Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

10 Tips and Techniques for Art Journaling

by

If your interested in taking your scrapbooking and paper crafting in a new direction try some art journaling. You can use your own photos  and journaling or just play with products and techniques to create mixed media collage art on the page.

Recently Vicky Papaioannou shared a wonderful process video with lots of different techniques on a single gorgeous layout. She used printed paper cuts, torn and layered rice paper, stenciling with glitter paste, rubber stamping, paint splatter, adding gems, hand doodling and more for her lovely design to inspire and teach you new ideas which can all be applied together or alone to a variety of projects even beyond scrapbooking and journaling. 

Visit the Clips N Cuts blog to watch her video tutorial.

-Heather

Check some of our favorite art supplies out over at Tonic Studios

Have you read?

Mini Mending Mondays: Fix a Towel Edge with Simple Hand Stitching

Every home seems to have that one towel that is slightly past its prime but still somehow everyone reaches for it. Maybe it is your favorite tea towel, maybe it is the kitchen hand towel, maybe it is the one that should have retired three years ago but refuses to leave the drawer. This week’s Mini Mending Mondays project is a practical one: repairing a frayed towel edge with simple hand stitching.

Towels, tea towels, and cloth napkins are wonderful beginner mending projects because they are useful, forgiving, and not at all judgmental about imperfect stitches.

What you can mend

Use this method for:

  • frayed towel edges
  • worn tea towel hems
  • split corners
  • small rips along the hem
  • kitchen cloths and household linens

What you need

  • strong sewing thread
  • hand sewing needle
  • pins
  • scissors

How to do it

Trim any very loose threads and fold the damaged edge under. If there is enough fabric, fold it under twice for a cleaner hem. Pin it in place and stitch along the folded edge with small whip stitches or running stitches.

Pay extra attention to the corners, since they tend to take the most strain. If the corner is very worn, reinforce it with a few extra passes of stitching before finishing off.

If your readers enjoy hand-stitching basics, you could send them to Hand-stitching Embroidery patterns…free free free! or 9 amazing embroidery stitches for beginners.

Tips before you stitch

Use a sharp needle and work slowly through thick cotton towel fabric. If the towel is bulky, shorter stitches usually look neater and hold better.

Also, there is no shame in practising on a tea towel before moving onto anything fancier. Kitchen linens are the unsung heroes of sewing confidence.

Why this little repair is worth doing

Household linens get used constantly, and repairing them is a simple way to stretch their life without fuss. It is practical, calming, and a good reminder that not every craft project needs to be decorative to be satisfying.

For more practical stitch inspiration, readers might enjoy 15 Embroidery Stitch Projects for Beginners and Zero-Waste Embroidery: How to Use Scrap Fabric and Threads.