Thursday, March 31, 2011

Visual Journal Workshop 2

In the month of March, Strathmore offered the second of three on-line workshops on visual journaling.  Instructor Linda Blinn gave us some really great ideas for making journals not only artful, but also unique.  The classes are on-going, and you can still take them if you are interested.  Click here to check them out.

I started with a Strathmore 5x8 watercolor journal (which Michaels has started carrying).  Our first lesson gave us a start at making the journal unique and practical by making pockets on the inside front and back covers and making some stepped pages and foldout pages.

Here is the inside front cover and first set of stepped pages in my journal.  I used a business envelope with windows for this pocket.

Here is the inside back cover with pockets.














I made one extended page that folds out, on which I pasted photos of some of the artwork I have done in the past year.  This page was inspired by a typo that I noticed in one of the Somerset publications. :)

Here it is with the extension folded in.
And here is what is inside the fold:

You may have noted that the photos are quite small and not proportionate to their actual sizes.  I printed them with my new toy - a Canon Selphy printer, which has a setting to generate photocollages on 4x6 paper.  I cut out each of the individual shapes for this journal page.  The printer does a really great job - the color is quite true and the photo process is similar to a photo lab print.






Linda gave us tips on prepping our page backgrounds by using stencils and masks with spray paint as well as rubber stamps and other items to make texture.  Here are a couple more pages that I have made in her class:

For this set of pages that demonstrates using positive and negative images, I used an illustration from a magazine to cut a mask.  I wrote inside the negative image and outside the positive image. 
This set of pages is ready for journaling.



3 comments:

  1. Great journal pages, a new toy, which sounds really nifty - what's not to love. xox Corrine

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  2. You're a genius! That window envelope is nice to see what's inside, and I see you made a double pocket in the back. I like the project you made with your new printer, and the colors/texture of your pages ready for journaling. Great job!

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  3. I love it, Joyce. This is my kind of visual journal - lots of art, but also really neat tactile thingies like foldouts and pockets.

    Love, love, love what you have done!

    I can't say which is my favorite. They're all wonderful.

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