New to art journaling? Curious about this fun papercraft? Then join me for a series on Art Journaling Prompts, where I share a few of my art journaling ideas and tricks.
Art Journaling Prompt: Memorabilia
This one is going to take me back to the days of teaching scrapbooking classes! 🙂
I’m kind of a magpie when it comes to collecting memorabilia: Interesting tickets, papers, ephemera, receipts, tags, labels, you name it. Flyers, brochures and maps also find their way into my journals and art journals. The question, of course, is what to do with them all? Well, why not add them to your art journal?
Last week I went to Krakow on a culture-break weekend and ended up with a lot of memorabilia, so this week I’m adding them onto and into my collaged art journal pages.
Take a look:
Let’s talk about the background first—
The background of both pages consist of paper scraps that I had in my to-collage box. This is a big box of off-cut papers that I don’t have an immediate use for, which I save for backgrounds. I was in a glue-y mood (I think only fellow crafters can really understand what that means) so I covered my art journal pages with Mod Podge, then glued the collage papers on top. I used some text paper and some sheet music I had in my stash. The ticket you see in the top left corner (you can probably read “Krakow” in type) is a ticket I got at the Oskar Schindler museum, so I glued that in.
Everything looks quite muted, doesn’t it? That’s because I brayered white acrylic paint on top, then scraped it around with an old hotel key card so the background showed through a bit.
Here’s the facing page:
How to Include Memorabilia in Your Art Journal
On the page above, you can also really see my memorabilia. I’ve printed a photo onto Lazertran Waterslide Decal Paper. (For a video tutorial showing a Lazertran photo transfer, check out this You Tube segment.) The Lazertran makes the photo transparent, so it’s perfect for layering onto book paper. There’s another ticket from the museum on the left.
So what about all those smaller tickets one collects? I’ve put them into a glassine envelope, then glued the envelope to the page.
Art Journaling Writing
Where’s my journaling? you might ask. Well, I liked the color and collage of the pages and I didn’t want to add too much writing on top. So inside my glassine envelope is a piece of notebook paper with some writing on it. This is a great way to include journaling on a page without showing it. In this case, I didn’t mind if it wasn’t private—I just wanted to let the color of the pages be the main part.
But of course I wanted to add a title to the pages, so I got out my chipboard alphabet stencils and traced them with a fine-tip black permanent pen, then colored them in with a Spectrum Noir alcohol ink pen in CG1.
Art Journaling Color
After the paint and Mod Podge dried, I added some blue. The blue is a Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Watersoluble wax pastel in turquoise which I have had out on my table for about a year, never once using it. So why not now? I scribbled it on, then blended it a bit with a damp baby wipe. The paint is going to make things slick, so I didn’t want to wipe it off, just a gentle blend. And look—I love it!
I put it around my Lazertran photo:
Look how the wax pastel crayon and the Spectrum Noir pen layer so beautifully. Makes my heart happy! 🙂
More Art Journaling Memorabilia: Pocket Pages
This is where I really go back to the olden days of scrapbooking: Pocket pages!
Remember those? Basically, pocket pages are simply pockets made of two sheets of paper, glued on three sides to form a pocket. That’s what I did here. But I had another motive, too—
All the paint and Mod Podge and crayon and everything else had put a toll on my not-super-heavy-weight background page, and it started to tear out of the spiral binding. Since I still had more memorabilia to stash, I decided to make a pocket from the tearing-out page, and reinforce it at the same time.
The trick? Double-sided tape. Peel off the liners, press the tearing-out page on top and voila—a pocket!
Since the pocket was as big as the background page, I could tuck in all my museum brochures, notes and flyers.
For an art journaler and ephemera magpie like me, there’s really nothing more satisfying than a big fat journal with lots of stuff sticking out of it. Add in some color and photos and I’m in heaven.
Hope you enjoyed today’s Art Journaling Prompt!
Happy Monday!
Intrigued by art journaling? You might check out my Kick Start Art Journaling online workshop. It’s six weeks of art journaling assignments, with video and PDF downloads. Just $15.00, it’s a super way to try art journaling—I’ll show you how! Hope to see you there!
