Bonus Art Journal

I came across these great hard-bound journals on one of my Weekly visits to Michael's. They were a great size (81/2 x 11") hardbound black or gray cover for $5.00. I mean, it just sat there on the shelves screaming at me...."take me home". I ended up taking a few of them that day and started originally working on combining my abstract art with the creation of Journal Pages. We tried tissue paper, stencil, bray roller, molding paste,and plaster. While working on a commission piece using the plaster process the light went on. Why not try and add it to one of the journals. The first piece was a journal for all my daughters pictures, and momentous. The second one is pictured above. It incorporated a new process of printing on tissue paper. I had used a painting process on tissue paper for the journal pages, but never tried printing on one. It turned to be so easy and added a totally new dimension to my plaster pieces.

Creating The Bonus Journal

The main difference between this piece and the previous painting is the tissue paper printing process. I have included all of the previous videos from Project One. Some of the information in them will reference the paintings from those two previous projects. The Steps will be the same for this Journal Project.
  • Step One... Gather all of your Supplies.
  • Step Two...Preparing your Work Surface
  • Step Three...Adding the Plaster to Your Burlap
  • Step Four...Removing The Plaster from the drying board.
  • Step Five...Cracking The Plaster Substrate
  • Step Six...Highlighting the Cracks in Your Plaster
  • Step Seven...Glueing the canvas to the front cover of the journal
  • Step Eight...Preparing The Printed Tissue Paper
  • Step Nine...Applying the tissue image(s) and painting the cover
  • Step Ten...Trim the Edges/Sealing the final cover.

Step One ...Gather all Your Supplies

Supply List For Bonus Art Journal
  1. Hard Bound Journal (Michael's Has them for $5.00)
  2. Plaster Of Paris/ cups for mixing/ water bottle for mixing/ spoon/ drying board/
  3. 2-3 sheets of Tissue Paper / 2-3 sheet of Reg. Print paper
  4. Glue for applying the cracked substrate to the Book Cover.....quick dry spray adhesive, tacky craft glue, Matt medium, PVA Bookbinding glue. ***I have tried all of them. They all work well, the biggest consideration is Fumes and Quickness of Drying.
  5. Glue Stick....for preparing the tissue paper transfer.
  6. scissors
  7. paint (choice of colors will depend on the image you select. Black or Brown to use with the cracked plaster
  8. Burlap for the cover
  9. Paint brushes/ container of water/ paper towels
  10. Access to ink jet printer/computer/ saved images.

Step Two...Preparing Your Work Surface.

Step Three...Adding Plaster to Your Burlap

  "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance"...........Aristotle

Let's continue to......Page Two of the Bonus Journal