And on to the Next....

I finished my art journal, Book of Fire. I started it on the last day of January and finished it last week. This is what it looks like from the outside, all filled up and bulging with paint and collage.
When I began this journal, the spine was larger than the opposite side with the pages. It had a hardcover spine. When I made it, I used a piece of book board (2 inches x 9.5 inches). This made the spine very hard and it made the book impossible to open and lay flat. This made it challenging to scan.
Here is a photo of the inside of the front and back covers and all the glorious colorful pages. I added tabs to some of the pages as well. That is something I've been doing for the past few journals.
One of the last few spreads in this journal. I started with a layer of cerulean blue acrylic paint, added collage, masking tape, and collage imagery. The peacock is from a napkin and if you see it in person, it is nicely translucent in some places due to the thin layer of napkin. I added some bubble wrap paint printing and then writing.
I had to use my thumb to hold the book completely open because of the spine. My new art journal does not have a "book board spine." I used cardstock to reinforce the spine instead, which is a more flexible material.
This is the cover of my new art journal. The book itself is called "Closed Shutters" but I am not going to title the actual journal until I am at least halfway through. The spine is already giving me trouble.
Unlike the Book of Fire, this spine was made by reinforcing the tyvek spine cover with cardstock (instead of book board). I wanted to go for a softer and more giving spine. Instead of covering the book with clear contact paper (an excellent way to preserve the spine and cover collage of the book and ensure that it will survive tons of use), I used large amounts of acrylic varnish. The problem is that since the spine is really flexible, The paint and varnish on the spine are chipping and cracking in some places. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? It started chipping before I even began working in the book, mainly from opening and closing it! I suppose when I am finished with the book, I can use paint to spot touch up the spots. I think I might experiment with a different kind of varnish....
This is the inside cover of the book which I collaged. This is a large journal, 9.5" x 12.5", so instead of using decorative paper, I just used collage. The kitty cat design on the left hand side is actually a plastic Japanese folder sleeve that I bought at Kinokinuya in San Francisco (oh my goodness, I LOVE that store!) I glued it to the inside cover. In this photo, it covers up some of the collage design on the inside of the cover. The person's head and the evidence sheet at the top right hand corner were downloaded from the GPP Street Team website, which is a great resource for free downloads of journal and collage sheets. The only thing that annoys me is that the website plays music. I HATE blogs that play music. It always startles me to click on a link and all of sudden, someone's music is blasting. If I am listening to my own music on my computer, it makes a terrible mix. However, this website is worth it. It's geared toward scrapbookers, but art journalers can still use it!