Altered Art Journal

Good morning friends!! Julie here with a little project I've been working on.  Ok, confession here, this is really for our Altered Book challenge way back in February - eek!!! I'm so so slow with these altered challenges, it takes me forever to get my idea, and gather supplies, etc.  But, I was so excited about the project that I thought you'd like to see my end result!

I've mentioned here before that I recently took an online class from Christy Tomlinson and as part of the class we need to practice making backgrounds using paper, paint, stencils, rubons, doodling, embossing paste - basically whatever works and inspires you.  I picked up a vintage book for $1 and decided to turn it into an art journal.  The book is a smaller size which really works well for me as the larger art journal sizes intimidate me - lol!

First I removed all but a few pages, I left the cover page in since it had the owners name and date (1895!) and of course I kept all the book pages for future use.  I then cut a bunch of cardstock to size to make my "signatures" - basically pages folded in half to add to the journal.  I used some white, some cream, some of the illustrations from the book, some of the pages from the book and I added little tags and glassine envelopes in some of the pages.   I did an internet search and found a guide for sewing the signatures together - it was really simple and felt so cool to be actually sewing a book together!  When it was all done, I glued the pages into the book binding using a bit of gauze as a stabilizer.

Now comes the fun part!  First I gave the cover a good coat of gesso and then started adding paper, tissue, book paper, whatever I could find to make the background.  Then got out the paints and started adding some color and texture.  In the end, when you paint the girl, a lot of the background gets covered up, but that's ok - it's all part of the process!   This was my first time ever painting a person so please excuse her slightly lopsided head - lol!   The rest was all about adding texture with writing, rubons, words, more paint, etc.

Here's a pic of my first page in the journal - it was really a great chance to play and experiment with some of the great new stencils and sprays in the eP store!  I think I'm not quite done with it. :)

That's my project, I hope maybe my process inspires you a little to try something new - it can be tons of fun!!

Lily Bee Design - Persnickety 6x6 Paper Pad	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Mini Acrylic Paint Sets - Metropolitan	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Mini Acrylic Paint Sets - Urban
TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Flower Piercing	Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Artist Brush Set	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso
Dylusions Ink Spray - Calypso Teal	Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Antique Linen	Distress Stain - Fired Brick
Picket Fence Stain	Studio 490 Embossing Paste	Inkssentials Foam Blending Tool
Prima - Donna Downey 6x6 Art Stencil - Chevron Grunge	Prima - Donna Downey 6x6" Art Stencil - Floral

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