Art journal page with watercolors

Yesterday, I’ve created a page in my art journal: "Looking for the best part in your self", which I wanted to share with you today. 

Instead of using acrylic paints for my back ground as usual, I decided to use watercolors for the first layer of my page. Just playing around and watching the colors flow is so relaxing. You never can go wrong with that. Secondly, I used my watercolor crayons to strengthen the colors and bring more structure into the page. Then I drew the hand with oil pastels and cut it out. Together with the duckling and the other collage elements they formed the third layer. And last but not least I decorated the page with some doodles.

I had so much fun with this page.  Lately I am working in an unstitched insert in my A5 Fauxdori. (travelers notebook). The fun thing about this booklet is that I am playing on all the pages at once. Slapping some paint here and there. Pasting some bit and pieces  on several pagers and so on. Every now and then a page gets completed just like this one. 

It is a very freeing method, since you don’t have to create the perfect page anymore. You just add elements on the page which needs something extra. When you feel you're ready you’ll  stop, even if non of the pages is finished. The pages develop questions and you can return to your art journal when you’ve found a part of the answer.

My “Eldori” is finished!

Yesterday I've finished my Midori style notebook. Since it is made by me, I call it my “Eldori”.

Some other names for the self-made version of the Midori notebooks are Fauxdori or Raydori (notebooks made by Ray Blake) I've followed Ray’s YouTube tutorial, which shows the making of this notebook very clearly so I won’t go into detail how I've made mine. I've made one modification to the back of the notebook: Now it has a flap to protect  the insert when closed. It was very difficult to find good leather but I've discovered a shoe factory nearby where they use very supple and beautiful dyed leather of the right thickness.

I had enough leather to make a regular and an A6 size notebook. The little one is not quite finished yet but I've already been writing and playing in the larger one. Although I've measured everything a few times, it was still very scary to put my knife in the buttery soft leather but after the first cut the whole process went very smoothly. 

The day before I had made already some inserts and a folder so I could put everything together right away and I felt so good and so proud. The charms I've got from M and are very seasonal (pumpkin and corn)

This is such a wonderful notebook and already I am loving it so much. It is very versatile and playful and it is supposed to be messy and nothing has to match. I am super excited about it. This will be a place for me to play and experiment, to write and doodle, to draw and paint, to make lists and glue pretty pictures, decorate pages and what not

Little one in the make

Pumpkins in our windowsill

(All the pictures are made by M)