Art Journal Inspiration by Guest Artist Heather Jacob
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Hi everyone. My name is Heather Jacob and I live in Australia I am so excited and grateful to have been invited to share one of my Art Journals with you. I have journaled most of my life and love to look back and read about my memories, words, and feelings. In 1999 my treasured son Mark, age 22, was killed on his motorbike as you may imagine this left a huge hole in my life. I was absolutely consumed by pain and grief … 3 years along my grief journey I discovered scrapbooking and it has changed my life. 
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To me this craft is the perfect combination of art,
photography, beautiful paper,
and glorious words.
I especially love to choose some elements,
cast a spell,
and see what happens, to create a dream and follow it through.
Subtle shadows,
light and color are all ingredients for casting the spell.
I am inspired by colour and texture … which I weave
into my works
I love to include stitching, chipboard, journaling,
muslin,
fabrics, metal elements, inking, masking, and texture past…
Getting messy brings out the kid in me
Mark is always in my heart and Art Journaling
is a wonderful and powerful way of keeping his memory alive.
I made a promise to myself to honour his memory
by living my life to the best of my ability.
For this particular journal, I chose the 4 colours of the chakras
Orange, Yellow, Blue, and Brown
Why may you ask?
Orange
is the color of emotion, passion, pleasure, and health.
Yellow
is the color of self-esteem, self-worth, confidence, and personal power.
Blue
is the color of self expression, nervous system, communication, will power, and creativity.
Brown
is the color of transformation … being grounded and in touch with nature.
releasing the old/detachment and beginning the transformation into a new state of awareness.
My Cover: Memories Documented
I have created lots of layering and texture.
The layers represent my grief and pain.
The metal, spark plugs, and cogs– Mark’s motor bike
the numbers represent the years of my journey
The Graphic 45 pen-nibs are for my journaling.
Materials used:
Art book / We R Memory Keepers
Dusty Attic chipboard
Tim Holtz Golden Texture Paste
Distress inks and sprays
Metal Name Plate
Tissue Tape
Stencils
Graphic 45 nibs / Metal Plate
Prima Marketing patterned paper
Kraft paper
“Write to yourself”
Make the next book you buy an empty one
fill its pages with the thoughts, feelings, and stories from your life
written words can capture a feeling forever.
record JOY and a decade later you can read it over and feel
THE HAPPINESS
you felt on that particular day.
“Record despair and one sad day you can read it once again
and know that you can RECOVER just like you did before.”
Being a student of your own history you can design a better future
capture in words your life’s journey
before TIME steals away it’s lessons.
I love to use the ring bound journals.
they are very sturdy
and also make it very easy to change and rearrange my pages and pockets.
Lots of pockets with tags, holding memorabilia and journaling.
A shot of some of my pages in this journal.
Tutorial
A step-by-step to create one of my tags found in this journal.
- Gather the ingredients for the Tag:
- Graphic 45 blck tag
- Distress crackle paint
- Distress rusty hing spray/tissue tape
- Versa color turquoise ink
- Stencil
- Golden moulding Paste
- Pallet knife
- A quote and paper
- Adhere paper, quote, and washi tape to tag.
- Optional: Machine stitch the tag for added detail
- Add texture paste through a stencil
- Add inked embellishment
- Coat with crackle paint
- Complete the tag with more distress ink to create richness and depth.
- Add more crackle paint and string.
Thanks so much for looking at my work
I hope I have inspired you to have a play with an art journal
they can be on any subject / theme you choose.
happy scrapping and
warm hugz to each of you xoxo
~Heather Jacob
Heather Jacob has been published in Somerset Memories and Somerset Studio. To see more of her amazing work, please visit heatherartandlife.blogspot.com.
What has art helped you overcome? Leave a comment below.
Posted: Friday, July 31st, 2015 @ 9:30 am
Categories: How-To Project Tutorials, Mixed-Media Art.
Tags: art journal, Guest Artist, Heather Jacob, Inspiration, Mixed Media, mixed-media journal projects, project, Projects, scrapbooking.
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This is really spectacular. Thanks for sharing!
What a lot of fabulous inspiration. Love your color choices. Love the rusty grungy look.
Thank you also for the tutorial.
Hugs from Monica… Spain
This project is GORGEOUS! I love it all! What a wonderful tribute to the life of your son!
Not only is your artwork beautiful, so is your writing. My family has also experienced a tragic loss like yours. I love to journal, and now I will encourage other members of my family to do the same to help them with their grief. Thank you!
After working for many years as a social worker, I found myself unable to work due to my mental health….I found art. It has saved my life….
I, too, am coping with despair and loss of a cherished loved one. Your beautiful Art Journal has given me hope and inspiration to begin a new set of coping skills. I want to survive this tragedy and be able to go on someday. Thank you for sharing your beautiful and courageous work
Heather- I can only offer my condolences for your loss – words can not… I am glad that you found this craft and have an outlet for some of your emotion. Your emotions come through like no other designer I know…. the colors – the words -elements – etc – they all come through with such purpose in all your works but glad to know a bit behind what your thoughts are – thanks for sharing!
thanks so much beautiful Janene … you have a beautiful soul … hugz x
What a beautiful and inspiring journal, and how appropriate the colors of the chakras shine through so elegantly to help to heal your heart. It is striking, Heather!
Thank you for sharing this! I’ve been wanting to create one of these for awhile now but didn’t know where to start.
Art has also helped me overcome feelings of frustration, sadness, stress and overall feeling lost in my life. I like to take a walk through open spaces and sit somewhere I find a connection to at the moment and just draw. It really helps me calm down and feel at peace. I also like to create most my gifts instead of buying them because I feel as if there is so much more emotion and gratitude in something I make from scratch, especially when I want to brighten up someone’s day.
Heather,
Your journal is absolutely gorgeous. What a wonderful way to preserve the memories and the emotions that you have felt for your Son.
Your quote is perfect. You don’t know until you have to be!
I am so glad you found a way. Art helped me through both a car accident and cancer. Art is amazing and so are women!
Thank you for sharing.
Heather, You have found a wonderful, creative way to deal with your grief. I love your quote about not knowing how strong you are until. . . I too, lost a son (9 yrs ago) when he was 28, leaving a 2 yr old son. It was unexpected, just like your loss. My strength through this was God wrapping me in His arms and giving me the strength to do what I had to do. My heart goes out to you. Thanks for sharing your journal. It’s wonderful!!
Thank you for sharing something so amazing and precious. I lost my daughter 18 years ago. Just before her fifth birthday. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about two years later. Art has been a Godsend for me. The only time I am pain free is when I am creating. I go into my own little world and everything else goes away. It is a blessing that I could not do without. Your work is breathtaking.
Heather, I have been your big fan since 1st seeing your work in 2014 issues of Somerset Memories & Studio. Thank you for really showing the actual journal your pages are in. It’s good to know how to house deep layers & embellishments but keep them heritage worthy & safe, too. The We R Memory Keepers is a stunner. Your warm generosity in sharing sources & techniques is a real testament to your son. Thank you so much!
swell! will do this also!
This is fabulous, I adore this work.
And the story is close to mine, so sharing the feelings too… Thank you so much Heather for sharing, and you Stampington for this for this great post on the blog.