art journal

behold. my art journal. i'm kinda excited about it. i yearningly watched julie's art journal every day posts all year long in 2011. i even attempted to start one of my own back in february. it didn't take. i felt like i was making a mini-album. you know i really like mini-albums. but a mini-album is not an art journal. i lost interest after a week. i pushed through for another week. then i quit in a huff. depression. bah.

i discovered karen's blog sometime after that. i loved watching her foray's into art journaling. and sketching. i've watched the project life excitement escalating this fall. i had absolutely no interest in that until i read lisa's post about her approach. hmmm. maybe. maybe no. but it got me wanting to record more moments in time. then i found this old ledger at vintagefest. i held it for almost an hour. debating. would i really use it. i wanted to. i finally couldn't say no. it called to me. "take me hoooooooooooome," it said.

not wanting to waste a big ticket investment i was determined to get to work on it immediately. ali's one little word concept seemed like a good idea for the cover. i shall be focusing on joy this year. at least until i find i need to focus on something else. i really like shimelle's thoughts on that . . . "And although the specific project is a word for the year, don't forget that life isn't really ruled by a calendar. I think it's okay to roll with the punches and change things when they need to change. I often focus on a guiding principle for a season or two and then move on when the energy to work on another part of life seems to be calling me. "

my old ki memories felt letters jumped onto the page. i merrily sewed them down. i really thought i should add more. but then i told myself. nope. joy. that is all.

and here we begin my art journaling journey anew. i'm still not sure what i'm doing or where i'm going. but i think that is the point (or one of the many points) of an art journal. i've started a pinboard of art journaling ideas. with that i've noticed that i like light airy pages. i don't lean toward collage or heavily colored backgrounds. i like sketching. i want to dabble in watercolors i think. eventually. right now i'm just working with what i have. the bank account's on a post christmas diet. aren't we all?

the rest of this post will be a play by play of each section. you may want to stop reading now if you're not interested in that sort of thing. but for those of you who like me often wonder, "how did she do that?" well. here it is . . .

here i was trying to replicate jenni's stamping on this layout. i used stick candy paint first with the cabbage flower foam stamp. then malted milk with the same stamp. it didn't come out like jenni's. when i showed jenni this page she told me what you need to do is use the malted milk paint and foam stamp first and then use the cabbage flower clear stamp with stick candy ink. aha!

the background stencil is from crafter's workshop. now i know i need to do stencils a little darker if i'm going to be writing over them. the title is hand done. i painted it in with seed packet and then a little translucent glitter sprinkle. the white bits are gessoed. i didn't like the writing in there so i covered it up. the flowers are cut from very old heidi swapp paper. i also gessoed them to make them a little softer. the words on the side are just printed on copy paper, inked with malted milk, then trimmed out and stuck on.

i drew a pair of my old college dancing shoes. the background is painted with gesso. then with a little soap powder ink mixed with water (top) and spice tin ink mixed with water (bottom). the shoes are painted with studio calico barnwood ink mixed with water. i also brushed a little of this over the blues to dirty them.

here's my first full spread. nothing daily here. i deliberately started on a thursday. and while i'm dating each section with tiny numbers, i'm not making a big deal out of the date. daily makes me manic. not a good thing.

i am liking blocking sections quite a bit. and putting washi tape down the seam seems to be my thing. also, it is surprisingly easy to find spots to sew on the pages even though they're stuck in the book. oh! and another thing. since these are thin ledger pages, i am skipping a page each time so i don't have to worry about bleed throughs or working around sewing from the previous page. i will then attach the two subsequent finished pages for continuous visual appeal. :)

i tried to draw a real feather. it was very difficult to draw a real feather. at least the one i chose. it was very much curved and fluffy in places. i used a regular pencil. then some soap powder ink with water. then went back in with a .01 precision pen. the stencil is a jbs mercantile kit exclusive (those will go on individual sale mid-month). i think the ink is chicken feed with the stencil and then some lemon drops without stencil. i used a .05 precision pen for the quote and colored in the loops with some of g's colored pencils.

the quote says, "plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it." - william feather

i really worked hard on this feather and liked it a lot. i sketched it from an image off my feather pinboard. same process as the previous feather. the alpha stamps are from american crafts. sorry the name of the font eludes me at the moment. i used cough syrup ink. the misty mess is maya road hydrangea and studio calico piglet.

the crafter's workshop stamp again, this time repeated four times. .05 precision pen for the title. all journaling is .01 precision. the pen you choose is VERY important for journaling. try out a bunch and find out what your hand likes. stencil is outlined with the .o1 in the title area. several of g's colored pencils reappear again. the interior letter spots are colored with a sharpie.

in love with my bee drawing. she is the cutest. i almost said he, but you know bees are all sisters. i got her off my bee pinboard. also in love with the tiny october afternoon alpha stamps. can you believe i've had those for a couple years now and hadn't used them? and oops! can't remember the name of these either. but they will be in my art journaling kit for sure. the bee is all pencil and colored pencil. the stamping is in fountain pen. jbs exclusive stencil again with lemon drops.

that's it! hope to have a second installment of ye olde art journal next week!