Art Journaling Experiments :)

Well, I have been doing lots of scrapbook pages (none shown here today though)- but what I really wanted to post was my art journal pages. I took up Art Journaling this year as my "new" craft- which is really just an extension of my scrapbooking and creative desires- only now I find out that it has a name :)

I've done a couple of different kinds of pages since then- mostly just to see what my "style" is- I don't think I've found it yet- but I'll keep looking!

Here is one I tried- cutting out cool pictures, outlining them with paint marker (my new favorite crafting tool), and adding glitter! I started this page with a couple different colors of acrylic paint- then made the clouds with more paint- before the paint dried, I added 2 different colors of glitter (everything is better with glitter). Then I added the cut out picture, the words, stamps, and rhinestones. For a very first page in art journaling ever, I thought it turned out rather nice :)

This was page 2 of this journal- Very different style and techniques on this page- I used my inking tool with lots of Tim Holtz colors (man I love that guy's stuff!) and blended them with a watercolor brush. I then added stamps and drew my own brain and neuron- yes I drew those- I was very impressed with my abilities there- although since being in psychology, it was not the first brain I had to draw :) This page I toyed with different ways of writing and spent more of the page in reflective writing- I am not sure about how I feel about this page- it seems less "punchy" than my first page...

Here is a detail shot of the brain and neuron....I thought it was pretty good :)

More art journaling goodness to come!

Childhood Challenge Album

Over at Soul Scrappers, I've decided to keep up with a year-long challenge about scrapping childhood memories. This kind of book is more of what I want my scrapbooks to be about: less about just the big events like birthdays and Easter, but about personal memories that matter. This book would be impossible for my parents to complete for me because they are MY memories- so while I like to have them commemorate the big events and name the people that I am too young to remember, I like to pull out the things that I found to be most memorable.

One note about this book- since I was a young child of the 80s, I decided to forgo the muted, distressed colors of most people's childhood books and go for more appropriate colors for that bright decade: hot pink, lime green, and electric blue (peppered with black of course). I hope that when my future children some day get to leaf through my childhood, they will catch a small glimpse of what it was like for me as a kid.

Stretching those creative muscles

I love learning. Whether its a new technique, or how to use a new tool, or really anything! I just love learning about everything! So, as part of my challenge to myself this year, I am committed to learning something new every month and trying to incorporate that new knowledge into my creative ventures. This month, I joined an ATC swap at artfortytwo.org which challenged me to "zentangle" my new year's resolutions. 

First, I went, "What the heck is zentangles?" Then I hit up Google images- and it is really cool! The only thing you really need is a white background and a black felt tipped marker. Then you just make repetitive designs as you feel- for my first one, I leaned heavily on Google images to give me ideas about patterns- but once I got the hang of it, I started to invent my own :) 

It is really relaxing and I will definitely be employing this technique on my scrapbook pages- it IS time-consuming but it feels just like the doodling you would do if you were chatting on the phone (or half paying attention in class).

Here are my four ATC cards:

I was supposed to represent my resolutions in zentangle format- but I just couldn't get away from using words- so I tried to incorporate them as best as I could. 

I really wish that Blogger would stop "fixing" my pictures to the way it THINKS I want the photo to go!!

I am researching what my next month's new thing will be! Right now, I am hooked on these zentangles~ :)

New Years Goals

Well, it's that time again: time to start a new year and start fresh! I really don't make "resolutions"- they tend to be lost within the first month- sometimes even the first week- and then I just feel guilty about not following through. So, instead, I've made some goals: mostly for self-enrichment (not the typical diet/exercise ones: those never have worked for me, but ones with life-enriching tones) and of course, creativity! 

My first creative goal is to participate in at least one challenge a month and in one ATC swap every other month. So far, I'm doing well: as of today, I've completed not one, but 3 challenges :) (of course that was last month so I still get to do one for January, but that's only because I find them fun).


The first challenge was a sketch challenge compliments of Joy Anderson at Soul Scrappers: Here is my page: 

This page I made to commemorate the cool dragon ornaments I put on the tree in honor of the year of the dragon- I had fun with this page- especially cutting out the ornament toppers by hand and adding lots of Stickles glitter. 

The next challenge was to use a quote in a Christmas layout that describes a fun aspect of Christmas- and I couldn't resist giving our "mooning" angel its own page. :) The quote was, "at Christmas, play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year." - Thomas Tussler. I thought it matched perfectly with my theme and decided to run with it! I had a lot of fun making this page- I even continued my love of glitter on this page!

The final challenge I completed was a sketch as well- with a challenge to scrap about a particular holiday event. This challenge was also issued by Soul Scrappers- and this one I had fun with too! I decided even though the sketch was for a single page layout, I needed a double page to fit my event- so I did the sketch on both pages- but made them a mirror image of each other. I did spell Solstice incorrectly: but I fixed it after the pictures were taken :)

I think that I am starting out this year creatively charged and ready to try new techniques! I can't wait to get going- what kind of creative challenges are you taking on this year? Are you going to try to learn new things? Try a new approach? Or just resolve to get more pages in your scrapbook album? I'd love to know!