Collage, Construct and Affirm Journal

Now that it is October (and how did that happen?!) it's time to put all my summer painting projects up on this blog as I have more or less finished them. I will continue to paint in the shed while weather permits and there are still classes whose projects I want to make again but I have managed to learn so much this summer and it's time to share it with you. 

Probably my most favourite project was making this portfolio art journal in the Collage, Construct and Affirm class by Roben Marie Smith. All her classes are an absolute blast and the great thing is that not only are the classes a delight to follow but the end products are all so delectable. After you've finished them you end up with journals that you can then work in some more and put your own stamp on, both literally and figuratively speaking. 

I won't be telling you anything about techniques here. For that you can sign up and do the class yourself following this link. The project uses canvas pad pages which were a new thing to me but I can already think of lots of uses for it which is just as well as in a fit of enthousiasm I bought not just one but 2 pads so I have approx. 30 pages of canvas pad to practise with. I showed you some of the pages in a previous blog post here.

 I love the portfolio shape, the way the painting feels (it's finished with clear gesso) and the closure is a pure delight. The portfolio has a secret pocket (closed with velcro) and Roben Marie made 5 affirmation cards with the remnants of the collage sheets left over after making the portfolio. I preferred to look for text in my favourite vintage book to add to the pages, searching for appropriate sentences. The cards will live in the pocket and I imagine I will get them out regularly to look at how I made them. Here are all 5.

I know that I will do the entire class again (and I can, because access to it is unending) probably putting a bit more of my own spin onto it. But this one will always take me back to that fabulous summer of 2013 which itself will also long linger on in my memory.

Finally I was very honoured to feature on a blog post by Gillian Cooper where this blog was featured as 1 of 10 great blogs to follow! You can read more about it here.