Art Journal Materials

Gathering materials for the Halloween art journal made me start thinking about materials in general. People often ask...what do I need to make an art journal. The truth is as little or as much in the way of materials as you want. A basic would include markers (I LOVE sharpies.) I know some of you use more professional markers but for my needs Sharpies work GREAT and now they are in lots of colors. I have other markers too but find I like the strong vibrant sharpies the best. Also basic for me is an adhesive. I do a lot of collage so this is a must. If you paint and/or draw then this may not be as important to you. Paints and sketching pencils if you like that medium. And of course a book or pages to bind into a book! That's about it!
The collage materials are the most challenging for me. I look for them every where. In magazines, ads that come in the mail, newspapers etc. I often find some GREAT FREE printables online but one must be cautious of smearing with them! I don't BUY collage materials very often because they have such a "scapbook" feel. Not that I don't like scrapbooks but it's just not what I want in my journal.
However I did buy some collage materials at the Dollar Tree recently. See. I told you I look for materials everywhere! These great silhouette shapes will be perfect for the Halloween art journal!

They had spiders, owls, rats, and bats! There are 15 in a package and some of them have different poses. At first I thought they were tissue paper but they aren't. They are a nice crisp black paper, not exactly cardstock but thicker than just a sheet of paper! I had to take a couple out to see if they would fit my pages. I'm not using them like this I just wanted to see the size!

Can't wait to play around with these. Perfect for the Creepy Crawlies prompt...or...the Are You Afraid of Your Shadow prompt...or any number of the October prompts!

Prepping a Board Book

So after pondering and thinking and wondering about WHAT type of book I will use for the Halloween art journal, I happened upon some children's board books at the flea market. I thought hmmmm alter these? I counted the pages. Most board books would not work for the Halloween or Christmas art journals because they do not have enough pages. I counted, I counted again and again. Yep THIS one has 32 pages...I could use it by doing a final double page for Halloween.

Now how to prep the pages. Sometimes people just use the images on the pages as part of their art journal images but I knew this wouldn't work for my Halloween art journal.

I read a bit online about altering board books and discovered three methods.

1. You can use sandpaper to lightly sand the slick pages so things stick better.

2. You can use gesso and paint over the images on the pages.

3. Carefully tear off the top layer of the printed page.

I opted for method three.

If you start at a corner and work down along the edge of the page you can then pull it across the page and remove it as one large sheet. Sometimes it will tear off bits and they are a little more difficult to remove but overall it is pretty easy!

Now I have a nice blank board book for a dollar! Much cheaper than buying a board book at a craft store and again even in the store it is difficult to find one with the right number of pages!

Halloween Art Journal

I'm still thinking Halloween. I've created a prompt list for the Halloween art journal. I've posted it on The Creative Spirit Facebook page if you would like to get a peek at it, please ask to join. We would love to have you! As October rolls around I will post longer detailed desriptions of each prompt! You might also use them as writing prompts if that fits your needs better!

Facebook Creative Spirit.

Halloween Art Journal Pages

I know...I know...I have LOTS of other projects before the Halloween Art Journal....but....I'm thinking Halloween this morning.....so here are some pages that caught my eye..

Bat page from Glitter and Glue. It's made from cut outs from a gift bag!

Another great one from Altered Gypsy.

Another inspiring one from Spun Monkey Designs.

A fun two page candy one from Glitter and Glue. (again!)

From Art Journaling 101.

Garage Sale Finds=Craft Projects

See this sort of hideous white and pink house....well it's not hideous but it's not for me! It can actually hang on the wall (shudder) and it opens up to reveal some shelves inside.

Well today was the City Wide Garage sale here in our town and so I'm always on a mission to find "junk" to turn into something cool! This house caught me eye right away but what could one do with it? My daughter (quick thinker that she is) suggested spray painting it black and turning it into a haunted house for Halloween. As soon as she said that I could envision it...so I grabbed it up and waited to see the price (because it didn't have a sticker) I mean I wanted it but it would still depend on PRICE. Guess the price...........25 cents. Yippee....it's mine and will become my September project here at The Creative Spirit. I'll share with you the photos (good or bad) of how it turns out and we will se if it is a quarter well spent!

Banners

I've been wanting to try making some of those stylish cute banners I keep seeing everywhere. I haven't managed to do one yet but here's a round up of some super cute ones that I'd like to try. Featured above is one made from little craft boxes. It's to hang in a baby's room. I found this at Paper and Cookies.

Here's another super cute one....with FREE printable templates....this couldn't be simpler! Thanks to At Second Street.

Thanksgiving one from: TipJunkie

Shamrocks anyone? This is colorful and vintage looking using pages from an old book. Super simple and made super cute by Simple as That.

And a nice Halloween one. this ones made from felt and there's a nice printable template. Thanks Finding My Aloha!

Paper Trees

It's Christmas in July at Magical Holiday Home and I'll be making TREES all month long and perhaps a few ornaments also because our theme this year is...."Oh Christmas Tree!"
This week my feature is paper trees. I found this idea on a couple different blogs so I thought I'd try my hand at it too!

First I went in search of some oldish looking paper because I wanted to make some vintage looking ones. Behold an old church hymnal....perfect. The trees were easy to cut out but fanning out the branches wasn't as easy as it looked! I still need to fluff these a bit. They actually look better in person than they do in the pic.
I am thinking about making several more of the smallest one to go with my vintage Christmas houses.