Hi everyone, today I’m sharing with you all what I did to pimp my Jenine’s Mindful Art Slimline Art Journal (JMA-ES-JOUR03). Each page in the journal is 12x21 centimetres and the journal comes with white (15x), craft (5x) and black (5x) 300 grs paper.
Step 1:
The inside and outside of this journal is craft coloured so you can customize the look just the way you want it. I like the inside craft coloured so I didn’t do anything in there. On the outside I first applied a layer of clear gesso to prime the cover. I used clear gesso because the rice paper I’m using today is mostly yellow toned. If you use any other coloured rice paper I would recommend using white gesso first!
For today’s project I used two rice papers (2x JMA-NA-RICE10), I choose this particular rice paper because of the tall design on the rice paper that matched the shape of the slimline journal nicely. First I decided on my lay out: I wanted the main flower image to be on the part of the cover that opens and I wanted the left hand flower to be on the spine of the journal, so that when the journal stands in my closet it looks nice.
Now that I know what my lay out will be I use a small wet brush to trace a line over the rice paper (while it’s laying on the cover of the journal) and now I can tear the rice paper easily. I carefully take of the white edge as well (I wanted to loose as little of the rice paper design as possible) and now I’m ready to adhere the rice paper piece to my journal cover: for this I cover the part of the journal cover where I’m going to stick the rice paper with matte gel medium using a brush, I place the rice paper piece of top and add a layer of matte medium on top. Let the tiny parts that stick out hang out and let the cover dry. Later on you can brush the left over pieces inwards and adhere there, using the same gel medium.
Step 2:
This is why I needed two pieces of the same rice paper and this step also took up the most time because I wanted the inside and outside design to match exactly when the journal is closed. Placing the second rice paper in the exactly the right took me some time but I totally love how this turned out. I partly adhered the rice paper using gel medium and let that dry. Next I created the hole in the rice paper in the same way I mentioned before, using a wet brush and tearing the paper. In real life you hardly notice that the area around the velcro is not 100% perfect.
Adhere the rest of the design paper piece by piece, adjusting the size where needed.
Step 3:
Because I totally love this rice paper design I didn’t want to go and apply much over it, but my art journal needed a text so I picked one from the Time to Relax line (STICKERJMA05) and adhered that on the cover, adding a thin layer of matte gel medium over it and let it dry.
Step 4:
This is what the journal looks like after all the bits and pieces that where hanging out where adjusted. A little finishing touch was missing!
Step 5:
I felt that a little edging of the journal edges using a brown ink and a foam applicator tool was what this project needed and now my art journal is done. For the back and right hand spine I used the left over piece of the first rice paper but I didn’t want to cover up the whole back of the journal (and who is going to look at the back anyway!
Detail pictures:
And that is it for today’s art journal project! I wish you a creative day!
