'WOYWW - 02/29/2012 - Art Journals, Ribbons, Metal Tapes. Oh, my!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and welcome,

For WOYWW this week, I thought you might like to see some of my Art Journals in progress. Last year I fell in love with ribbon and now adorn the wire bindings of my AJs with ribbons, ribbons and more ribbons.

On the left is a stack of metal tape (aluminum repair tape), on the right a 'gaggle of glazes' that I concocted. Click here for my tutorial on how to emboss and paint metal tape.

These are two of my AJs using my fave books - Canson Montval Field Watercolor Book (Acid Free, 140lb cold press, Watercolor Paper).

MOST RANDOM GOODNESS:

All ribbons were selected randomly from my stash - and then randomly tied onto wire binding. I prefer not to have matchy-match colors.

Do you create Art Journals? What brand is your favorite store bought blank book to use for journals? Have you tried Canson watercolor? Moleskine watercolor? Do you embellish your bindings with ribbons, and other goodies?

Thanks for stopping by. Would love for you to Follow me and comment on this post - or any of my other posts. Also, check out my MUSIC tab!

STAY TUNED for my spring Giveaway coming in March! And see more artists desks at this fun hop WOYWW!

Peace,

LuLu

'My new BEST PEN for Art Journals - Review!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

This week,  two gel pens kept skipping that I used in my mixed-media art journals  (Pentel WOW! black gel, Uniball Signo black gel).

I didn't have a Sharpie nearby - so I tried a ballpoint pen that was handy - PaperMate Eagle medium point.

This Eagle worked great on mixed-media! Writes over acrylic paint, acrylic glazes, gesso - no skipping! I was pleasantly surprised...

Have you tried ballpoint pens in your art journals or mixed-media artwork? What's your fave ballpoint pen?

Thanks for stopping by. Would love for you to comment on this post - or any of my other posts. And while you're here, please become a Follower!

Also, please stop by often - a new GIVEAWAY is coming this Spring!

Peace,
LuLu

'I'm a Book Editor!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

The job title of Book Editor has been on my growing list of acomplishments for a couple of years now. But I never posted about it!

You can find this cute book that I edited at Amazon.com.

Thanks for stopping by. Would love for you to comment on this post - or any of my other posts. Share my blog link with your friends!

Peace,

LuLu

'WOYWW 02-15-12 Play Day in Art Journal (AJ)!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

This week I've been under the weather (flu - with fever and other gross symptoms). So I'm still playing in my Art Journal for WOYWW. Making more layered backgrounds and still practicing image transfers using mag photos and gel medium.

This book is the new 'mixed-media book' from Strathmore I bought last year at Michaels - with a coupon. This book is advertised to be useful for wet media, but I'm not impressed. The pages were too thin for my purposes. So I glued 3 together to use as my substrates. The texture is fine, the pages were just too thin for the abuse I give paper in my art journals.

 Mixed-media journal (Strathmore),

cover has a couple of my custom

embossed/painted metal 'flags'

 AJ spread,

below dried-out red ink

cartridge for rolling stampers,

needs to be re-inked

AJ spread with leaning stack

What books do you use for your Art Journals? Have you tried the Moleskine watercolor paper books? Love them - but not cheap! Soon I hope to make some books from scratch using watercolor paper from pads I've got around the studio.

Happy Valentine's Day, too. Since I'm sick and hubby works 6 days a week we plan to celebrate on the weekend. We exchanged cards and he gave me a a box of chocolate covered strawberries to cheer me up - they were tasty!

Thanks for stopping by. Would love for you to comment on this post - or any of my other posts - and become a Follower while you're here visiting. Here are more artists studios to visit for WOYWW!

Peace,
LuLu

WOYWW - 02-01-12: ..one of the greatest pleasures...!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes


Howdy and Welcome,

For WOYWW today, I'm showing a tiny corner of my workstation, where I've been playing in my art journal #4 (no title yet).

These 2 pix show the full '..CREATE page' - and a corner of the same page with me in the bottom right corner. In the full page picture, you can also see a few strips of my custom designer masking tape, on the upper left. Love it! Upper right shows a roll of TH tape and a roll of 7 Gypsies tape.

I doodled a bunch of bubbles inside the giant letters. The background shows my initial handwritten journaling using colored pencil. Love the way the handwriting adds a hint of texture underneath the glaze.

Playing in my journals has become addictive! Just have the most fun time creating backgrounds and textures. Can my scrapbooking addiction be falling by the wayside - eek!

unfinished CREATE ANYTHING page WIP

 "...to create anything is one of the

greatest pleasures of all.'

- paul wilson

Supplies used - so far: Pentel pen,

gel pens, marker,

embossed metal tape, acrylic paint,

colored pencil, custom acrylic glaze,

gesso, soft gel medium (gloss),

vintage image inkjet printed on deli paper

that's me spying out of the

right corner of this journal page

Supplies: B and W image

inkjet printed on transparency

What about you? Have you discovered art journals yet? Have you tried the new SMASH journals? I got both sizes and started playing in them a tad. Not sure I like them too much - I find it sort of hard to turn the pages...but we'll see how they turn out. Verdict's not in yet...

Thanks for stopping by! Would love for you to comment on this post - or any of my other posts - and become a Folllower too while you're here.

Go see more inspiring  WOYWW artist studios here!

Peace,
LuLu