Let's Try Art Journaling!

A lot of people who make cards also do art journaling.  I've tried it a few times; and after watching some You Tube videos by Karen Burchill, I got really inspired.

I love this crazy quote and thought it fit the journey of this page perfectly!  This is a page torn from an old Moleskine watercolor notebook. I was inspired by this card from Heather Telford, but mine definitely went awry!
I started with green, yellow and blue color bursts from Ken Oliver.  The green was too olivey so I added some mowed lawn distress reinker. Then the yellow wasn't bright enough so in went some squeezed lemonade reinker. The stamp didn't come out clear enough and I don't draw very well. So I embraced the vague by adding lines with a black Speedball Elegant Writer then spritzed with water to blur the lines. Then the black splatters were reactivated and smeared when I glued the page down in my "new" (old) art journal.  In spite of all that, it was fun and I'm fairly happy with it!

"New" Old Art Journal

I was looking around for a book that would fit the Moleskine page and came across this.  Many years ago, I won this beautiful hardcover book at a quilting event (Craft Overlap alert!). It's filled with blank paper that's kind of thin, but I think I can glue a few pages together and it will work just fine.

I decided to add my name to the inside cover, started playing around with paints and stamps and ended up with this. I used my one Dylusions paint in purple and some ancient white acrylic paint I had left from my tole painting days (ooh, Craft Overlap!).  Stamped some text in gray and faded with some watered down white.

This is the very 1st art journal page attempt back in October. I glued down some torn pattern paper, used texture past thru some stencils, stamping and some distress inks for color.  Another excellent resource is Vicky Papaioannou.  She makes cards and art journals.

Halloween journal page

This is the 2nd art journal page I made a few weeks ago after watching this background technique by Vicky.

Art journaling is a really fun way to play and be creative without any pressure about a successful end result.  I usually have to let things dry overnight so I don't have to rush to finish. If I'm stuck, that gives me time to ponder and start inspired the next day or start a whole new page. 
Karen has a whole Back to Basics series on journaling with minimal supplies.  I really encourage you to give art journaling a try!