the Junk journal evolution

I've become a little obsessed! so much so that I haven't drawn a single thing, which I have to rectify that tonight, but my junk daily journal has been such a calming moment in my life. Where I can see my images actually going down and becoming a whole new thing!
here is a peek at a few of the pages I've worked on the past week.

they hold images of my food from each day, my kids, my art, simple things. The things that make up my day, no matter how mundane they are.

my Friday, consisted of our trip to Inverell that afternoon, the packing, the kids the traffic... when photos dont all fit, I just lay them over one another so you can just flick through them all.

spending Saturday with family, my sister all dolled up to go out for the night, pics of her and her daughter, a letter from her (we write letters to eachother). Like I said, its very simple but it means so much to me. Each night I sit down with my pile of photographs my washii tape and a pile of journal tags and glue and put together the day.

if the idea of an art journal scares you, why not dive in and make yourself a junk journal.
they are simple divine in their own right.
xx Courtney

a Journal Keeper.

I am a journal keeper, I immerse myself in them, and I lovingly fill them with art and writing, today I started to document my life in a different way, using my Remains of the Day journal, my photography skills and my love for collage, the adventure begins.

as I started today's things, I sat looking at other people's scrappy beautiful journals
such as A little Imagination and a Pile of Junk
I could get lost in her journal with ease and bliss.

I still haven't seen all the pages from The Dj Pettitt Book gallery, they are lust worthy works of pure art and beauty, if you are a journal lover, do stop by.

and while my little ones sleep, and the boy watches TV, I sit down with my yoghurt and start creating my day all over again...reliving certain moments

My Wednesday.

ox Courtney

slowly slowly...arty art.

I'm slow off the mark these days! I need to overcome the blank stare at the open journal.
I started creating a mess of a background last friday night, whilst talking to my mumma on skype, I looked at it the next day and just went...'what the hell!' so stared at it, for a few days, then finally I just started sketching, laying colour down and trying to make something from the mess.

slowly she appeared.
I still have the opposite side of the page to fill lol, but at least I've tackled some of it. I've been thinking lately about what I want my art journal to become, just for art, or for the entire thought of documenting my life... do you have separate journals for things, or are you a one book kinda person?

on the topic of other books, I think its about time I bind my signatures into my remains of the day journal, so I'm going to attempt that some time today. Then I will be torn as to what to work in...the drama's of a journal keeper!


enjoy your Monday
x Courtney

Spilling Over!

Today as I met the post man, completely drench from just having a shower with my pjs crammed on like a lunatic. He handed me a parcel, and I knew instantly that it was the book I'd ordered a couple of weeks ago so all the embarrassment of looking like a drowned rat in shocking pj attire slipped away!
I have decided to buy myself one book a month to keep my journal/mixed media/art/writing collection going, so my first book purchase was Diana Trout's Journal Spilling. Oh my, how delish this book is!
I am half way through reading and soaking up the beauty, I was meant to make an art vid today but when the book fell into my hands everything else was forgotten and I got lost amongst it's pages like a beautiful dream.

filled with ideas, techniques and her own experiences this book is just devine, buy it you know you want to!
as I've mentioned a few times in the past I'm undertaking Samantha Kira's True 2 You 2 course over at willowings ning site link to it is in the sidebar, and week one was all about colour, here are the fruits from week one. Week two is pattern so I shall be getting stuck into that and with yesterdays finished canvas patterns are on my brain!
in between my mummy, cleaner, daydreamer moments I am also still working on my Remains of the day, I'm trying to make the time to sit down and bind the signatures into the journal, but for now I'll just play amongst the photos I've printed out to start working its way into the magical mismatching pages.
and last on the agenda today is the quickie sketch I played with in a moment of I need to do some art NOW! so I grabbed a dark graphite pencil and just started scribbling till something came from the mess, a little spray and a little watercolour and wahla took me 15 mins max to do. Sometimes you just need to inject some art onto a page. Doesn't have to be perfect (mine sure isn't) but its good to get it out of your system. I'm contemplating binding a journal just for these types of works, those quick quick don't stop sketches that just evolved from scribbling lines and a bit of paint.

that's all for me, I'm currently waiting for my mum to rock up, shes late as per usual then its off for a bit of birthday present shopping and dinner at parents place. I've got my journal packed and I'm ready to just sit and sketch while my little ones play and I get the night off from cooking.
xx Courtney

Remains of The Day...a journal, a journey

Evening my dears, today I spent the day with my mum crafting up a storm. I started my Remains of the Day journal a little while ago now and I had a bit of sewing rage hehe with snapped needles and things not going to plan. Well today I took over my mums new sewing machine and got down to business.


some of the signatures being prepared lots of loose thread that needed to be cut off!!
the inside of some of my pages, some of the boarders on alot of my journal pages are from the lovely GulfSprite's digital boarder download! they looked awesome against some of my pages, really popped which made me smile when I sewed them on.

coming together slowly...I spent more of the day patchwork sewing papers together.



adding accents to certain pages, sewing them on, the rest of them will be glued down as I finished up at mums but hadn't gotten all my accents on, another Gulfsprite boarder, and a cut out from page from Frankie Magazine.

I even went so far as to start the cover, sewing fabrics together to make a patchwork then slipping the cardstock template inside, and then stitching in the ditch to make sure the card doesn't slip around inside the slip. I'm also toying with the big wooden button to help with my wrap around closure when I make that...Since that shot, I stitched a little calico panel onto the front with Raven Ink hand stamped onto it...looks rather cute.tomorrow I hand bind the signatures into the book, create my wrap around closure and finish the accents and the journal is finished. I am rather in love with it!

enjoy your Tuesday evening, I'm going to curl up with my art journal and some pizza and just soak up the kid free silence.

xx Courtney

Get Your Art On - Day 6 : Playing Around

nothing hugely exciting going on in the art department today, which kind of annoys me, seems I've hit a little wall, maybe the sewing rage got to me a little more than I'd like to admit. I have just been doodling most of the day trying to get something remote worth posting about, and yet nothing really came out, so here is the last drawing of the day, which ended up going home with my mum, because I didnt like her and she did. Still working over old letters, I like the way the text runs through the face, like veins of knowledge and secrets.

and as I drew this evening, my little lily was playing with her new rainbow fingerpuppet..changing her little girly voice to a puppet voice had me smiling and laughing into the evening. I thought these little puppets would be a good way for my little ones to let their imaginations grow a little, and it worked the afternoon was spent with my little ones putting on a show for me and my mum..they are so innocent at times its beautiful.

so tonight I'm going to be attempting to sew my cover for my journal, see if that happens without too much swearing and cursing and breaking needles. At least Im working with fabric this time ...with card inside lol, So tomorrow you will see the fruits of that experiment!
take care my darling arty crafty readers
pop over to see what Traci's cooking up today for her day a stunning bright journal page.

if you hear a faint scream from where ever you are...its just me...breaking more needles!
xx Courtney

Get Your Art On - Day 5 little paper rage

ohhhh remains of the day....WHYYYYYYY do I heart you so, when my sewing machine detests you oh so much more! thats right today I had a little paper rage! I broke 5 needles! there was lots of artistic cussing going down today! as I plodded so so slowly and so so carefully through the piles for my journal... my machine is temperamental, shes not happy playing paper sew with me! I will not let it get the better of me! I shall keep going no matter the number of needles I break until the book is completed...VIVA LA PAPER SEWING.



a few close ups of what I did today, sewing old envelope art, little tag elements, magazine pages all together to create these weird and wonderful paper personalities.



a little heart.a little rainbow fan of paper that made it through the sewing lines of DOOM, I must say they do look pretty but the price they paid to get that way, was rather high hehe.

and to calm myself down from the paper machine rage circle, I sat down with an old letter and drew a girl quickly just sketchy graphite outline, then filled her in with my really budget but totally awesome watercolours and an aqua pen. She needs a little detail with some pencils and thins, or I might leave her nice and raw and collage her into my art journal...we shall see!

so that's my artistic day, kid free luckily or the rage meter might have been a bit higher with them added to the mix.
pop on over to Traci's blog for the rest of the players and enjoy your evening. I shall spend it talking to the boy and planning our little holiday with the tea cup humans next weekend. Never fear I shall art my entire holiday!
xx Courtney

Get Your Art On - Day 4! Remains of the Day

As I mentioned excitedly yesterday, I signed up to the remains of the day course with Mary Ann Moss, I dove into the deliciousness that was her world today with my Mum. Now as I sit here, with a broken needle on my sewing machine without a hope of finding the entire new pack I bought I thought perfect time to blog.

below is the slow beginnings of my remains of the day pages...I feel like a modern day bower bird! going through piles of papers, stacking, sorting, compiling...cutting colour coding!
a bunch of my boarder papers waiting to find their way to the sides of assorted pages. It is so much fun, its like creating worlds withing worlds, then adding personalities to them, when you fill them with your daily musings photographs, its all so *sigh* grand.

and on the inky art front, more workings on background papers, stencils strewn across my desk, stamps with ink on them, stamps with watercolour paint on them, pens sitting around randomly till they are called upon. I am the messiest artist around I swear...and my mum will wholeheartedly agree, since she is the exact opposite...and I mean that lol.

so thats my creating for the day, I have to go and buy more needles tomorrow so I can continue on my little paper journey sewing and making pretty paper worlds within itself! I shall see you tomorrow with more photos, more progress and much more art!
xx Courtney

ps for more of day 4 pop over to traci's blog!

Get Your Art On - Day Three

Breezing through the Get Your Art on Month (she says on day three lol) I have done odds and ends art wise today! with my little ones drawing in their colouring in books for most of the day, it gave me a chance to work in my colouring book aka my art journal. Today I did a full page face, which I am slightly in love with, lots of watercolour, inktense and graphite...finishing touch was a skin toneish doily spray over her face to give a bit of a different look.
I also finished a spread in my journal that was once a horrible transfer disaster!! the image I used for the gel transfer wasnt the right ink, so it was just a horrid mess! and the page stayed an abomination for a good few weeks lol, till I re worked over it. Stencil work, outliner, inks, watercolours washii tape and a Digital image from GulfSprite's range of digital downloads found Here

and the last bit of art, was decorating envelops for my mail art penpals, I got a little behind on my letters so Im making a valiant effort to get back on track!! lots of sprays more digital images for Gulfspite, some of my silly doodling and coloured pens to create these two envelopes.
so that's me done for today! Tomorrow I head to my mums house to make a Remains of the Day Journal with my Mumma.

I signed up to the course just this morning, and watched all the vids hungrily! and all I want to do is make beautiful junky journals! the eco artist in me just booms with glee over the idea of these journals.

I'll see you tomorrow with the fruits of my art journal labours!
pop over to traci's blog to see her day three and the links to other artists.

xx Courtney