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The next page, also collaged (partially) when the book was originally made: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

art and stuff...

a few of the latest art journal pages I've been playing around with... 

a fold-out page: the collaged image is from a gardening magazine. (the cigar band on the pot is covering up some advertising, or something). Loose lines added with black permanent marker.

The entire page, unfolded. This will (probably) be the base layers for more collage work: yummy bubblegum pink and lemon zest spray inks sprayed thru my new Dylusions stencil, a piece of collaged striped scrapbook paper (which actually covers up a rip in the paper), blue washi tape on the fold, and some scribbles with a red wax pencil. Not sure what's next with this page...

Here's the 'stuff' part of the post: the first personalized license plates I've ever gotten! Also the first specialty license plate I've ever had!  (fyi, It reads live 4 art, or love 4 art, whichever you want.) I usually think specialty plates are kind of a waste of $$, but I really like the design of the AZ centennial plate.

Journal page close-up: this page is basically just collaged paper, with some colored details. Not sure if there will be more added to this one, or not. My pages lately have been mostly just art, with very little writing; I'm okay with that- since there's no right or wrong way to journal, whatever I feel like doing at the moment is 'right' for me.

A view of the entire page: the cats are from a vintage book (from a collage pack I bought from Kelly Kilmer ages ago, I think); the black and white bits are from a journal page photocopy, and the other pieces are SB paper, magazine, vintage map, etc.

This page will definitely get more added to it, but I like taking photos of my pages in process. so I can see the progression. Over the weekend I broke out some acrylic paints and stamps, and went back out onto the patio. (it wasn't as windy as last time, thankfully!) I used fluorescent pink and orange paint on this page, along with some paint 'scraped on' using the edge of an expired gift card. (the scraping allows what's beneath- the faint scribbled circles- to show through. 

More of the fluorescent pink paint, along with some other colors, on a vintage book or magazine (National Geographic?) page. I like the pops of black I used on these pages; I'll definitely be doing more of that.

more paper and ink-- and some other stuff

Friday after work, I got out the inks and stencils again. I didn't take any pictures of the process, which I should have-- I was sitting out on the grass, with my papers and inks scattered all around, holding the paper down when the wind blew... I'm sure it was quite comical to watch, although Tom didn't say so (thank goodness).

I got some pretty interesting patterns and colors to use for my scrapbooking and art journaling-- some were 'real' stencils purchased from the art store, but some patterns were made with more unusual things- one of the pieces in the upper left photo has a blue shape that reminds me of a chess or game piece, which was actually packaging from a plumbing fixture, I think (I saved it months ago, so I don't remember exactly where it came from). The upper right photo has a pattern on that's actually from 'sequin waste' which is leftover from when they manufacture sequins. And the lower right photo is my collection of inks-- I have 10 so far, but there's enough space in that container for a couple more, I think!! lol!

a random photo, taken in the side window of my car-- I'm trying to decide between finishing growing out my bangs, or getting them cut again, so they're out of my eyes. --so far, I haven't made a decision.

another journal page that uses some random different things; a magazine image (the greenhouse image), some painted papers, and photocopies of some of my journal pages, both in color and in black&white. (those pieces of paper covered up some writing underneath that I didn't really like the look of-- if you don't like it, cover it up!!) The bottom border is decorative tape (3 different kinds, layered on top of each other).

and, to finish it off, another random shot-- I had these old bath towels out for something (can't remember what) and put them here till I could carry them upstairs. Turns out, Butters thought they looked quite comfy! 

back to playing with paper, ink, and glue--

you've probably noticed that I haven't done any art-making for a while, haven't you? I get plenty of inspiration on the web for scrapbook layouts and art techniques, but just haven't felt like actually executing any of them lately. This makes me feel 'out of sorts' and even less inclined to do any art-- it's a vicious cycle that's difficult to break out of. It seems to go in cycles for me, between scrapbooking, art journaling, and regular life (laundry, hanging out with Tom, cooking dinner, dogs and cats, working, you know- the usual life stuff) along with other things. Lately it's been the other things that have taken over- I've been doing a lot of reading (I've read some pretty good books and I still have a stack of 'to-be-read' books sitting on the kitchen table), which is good, since I love reading. Scrapbooking seems to take too much preparation and planning, so that's out till my next weekend getaway (in a couple weeks- yay!!) but I've finally gotten to the point where I just had to do something with paper and glue-- 

Last weekend, I went to the Creating Keepsakes Convention vendor fair-- I picked up a couple new products that I'd been wanting to try (along with some yummy new scrapbooking paper I'll show you soon), and this pile of papers is my first results. One of the more popular things out there right now is spray inks, which you can use by themselves on your scrapbook or journal pages, or use with masks or stencils. I got 6 colors of ink, and a new stencil: The photo above is some of my inky experiments, on brown paper, vintage writing paper (you know, the thin brown paper with lines, that little kids use when they're learning to write?) and a scalloped piece of textured scrapbook paper.

This was made with the new stencil (it's of an antique ledger page) and some of my new inks- the brown, sunshine yellow (it looks a bit orange here) and green are new Dylusions Ink Sprays. Very vibrant, saturated translucent colors, and they're going to be fun to play with once I get the hang of them. I've oversprayed the ledger page background with another stencil- the thin branches. (by the way, this was all done on the brown paper bag the stencil and inks came in, from the store- how's that for recycling?? lol!!) The blue is a different ink I already had (October Afternoon Sprinklers) and gives more of an opaque coverage.

And here ^^^ is the first art journal page I've made in months. I used a bit of one of the stenciled and inked papers (it's in the upper right-hand corner-- it's got pink, green, and the sunshine-yellow inks on it), and a few things pulled from here and there in my collage stash. The background is heavy watercolor paper, which I colored with my Stabilo 3 in 1 Woody pencils. (they're chunky colored pencil-slash-watercolor-slash-wax crayons, and they're a ton of fun to use!). I also used a couple of my newest decorative tape purchases from Target (the blue stripe and the light pink polka dot). 

Here's a close-up of the text; a Georgia O'Keefe quote which reads: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way- things I had no words for." I thought it was fitting, since I had been without my 'art-making' words for a few months, now-- it feels really good to get back into it again!

Here's an extreme close-up: I also drew in details with some of my Signo gel pens (sparkle, glaze, and my favorite, the white pen- the one from Japan-- it's the best!). 

And, because it is still spring in the desert (even if it DID break a heat record from 1949 yesterday with a temperature of 105F recorded at Sky Harbor Airport- yick!!), I thought I'd close with a couple spring-ish photos. These photos are of our backyard mesquite tree in full bloom. Not your typical-looking flower, are they?? Actually, each of these fuzzy catkins is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers. 

They are a somewhat messy tree, actually, between the teeny oval leaves (they fall off in the winter and are impossible to rake, being that they're only about 1/8 inch long) and the beanpods that form after the blooms are pollinated, but I do love the shape of the tree, and the shade it gives the backyard! So now, I think that brings me up to date with what's blooming and growing in our yard-- I'll have to keep my eyes out for the next thing!  (after I make a few more art journal pages, that is- lol!!)