art techniques | Julie Dawn Designs

June 17, 2023

Unicorn Journal

I have been wanting to make a journal like this for quite some time. When this digital kit came available, I knew I had to buy it.

Here is a picture of some of the elements included in it and the signatures I made from the pages in the kit.

So far, I’ve sewn in the signature covers and started decorating the front and back covers, as well as the spine.

I was trying to decide between these two ideas for the front cover:

It was a difficult decision, but my daughter told me the one with more butterflies was better than the one with less, so that is the one I went with. Now I’m working on the back cover and then I will finish decorating the spine. After that, it’s time to add pockets and ephemera to the pages inside and then it will be complete.

April 17, 2023

My First Art Doll

I recently purchased an online class called Southern Sass by Kecia Deveney. She is an amazing artist and her art dolls are incredible so I couldn’t wait to start this class.

I have to admit that I am the worst at buying classes and either never taking them at all, never finishing them or finishing them and never applying anything that I learned in class. I shudder to think of the amount of money I’ve spent on online art classes over the years, but I wouldn’t have learned any of what I know now without some of them, so some of the money was well spent.

Anyway, back to that art dolls. I watched some of the videos and then procrastinated and finally got started last week. It is so fun learning something new and getting out of my comfort zone, not to mention it’s a great way to use the fabric paint I bought years ago and put a dent in my stash of fabric as well.

Here are a few pictures of my progress so far:

After I made a pattern I liked and transferred it onto muslin, I started creating the eyes, ears, mouth and nose. This was harder than I expected and took a while, especially when it came to the hand stitching part. I spent quite a while getting those pieces the way I wanted them, but I’m really pleased how they turned out.

I then painted the face with colors that coordinated with some of the fabrics I had picked out for the body beforehand. I have pinned the facial features in place, but haven’t sewn them down yet.

Here I have laid out all of the fabric pieces I plan on using over the pattern. You can’t seen the shape of the body yet because this is how you do it at first. I haven’t gotten far enough to know what happens next, but I’m excited to see what she looks like after all the fabric is sewed in place and trimmed down. I also chose the saying I wanted to have and stamped the words out and then sewed them onto felt. I don’t like the stamps I have so I ordered some different ones that hopefully work better with paint than these did. I think these would be great with ink, but they weren’t the best with paint.

Well I’m going to get back to it and hope this all turns out how I hope it will.

Till next time.

September 16, 2020

My Obsession

I recently was given the opportunity to take a class online that has previously only been taught in person. I was never able to take the in person workshop before because it was in Auckland, and unfortunately, that was just a bit too far for me to go. Then the pandemic hit and lockdowns ensued. I haven’t found too many positive things that have come from this nightmare we are all currently living in, but Liz Constable of Book Art Studios decided to teach her classes online for the first time ever, so I guess that was my silver lining.

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to sign up for anything and everything she has made available. Her Dyed and Gone to Heaven class has led to my current obsession – hand dyeing papers.

I’ve always coffee and tea dyed a good portion of my papers, but her technique took me in a direction I never knew was even possible. I can’t divulge the process, it’s a highly guarded secret and you can only learn it by taking her class, but I can tell you it’s amazing and has taken my paper dyeing to a whole new level.

Here are a few examples:

Finding dyes has been more of a challenge than I expected. Apparently, tie dyeing has been very popular during this pandemic, so the supply of Rit and Tulip dyes at local craft stores is quite low. I have experimented with food coloring, both powdered and gel, as well as India inks and other inks as well.

I really love the results and I’m also super excited that Liz is teaching the second class, Dyed Again, online as well. I signed up for that one and I can’t wait to learn even more amazing techniques for turning ordinary paper into something extraordinary.

September 2, 2020

Practicing New Techniques

As artists, we all have other artists we look up to, learn from and generally admire. One of my favorites is Liz Constable from Book Art Studios. Not only is she an incredibly talented book artist, she is a great teacher and very generous with her knowledge.

I have always wanted to take one of her Dyed and Gone to Heaven workshops, but unfortunately, I could never figure out how to make that work since she is in Auckland and I am in Texas. Up until now, she has only taught in-person workshops, but the pandemic changed all that.

I was able to take both her coptic binding class and her dyed and gone to heaven class via zoom. They were great, and thankfully recorded, because I had to refer back to them more than once. I had done coptic binding before, but this is a new method that took some practice on my part.

Here are some pictures of one of my favorite books I made, filled with scrumptious, hand dyed paper, using a process that I’m sworn to secrecy not to divulge. If you want to learn it, you can visit her website and sign up for her next online class!

View of Journal Spine with Coptic Stitch

July 16, 2018July 16, 2018

Faux Leather Travelers Journals With a Twist

I was fortunate enough to be gifted some very nice faux leather fabric samples a while back. At first I wasn’t sure what to do with them, until I came across a journal in a craft store that give me an idea of how to put them to use. This is one of the first ones I made.

I recently decided that it was time to make a few more. After sewing the covers together, I decided that I wanted to do something besides a plain cover, so I decided to create some vignettes on each one.

Here is how they turned out.

faux leather travelers journals — Faux Leather Travelers Journals

To say I love them is indeed an understatement!