Photocopies and Art Journals

Ah the humble photocopy. I don't think that there is an more overlooked and underrated mixed media art supply out there! There is just so much that you can do with them! Play with the toner levels and contrast, photocopy a photocopied coy (say that five times fast!) the possibilities are endless.

Copy Cat

I've taken the simpler route today in my altered book (have I already said how much I love this book??) and just copied a flower illustration to use in my spread. I fussy cut around the edges and then used masking tape to give it a bit of texture and to make it almost look like a pressed flower stuck into the book.

Mark it up

When I am putting down paint onto my journal spreads it may look like a totally random process but I promise it isn't. Well most of the time it isn't! I like to think of the colors that I am putting down as almost like a patchwork quilt. In the video you'll see I use these patches of paint to define where a particular color of mark or type of mark making is going to take place. This way there is always a kind of plan in place for when I come to the next layer.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Please don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already. That way you can be sure to not miss any tutorials that are coming up this month and many more to come!

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You can sign up right now for my free online class, Play with Black!

Black is often a color which is overlooked when working with our mixed media projects. With so many other amazing colors available, it's easy to do.

Join me as we delve into the dark side of mixed media! Working with only a few supplies, let’s explore a variety of ways black and its values  can be used to create a gorgeous, layered art journal page.

Creating with Digital Printables

I am so excited to create this tutorial for you because I am actually using my own supplies for a change! Creating my digital downloads has been a dream of mine for quite some time now and they are finally ready to send out into the world!

Grab your altered book journal!

I'm creating today inside my altered book journal and I have to say, it's fast turning into one of my favorite places to create in. Starting off with text already on the page means that you don't have to worry about breaking that pesky blank page.

Shop my supplies

I'm creating using my very own supplies here and they are available here in my Etsy Shop! Creating digital supplies means that you get access to them straight away, no stalking the post man! Plus you can print these supplies again and again and print them onto anything that will fit through your printer!

Don't forget to subscribe!

Please don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already. That way you can be sure to not miss any tutorials that are coming up this month and many more to come!

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You can sign up right now for my free online class, Play with Black!

Black is often a color which is overlooked when working with our mixed media projects. With so many other amazing colors available, it's easy to do.

Join me as we delve into the dark side of mixed media! Working with only a few supplies, let’s explore a variety of ways black and its values  can be used to create a gorgeous, layered art journal page.

Image Transfer with Packing Tape

In this tutorial I am going to be sharing how to do an image transfer with packing tape. Using image transfers can be a lot of fun in your art journals and mixed media projects and they are a great way to achieve an easy, no bulk, layer to your work.

Packing tape and spoon

The supplies for this tutorial are pretty small. You need your packing tape and you need a spoon. After that you just need a magazine image to work with for your transfer.

Layer it up baby

The packing tape has very little stick left in it once it has been soaking so you'll need to apply some extra glue to adhere it to your page. I'd recommend something like a glue stick (I used UHU) Wet glue can cause the tape to buckle.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Please don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already. That way you can be sure to not miss any tutorials that are coming up this month and many more to come!

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You can sign up right now for my free online class, Play with Black!

Black is often a color which is overlooked when working with our mixed media projects. With so many other amazing colors available, it's easy to do.

Join me as we delve into the dark side of mixed media! Working with only a few supplies, let’s explore a variety of ways black and its values  can be used to create a gorgeous, layered art journal page.

Easy Embroidery Hoop Gift Tutorial

Welcome to my series of tutorials this month covering gift ideas that you can easily make and give away to your arty friends or even end up keeping for yourself.

Today I am sharing these simple and easy embroidery hoops that will make a perfect present for that special someone over the holidays. These would actually be perfect no matter what time of year!

paint with brushos 

I am using my Brusho powders from Colourcraft for this project. Using these powders to paint or color on fabric is one of my favorite techniques. These powders are super heavily pigmented and they just explode across your page or fabric when activated with water.You can substitute watercolor paints if you don't have Brusho's in your stash.

Embroidery is Fun!

I promise even the most beginner noob can manage at least the stamped embroidered hoop! If you are feeling adventurous or need some more instruction here is the link to the tutorial on Sublime Stitching covering French Knots. They really aren't as hard as you think so please give them a go!

Personalise, Personalise, Personalise!

The wonderful part about these little hoops is that you can completely personalise it for the person that you are making it for. Spend your time selecting the perfect dictionary definition to add in to make it extra special.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Please don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already. That way you can be sure to not miss any tutorials that are coming up this month and many more to come!

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You can sign up right now for my free online class, Play with Black!

Black is often a color which is overlooked when working with our mixed media projects. With so many other amazing colors available, it's easy to do.

Join me as we delve into the dark side of mixed media! Working with only a few supplies, let’s explore a variety of ways black and its values  can be used to create a gorgeous, layered art journal page.

Make Your Own Custom Notebook Cover

Welcome to my series of tutorials this month covering gift ideas that you can easily make and give away to your arty friends or even end up keeping for yourself.

I picked up this little set of three notebooks for super cheap in Flying Tiger but I am sure you can find something similar very easily. Their sturdy kraft covers mean they are perfect for altering.

Full moon half moon

I could seriously make these inky moons all day everyday. It never gets old watching the ink move across the page on the water never fails to amaze me.

All tied up with string

These little notebooks are perfect to give away as a set wrapped up in a pretty little bundle. You could totally change the color of your moons to perhaps a pink or blue moon depending on your recipients color favorite.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Please don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already. That way you can be sure to not miss any tutorials that are coming up this month and many more to come!

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You can sign up right now for my free online class, Play with Black!

Black is often a color which is overlooked when working with our mixed media projects. With so many other amazing colors available, it's easy to do.

Join me as we delve into the dark side of mixed media! Working with only a few supplies, let’s explore a variety of ways black and its values  can be used to create a gorgeous, layered art journal page.

Make Your Own Envelope Journal Part Two

Welcome to my series of tutorials this month covering gift ideas that you can easily make and give away to your arty friends or even end up keeping for yourself.

This is part two of making your own envelope journal, if you haven't already checked out part one make sure you do as this tutorial builds on the previous one.

Decorating Your Journal 

Now we have less exciting part of making our journal done we can get to the fun part of decorating it! I've used stencils and paint for the front part of my journal as well as some book text and printed gelli papers I had in my stash.

Personalise, Personalise, Personalise!

The wonderful part about this little journal is that you can completely personalise it for the person that you are making it for. Spend your time selecting little bits and pieces to add in to make it extra special.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Please don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already. That way you can be sure to not miss any tutorials that are coming up this month and many more to come!

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You can sign up right now for my free online class, Play with Black!

Black is often a color which is overlooked when working with our mixed media projects. With so many other amazing colors available, it's easy to do.

Join me as we delve into the dark side of mixed media! Working with only a few supplies, let’s explore a variety of ways black and its values  can be used to create a gorgeous, layered art journal page.

Make Your Own Envelope Journal Part One

Welcome to my series of tutorials this month covering gift ideas that you can easily make and give away to your arty friends or even end up keeping for yourself.

This is part one of making your own envelope journal, part two will be folllowing on next week and I have several others planned for the month.

Constructing Your Journal 

The first part is going to be covering the construction of this journal using some really simple envelopes and binding using a pamphlet stitch. I'm showing you how to bind the journal in my video but a really wonderful tutorial can be found here on Design Sponge. I always refer to it when I am making as well.

Don't forget to subscribe!

Please don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't already. That way you can be sure to not miss any tutorials that are coming up this month and many more to come!

---

You can sign up right now for my free online class, Play with Black!

Black is often a color which is overlooked when working with our mixed media projects. With so many other amazing colors available, it's easy to do.

Join me as we delve into the dark side of mixed media! Working with only a few supplies, let’s explore a variety of ways black and its values  can be used to create a gorgeous, layered art journal page.

Making a Zine - Behind the scenes look

It seems that lately making a zine has become super popular in the mixed media art community. When you make your own zine you can create a wonderful, hand made and personal little piece of artwork. Creating these zines gives you the opportunity to share your artwork with the world because you can easily re produce them and give them away or even consider putting them up for sale.

Zines - the origin story

Making a Zine is definitely not a new concept or ideas. They have been around for many, many years and older zines made very creative use of the photocopier and different coloured papers and that is definitely something that I want to experiment with when it comes to making more zines in the future.

Zines can really be made on any subject at all, whatever your heart desires. The world really is your oyster when it comes to making these creative pieces of Art. Zines can come in all shapes and sizes and really reflect your own personality in their uniqueness. 

Creating a hybrid

My Zines have been made in a A7 size so their are 16 pages and they are all made from one single piece of paper. I do a lot of digital manipulation of the art work I make for my zine and it is very fun to create a wonderful hybrid of my artwork and digital elements. You don’t have to do this at all and you can easily create your own zine from a single piece of A4 paper, getting started is super simple.

Finding my Zine Inspiration

This latest Zine that I have made was inspired by the poem “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson. I have always loved this poem ever since I first heard it in English class in school. The words and imagery have always stuck with me and I find the macabre style and subject matter very inspiring (you should see my skull collection, that’s a whole Zine in itself!) 

This zine is completely black and white and this was a very conscious decision when I sat down to start making it. I knew I wanted this Zine to have a spooky and macabre feel to it to reflect the words of the poem.

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste, 
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Letting go of control

The two main art materials I used for making the Zine are oil pastels and black ink. I really wanted to work with various tones and the colour values of the color black within the pages of my little zine. I could honestly work with black ink and water all day long. Watching the movement of the ink as it flows into to water and the unpredictable nature of it. It’s so exciting to give up control like this and just have to work with what you get in this process. Most of the times to effects that you can come up with just couldn’t be created if you even tried.

Getting busy and lost

I knew that I wanted to make the text really special for these little zines. That meant breaking out my vintage typewriter to type out all the words from the poem. Yes, that’s right, every word is typed out be hand and added to the images individually. When I create I often get lost in the process and spending forever typing out the words, cutting them up, glueing them down. This kind of busy work is perfect for escaping into your own head and just become so absorbed into your own little world. Often this type of work leads to the sparking of so many more ideas for me.

I typed out the words onto gridded graph paper so they have a really subtle pattern in the background and it gives the text another layer of extra depth.

Watch the process

I created a small video showing how I created some of the pages of my zines and you can watch me create, with the help of my trusty studio assistant, Archie. He's very critical and always pushes me to create my best work when I am arting! 

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Do you collage?

I pulled together so many collage images and elements that I have been saving up for so long. My book shelves are groaning under the weight of these magical books and collecting them is one of my most favorite things to do. Popping into tiny second hand book stores and charity shops (or thrift stores depending on which side of the pond you are on!) is definitely my happy time.

With the images this is where I can marry the two words of digital and traditional art making. For many of the collage images in this Zine I have scanned them first and then resized them to what will work in my zine. Many of the images came from a wonderful book of etchings that I found just by accident and of course, my trusty Dover image books. Honestly I cannot create without them!

Trash Talk

One of the pages in the zine contains some images of flies which were taken from some packaging that I literally pulled from the trash. I took these images and ran them many, many times through the photocopier. Copying copies leads to this wonderful grainy texture to the paper and images. Playing with the toner levels on the photo copier machine itself is also great fun and it creates some amazing unexpected backgrounds.

I'm a one girl band

The main body of my zines are printed by me at home at the moment. I  am looking into getting them printed elsewhere but for now I am a one girl band making and assembling them. As they are re created in this manner I am determined to make sure that each of them still contains a handmade element to them to.

So for this special zine the extra little something something comes in the form of a wax seal. This little seal is a skull and I may or may have squealed and done a happy dance in the store when I found it. There was much muttering and under breath cursing involved trying to get it just so. I them figured out that it was much easier to melt the wax in a spoon first than trying to use the wax stick. And being the value hunter that I am I just bought a cheap little teaspoon to melt the wax and then pour it on. I’m not springing for a melting spoon just yet!

Want to adopt a zine?

The zine is up for sale at the moment in my Easy store and you can check it out here and I would love for you to take one of them home with you!

I am so delighted with how the Zine came together and I hope that you enjoyed hearing more about the behind the scenes of the making of it. I would love for you to let me know what you think about it in the comments below.