Litlle Birdie Mixed Media Journal Review + 2 Journal pages

Hi all,

During Creativation 2018 in January, the one and only product that caught my fancy was Little Birdie Art and Mixed Media Journal. If you have been following my work, you already know how crazy I am about Art Journals, however no good hard bound journals were available until now in India. Hence, when I saw the upcoming release during Creativation, I immediately inboxed Rashmi Harish, owner of Itsy Bitsy & Little Birdie to congratulate her for coming up with the journals. To my absolute delight, Rashmi promised to send me one of the journals when the actual production starts and as soon as the journals were released in June, I had the Mixed Media Journal come my way (another surprise that Rashmi actually remembered to send me a journal after 5 months & I am touched by the gesture). Thanks Rashmi.

Now lets come to these journals. There are 3 journals - Art Journal in 220 & 440 gsm & Mixed Media Journal and they come in 2 sizes: 5.5 by 7.5" and 7.6 by 10.2". You can read all about Art Journal here. I am going to review the Mixed Media Journal which Rashmi very sweetly sent me.

Features of the journal:

• Made in India 
• Contains 92 pages that you could work on
• Has 16 Canvas, corrugated, white burlap, natural burlap and handmade paper each
• Has 12 Kraft cardstock
• Its hardbound & 100% cold pressed 
• Its handmade and archival 
• Very very cost effective (Rs. 999/- or about 15$ when purchasing in India. For price in US and other countries, please hop on to the Little Birdie Website)

I got the journal on Saturday and I already have made 2 journal pages. 

Page 1: 

The 1st page in the journal is a canvas. Being a fan of embroidery, I decided to embroider a rose in the journal & stamp my name. I decided to keep it simple as I wanted to focus on the rose. 

Embroidery on canvas page in Mixed Media Journal By Little Birdie

Steps to create: 

• I stamped the image from Stampendous Fran's Cling Stamp & Stencil Set - Build A Bouquet Set on canvas using Catherine Pooler Die Ink. 
• Once the ink was dry, I embroidered the flowers using Anchor floss (3 strings). 
• For the flower I used normal filling stitch and did leaves using chain stitch. 
• While I was embroidering, the edges started fraying a little and hence, I sealed the stitches using blanket stitch. 
• As it was impossible to use an embroidery hop in the journal, the canvas wrapped a little in the process, however, I absolutely the wrapped look. 
• To finish the page, I stamped my name using the Concord & 9th Script Stamp and Dye inks. 

Close up of rose

Page 2:

For the backside of the canvas, as you can imagine, all the knots and embroidery backing was visible & being the crazy me, I wanted to hide it all so that when I flip the page, I see a beautiful layout & not all the crazy knots. Hence, I created a page separately on a vellum  and adhered it to the backside of the canvas. I like how the blanket stitch is peeping from sides of the vellum.. Gives a very rustic look. 

Steps to create:

• I stamped as image from Clearly Besotted Thanks a Bunch set using Ranger Archival black ink on Brustro Watercolor paper. 
• I coloured the image using Peerless watercolors & fussy cut it. 
• I coloured a 5 by 7" vellum sheet using Ranger Alcohol inks: Lettuce, Butterscotch and silver. 
• Then I adhered the vellum at the back of the canvas using Range Glossy Accent. 
• To finish the page, I adhered the coloured image & printed quote using glue. 

I hope you love these simple, yet fun mixed media art journal pages. If you love Art Journalling and if you want t o challenge yourself to create art journal spreads on various textured backgrounds, Little Birdie Mixed Media Journal is a must buy. I shall be back soon with more pages in this amazing Mixed Media journal. 

I would once again like to thank Rashmi for sending this amazing journal. 

Love, 

Dr. Neha Sanwalka Rungta