Island Hopping, Aloha and Passion Flower

Seems I've been more into art journaling than blogging lately, so, have a little catching up to do.

I've been hanging out in semi-sunny Oregon making journal pages about Hawaii.  My mom and a couple cousins are planning a trip to Hawaii that is coming up soon.  I like their approach to the whole Hawaii theme!  But a trip there is not in the stars for me right now...maybe another year.

Here's the first page, titled Island Hopping:    

The background is iridescent acrylic paints and Color Wash.  The white strip is decorative tape (which I had to get as it has one of my fav tropical leaves and a Sea Turtle-I adore Sea Turtles-on it).  The maps of the Islands are images I got off Google.  The full image of Hawaii is a postcard I made from the front of a  tablet I got in Hawaii.  I've also stamped some tropical images here and there.
And, as you can see in the following image, the postcard flips up the reveal the Island Hopping title and a stamped postoid of the state fish of Hawaii, although I did take it upon my artistic self to alter the colors.  And, as you can see the opposite side of the postcard shows a Hawaiian scene with palm trees and a hammock I wish was outside my door!

Next is a page I made from an ad I saw in a magazine the other day.   The background is again iridescent acrylic and Color Wash.

I tore the main image out, then tore strips from around the edges.  Usually I would color the white edges but in this case I really like the way they look left white. Before I glued the image of the surfer down I stamped the wave 3 times with acrylic paint.  I had the letters left from a set of grungeboard letters and I painted them white with a Ranger dauber bottle of acrylic paint.  Then glued them down.  Last thing was to put a Hawaii postage stamp on white cardstock and then cut out with postal decorative scissors.
And, Voila!  It was done!

The last page is one I made using an image from the cover of a catalog that I have been saving since 1997.  Yep, I said 1997!  I was surprised when I saw the date on it...whoa was that ever TREASURING!

I made the background using two shades of green acrylic paint.
Then, using a technique I learned from DeDe of Inkwell Studios I tore the image out, glued it down with gel medium (it wrinkled more than usual-I think I got it too wet...).  Then went back with the 2 shades of green acrylic and painted around the edges.  Alot easier than fussy cutting - I think that's what had me treasuring this picture all those years.  No way I could cut around all those stamens or whatever they are.  Then I drew the letters on with pencil, painted them with acrylic, then outlined in black with a Sharpie pen.
I still need to do a little touch up where the torn edge is but wanted to post it here before I move on.
Dede's blog can be seen HERE.  She is an amazing artist and shares so much knowledge on her UStream shows.  You can find the link to those on her blog.  She is alot of fun to watch!

Thanks for taking a look!
Hope all my Canada friends had a wonderful Canada Day!
And hope all of us enjoy the Fourth of July weekend!

Go create something!

Journal pages - tropical leaves

A favorite theme for me, always, is leaves.

Here's some I did for my journal. Having spent quite a bit of time in Hawaii, on Maui, tropical leaves are some of my very fav. Here's a couple I drew on ledger paper with colored pencil, cut out and stuck on journal pages with acrylic gel medium. The backgrounds are acrylic and I was experimenting with light and dark backgrounds with similar subjects. Which do you like better?

My Journal

I started a new journal earlier this month.

I made the book using my BindItAll. The covers I made using some fav scrapbook paper I had been hanging onto cuz I liked it so well. Decided I should use it if I like it THAT much! Especially if making something for myself!

I used a tablet of ledger paper for the inside cover, I also cut 1 inch strips and folded them over the edge of the pages before I punched the holes. This give the edge a little more thickness to help allow for the thickness I'll add to the book by working on the pages. Also, then I don't have a stark white edge where the binding is when I paint the background. The journal has 40 pages, so is a big book. I used 10 of lt gray cardstock, 10 lt weight watercolor paper, 10 white cardstock, 10 of India watercolor paper. The working area of the pages is 8 1/2" square.

Once the book was made I started painting backgrounds on various pages. I never start on the first page and work my way through. I randomly pick which page to play with next. And I really like doing backgrounds so go ahead and start there without even always knowing what I'll put on the page. The worse that can happen is I'll have to paint over it if I can't figure out what to do with it! So far I've just used gesso and acrylic paints.

Here's the first page I did. I don't know yet if all the pages will be nature themed but it is a definate possibility. Again I used acrylic paints, and I printed the words on a piece of ledger paper (same time as I printed "journal" for the cover), drew around it with colored pencils and cut it out and glued it to the page with gel medium.

Thanks for looking!

Enjoy!