52 Weeks of Art Journals - Recycled Clutch Art Journal

 

Come and join me for the latest art journal in the series 52 Weeks of Art Journals. The Art Journal on show today is what I am calling a Clutch Bag Art Journal

Check out the YouTube Video and you will be able to get a good look at how it is made.

This is the third art journal that I have made using Tetra Pak -

(a recycled milk carton it has 3 layers (foil, cardboard and plastic). You can check out the other two below

Chunky Journal - https://youtu.be/4PTFBdZaKdo

Jigsaw Journal - https://youtu.be/5f7uHJmm74I

I loved creating this art journal, as it started out as an experiment and then it all just fell into place and the clutch bag was formed. Using the tetra pak milk carton as the base and it is a great way to recycle, especially for us here in Barbados as there are no processing operations that exist for this sort of packaging so it all goes to landfill.

After being cleaned I covered it with painted fabric, I have added quite a few elements such as the lace/ribbon detail, inspiring words, beads, the bead droplets and additional texture around the art journal.

The texture was created by applying gesso through sequin waste and allowing it to dry before applying metallic paint.

Beading also added a nice touch and I also used it to cover some of the spine of this journal. The pages of the journal uses recycled collaged and painted card and measures approximately 3 x 5 inches, so great for making quick pages or when you only have a limited time to create.

I am sure there are many other things that can done to make use of the packaging, I have seen it used in building materials, making bricks, and put though recycling plants. You need special machinery to separate the layers for recycling, so why not come up with a creative project that you can enjoy.

Some of the supplies used - some of which you may have already:

Fabric - recycled school uniform - or fabric you may have

Gesso - https://amzn.to/3yGjtdL

Jacquard metallic paint - https://amzn.to/3yH7XyR

Sequin waste - https://amzn.to/3qZ6l0F

Beads - https://amzn.to/3AMmcEs

Thread for stitching - https://amzn.to/3k1yfYH

White pen - https://amzn.to/3e40Mc9

I look forward in seeing what you come up with

Arts and Wellness Café - Word for the Week - Profound. Art Journal Page, Slow Stitching and More!

Come and join me in the Arts and Wellness Café where the Word for the Week has been Profound.  Check out the video below to hear about some of the things that I am sharing:

Here are the time stamp sections - 

Welcome: Click Here

Slow Stitching: Click Here

Use Your supplies - Art Journal Page - Click Here

Explore and Express - Click here

One of the things that helped me through our first lock down as we dealt with the Global pandemic was to start stitching, and I completed many projects. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed slow stitching and creating projects.

Here are some projects that I am working my way through and I have been creating some smaller pieces as well.

This piece incorporates stitching with hand dyed wax resist fabrics

I like working on more than one piece at a time and here are some additional stitched pieces that are coming to a close. (I will share in another post.

Art Journal Page

You also get to see in this video how you can get rid of some of your neglected art supplies and create a lovely art journal page and here are some that I shared.

Applying the paint and using stencils to create a design enables you to make some really lovely background pages ready for when you next have time to work on them.

I had intended to use several stencils, but only used two for these pages.  It was lovely working in the journals, I had one main one and used two others to use up the extra paint I had on the pallet.  The paints are reasonably priced and over they years I have collected quite a few, so want to use some of them up before they dry out.  I have put the links to some of the supplies I used.

Supplies:

Folk Art - https://amzn.to/2Rw6MT9

Martha Stuart Paints - https://amzn.to/3yrKqTr

Apple Barrel - https://amzn.to/3vdYhL0

Stencils (one of the stencils is a recycled lid) - https://amzn.to/3hL5bmY

Come and join me on Patreon

For as little $3 each month you have access to patron only content and will receive the following

• 30 minutes of creativity monthly video Tutorial

 Reference Photos

• You will have access to two albums of high quality reference photos.  You can use them in your own art, art journals etc
• 2 Additional downloadable backgrounds

 Art Journal Bundle (after 2 months) Includes

• 5 Downloadable Art Journal Backgrounds
• 31 Art Journal Prompts Book
• 4 Handmade Art Journal Tutorials
• 4 videos - Creating Backgrounds

Monthly Art Videos 

• You will receive a short Monthly Art video sharing either a technique/Supply/Hints/Tips or prompt
• Weekly Inspirational shorts video
• Patron only content
• Arts and Health Network Free membership
• Early access to any discounts promotions 
• A copy of my free eBook "25 ways to fit Art and Creativity into your Life 

• My undying gratitude & genuine thanks! 

CHECK OUT PATREON HERE

Turning a Composition Notebook into an Art Journal

I recently brought myself a Composition notebook to create an art journal with.  The are fairly cheap and you can pick them up at the Dollar or local store.  In this video I share with you how I transform the first pages.

I wanted to use supplies that I had been holding on for a while and got a selection of handmade papers, words, atc cards and Gelatos that I had sitting in a draw.

We can sometimes be really precious about our supplies, leaving them for what we call 'best' and not ending up using them at all and before you know it the supply has dried up and you have wasted your money.

What I plan to do with this art journal is to share some of the process pages - sharing techniques and ideas so that you can try them as well in your journals.

The more I played with the page the more supplies came out and I stencilled on the page and made marks and brought the page together.

I realised how many cards and papers that I had painted on and left in the bag that I was able to use. They now have a home in the composition art journal and it is also a great escape for me to be able to be a lot freer with my supplies.

If you would like to see the FULL version of this video in 'real time' you can do so HERE on my Patreon account.

Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Everlasting Art Journal - Art Journal for Beginners - Video included

Welcome to the post, I created this art journal from greeting cards that I had printed out and for some reason or another just didn't use them.  They are A6 cards of a variety of colors and some have shapes cut out of them for inserts.

 

It is a lovely size to work with as it fits quite neatly in your hands.  One of the things I like with this art journal is that it uses the scraps of paper and card that you may have especially those smaller pieces from other projects.

Check out the video below to see how I have worked on the pages, and get some hints and tips of how you could use your hand made art journal.

Let me know if you have any questions about the Art Journal and pages and if you decide to make one I would love to see your results!

Art Journalling Pages - Just Start

Art Journal Page - Just Start!!

In this first video I will share with you how to work on the background, you just have to put something down and it will take away the fear.  Practicing creating backgrounds for a while and don't worry about what you are going to put on it or how it would look in the end. 

You will be building up the layers and focus on enjoying the process.

Developing the Page

Art Journal Page - From Scratch

In this video I share with you a page that has had colour added to it but little else and how I build up the page to create the image.  You don't have to do everything all at once so come back and see how the two pages get moved on.

Enjoy!

Arts and Wellness Wednesday - Mental Health and Art Journal

Join me in the video or on the podcast for this episode of Arts and Wellness where I look at the effects of the varying lock down, social distancing, death, unemployment and mask wearing around the world there is a knock on effect on our health.  

Working in an Art Journal can have positive effects on our health and  well being, let me know how you use yours if you have one, or check out some of my art journal videos for some tips

Listen to the Podcast

.Creating backgrounds can be useful as a starting point

I create images in mine and journal as well.

Have a look at my Patreon Blog for more ideas

Creating in Faith - Compassionate

The word for today is Compassionate, think about what the word means to you in relation to you.  How would you express an example of it to someone else, and what does it look like when you show it to yourself, how does it make you feel?

Listen to the podcast episode below and check out the Art Journal page and examples of how you can work on your page.

Here is the video of my page creation, have a look

I hope it has given you ways in which you can work on your art journal page, but more importantly treat yourself with compassion.

Here are some of the other links that you can connect with on social media.

Creating In Faith Encouraging Recordings are to bless and inspire you to be the best of yourself. It can be really great to pull out your art journal/Journal and express what comes up for you either with images and colour, with words or with both. Check out the weekly and monthly videos to help you spend more time in your art journal.

If you would like to see some behind the scenes, images and additional tips HERE

You will find the  art journal videos available to consume at your leisure - the Making of the art journal for the month and an art journal page process - Check these out HERE

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There are so many FREE ways in which you can support the podcast and the work that I do on some of the other channels and it is always a blessing when you connect -

• listening each week and leave a comment,
• Subscribe to any or all of my channels, visit the
• YouTube channel (remember to hit the notification bell)
• Let me know how the content impacted you and if you were inspired to make changes/additions to your work or life.

Patreon Blog - http://www.patreon.com/realityarts

Instagram www.instagram.com/realityarts/

Facebook www.facebook.com/realityartss/

Check out some encouraging boards on Pinterest 

Artwork available from the title image HERE

I also have an Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and connect with others who are passionate about the arts in health too.

Creative Encourager - If you want to talk about creativity and the direction you are going and need a listening ear, sign up for a FREE 30 minute call http://bit.ly/Encoura

Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Season 2 - Creating in Faith - Happy

Happy

What would you say your general mood is from day to day?  Sometimes there are external things that can allow to have an impact on our overall mood and we then respond to things in a negative way.  Does that mean that we scan not be happy despite what is going on around us?  Can you have an argument about something and still be in a happy frame of mind?  Listen to the Podcast

Going through an electrical and water outage at the same time over a period of 8 hours really helped me put things into perspective.  It isn’t until these things are gone do you really appreciate what you could do when you had them, how much you depend on them and what impact not being able to do the things that you took for granted would have..  All of our appliance ran out of charge and we were then faced with reading, writing and having a conversation rather than all having our heads in a screen of varying size – which despite no lights I appreciated the pause.

I was reminded that I love writing and it is something that I have kept up, but I was also able to get on with some writing that I really needed to focus on but never found the time.  We just had to find a way to make it work for us, without getting annoyed that the lights went off, as that wouldn’t have solved anything and we would still be without light and water.

It brought back memories of being a child and the lights going out and our big sister would make it fun, - back then you did more things together as a family, without the distractions of the computer screen and the tv (which only had 4 channels)!  We were always able to look at things from a different perspective which didn’t have stress attached to it.  We knew the lights would come back eventually so we did something else until it did.

Is happy your constant state of being, happy within yourself, your state of mind, not looking at what you think things should be, knowing who you are and what you stand for.  Things don’t always have to go the way that we expect -and we know that we are the creators of our own reality. Don’t expect others to ‘make’ you happy or feel that it is your duty to ‘make’ someone else ‘Happy’ – it is not your responsibility to make others happy. 

Take a moment and consider how you are feeling at the moment, think about whether you are in a happy state of being, check out the Art Journal page video, and the monthly Journal that you can join me in making and see if you are further inspired in your journey.

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Realityarts Podcast - Creating in Faith - Happy

Creating In Faith Encouraging Recordings are to bless and inspire you to be the best of yourself. It can be really great to pull out your art journal/Journal and express what comes up for you either with images and colour, with words or with both. Check out the weekly and monthly videos to help you spend more time in your art journal.

You can get additional information by showing up on my blog, you can see the show notes HERE

If you would like to see some behind the scenes, images and additional tips HERE

You will find the 2 art journal videos available to consume at your leisure - the Making of the art journal for the month and an art journal page process - Check these out HERE 

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There are so many FREE ways in which you can support the podcast and the work that I do on some of the other channels and it is always a blessing when you connect -

• listening each week and leave a comment
• Subscribe to any or all of my channels, visit the
• YouTube channel (remember to hit the notification bell)
• Let me know how the content impacted you and if you were inspired to make changes/additions to your work or life.

YouTube www.youtube.com/amandatrought

Blog - http://realityarts-creativity.blogspot.com

Patreon Blog - http://www.patreon.com/realityarts

Twitter - www.twitter.com/Realityarts

Instagram www.instagram.com/realityarts/

Facebook www.facebook.com/realityartss/

Check out some encouraging boards on Pinterest

Artwork available from the title image HERE

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I also have an Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and connect with others who are passionate about the arts in health too.

****************************************************************

Creative Encourager - If you want to talk about creativity and the direction you are going and need a listening ear, sign up for a FREE 30 minute call http://bit.ly/Encoura