I was super excited to be asked to share my take on one of Eileen Hull's amazing Journal Die. The journal die is a Bigz XL so will cut through all kinds of materials, including leather, canvas and mount board. All the scoring and holes are in place, so two passes through your machine and all the parts are cut and ready to go.
So here's what I created using Eileen's fabulous die and one of Jane Davenport Petite Stencils.
Using a purple Inktense pencil, I traced through the stencil, I love using these as the pigments are so rich, and once the wet paint touches the outlines, it blends in beautifully to create a natural shadow, where it would be, clever hey!
Then I spent several happy hours chilling with various paints, creating skin tones, bright eyes and pouty lips. I could spend days just painting like this, it's so relaxing.
I drew long flowing hair across to the back cover of the journal, not sure that it shows up too well on the photo here, but you get the idea. Then I added colour to the hair using diluted grey paint, as I wanted her gilded and sequined crown so be showcased.
I coloured the background next, starting with a layer of purple all over the background and then building up the colours, adding some dry brushing and stencilling with an assortment of different colours. I added lettering, splatters of dilute black gesso and doodles.
Anyone that knows me, knows I have been a huge fan of the Artist Jane Davenport for many years. I adore her photographic books, style of art and of course I have my own little family of Ladybugs here on my work table keeping me company.
I added elastics through the holes cut by the die, and tied them on the inside ready to slip my signatures in. Then I added some of Jane's washi tape to a metal rimmed tag, attached it to a larger tag, then tied it on the the elastic on the spine using ribbon. The same ribbon was used to create the fastening for the journal. Et voila my new travelling art journal, filled with different types of mixed media papers, ready to work on.
So without a doubt I knew the first book I would be making would be a travelling art journal, and somewhere for me to have inserts of mixed papers and cardstock to easily carry around with me on my travels.
I don't have any of Jane's own paints yet as here in the UK we won't be able to get hold of them until the end of May/June. I did order a few bits and pieces as soon as the range came out, directly from Australia, but the Tax Man here in the UK is brutal!!! So I had to be restrained. I've used washi tape on a metal rimmed tag as decoration on the spine. And papers from Jane's paper pad are mixed in with other papers in the three hand sewn signatures.
I love this idea, as the books are filled with my scribblings and idea's they can be replaced with fresh, new, empty ones ready to start again.
You can get hold of Eileen's amazing die at Country View Crafts where it is on pre-order with deliveries starting at the end of April. I can't wait to start another journal, I've already decided on my next theme!
Happy Crafting
Elizabeth x
