Art Journal Prompt #1

The first prompt for the art journal was the word "What".

I had journaled what i felt was holding me back from being artistic. Then i cut the letters for the word WHAT out of cardstock, and adhered them to the page. After painting over the journaling, i removed the cardstock letters to show the writing underneath.

The Art Journal Journey

On my journey to live a life that is more creative I found this website about artjournalling - http://oneyearartjournal.blogspot.com They put out a prompt on the 15th and the 30th of the month, which was great because i'm pretty sure that committing to 24 artistic pages throughout the year was not going to stress me out.

Rather than buying a new sketchbook or journal, i decided to create an altered book for my art journal.

So I went to the used book store downtown a few weeks ago and bought myself a spanky-new-to-me old book (published in 1926).

but, boyhowdy, did I ever feel like a traitor in the bookstore.

The guy saw me looking at old books and he really wanted to make sure that I saw a bunch of rare editions of certain books… if he only knew what I was going to do to that little book “Betty Gordon in Mexican Wilds”…he’d probably cry.

So, what I did was glue about 5 pages together, and then taped the edge to make one thicker ‘page’. Then I ripped out about 5 more pages to make some space for any type of thickness, like glueing etc… after I had all my ‘pages’ made, I used some white gesso and painted them to give them a ‘tooth’ so that if I choose to do any painting or whatever, I can. It’s pretty sweet so far… I took some pictures with my phone - voila.

my little book - about to be altered... drastically.... i will do something to the cover, eventually.



Glooooo!!! i glued about 5 pages together

Next i ripped out about 3 pages in between the glued 'folio's.

With the pages removed there is space for any Thickening of the pages that may occur.

I also added some masking tape to the edges of the 'pages' together for added stability.

We'll see how this goes. i've done a few pages already, which i will post... but i always seem to forget to do anything fun, like layering or collaging... there's still time.

what's happening?

When the big ball dropped on New Year's Eve bringing in the new year, i made only one resolution. I decided i was finished with resolving to exercise, to eat better, to fit into my skinny-jeans.

i resolved to find ways in my life to live more creatively.

So, here we are into march of twenty-ten and i am pleased to say that i've finally found a resolution that i can stick to for more than three weeks.

I started zentangling just before christmas - it's been great.

I have also been knitting - a pair of legwarmers.

and i've also decided to try my hand at art journaling. So i joined a ning group - A year in the life of an art journal, and that's been very fulfilling as well.

I wanted to share some of the stuff i've done... so stay tuned.

Mojo Monday #81

This is my creation using the template on this weeks MojoMonday.

you can see "Mad Men" playing in the background, i used my laptop as a backdrop for this photo

I used scraps from my scrap bin, Navy Cardstock from Michaels, SU Chocolate Chip cardstock to mat the stamps. The Stamp sets were SU "Botanical Blossoms" and "Priceless" and "Simply Said". The brads are jumbo silver brads from the dollar store.

The flower and butterfly were both stamped with versamark and then chalked with the SU pastel chalks. The phrase was stamped with SU Chocolate Chip ink. All three pieces of cream cardstock were smudged on the edges with burgundy chalk.

2 cards - Puns/Simply Said

This card was made with Red Card stock from a fall package, bought at Michael's. The stamp is from SU "Puns from the Past" set, i crumpled the cream and green cardstock pieces before gluing them on to give them a distressed look. The 3 buttons are from a bag of buttons i bought at WalMart, and all the stitching is drawn on with black marker.


This card is made on green cardstock from a Halloween package i bought at Michael's. The Striped paper is from my scrap bin, the rest of the cardstock are scraps as well. This card uses SU "Simply Said" Stamp set, the SU Scallop edge punch, and 2 large pastel brads i bought at the dollar store.

Purple and Grey

Using SU Scallop Edge punch, and SU "Love Matters" retired stamp set.

This card uses 3 different SU sets, Retired "Love Matters" for the Love stamp on the top and the inside phrase: is such a big word it really aught to have more letters, sale-a-bration "Botanical Blossoms" for the stem and "Simply Said" hearts for the flower.

This card used SU "Priceless" stamp set.

I used Grey Cardstock and some purple scraps from my scrap bin, and i really love the colour combination.

A Little Somethin'

Both these cards were made using paper scraps from my scrap bin, Stampin' Up "A Little Somethin'" Stamp set, Stampin' Up scallop Edge punch and SU Real Red ink.

I just learned how to make these scallop frames, so i was testing them out. Make a square 7cm x 7cm and punch out ONE scallop edge on each side.