And it all begins again ... with covers ...

Hello again, all you creative adventurers! This past Wednesday we kicked off the new series of  Vision Journals - and this time we're going BIG. The new journals are now 8.5x11, which means the handouts can now go directly into your journal with less muss and fuss - specifically less folding and/or cutting, or deciding which quote to keep and which ones get sacrificed when you design your pages.

This also means if you find a fabulous magazine page that you want to use as background, you can use the *whole thing* instead of trying to cut and paste your favourite bit.

This week we focused on COVERS - bigger journals mean bigger covers - with more white space (ack!), so we played around with personalizing them with paint (again!) and stencils, scraping, colouring, collaging and a good variety of techniques. May I just say that it my heart leap with joy to see each of you had your own a plan and they were all different and you all just went for it. I love the confidence that you all had and how amazing all your results were.

Some of you lept in using my idea of using the cover and ads from the New Agora Magazine. I've posted below how mine turned out (would LOVE to see your finished covers and post them here, too!) ...

The original cover, artwork by Ben Franke.

My front cover: Flowered duct tape, plus part of the Agora cover, plus stamping.
The number is five is because this is out FIFTH series of classes - yes it is!

The back cover is made up of images from ads inside the magazine.

Here are some other techniques people played with:

Scraping acrylic paint with old coffee card. Start with light colours first.

Stencilling with acrylic paint. Scraped with yellow first, then adding stenciling in darker colours.

Colouring  book page. Glue it on first, then colour it when you feel like it!

Back cover of the colouring book journal ~ using black masking tape to create "stained-glass' effect.

Using the duct tape that reinforces the spine to cover the whole cover.
This will make it more durable and therefore more portable. You can use a variety of tapes, or ... 

... you can pick one tape you like and cover the whole thing.
This tape was fun - I was even able to get all the dots lined up.

This is a colouring book page, but you can draw your own zentangle instead.  Just make sure to use a
waterproof pen, like a Sharpie. I framed this one with red masking tape and then coloured it to match.

Or just leave it in black and white ... very striking.

If you like texture and the look of old leather, you can easily and cheaply get the effect with crumpled brown paper bags and a rubber stamp ink pad. Just make sure the ink is permanent so it doesn't bleed when you carry it around.

You can also cover your journal with fabric. I recommend using a strong double-sided tape around the edges, and even wrapping the fabric around the edge into the inside so it doesn't fray. But as you can see, since the fabric I chose for this one was already a frayed prayer flag, I wasn''t oo worried about it.

Apart from the mechanics of making our covers, we also talked about the function of covers, not only on our journals, but in our lives. Covers generally have two purposes: 1) to protect something vulnerable from wear and tear, and 2) to present something in a particular way to the world.

We talked briefly about the covers we each have in our lives - the clothes we wear, the habits we acquire, the cars we drive, the music we listen to, the jobs we do ~ these are all ways we appear in the world, usually to fit in with, or appeal to, or feel comfortable in our surroundings. The covers we've used throughout our lives have changed, based on what was needed at the time as well. There's a brief exercise on covers in the handouts (see below), and I encourage you to think about how the various "covers" you've had over your life and how you've learned them, used them and released them over the years. Go as deep as you like in your journals. The more you explore the abstract concepts of covers, the better you'll know yourself in the end.

More stuff on the handouts: the usual intro to journalling: why to do it, how to do it and my favourite tools, a refresher on the colour wheel, a revisit to two of my favourite creative individuals (to remind you to BE YOURSELF) - Lynda Barry and Teesha Moore, and instructions on how to make your own journals in the future. Have fun and see you at the next class ~ Jan 31st.

And now your handouts ...  !

Lovely to see you all again ... have fun being creative and feel free to ask me anything you need to know ...