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