Recreating Memories with Mixed Media Journal

Hi friends, Ruchi Gupta here today with you on the Itsy Bitsy blog as a guest designer to share my mixed media art journal.
I was very excited to receive Little Birdie’s new Mixed Media journal, Color Splash inks and a jar of Grainy Paste from Itsy Bitsy. I am a big fan of art journals and needless to say I was over the moon to receive the goodies. My heartfelt thanks to Rashmi Harish for thinking of me.
First and foremost it is important to demystify the process of creating an art journal. Most of you would be thinking WHY and HOW and WHICH journal to use.
In simple terms  as to the WHY my answer is:
1. Speaking for myself, I create a page in my journal to celebrate some important events in my life or just simply to document my life with the help of art.
2. Keeping an art journal gives us a small substrate to experiment with mediums and techniques which otherwise may seem a very daunting task.
3. It helps as a therapy as you can use art as a way to express your emotions /insecurities/stress of daily life in a small page. This can be just for you and need not be made public.
4. It is great fun to fill the pages as you try new things.
5. It also acts as a reference point when you get stuck in your other projects and need some inspiration.
6. It also helps me in developing my style of work and reflects my progression in my art journey.
I think these are enough reasons for anybody to take up art journaling. Now comes the HOW part. Just pick up a journal and begin with whatever materials you have in hand. Mediums like acrylics, pastels, watercolor, gelatoes, pastel crayons, pencils, markers, gel pens all come in handy as you explore the artist in you. There are no set rules and as one would write a diary, you go about making art that you feel like doing.
Now comes the WHICH part. It is quite a pleasure to introduce the newly launched ART JOURNALS by Little Birdie, Itsy Bitsy’s own brand. The mixed media journal which I would be using has various kinds of substrates to work on. It has Kraft paper, corrugated paper, burlap jute and watercolor paper which allows you experiment with different textures. The best part is that this journal is all ready to use. They come in two very functional sizes.
                                     ART JOURNAL PAGE:TRAVEL THEME
Now it is time to talk about the page I created in my mix media  journal. As the months of May and June is the vacation time for kids in north India, most of us travel for recreation. Thus I choose to create my travel theme page reflecting my recent visit. Will try to explain some steps involved in making this page.
The process: First gather all your supplies and think of any theme or objective/reason for creating a page. It can be very specific pertaining to your life or quite general like you are feeling happy so want to create or want to try some technique or medium.
As I discussed earlier I wanted to do something related to my recent travels so I picked up a picture which I printed on my inkjet printer in the appropriate size and one brochure given to us at the site. It is always a good idea to pick up some extra brochure which can be used as backgrounds.
 One more thing that you need to organize is an under-sheet which you place below your pages so the color does not seep in. Also, I like to use baking sheets as inserts to my completed pages so that they do not stick to each other. I randomly tore a picture from the brochure and pasted the same with decoupage glue on to the Kraft sheet spread. As the color scheme was quite earthy I choose the Kraft sheet to work on.
 Next, I took some white gesso and used color splash Lemon Zing to give it color and then randomly spread on the page with a brush.
 Also used a stencil and modelling paste colored with Color Splash spray to give interest to the page.
 I also wanted to use one die cut on the page which again I colored with the spray(Tangerine). The sprays are quite pigmented and give bright colors.
I then did some stamping with archival ink pad and colored my chipboard with black Mont Marte gesso. I stamped the destinations on watercolor paper and pasted all my various elements together. Finally I did some dry brushing with Tinted metallic Twany Glint on the chipboard and the textures. Hope you like the page and will be inspired to create your own.
List of products used from Itsy Bitsy:
Thanks a bunch for being here and going through the post. Happy crafting.
Ruchi

15 comments

  1. it’s so nice to know more about art journaling and your point of view and the page you have created is just fabulous as acpected Ruchi mam ?

  2. Amazing ! Inspired to create one for my very recent Sikkim trip..
    Thanks so much for sharing 🙂

  3. Awesome art journal page. Thank you for such a detailed explanation on HOW and WHY. I have been wanting to try it and you have inspired me. Thank you for sharing. Hugs

    1. Ahh..thanks my dear.I am quite passionate about art journaling and find it to be great stress buster. Hope it helps you to take it up.Deeply happy that it motivated you,hugs

  4. Hey there….this is awesome…love the page. Its like magic to see it come to life..
    Hugs

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