Something Better :)

Today I set out to do some journaling, but it turned in to something better.... WAY BETTER!  My wonderful husband fashioned me some nice wood blocks for painting out of some scrap lumber and it inspired me to do something a little different and I am tickled pink it did.

I started the day with the oil pastel landscape (last photo).  I had watched a nice video by Julie Balzer and thought I would give the technique a try.  I used colored pastels to lay down a nice and thick background.  (If you try this it is a WORK OUT especially if you own cheap pastels like me :) ) I drew a yellow circle for the sun and went from there with other colors.  Then I laid down some green for grass.  After laying down this extremely thick background I was tired and wore out, but driven to see if this technique would work.  So over top of my pretty colors I laid down an extremely thick coat of black oil pastel.  I completely covered the board.

Next, I laid down some stencils made with my cricut and the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge.  Then I began scratching off the black layer using a bamboo kabob skewer.  I scratch off all black except what was under my stencils.  And there you have it... easy peezy.  However, my shoulder is hating me right now.

At first I didn't like this piece, but the more I look at it the more I like it.  Point is.. sometimes we all create stuff we don't like.  That is part of being an artist.

After working on the pastel peice, I worked on the mixed media piece (top photo) and it is my top favorite thing I have ever made.  I can't go in detail about how it was made because it all just kind of fell together.  I got into a zone and with a few constructive feedbacks from the hubs just went with my gut instinct.  However, I will tell you what all was used in the process.  I used some old scrapbook paper, glue, acrylic paint, gesso, stencils made with circut, pigma micron, stardust gelly rolls, old champagne flute, and tons of glitter paint.  The photo above really does not do this piece justice.  The actual thing has glitter everywhere accenting the trees, leaves, hummingbird, and background.

Since this is, in mine and my husband's eyes, the best thing I have ever created I would really like some feedback from you.  Do you love it??? Do you hate it??? Do you want to know more details on techniques used to create it?  Just shoot me a comment and I will get back to you asap... Hope you have had a Happy Hump Day... mine sure turned out to be something better than I thought it would.

Anger Management using my Art Journal :)

Until now, I haven't written anything truly personal in my journal and thanks to being thoroughly pissed off at someone.... I went for it.  It was exhilarating and therapeutic nonetheless!  So here goes....  I started this page with a watercolor background.  I misted my pages well and just started spreading reds, blues, oranges, and purples.  I left a few white spots as well.  I knew I would cover this up so I wasn't particular in my painting.  I let my pages dry for a bit and hit them with the hair dryer to finish it off.

Once my pages were pretty dry I grabbed some bright acrylics (blue, red, and purple).  I mixed a little water into each color to dilute the paint a bit.  I did this so that some of the watercolor underneath would show through.  I very haphazardly added some blocks of acrylic color over my watercolor.  I did not cover the entire thing.... I just mindlessly added blocks of color, moving back and forth between each as I went.  Then I hit it with the dryer to speed up the drying process.  After it was dry enough I doodled around the bottom edge of both pages using a micron and a silver metallic gelly roll.

Next, I dove into my piles of scrapbook paper looking for patterns and colors that went with the paints on my pages.  I tore strips of paper and framed my pages with it, using my adhesive runner to adhere them to my pages.  I did not plan any of this... I just tore and laid it on my page to see where I wanted it to go.  I also cut some circles from scrap paper I had laying around and cut flowers from a pattern.  I used a Micron pen to doodle within the existing flower.  I felt it made it pop more.

Then I saw my Twilight Eclipse book on the table, tore out the Robert Frost poem, and burned the edges for an embellishment.  Warning the paper burns easily.... have a cup of water ready just in case of an accident!  I noticed in the table of contents that there was a chapter named Temper.  I should have remembered this since I have read each book of the series 4 times... YES- I am a Twilight fan :) and proud of it!  This gave me the theme for my page.... Anger.  It made all the sense in the world especially after becoming extremely peeved at someone the last couple of days.  So I decided to tear that page out as well.  I mixed up a little Gesso and water to make it more translucent and covered the page in that.  I set it to the side and let it dry.

While the page from the book dried, I drew a small doodle on the purple heading strip (right page at top) using a micron and moonlight gelly rolls.  Then I took my micron and wrote a message at the top.  The thin black ink did not stand out enough for me so I put a little gesso over it.  I hit it with gesso and used the dryer on it.  Then I used a Sharpie Fine Tip marker to re-write my message.

I then worked a bit at placing all of my book pages, text boxes, flowers, etc on my page.  I finally decided on a layout I liked and I glued everything down using my adhesive runner.  I took a step back and looked at what I had and decided what needed a little "umph" to pop more.  So I took a micron and went over the word Temper on the book page and wrote it twice underneath using different forms of my handwriting.  I used a bracket template (made with my cricut, poster board, and Wild Card cartridge) to outline my temper words.  I traced the template with a pen and then colored it in with black oil pastel.

Next I wrote: * Count to 10 and breathe and added some scrap zebra ribbon underneath.  Then I journaled a message on the text box I had previously made.  It reads:  I'm going to have to learn to control my anger..."  In the box on the right hand page I wrote: "Instead of letting my anger control me." Then I doodled the word breathe using lettering from Joann Fink's book Zenspirations.  It is an excellent book and I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys doodling, patterning, and lettering.  Finally I used a white gelly roll pen to decorate blue (painter's) masking tape.

I hope you enjoy these pages as much as I did making them.  I will definitely be writing more and adding more personal messages on my pages... the reward was great.  I am way less pissed now :) .