Art Journal Journey

I'm home from 'vacation' and will start posting the cards I've made in batches of 5-at-a-time. I'm not following prompts at all. Initially they looked interesting, but I soon decided to 'do my own thing' this year. I found a discarded school poetry book which gave me a wealth of material to work with. The first 10 cards are based on these poems and on poets whose works I like. Some poems have a significance beyond that for me personally.

The Index Card a Day Challenge starts today. I look forward to another couple months of 'small size' work! Now I'm going to be here, there and everywhere for most of June, so I'll take some goodies with me, and check in when I can. Most likely by July. Go ahead and get playing!

A few years ago I was watching the movie  'La Vie En Rose' , the story of Edith Piaff. It struck me that at the end of her life she felt she had 'No Regrets'  (the video is from a live performance by the 'Little Sparrow'). I found that remarkable...this page was my response. I found the beautiful fabric off cuts in a quilt room ;-) Super simple page....but it does remind me of my thoughts etc. That is what I like so much about art journalling. It is a little like a decorated visual diary. Only better.

At the moment I'm following along with making a set of index cards of techniques. I found this over at YouTube. Cat Hand is doing this series and I will be adding some other techniques into the mix as well. I intend to have these just loose inside a box with the description of the technique on the back. I always enjoy trying something new and am having great fun with these so far. Plastic wrap in wet paint. Red paint down, leave to dry. layer of yellow paint, apply the plastic while still wet, scrunch to make texture. Leave to dry. Rubbing alcohol on wet paint. Orange paint on card. leave to dry. Add watery yellow paint and immediately drop alcohol into the wet paint. I did more of this on some journal pages and really like how it turned out. This example really doesn't do the technique justice in the least! Glue resist - white card, glue and blue craft paint. The glue lines need to be thick enough to work, but not too hick and close together or they run...

Ever had one of these? It is amazing how good it can be to just sit down, take a deep breath and scribble all the frustration etc out with pretty colours on a page in a simple composition book...

Having just started a new painting, I'm reminded how true this is, regardless of who may have said it... The page n the left is a napkin. I only had one of them though, so I added a mirror of the colours with paint on the right hand page. Some spray splatters tied it all together. The stamp set is by Recollections that I bought from Michaels. No problem cutting out all the letters. The background was so quick to do that this was completed in very little time!

Just because the blog is quiet, doesn't mean nothing is happening in real life. Although it is always nice to see or hear what is happening, right? So what have I been doing? Well as soon as I get the pictures processed I'll update you with what is currently happening on my table, but in the meantime, here are some pages I've done in the last little while : These are all pages from a study on the Book of Job. I stumbled across the study on Facebook and have enjoyed it so far. It lasted all of 2015, and I joined late and fell even further behind, BUT I think it is about the journey, not just finishing. I like to finish, but not at the cost of the journey. I'm using an old Dairy Diary for this. It has a sturdy hard cover, is spiral bound and a good size. Most of the papers are the 'waste catchers' from my desk, but sometimes I'm intentional with how I mess those up, I do confess. The first page deals with the names of God used here as well as the n...