Friday, May 17, 2013

Finished extra large art journal...


Here is a YouTube video of the finished extra large art journal. All the pictures are not the best. I am not the family photographer. That is my daughter.....anyway....It was a joy to make and finish. I have discovered that I love making journal out of repurposed material....boxes, packing paper, old books, Christmas cards, etc....

Try it.....you will get addicted too....

Extra Large Art jounal
 

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Making Your Own Art Journal







Hi All,
When I took my first online art class from mixed media artist Traci Bautista I became intrigued with the idea of making and binding my own art journal. There are loads of how to videos out there on youtube for how to make signatures..... bind them to the covers...and such......Here are some of my favorites...

(look at her series on making a journal from an old book)



(she has loads of videos on recycled art journaling)

Anyway my first venture into this came when I took my first class with Traci....I made this large art journal.....it is big...the cover measures about 16 x 20!
The album is made up.... by at least half in reused stuff. Old packing paper.....file folders....old
brown craft paper.....big pieces of cardboard from a shipping box in between the layers of fabric on the front and back.....even the binding was done with leftover bits of yarn and ribbon...







I am on a new mission to finally finish this album....this month....before my next open studio.....without buying anything
else and using only what is at hand.....finishing it in the doodling, graffiti, collage art style I started it in....

I will post the finished pages as I get them done.....and try to include more links to pages or videos I like that might help you start making your own journals instead of buying them...

Enjoy!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Two New How-to Videos

Hi Guys....I created these two new how to videos on mark making tools and flattening bottle caps.....Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/pH723KBePRM
 
http://youtu.be/pH723KBePRM
 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Making Paper Beads...

I was recently inspired by mixed media artist and YouTube blogger Jennibellie to try my hand at making paper beads. I created a video post you can see here...

http://youtu.be/Zuo3QAQk5qY

I also am a huge fan of so many artists....but Jennibellie is definitely one of them. She has a great knack for using and reusing what is at hand.....

You can check out her YouTube videos here. 

http://www.youtube.com/user/jennibellie 

I think you will greatly inspired...I was....

How to make a pallet stand out of a bar stool....

Hi Everyone....I have been painting a lot lately and realized I needed something to put my paint pallet on that would sit next to my easel for easy reach of my paints and tools.....but of course I had little or no budget. So here is what I came up with.

I went to a few thrift shops looking for a bar stool of plant stand. Something about waist height in wood. No back or one that could be removed(if it was a stool) and cheap. I found this...

Then I took a trip to the hardware store....Thee a purchased a lazy susan gizmo(don't know the proper name), a round precut piece of wood and some S hooks from the plant department....

I just looked it up and I guess it is called a lazy susan swivel. They have them online here http://www.thehardwarehut.com

Then I went home to get to work....


One of the hardest parts to do was getting the old vinyl and cushion off. Those staples just did not want to come out....But some pliers and a screw driver got it done.

Then I placed the lazy susan part on top of the stool and centered it. I turned it a bit to show the holes in the bottom piece and marked them with a pencil. I then used a drill to drill holes all the way threw the top of the stool at each hole..


 Then I went into my husbands hardware stash and found four bolts with washers and nuts that would go threw the lazy susan part and the top of the stool. There had to be enough sticking out on the bottom to attach the nut....But I did not attach it yet!

I placed the bolts and washers threw the lazy susan part only....re-aligned the top of the part and bottom and flipped it over...


 I then placed it onto my pre-cut round piece of wood I bought and centered it. I got one just slightly larger than my stool top. I again twisted to lazy susan part to show the holes in the corners of the other side. I marked them with a pencil and drilled a pilot hole. If you don't do this the wood may split when you drill in the screws. I got four wood screws from my husbands stash. Try to make sure they are not too long to go out the other side. And I screwed the lazy susan part into the wood round.



I flipped the wood round over and lined up the bolts that were sticking out with the holes in the top of the stool. It too some finagling and a couple of pairs of pliers, but I got all the nuts on and tightened up.


 I used sticky backed Velcro to attach my plexiglass pallet to the round wood top. It holds it securely but can still be removed for cleaning. I used the S hooks on the stool rungs to attach baskets for paint and my color wheel. I have noticed that I may need to make a low stand for it with casters....as I love it and use it so much but may need to move it around to my work table when I am working on things not on my easel like my art journals.

I hope you all find this useful and inspiring. Go out to create and play!