the first pages in my newest 'working journal'

Whenever I take one of these journal-making classes, I always get the itch to work in that book right away- but, I usually have at least one (or more, lol!) journals already in progress, so either I abandon the one I'm working in for the new one, or I have to wait (till I finish the prior journal). I'm not good at waiting, lol! But, in this case, I am going to. The next journal I'm going to work in is one I made at the end of April 2010, but never worked in (not seriously, anyway) till now. {You can see that post here: Kelly Kilmer Weekend Fun (Bliss Journal)}  I collaged a few pages during the class when I made it, and over the course of this summer (while I was recuperating from my surgeries) I painted some of the backgrounds-- but, now I'm ready to actually work in this journal: to fill the pages with fun stuff like collage, paint, stamping, and words. Here's some pics of the newest work in it:

page made during class

I started by using this journal in one of the classes during my 'Kelly Kilmer Weekend.' It was a class on using lettering in unique ways on your journal pages. I thought I would hate (or at least dislike intensely) the way this particular technique turned out, considering how it looked when I started, but it ended up looking really cool (as Kelly said it would; I should always just trust her, lol)!!

here's a closeup:
the word 'rest' was handmade by me: the paper was
decorated by me, and cut out by hand.  I will 
definitely be doing more of this type of lettering!

This next page is one I started in class when I made the journal- collaging the images and background- but that's as far as I got.

Walk this Way-- the first page.

I went to town on this page with my new set of Sakura Souffle pens! So much so that there was really no room for writing (and nothing I really wanted to say, anyway). Souffle pens are fun because they're really opaque and chalky when they dry, which makes them 'pop' when they're used on dark colors.

a close-up of the pen doodling- I used them to color in 
and accent the patterns in the paper. 

The next page, also collaged (partially) when the book was originally made:

Doodled Fox

This page had the background and image on, but that was it. (and part of that background had been torn off along the center because I didn't like the paper). So, I added more paper, decorative tape, doodling, and stenciled a pattern over the entire thing. This page is an example of 'if you don't like it, keep going.' I'm not sure what I think of the page overall; I like it, but I don't love it, if you know what I mean. I really like the techniques I used, so it was definitely a good exercise and I'll use some of these techniques again, which means it was worth it.

juncture-- 

This page faces the fox page, and has the same stencil-- I used the chevrons (my newest stencil, a 6x6 stencil design by Julie Balzer- I love these designs!!) on the fox page with a pen, and on this page I used it with my Stabilo watercolor crayons for a totally different look. (the background on this page was watercolored previously). The focal image was cut out of an art and antiques magazine, and I added a bit of patterned paper, along with a bit of vintage dictionary paper. (and more souffle pens!)

next post, I'll show what I found on my Black Friday shopping excursion! (yes, I did go out... madness, right?? not exactly.)