Elephant and Butterflies (Art Journal)

The Final Project...

The Final Project

Inspiration...

Source: Elephant Art A HHP ORiginal Design Ellie the Elephant with her Butterflies Print via Pintrest

Going into this I knew that I wouldn't be able to fit a big elephant (like shown) and tons of butterflies on one page due to my inability to cut small butterflies so I choose to cut down the size of the elephant so I would be able to have the focus mainly on the butterflies.

What I used...

Supplies

Your art journal or a piece of paper or whatever you would like to do this on
A print out of an elephant, you could also draw your own if you would like (I used the small one, the larger one is for another project. I printed both go them on the same page to save paper.)
Newspaper
Watercolor
A paint brush for water color
A cup of water for the water color and the paint brush (not shown here... sorry)
Mod Podge
A paintbrush for Mod Podge
Scissors
A pencil
Whatever you would like to use to color your elephant (you don't even have to color your elephant but I used a gray color pencil which is not up there, sorry)
A work area and a surface to work on that you don't mind getting paint and mod podge on. This will help ensure that you get all the edges because you can go out of the lines to get the edges. (I like to use old place mats that are laminated so you'll see them a lot of the time. A trash bag or plastic bag would work. Newspaper is good but might stick to whatever you are painting or gluing so be careful.)

The first thing you are going to want to is cut out out your elephant. I had the hardest time finding the perfect elephant. When I found it I had to flip it over so that it would be facing the right way...

I got my elephant at http://rfclipart.com/free/elephant-silhouette-422-vector-clipart.html. I found it just right for what I was going for. if you look carefully you might notice that it had tusks before. Because I though they would be difficult to cut around I cut them off.

After it us cut out is the time that you are going tto want to color your elephant.

And just mod podge it down (I just applied it on the back I didn't put mod podge over it until the very end).

While that dries (not that it really has to dry for a long time) you are going to want to cut out you butterflies from the newspaper.

You can draw your butterflies and then cut them out or you can just free cut them (that's the method I used). Whatever way you are going to do it you are not going to want all the butterflies to be identical. You'll want them to be varying sizes and shapes. To cut them out I personally cut out squares and then folded them over and cut out the butterflies like you cut out hearts. This just ensured that the two sides are semetrical.

After all the butterflies are cut out you are going to want to spread them out on your okay to get paint on surface. This makes sure that you don't get paint from one butterfly onto another butterfly. Then you just start water coloring away. You can use whatever colors you would like. You don't even have to use watercolors if you want. Make it your own.

Sorry that it is kind of hard to see because of the mat. 

However you choose to color you butterflies make sure they are absolutely dry before you touch them as to not mess them up. I ran into this problem when I did mine. 

When they are completely dry and I mean completely dry mod podge them down onto your paper. Kind of positioned out of the elephant's nose, however you want. I can't stress it enough. Make it your own.

All that's left to do is a layer of mod podge over the items that you glued down (no need to put it over the whole paper). And you are done. Ready to bask in your glory. 

For me I personally thought that the butterflies were a little too colorful and the elephant was too light. I also wasn't too happy with my buttefly cut outs. It's not what the inspiration was like but no art is ever wrong remember that but if are not happy with it you can always try again. Do not be discouraged you can never fail at art. :)

Art Journaling

I am a avid user of an art journal. An art journal can be anything you want to be. It can be filled with anything you would like. It can be filled with crafts, drawings, pictures from the internet or your life. It can be whatever. For me it is a notebook filled with all those crafts that I want to do but don't know what to do with them when I'm done. It's also a way for me to express myself and use up my creative energy. I started one recently and I don't regret it one bit.
I feel that every crafter or artist should have an art journal. It doesn't have to be fancy. You don't need a 20 dollar sketch book or an expensive, fancy notebook. Crafting is all about talking something old, gross, and cheap and with a little help making it something amazing. I am currently using an old notebook from school that I didn't fill up completely. I ripped out all of my old work and started gluing away.

Title Page

I had a lot of fun doing the cover. It's a printed out map that I "made old" with an used tea bag and some old coffee grinds. I then baked it in the oven at 170 degrees for about 5 minutes. I mod podged it on and added some stamps in the corner. I am quite proud of it even though it is brown which I am not too fond of.

First Page

The first page was basically a result of me being so thrilled to be art journaling and that I was actually being crafty and my excitement of actually owning mod podge. After using an excessive amoutn of mod podge to put down a full sheet of newspaper and then some birds (I actually drew them myself! I have never been able to draw so this was a big accomplishment for me) that I cut out from newspaper and colored with marker and colored pencil. After deciding it was too plain I added some random quotes (I regret this) and sealed it off with a good layer of mod podge.

Second Page

The second page was again a result my excitement of art journaling and mod podge. It's a whole bunch ripped newspaper that I sealed with mod podge (big shock, right?!) and not knowing what to do with it I filled it with a whole bunch of quotes. I really do love quotes but I don't know if this really captures the full essence of crafting and art in its full beauty for me.

The third page is a bit of a disappointment for me. I was hoping to make this...

Source: idemakeriet.blogspot.com via Pintrest              

But I ended up with this...

Third Page

I fell that its "failure" (you can really never fail at any type of art) but its "failure" to turn out like its inspiration has to do with using flimsy newspaper instead of book layers (which I assume they used) and that the shape of the butterflies weren't quite right and they were not all the same size. I also feel that it lacks color. I will try this one again but I have so many other projects....

As for the rest of the pages I have tutorials so you can kind of see how some people (well me) put together their art journals. I always see pictures of people pages and want to know how they put them together so that is what I am planning to do for you guys. And don't worry and I will have crafts and tutorials for things other than art journals. I have some things planned...