Art Journaling

 A manifestation of my goal to FINISH what I start this year! Some of what looks like bubble wrap print is actually modeling paste applied through a stencil - and very rough and bumpy to the touch.  I wasn't particularly happy with my lettering on this one, but had to go with good enough.

This was a quick messy background which I actually liked as a base. But the prompt when I was doing this was to "cover up the good stuff"...

...So I did! This is my "Thrive" vision board - the February prompt for One Little Word. It is lumpy, wrinkly, and heavily layered. After I had all my magazine cuts glued in place, I went back and painted and stamped with texture and used markers to blend... and I'm kind of in love with the glorious mess I ended up with!

This one is my tribute to Artfully Inspired's "passion" prompt. I'd love to take credit for that gorgeous graphic in the center, but it is actually elements from a digital scrapbooking kit that I printed on photo paper. My attempts at drawing a fiery lady from scratch were, well, not so hot (pun intended). And I love the graphic... it goes so well with the quote.

Pursuing My Passions - Art Journaling

This is part one in what will likely be a four(?) part blog series about my passions and how I'm pursuing them this year.  I'm doing this as much to get it all organized and straight in my own mind as to share with you what I've been up to lately and why I've been so absent from blogging. So here goes...

I ADORE Art Journaling and Mixed Media.

In fact, when it comes to tactile arts and getting messy this fills my happy well far more than scrapbooking ever did. It still involves cutting and pasting but it adds painting and collaging and making glorious messes.  Not to worry, scrapbooking is still a huge part of my life, just in a different way.

So, Cheri, what are you doing this year to pursue your Art Journaling? Well, thanks for asking!

I've got two classes on tap this year.

First is the Documented Life Project.  It is a weekly prompt class with limited technique instruction via guest bloggers. It has the advantage of being FREE! Free is a really nice price.

Last year DLP was done in a moleskine weekly planner.  This year they've ditched the planner in favor of the large Dyan Reaveley Creative Journal. The prompts are geared to straight art journaling, not to documenting a week of your life planner style. I have a very small (3.5" x 6") weekly planner that I carry in my purse for keeping track of appointments. I've decided to add some tiny little bits of life (tickets, receipts, stamps, product wrappers, etc.) and maybe some washi tape and doodling to that little book. Just for fun.

The Creative Journal has the advantage of nice thick pages that hold up well to most media. It has the disadvantage of having a LOT of space to fill (a two page spread is roughly 18" wide by 12" high)!  I've been leaving it out on my art table and adding layers every time I have ten or fifteen free minutes.

We are six weeks and six prompts into the DLP year and I've only completed three spreads. Here they are:

Week One - the prompt was "book paper" and the theme was "Be your own goal keeper". Since my goals for the year are so intimately connected to my One Little Word "Thrive" I chose to use that quote for my page.

Week Three prompt "Color Wheel" and the quote provided as the theme. I started with a dark wash of colors (quite by accident because the medium I was using did not do what I thought it would), but then dry whitewashed it all with gesso, very purposefully making sure there were lots of scratchy brush strokes visible. My very loosely interpreted "color wheel" is created with magazine clippings of flowers and color swatches.

Week Two's prompt "Gesso" and theme "Beginning". I started with a coat of gesso, then added Tim Holtz distress stamp pads in a watercolor style blending mode. Spritzes of water create a mottled look. Some stenciling... and then ... I created the roses all around the edges using the bottom of a bunch of celery as a stamp, painted with acrylic paints.

Work got so busy at the end of January, I didn't do the week 4 and 5 prompts. I'm choosing to skip them. I'm working on week 6. While I am striving to keep up with the class, I am not worried about doing a page every single week. If I average 3 spreads a month by the end of the year, I'll be very happy!

My second class is Artfully Inspired Life 2015 with Joanne Sharpe. This class is also set up to create a year long art journal. Lessons are posted once a month to create four weekly pages around a monthly theme. The cost is $59 for the entire year. What is being "taught" is whimsical lettering styles, something I've been wanting to learn.

After viewing the January class material, I chose not to create the actual journal for the class. Joanne has the entire year mapped out with what goes on every page of the journal. Part of January's assignment was to create the table of contents page and number all of the weekly pages. That felt too restrictive for me - I have this terrible habit of wanting to make every project my own! Instead, I'm simply going to incorporate techniques I learn in this class into my DLP journal.  For example, the lettering in the third spread above is my take on the February calligraphy exercise, using calligraphy markers.

So that's how I'll be pursuing my passion for Art Journaling in 2015.  Do you art journal? How do you devote time for it in your busy life?

Documenting The Everyday - Week 32

Flap closed. For this week, I wanted to go with a softer, almost vintage palette. The background color is a cheap acrylic paint - french vanilla. I received a number of items in Happy Mail that were perfect for this week as well.

The challenge for the week was to add a fortune from a fortune cookie. I didn't have one, but did have the little banner (from happy mail) that says "many hands make light work" which sounds very fortune cookie-ish and kind of looks like those little slips of paper.  Jay and I celebrated our 29th anniversary during this week and I journaled a bit about that - blurred it out because it is a bit personal. This was a nice change of pace for me, but I know I can't stay away from the bright colors for long! :)

Documenting The Everyday - Week 31

Here is week 31 with the tip-in closed. I got some happy mail from two gals in the group, so all of the pasted in elements on the right-hand page were created by other women.

With the tip-in flap opened. Again most of the elements (except the bar code tags) were provided in happy mail, but went great in this layout! I'm really happy with the messy background. And the hummingbird card was perfect - been seeing a little hummingbird feeding on the hanging plants on my back deck. Just wish I could get a photo, but the little guy only stays for a few seconds and is gone.

Documenting The Everyday - Week 30

The week 30 challenge was to document Smash Style.

I started with this beautiful textured background:

And then proceeded to almost completely obliterate it with the stuff of everyday life!

No tips-in, pockets, or add-ons this week. Just a simple two page spread.  It felt liberating not have to write something every day, but just to layer on some little piece of my life from that day. Seeing this page done, I think I want to work on lettering and making those little notations more interesting to read. I could also add a bit more texture on top of all of this "stuff"... hmmm....

Documenting The Every Day - Week 29

DLP Challenge - journal your wishes
SOC Challenge - Raspberry, Tangerine & Lemon

First off, I LOVE this citrus inspired color scheme! It was fun to work with.  I used a thank you card that I received from Karen as part of the art work because it went so beautifully with the theme. I had to trim it down just a tad to fit and I added the word "give" to acknowledge that I want to be grateful for all the things I already have before I start wishing for more!

When you open the flap, my "wishes" are revealed:

1) Make a living as an artist.
2) Live near the ocean (right now we are 2 hours from the shore, I'd like to be 10 minutes or so! Maybe even ocean view!)
3) Have a fully functional home office with REAL furniture.

Obviously #3 is shorter term and more easily realized, but someday I hope it is all three!

Documenting The Everyday - Week 28

DLP challenge - add a small photo
SOC challenge - red, royal blue, a pop of light blue

In my overly literal mind, this color scheme would have worked so much better for last week with Independence Day. But I mad it work for me anyway and went with a real collage style presentation. The "normal" photo is clipped from a magazine and just seemed to fit my mood for the week.  You can't tell from the photo, but the numbers are sparkly holographic stickers from a very old set of sticker letters. So glad to have a perfect use for them! This journal is definitely helping with some stash busting!

Documenting The Everyday - week 27

DLP challenge - add a crossword
SOC challenge - pink and apple green

I added my crosswords each day throughout the week, with a word that represented that day. Great use of some old sticker letters that I happen to have about 8 sheets of. Now I will have to get creative if I need anymore e's, t's, n's etc.  The "tip in" for the week is the back side of my full month of July calendar (which I just printed from Outlook).