art journal: vintage ledgers

jenni bowlin saves all her vintage crazy cat lady photos for me.  i'm not quite sure what this says about me, but it says that jenni has a very big heart and it definitely makes me feel loved.

can you believe that i haven't done anything in this vintage ledger art journal since june of 2012.  crazy, right?  i was going through photos from 2012 last night in preparation for calvinball 2015 and those were pretty sparse.  i'm thinking 2012 was the year of the great anemia.  glad i'm taking iron pills now.

i think this is the first time that i have really focused on collage in art journaling.  i think i'm hooked!  i don't know why, but for some reason i was operating under the misconception that art journaling was all about exploring different mediums.  while it definitely can be that, it's so much more as well.  i think i've come to realize that it's more about exploring your creative inner voice and for me that's accomplished more easily with paper, glue, and pen.

haha!  and i think i've mastered the dina wakley technique of writing your heart out and then covering it up with more pretties.  there's not anything profound there, really, but my inner thoughts don't feel quite so exposed when they're not as accessible.  this is all a hot mess of watercolors, distress inks, acrylic paint wash, and sharpies.

pretty clouds always make me happy.  i pencil sketched these, traced them with a black sharpie pen, painted them with acrylic paint, painted around them with watercolors, then traced them once more with the same black sharpie pen.

if you're interested in a vintage ledger of your own, i have a post up on jenni's blog today that lists a few that are currently up for sale.

happy arting!  :)