Journaling in my Passport -sized Traveler's Notebook

I treated myself to a passport sized Traveler's Notebook on Black Friday, and saved it for Christmas.

Inside I have a kraft notebook, a lined notebook and a week-at-a-view diary.

I'm using the kraft notebook as a 'glue book' (love that term).  I was reminiscing with my brother-in-law on Christmas day about the wrapping paper our presents were wrapped in as children, and wishing I could see some now.  (Our stocking pressies, left by Father Christmas, were always wrapped in different paper to family presents, and it was ultra thin and scrunchy).  

This led me to collaging some bits of paper from this Christmas.  I LoVe cutting and sticking!

In my diary I am writing out a bible verse a day and there's more on this post if you're interested.  I've really enjoyed filling in spaces with scraps of paper and washi tape..

... and creating more art journal like pieces in larger gaps (such as the last week of December's page)

There was another double spread prior to this so I added some previously painted and sprayed paper and doodled, collaged and stamped over the top.

It's so good working small, it makes it achievable.

Art Journal Everyday

day six

I am still surprised that I successfully completed the #100dayproject over on Instagram and decided that this year I'd try art journaling everyday.

day seven

I'm working in a Daler Rowney sketchbook 5 x 5.75.  I don't always like what I produce ..

day eight

.. but that's ok as sometimes I really love it!  I do, however, feel very chilled even if I only spend 5 - 10 mins on a page.

day nine

Some days I have more time than others

day ten

... and that's ok too.  And it's a great place to use up scraps, or try out a new stamp.

day eleven

I didn't wait until January 1st to start either, I just got started right away.  You can see a step by step to my first page here

day twelve

..and I post daily as @sarahthemoodler over on Instagram.  

Thanks for taking the time to peruse my art journal!

five layers of journaling

Still catching up on sharing my pages from my moleskine planner, inspired by the Original Documented Life Project and this is another of my favourites.

Art Challenge: Using at least Five Layers

The challenge was to use at least five layers and I was hugely inspired by the fabulous Art to the 5th Cardboard Crush workshop.

I painted up a strip of paper with a repeated mark and created five separate 'pages' that I then stitched together.

Each of the five 'pages' has five layers on it....

...and they lift up so are journaled on both sides.

I hope you get a good idea from these photos; it was hard to get good images of the way this page was put together!

I'm loving adding doodling to my pages :)

The above 'page' started off as a scrap of paper that I'd added some watercolour paint to.  I then doodled around a leaf shape and added some collage.

I'm not sure where this little guy came from - possibly an old lotto game.  I just loved him and decided he'd be happy in my journal.  I added art journaling to the other side of the card ...

Another page featured a verse from Documented Faith

I really can recommend this art challenge.  I'm loving it :)

smitten moustache monsters

I just LoVe Kira Nichols' smitten moustache monsters so decided to have a play around with them in one of my journals.  They have so much potential though that I know I'll be using them again!! [I so want to colour in their moustaches but decided this page had enough colour!!]

I appear to have a good collection of love-themed stampotique stamps!  After spraying my page with Dylusions inks, and splashing some water on them and dabbing it off, I stamped 'metal love' three times, thinking of the Beatles song 'all you need is love'!  I then repeatedly stamped the heart from the top of 'Oh...Tree' because I couldn't find my 'Daniel's hearts' stamp ...

... then found it and went to town with looooooooooooooads more hearts!!  I had a good time colouring some of them in with my watercolour pencils.

The smitten moustache monsters have been stamped on top of the words and then I stamped them onto paper too and cut them out - it's just a good way of keeping the little details that are impossible to cut out (like the curly ends of moustaches!!)

For those of you in the UK, the new release stampotique stamps are on their way and you can pre-order smitten moustache monsters, amongst others, at The Stamp Attic.

Stampotique Stamps Used:

Smitten Moustache Monsters  #4040 by Kira Nichols

Metal Love  #7234 by Amy Wilson Wellenstein

Oh...Tree  #6152 by Daniel Torrente

Daniel's Hearts  #6109 by Daniel Torrente

Barcode Text  #10020 by France Papillon

Barcode  #10019 by France Papillon

SDC131: my Stars project step by step

I love stars, they're great images to work with, and they're this week's challenge theme over on the Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog.   I took step by step photos as I made this stitched piece so you could see how I got from this ...

to this...

I started with a piece of white fabric that I roughly painted with white acrylic paint then stamped Journey Collage with black ink.  To make this a bit lighter I first stamped it on paper then stamped on the fabric a number of times.

I then put Peacock Feather distress ink and some blue Dylusions ink onto the lid of a plastic box and smooshed my fabric through it.

Jo Capper-Sandon's text star is one of my favourite stamps (and I LoVe the miniature star on the side of the block, such a clever idea).  I stamped this over the fabric ...

... carefully cut out the larger stars with a very sharp pair of scissors ....

.... before laying a piece of white card underneath and stamping the star again through the star holes.  I decided to go for an approximate fit rather than matching the shape exactly...

A touch of free machining around each star ...

... and some more free machining after I found a quote I liked!

 Then a peaceful afternoon spent adding tiny silver beads around the edge of the fabric 'postcard' and some shimmery sequins amongst the stars.

If you're inspired by stars, you can join us here to read more about Sam's  challenge, then link it up here.  We'd love to see your interpretation of this challenge.

Stampotique stamps used:

Journey Collage

Text stars with tiny star on side

“Just above our terror, the stars painted this story

in perfect silver calligraphy. And our souls, too often

abused by ignorance, covered our eyes with mercy.”

― Aberjhani, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry