Art journaling can take many forms, and lately I've been thinking of ways to tell stories and preserve memories that are unique and utilize materials and techniques that are not commonly used in scrapbooking or card making. Today I created another heart journal with textured metal.
I started this little exploration last week when I shared a heart journal that has textured metal covers and embossing powders.
Today, I used the same materials, Spellbinders Media Mixage Hearts Three Blanks, resin paper made from Spellbinders Media Mixage Ephemera Papers One
and Susan Lenart Kazmer ICE Resin but texturized the metal heart blanks with an embossing folder.
The embossing folder added deep texture to the metal blanks. I treated them with a patina solution, then sanded to emphasize the really cool viney texture.
I added transparent vintage photos: I'd created them earlier by printing photos on transparency film.
The photos I chose today are of my grandparents on their wedding day. This little journal was simple and fast to make, and also preserves a memory in a way that is both meaningful and symbolic. When you create a little journal like this, try to tell the story with simple imagery and few words. Images or pictographs are the vocabulary of art, we communicate through the images we choose. The vocabulary here was simple, a heart tangled in vines and photographs of two people whose lives would be entwined for the next fifty or so years.
I love how this little journal looks and feels. Texturing the metal makes the journal feel like a little antique photo charm and it will make a great little gift or package tie on for someone in my family.
When I started, I just wanted to practice some metal embossing techniques, but ultimately I shared a family memory and preserved it in a tiny heart journal. I hope you'll be inspired to incorporate textured metals into your vocabulary of work...it's easier than you might think and the "pay off" is big...it looks great.
Thanks for stopping by today...go create something beautiful!
Ken
