Trust

This week's word is Trust, and the challenge- to alter a photograph. There are probably a ton of ways to alter a photograph, but I was looking to keep the image fairly intact, so I used a sanding block to wipe out the outside of the image, and to scratch the focal point of the picture. I tried doing some other things to the photograph, like spraying with walnut ink, which was pretty much a fail! I even tried just moistening the photo with water, looking to age it in a way, which was also a fail! So I stuck with my original idea of just the sanding. I am thinking it was the inkjet photo paper I was using, because the ink was not very set, but after the third time, I just wasn't willing to keep printing and throwing the images away. lol. I like the vintage, rustic look that they are, so I decided to just leave them as they were.

Compassion

The new word for this week is Compassion and the challenge is to use stitching in your art journal page somewhere.
I started by painting a rose with my Pan Pastels, then I stitched around my painting with some lovely soft blue fibers. Next I tore some handmade paper scraps and adhered them to my journal page in a random fashion, to make a background.
Then I glued my rose painting on three sides leaving the top open as a pocket, and decorated a tag with distress ink and gesso. I then journaled on the tag and tucked it in the pocket I made with my rose painting.
It was a fun page to put together, and I had fun getting out my Pan Pastels again. They are so soft and smooth, and great to work with.

 Close-up of the rose.

 Close-up of the tag/pocket.

I totally want to win!

Chrysti Hydeck is having some great give-aways on her site in honor of the new release of Pam Carriker's book Art at the Speed of Life.
Check out Chrysti's give-aways here:
http://chrysti.squarespace.com/always-chrysti/ 

Courage

This weeks word is Courage, and the challenge was to use an image transfer in your art somewhere. After many tries, I am thinking I should have gone with a smaller transfer, and not try to do my main image for the transfer.  As you can see there is some tears in my image, but it was the best I could do, and there are some things I have learned from my experience. One is to burnish, burnish, burnish, and also to make sure the gel medium is totally dry before you start to peel the image away, and lastly I will not work on watercolor paper, but a smoother paper that doesn't absorb as much moisture and tend to peel away as you rub.  I suppose it is all OK, since the page is just for me in my art journal. A great place for all these experiments. I guess I am being courageous by sharing my page. :)

Hope

Word and challenge number 2 has been posted, and the word is HOPE, the challenge is to use some kind of a stencil in your work.
I quite enjoyed getting out my stencils and making lovely flourishes with gesso and then again with spray inks. The gesso is a subtle textural element where the spray ink almost looks like a stamped image on top of the words.

 This image shows some of my journaling that wraps around my blue bird.

 

A close up of the bird and the magazine clippings I used as a banner.

 A close up of the word HOPE and the subtle gesso texture behind it.

Love

I am participating in the Paper Traders Art Journaling Challenge. I am working in a handmade art journal done using Teesha Moore's 16 page watercolor journal instructions. Basically we will be receiving a word prompt and a challenge to incorporate into an art journal page, every two weeks. I finished my page today.  It was a ton of fun putting it all together. I am finding it difficult to photograph these pages, so you will see a couple of close-ups of certain details.

 

This is my page with the flap closed.

  

This is a close-up of the flap with the flowered lace edging.

 

This is the page with the flap open.

 

Close-up of the key and key hole assemblage.

  

Close-up of my journaling. It is difficult to read because it is done in lavendar metallic gel pen.

AJJ Day 24

Round and Round was the prompt, so I made art with lots of circles.

AJJ Day 23

 Today we were to make paper poems, by cutting out words or phrases found in magazines or other published works. This is what I came up with. Kind of funny how it turned out.

AJJ Day 22

Today's prompt was 'A day in the life of me'. It was hard for me to decide what to do, as I don't have a very interesting life. Most days are spend doing menial household chores or running errands, not much to journal about anyway.  So I decided it was best to just journal the real stuff. Lately I have been just trying to get my energy back from having had walking pneumonia, so my recliner and blanket have been my best friend, along with my favorite drink, a Coke Icee.

AJJ Day 21

 

Today the prompt was Bluebells.  I do enjoy a pretty flower.  I sure am missing Spring with all the snow falling outside, but hopefully soon we will see a few blooms popping up here and there.

AJJ Day 20

Today we were to journal our Front Doors. My front door is not very exciting, but it leads into my warm and comfortable home, for that I am grateful. 

AJJ Day 19

   

 

Today the prompt was Toy Talisman. I struggled a bit with this one, as I don't have any special toys sitting around to look at, so I went from memory with a teddy bear.  It is made from torn suede paper.

AJJ Day 18

 

Today is Lettering journaling. We were to use journaling as a main element for our journal page. I didn't get really into it, but the message was good.

AJJ Day 17

 

Today was plump pears. I made my pear out of torn patterned paper and a gesso wash mixed with aquacolor crayons. It turned out pretty good I think.

AJJ Day 16

Today was fun play.  We were to journal using our favorite number.  That is always cool for me because I have an unusual favorite number- 13! I know most people shy away from the number 13, but I have always liked it, and better yet my birthday is the 13th of March, so occasionally my special day lands on a Friday, and it is even better! No when it comes to 13- I am not superstitious.

AJJ Day 15

I really enjoyed today's prompt- women stories.  It was a lot of fun to try to tell a story through my art.  I guess technically that is what I am always trying to do, but for some reason it really resonated with me today.  These women tell the story of their love of life.

AJJ Day 14

Today's prompt was mirror, mirror.  Though this is not a true reflection of myself, it is meant to reflect the emotion I have.

AJJ Day 13

Today we are taking lines for a walk.  Basically I put some watercolors down on my journal page, and then tried to see if I could find any kind of image in my painting.  Here is what I came up with.  I am calling it my Alice in Wonderland page, because it is so full of nonsense, that no one could be absolutely sure what it is, even me.

AJJ Day 12

Daily Debris- what a great concept. I simply used what was laying around on my work surface, and a little pencil sketch to show how I have been feeling- spacey and blah. lol

AJJ Day 11

Don't forget to join us in some fun art journaling!
Click the link below and see what we are up to.

Today we played with crosswords! Look what I did:

AJJ Day 10

Join us for some fun art jounaling! Click the link below and see all the great videos and prompts!!!

Today we painted stripey dragonflies.
Here is what I did:

AJJ Day 9

Today we were to play with layering lines. So I started with a few different sheets of striped scrapbook papers, and layered them across the page. Then I layered some striped and flourished ribbons, and then lots of doodling to make it my own.
It was fun to just keep layering stripes, stripes and more stripes.

AJJ Day 8

Today we were to do Vertical journaling. What a creative idea. I journaled about my hopes for the start of the new year, and how things don't always go as planned.
I loved using my distress inks to blend and make patterns. I haven't used my distress inks in awhile, and found out how much I missed playing with them, as I worked in my journal today.

AJJ Day 7

Today we were to make some kind of window, and still keep with our stripes theme. Both my girls think that Kota looks like he is in jail, but I think he just looks like he wants some lovin's. It was fun to make stripey flower stems. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

AJJ Day 6

Oh I am excited about today's prompt. To draw a millipede. I loved using the feet images that Milliande took and cut them out. So creative.
My millipede is inching her way into the new year. Since that is about as fast as I am going these days.
I am feeling quite a bit better today, as I have finally gotten rid of the fever, and my cough is so much better, now I just need to get rid of the stuffy nose, and hope that the lingering tickle in my throat will soon go away. I can't believe how run down I feel. I need more energy for art journaling!

Here is my picture of Millipede Me, again I am sorry for the lousy picture. I am not sure why they are all so washed out, but I will try to take some better pictures and reupload them soon.

AJJ Day 5

Today we were to do a hand painting of a zebra. Again I used Milliande's template of a zebra, because I could size it down to fit the page. Where tracing my hand would have been way too big. I added it to my potato stamped border/background from day 3, so it is full of lots of stripes.

Sorry this photo too is so washed out. I guess my lighting was really bad, there is quite a bit of color in this, it is just hard to tell.

AJJ Day 4

I managed to print out the template Milliande has provided us, and added some zebra stripes and some subtle colored pencils, and a watercolored background.

I did add it to my background/border from yesterday though, so I am making it work together.

Sorry the photo is so washed out. I guess my lighting was really bad, there is quite a bit of color in this, it is just hard to tell.

AJJ Day 3

Well, I am still sick, yet I think I am going to live. Boy has this lingered on long enough, I am so sick of being sick. UGH

I only had enough energy to do some potato stamp carving and printing, so hopefully I will be able to do something more with these pages as I progress in my art journal. So, for today it is just a border of stripey goodness.

AJJ Day 2

I am still not feeling my best, so I did most of this while resting. It isn't as hard as I thought it would be to zentangle while laying down. I then just had to put it all together. Here is what I did.