Fabby Dabby Day

What better way to spend the day than with lovely, lovely, people doing lovely ,lovely ,things?? Today was the first of the Art journalling workshops. As you all know art journalling is my passion . I sort of fell into it by accident really with my messing about painting and doodling. Didn't even realise it had an official name , I,ve always called it just pratting about!!! lol. Anyhow |I Luuurve it and it is my mission to change the world and get everyone doing it, OK well some of you anyway.!!
Today was making the journal we will be working in from scratch. I love to make a loose leaf bound journal that you can fit pages in and out of. The pages in this book are all made from recycled newspapers and have a great textural feel to them. I like to leave them a little bit wrinkly as well, adds character.!! Because it is newspaper you can imagine that we all got really mucky from the print. Here's some of the ladies hands.





It is really messy but that just adds to all the fun. It is really satisfying creating your own pages to work on. I first saw this technique on Donna Downeys blog and as I have become friendly with her I mailed her to ask if I could use it. Her reply. "Jeez girl its just newspaper , do what you bl**dy like!!" She is hilarious that babe, so down to earth. And even though she is such a big name always happy to share. it is a principle that I totally agree on, the more we put out and share the more we will receive back. Its like ripples on a pond. I cant teach everyone, but teach lots of teachers and hopefully they will be passing things on and on. We don't own our techniques we "just acquire them" lol, slap them around a bit, shape them up and pass them on. lol. If you fancy this technique pop over to Donnas blog (see sidebar for link) where she has a downloadable vid of it.. You could watch it on my blog but I still haven't mastered the Flip, Boo hoo!!



After gessoing all the pages to make them less absorbent, we then started on the paint effects, all done with my famous baby wipe technique. It is sooooo simple that anyone, yes anyone can look like a fabby creative artiste!!! A dimension line here , a flick of the wrist there and Voilla!!

Here are some of the finished results. Gorgeous aren't they?? Sometimes I think its a shame to cover them up..



I did notice that some of the students have acquired a peculiar habit of stroking their finished work, I wonder where they got that from??? lol. After the painting was finished we fastened them into the book with book rings ready for the next class - Decorating the journal covers on Sun Dec 7th.

What more could you wish for on a wet, miserable Sunday?? Good company, Motown music, pratting around with paint and choccie biccies.!!

Okay little competition for you now. This technique don't half go through some glue sticks. This was today's little haul. How many empty ones do you think there are in this bin. Leave me your guesses in the comments box and nearest to the correct answer wins a prize. Try not to put the same number as anyone else, as the FIRST correct answer will receive the bag of goodies.