Salvaged Children's Board Books & Lifeline art practices . . .

[Rachel Jefferies]

You maybe familiar with my 'Children's Board Book Series', if not, have a little wander through my gallery or our online digi magazine / newsletter which we call Pixels, Paper and Paint (for obvious reasons) and you'll see how I've made these salvaged books a new home for my collage spreads.

I love using printed pieces from my digital kits in them too!

To make it easy, Lynn and I have a new series of 'Mixed Media Project Kits' which are print ready - you'll find papers saved in a handy Letter Size Format and compiled into a PDF (as well as JPG's) plus print sheets of elements in Letter Size Format as PDF and JPG. All of the files also come as our regular loose PNG's and 12x12 papers too but you'll also get some fun collage sheets which again are print ready.

I found art journaling and mixed media (or rather it found me) when my dad passed away unexpectedly many many years ago and this practice of mindless layering whilst putting my thoughts and feelings in order has remained with me ever since.

This particular project or spread that was created with our new Breathe Kit explores what it feels like to parent through uncertainty and to live in the space between high tension and tenderness - to support a child who finds everyday life overwhelming in ways that aren’t always visible to others.

I’ve often felt weary, wondering if I am enough, if I’ve done enough, if I’m doing enough.

While the spread could have been busy and heavily layered to reflect the chaos and hard days, I chose instead to embrace open space.

I kept the embellishments reasonably minimal to mimic the emotional space I’m holding for learning, for growth, for becoming and well, just breathing.

I won't spoil your gallery browsing or Article reading at Pixels, Paper and Paint by sharing too many here but here are a few from the gallery.





How about you, does your memory keeping or art journaling support your mental health? If so how?

I'd love to hear from you

 

[Karen]

These are fantastic Rachel! I love that you repurposed a children's board book for this! I made a mini-vacation album out of a board book many years ago. I made the pages and then printed them shrunken down and pasted them in. My kids loved flipping through that! I never thought to use one for art journaling... I'm intrigued!

I recently made my first junk journal out of an old book and I had a blast getting that started. First step is to go in and rip out a bunch of pages to make space for the thicker pages after collaging and art journaling. I also folded some pages to make little pocket. Now I just love grabbing that book and flipping to a random page and playing.

 

[Rachel Jefferies]

Thank you Karen, they are so much fun to work in! I have a few abstract ones too!

I love making junk journals like that too, the little pocket sounds very sweet!!

have a lovely weekend and thanks for replying

 

[fruitysuet]

Those spreads are stunning. Since divorce and downsizing I don't have anywhere to keep my paper supplies. They're all in storage at my dad's garage, as I really am struggling with letting them go (so many year paper scrapping and creating altered items). It's when I see beautiful things like this that I miss it most.

 

[Lynne-Marie]

I made a few of these last winter, for the fun of it. They helped me process some emotions I was dealing with and now I can look through them for comfort.