Journaling by 5s
1 - - Paint/Ink
(background
2 - - Collage/Recycled
Materials (texture/interest)
3 - - Stamps/Stencils (pattern,
mark-making)
4 - - Words/Images (focal point)
5 - - Pen/Pencil
(doodling, detail)
Before the Meet Prep
- Do any prep you need to whatever book you are using or making for this challenge. You need at least 20 single sheets that can handle wet media; we will decorate the fronts only of 20 pages. You may need t glue extra pages together for strength depending on your paper. If you want any gesso, have it done before hand, as this averages to seconds per page for each phase.
- If you are working in an actual book and not loose pages, you will need wax paper or deli wrap to insert between pages. They will still be damp when you go to the next page. I would recommend clipping the wax paper onto the facing page, so that you can just flip the page and move onto the next.
- Pre-cut or tear out a collection of images you may like to use. You will need 20+. Make some extras, so you have variety … but don’t have so much you feel overwhelmed. You will be making decisions about your focals quickly.
- Cut out any words, phrases, and quotes for each page. You will want some extras on these too. You can also consider sticker words or stamped words. You have to move quickly, so you probably will not want things ae are too fussy in size.
Getting Organized
1 - - Paint/Ink (background
- Limit your colors. We will take a few minutes to organize our space before we say “go” 😊
- You will need to have your paints open and on a palette, in a jar lid, or however you want to organize depending on how you plan on applying. I will probably use my gelli plate as a palette, but do whatever makes the most sense to you.
- You will need a method to apply that you can do quickly. Recommendations is to scrape or brayer … or use a large brush for jarred paints.
2 - - Collage/Recycled
Materials (texture/interest)
- Scraps of book text, decorative paper, tissue paper, and napkin would be good. Textural elements will be good, but select things that you can quickly glue.
- Arrange your elements in a way that will be easy to access quickly.
- If you are using a wet glue, you may want some open and on a palette, so you can dip your brush quickly.
- Don’t worry about a great glue job. You can touch up corners or add more gel medium over top after your 20 pages are done.
3 - - Stamps/Stencils
(pattern, mark-making)
- You need a few rubberstamps … think background and interesting shapes or text.
- Limit yourself to one color of ink for your stamping.
- You need a few stencils. Limit yourself, so you can move quickly and bolder designs will probably be better here, so you can move quickly.
- Limit yourself to only a few colors for your stencil paint.
- You can clean your stencils at the end of your 15 minutes …
4 - - Words/Images (focal point)
- Arrange your images in some organized piles - - however it is easiest for you to see what you have and go quickly. One recommendation is to organize by size group.
- If you are using a wet glue, you may want some open and on a palette, so you can dip your brush quickly.
- If your image has overhang from the page and needs to be cut down, you can do it after the 15-minute session ends.
- Have a bunch of words, phrases, or quotes cut out before we start on Saturday. Try not to go too tiny or it will be harder to glue quickly.
- You can touch up glue at the end of our 15 minutes 😊
5 - - Pen/Pencil (doodling, detail)
- Have a collection of pens, pencils, pain pens, etc available.
- Black, white, and maybe some metallic will be good.
- Think simple doodle shapes, borders, outlines, etc.
Finishing Up …
Everything beyond this point will be untimed. Just have fun and finish up whatever you can
on your journal pages. You can add more
paint, stenciling, ink, doodles, whatever you like. We will just relax and chat while we finish
up after our 5 15-minute sessions are done.
