Be adventurous when you work in your journal.
For instance, yesterday, my son Seth who is 17 came over to me to see what I was doing and asked me what I was doing. "Oh, I am just working on my journal pages" I said. "Doing what" he asked?
"Ah, just adding in pieces of collage onto pages I have already worked on but didn't feel they were finished.
Even though I signed some of the pages with my initials or with the date, I felt they were not finished or felt they "were" finished at the time. When going through my journal, taking out the old pieces of wax paper that keeps the pages from sticking together, I had photos and small ephemera pieces that I thought I would love to add and that I did. I have a few drawers stuffed with photos, papers, jewels, and "junk" that I love. Rockport is a place I love taking photos of people. So, instead of the small 4x6"'s staying in a drawer (and I don't feel they are quality to put into a frame or photo album) I added them into the collages. The only thing I do not care for is that the photos themselves are glossy and they stand out a bit too much for my liking, but, I enjoyed the process. My journal is a process. As I look at it, and build up pages, I then see it as an art piece for my collection.
I also worked ont he cover. These types of journals have great paper inside to work on, and the cover is basic black. I had never decided what I wanted to do with the cover or just leave it plain. I had an acrylic paint in the color of a "tomato red". So I painted the cover and the inside cover noticing that the red was not standing off of the black. As I thought, "mmm, what should I do now...let the red dry and go from there? or add something on top of the red?...I began frisking through my drawer with tissue paper and found awesome paper that I immediately applied to the wet surface journal cover. I proceeded to flip the tissue paper over to the inside, rubbed the surface with my fingers and when the tissue began to dry, I ripped off the edges by hand that ran over the edge of the journal.
The tissue paper had a print of flowers and gold letters which came out so nicely on the dark background and red paint. The look is that of dried flowers and gold leaf print. Take a close look and see how when doing collage, your eyes can actually be tricked to what layer is what in a collage.
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