Sunday 5 December 2021

2021 Topic 15: Journaling Gratitude with EGL {by Ellie Knol}

2021 Topic 15: Journaling Gratitude


Ellie takes us through her spring inspired journal page about being thankful. She explores her design process with us, and I always think it's fascinating seeing how other creative minds work through design decisions. Enjoy her lovely blooms and spring colours.
~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Ellie Knol with you today, and I'm here to share with you a journal page of course. Gratitude is a way of living life. It can be about what you have, or experienced; acknowledging gratitude in your life can be so freeing. Giving thanks with a grateful heart is a way of joyful living. 
I found this online: 'Gratitude is a warm feeling of thankfulness towards the world, or towards specific individuals. The person who feels gratitude is thankful for what they have, and does not constantly seek more'
It can also be about the joy of crafting. Playing in my art journal certainly makes for joyful moments... it makes me happy, and thankful for the small things in life.

For this post today, I started out with a bit of exploration.
Initially I was going to use some waste paper from die cut leaves. I've made photographs of the possibilities and in the end the composition I chose to go by. I share a short video with all the ideas I tried and how I came to choose the composition of the page below.

As I said in the intro.. some possibilities or ideas of the direction I could go with in today's  project. A collage of the pictures: 

The options...

This was the layout of the page I had in my mind originally, but I kept moving all the elements around on the page, and ended up with the images not being grounded, and in a row... so I decided 'no'... I do like the color scheme and the soft colors though; a lot of white too.
I might regret my choice to not go with this idea. No worries... there's always more pages in my journal to use!


As shown above in the presentation I chose for this composition and took a picture of it before taking the elements off the page.
I do that often, so when adhering it in a later stage, I don't have to think about where to glue them down.

 

The start of the page is quite easy: applying grunge paste through stencil PS015, and of course I left it to dry thoroughly.


A coat of white gesso, and a spray with some glimmer mist followed.  I did some background stamping as well, and toned it down with gesso as shown.



 
The flowers from EGL13 were stamped, heat embossed in clear, colored and fussy-cut ... all ready to use on the journal page.
 
 
From here on I added one element at a time. A white die cut leaf, as a backdrop for the flower; it makes it pop more. 
 

Next a ticket, colored with the same green as the leaves on the flower cut outs. Dropping in droplets of the same color while still wet creates interest to it. 


Now for the second flower, peeking out from behind the white leaf.... 
 


...  a second die cut leaf partially covered by the ticket to break the line vertically to a reverse
L-shape ... 
 

... more tickets and more flowers... 
 

.. and finally all the elements right where I'd like to adhere them, including the title of the page created with the alphabet from Ink and the Dog Words plate 2 (W2). 

I am thankful it worked out .. I am pleased with the composition! 

 

Enjoy the pictures of the journal page: " be thankful ! "
 



 
The tickets from EGL17 are great to addition to any project that just needs a little something extra. 


 

There you are..  a page full of sunny color for the crafters in the southern hemisphere; it being spring there.
I learnt through the years that coating a page first with gesso can be such a good thing. Why? If you add too much color it won't soak into the paper, it's quite easy to dab it off while still wet. 
Also, for fussy cutting intricate images, you will need a good pair of scissors, otherwise it can be a frustrating thing to do. I use embroidery scissors.  

I will have to part with you for now. I hope I've given you some inspiration, and new ideas to go explore. Let us know .. Enjoy, and be grateful. 


Ellie Knol

3 comments:

Stef said...

Thank you Ellie! One of the things that I am most grateful for is the array of wonderful paper and needle crafters out there who freely share their ideas, processes, tutorials and finished products that inspire and spark my creative imagination such that I can lose myself in my art and forget about what's going on in the rest of the world, even if it's only for a couple of hours! Thanks so much ~ Stef x

Ellie Knol said...

Thanks Stef.. yes.. Art is the only way to be elsewhere without leaving the home. ..

SewPaperPaint said...

What a unique collage Ellie! I love the yellow colorway and your pretty layering style. xx, Autumn