Art Journals and Paper Dolls

You may be wondering why I'm posting this awesome picture by Julie Nutting. You may not be wondering that at all. In fact, you may not even be thinking or even breathing...bwahahahahaha. That might explain why you are here reading this. Anyhoo, on with the story. 

Three months ago I had never heard of Art Journals,  Collage Art or Mixed Media Art. I'll write later about GEMS and how it started me on this journey. My fabulous FlySistah  friend Peggy introduced me to the Brave Girls Club website. I started watching Melody Ross's videos and learning about collage art. I started my own art journal and a few other projects. I hadn't touched Mod Podge since I was a 12 year old Beehive at a church activity. Suddenly I was the Mod Podge Maven and was up to my elbows in the sticky, white goo. I  loved the mix of art and therapy and felt the joy welling up inside myself. I had to have more. 

My amazing friend Denice shared some of her art journals and answered so many of my questions. She even let me come visit to see her studio in progress. Award winning art projects by her children were displayed on the wall and one by one the little ones came to show some "favorite" picture from their own art journals.

I spent hours on the interwebs searching for art journals. Oh the great, wide world of art collage was now before my eyes. I found Julie Nutting's website  (http://www.julienuttingdesigns.blogspot.com/) and immediately fell in love with her style. I toyed with the idea of trying to do something in her style. Then I found Katies Blog "One Polka Dot Day"  (http://onepolkadotday.blogspot.com/2011/06/art-in-style-of-julie-nutting.html)with her version of the project in the "style" of Julie Nutting. 

I loved it and decided that since hers was a bit simpler that I'd try to do my own version. So...here is my paper doll "In the style of Katie who's project is in the style of Julie Nutting". 

This is what I came up with.

Katie's is on the right and mine is on the left. I really liked the concept and have been working on how to incorporate this project into the GEMS curriculum. 

The next step in this process was to search for simple, printable paper dolls that I could use for doing this project with kids, namely my sweet GEMS. Then I remembered a picture from my childhood with my FAVORITE gypsy dress. My Mom made it from scraps left over from other dresses and projects. 

Here I am in my wonderful, colorful dress.

 Joseph had a coat of many colors...and I had a dress of many colors. So I made a copy of this picture and made my own pattern for a paper doll for my journal. 

This picture shows the steps  I took to making this favorite childhood photo into a paper doll. I traced the picture with a light board and then cut the picture into puzzle pieces. I used the pieces as patterns for the final colored paper version.It was really fun and I sure wish I had been able to do all this fun stuff when I was little. Of course, I really am enjoying the process now. 

Warmly,

Allie