraps my husband brought home from his old job over 6 years ago and have been sitting around the house waiting to be used since.

 I cut the scraps to fit my book (which is tall and narrow).

I made 4 signatures of 4 pages and each, and bound them in the book using a 3 hole pamphlet stitch.  I didn't use waxed thread, I just grabbed some DMC floss in yellow.

The words on the front read "Where I take a break from my day" and they were taking off of a magazine page.  I used paint the same colors as the journal cover to take the white off of the wording.

Once it was all said and done I thought I did a pretty good job.

What do you think?