India Mixed Media Scrapbook: Take 1

I traveled to India last fall with my husband, and we fell in love with the country, the wonderful people we met, and the glorious colors everywhere we looked! I wanted to make a scrapbook of our journey, but not in the traditional sense...I wanted to take a mixed media approach. 

I started by printing a lot of my own papers, using DecoArt Americana Premium acrylics, my gelli plate, and stencils. This way, I could recreate some of the colors I saw on my trip in my papers.

My dancing hula girl, bunny, and water garden accompany me as I work.

Samples from some of the pages I made, using marks and stencils.

I also added gold touches to a number of pages.

Now, I have a good selection of papers I can pull from as I work on my pages.

I decided to use an old art journal I had on hand and removed the pages. I began by adding lines or splats with watercolor, then went in with acrylic paints and stencils. Here are a couple of samples.

Since I had deconstructed the album, it was easy to  paint the cardboard covers. I started with a layer of gesso, and once that dried, went in with a couple of blues. To get the variation you see here, I wiped off areas with a baby wipe.

I stenciled in some partial mandalas with gold paint, layered on some wonderful papers, images, ribbons, laces and objects. I also colored some of the elephant in with gold doodles. I got these awesome materials to use from Gwen Lafleur, who was a fellow traveler on our journey, and a mixed media artist. I love how the cover turned out!

My first page inside will be this compass rose mandala. I found a map of India in an old atlas and cut that into some of the points, used some of my handmade papers for others, and cut apart a photo I took while there that shows the exact location. Lots of layering, color, and doodles in this one.

Pages in progress...I'll probably go back in and add some journaling and maybe a bit more.

One of the wonderful aspects of making a scrapbook of your travels is reliving the experience and memories as you work on it. I hope you've enjoyed seeing my work in progress. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Maura

Wanderlust 2016: A Tag Travel Journal

I'm in the middle of one of my Wanderlust 2016 classes with Joanna Grant, and just finished up my first mini journal using shipping tags. 

I LOVE Wanderlust 2016! I have learned an amazing amount of "stuff" and been inspired by some very talented artists. I know I have pushed myself beyond my comfort zone and tried techniques I never thought I would. For example, with this project, I headed totally out of my color comfort  zone to see what would happen...and I really like it! I think I tend to get into color "ruts", and it's a lot of fun to escape that. 

My work space is getting smaller, but I am having fun with my gelli plate and these bright colors, including neons! I used a recycled cup and bottle cap to make my circles. Thank you Carolyn Dube (another Wanderlust teacher) for taking me on a journey into the gelli plate! I bought one a few years ago, and it sat...until this year, when I finally learned to use it.

I decided to try my hand at making some matching washi tape, so I laid out strips of Dina Wakley's Media Tape onto my gelli plate, and added paint.

I found an old number stamp from 1-31 and stamped the tape with this also.

I wanted it to stand out more from the tags, so sprayed and speckled it with white.

I cut out paper rectangles, doodled around the edges, added my washi, and stamped "Journal" onto the cover tag. 

All hooked together, and added some contrasting fibers. Now, this little tag journal is ready to go on a journey. There is space for notes or drawing, and it would be simple to add in some watercolor paper tags to add some sketches, or more journaling sheets - definitely room to expand!

I hope you've enjoyed this project in neon and bright colors! See, I've learned to play with more crayons in the box, so to speak ;)

Working with a Kit, oh, and Challenge at SSS

I belong to a Kit Klub at my LSS, and this is a travel themed kit "Escape" by Little Yellow Bicycle. At a crop recently, my friend Michelle and I worked on a travel mini album that was made to use with this kit. I've been thinking kits lately because of my class by May Flaum called Kit-tastic. Now, probably most of my fellow classmates have finished the class, but I will admit that I am behind, so have only started.

I am a totally messy scrapper (as was my friend this day:).

Working on this cute album, which will be great to use for a trip.

Here is a look at the book. Since my favorite is to make mini albums, I am also entering this into Simon Says Stamp challenge "favorites." Here are some sample pages from the album:

And, doesn't this just say it all?

Road Trip Journal

I was in the mood to play with the Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride papers and came up with this little road trip journal. I added a few travel themed rubber stamps on each page as well as a date stamp. Quick and fun!

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride, rubber stamps-Stampin' Up, Hero Arts