Scrap - My Art Journal

I started putting together an art journal about 18 months ago when I did an awesome online class with Viv Bonder.  Things being as they are I didn't do much else with the base pages I created until the other week when Lauren was here and I was showing her and I finally stacked them up to turn into a journal...then yesterday when I had a rare treat and Sebastian fell asleep while J was sleeping I punched holes and turned them into a journal!

The cover is polished pigments mixed with impasto medium on the cover of an old hardcover book, I added the hambly pennants yesterday and still need to find the right piece(s) of string or fible to finish it off.  Pages are a variety of 240gsm art paper, manilla folders, chipboard pieces from a spiral bound chipboard book which I dismantled, yellow envelopes and pieces of brown paper bags.  Now with my pile of backgrounds the fun can really begin :) 

I love paint and collage and all that messy stuff but to be honest I think I prefer to keep it to a journal or canvas or pieces that aren't my scrapbook pages as I find that trying to be clever with techniques on my pages actually blocks my creative process scrapbookingwise because I honestly prefer cleaner lines and design for my own pages....that's not to say I don't like throwing in the odd 'arty' techniqure here and there...I'm still impressed with myself for all the stamping and embossing I did on a layout a few weeks ago (for an article so haven't shared yet) LOL!

I also finished off a tag I started the other day...just one of those big pink paislee pattern rubons then sprayed with Glimmermist in Starfish, stitched the edges, added a couple of hancut butterflies from some Jillibean Soup PP and a Journalling Sprout then Jenni Bowlin Rubons for the greeting and a piece of ribbon viola!

Those large rubons are awesome for adding to something and then spraying with mist because they resist it to a degree....fun...think I might go hunting through the stash and create a whole pile of these, so easy and effective...and spraying mists is always fun!