Introducing the Art-i-ful Journal

I made a new journal that was not quite an art journal and not quite a junk journal…so I decided to create a new category…the Art-i-ful Journal!

The Artiful Journal combines some of the best elements of art journals, junk journals and the almost-forgotten trend of altered books. Artiful Journals are bursting at the seams with mixed media art, ephemera, pockets, pull outs and tags. They have more interactive elements than traditional art journals and far too much thought and artistry put in them too be labelled as a junk journal.

I recently made two Artiful Journals. To be honest, it originally started out as one journal with three booklets, but I got carried away adding pages and embellishments and ended up being only able to fit two of the booklets in the first journal. I will share that Artiful Journal with you today and save the second journal for another day.

I am sharing this journal as part of Eileen Hull’s Release Party Blog Hop.

I used Eileen Hull’s new Folio Die to create the cover for my first Artiful Journal. The cool thing about this die is that you can combine more than one of the die cuts to create an ever-expanding folio. My Artiful Journal is made from two of the Folio Die Cuts.

Inside the folio I created two booklets.

The following are some of the pages from the first booklet. If you want to see all the pages, I will be sharing a video flip through on my Facebook page.

In addition to using Eileen’s Die, I made the Artiful Journal by altering a beautiful collection of Stamperia paper and creating my own paper on a gel plate. They all involve layer upon layer of paint, ink and collage materials as well as stamps and stencils.

I stuck with cool tones for the Artiful Journal–lots of blues and purples and offset those with neutrals and rust. The rust provided a great way to share some of my favorite rusty found objects.

The journal uses lots of repeated imagery that including birds, deer, wolves, celestial objects, circles and compasses.

My Artiful Journal also includes plenty of pockets, tags and unusual pages like this vintage sheet of office transparency paper.

The journal also contains little references to sparkly magic. That, along with the repeated imagery, reflects my delight in the breathtaking beauty I see every day in my new surroundings (after moving from an urban area to a rural home in Minnesota’s north central lake region).

The second booklet in my Artiful Northwoods Journal uses the same imagery and palette.

It contains lots of pullout flaps and cascading pockets.

And of course, more found artifacts.

I also turned vintage darkroom blunders into pockets for tags. By adding a coat of matte medium I was able to eliminate the original photo’s glossiness.

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of my Northwoods Artiful Journal. I will be back soon to share the second journal.

Great Stuff

• Eileen Hull Folio Die
• Stamperia paper
• Seth Apter Ice
• Stencil Girl stencils
• Misc. stencils
• Paper Artsy Fresco paints
• Golden paints
• Seth Apter Izink
• Ink
• Stabilo pencils
• Stamps
• Rice paper
• Vintage paper
• Embellishments

Hop Stops

• Eileen Hull Designs
• Julia Aston
• Madeline Arendt
• Jennie Atkinson
• Karen Bearse
• Susie Bentz
• Sarah Lizzie Dodd
• Sue Eldred
• Maggi Harding
• Lisa Hoel
• Jenny Marples
• Elizabeth Robinson
• Tonya Trantham