Lately I have found myself really intrigued by Art Journaling. I absolutely love and am amazed and fascinated by the art journal work of Dina Wakley and Dyan Reaveley. I really am not much of a journal writer, I have always been far too much of an over thinker and over analyzer to write personal thoughts down with out feeling silly and self conscious. I can't explain it, I guess I am just goofy like that. But lately I have been fascinated by the concept of making art pages and sharing some thoughts and feelings about me and life and just whatever. I have felt the tug to give it a go.
The problem for me is that all of the art journaling I have seen tends to be very freestyle and artistic. While I love looking at it and admire the talent that takes like mad, it isn't my kind of art. It occurred to me one day though that it is art and there are no rules and that nothing says that my art journal has to be any style other than my own. All it really has to be about is me, what I love to create, exploring and feeling. I can do that.
So I dug in my stash and looked for just the right book to house this new project. I pulled out a chipboard binder that I have been saving forever for just the right project. It is already filled with pages that are just waiting to be filled with art and ponderings.
My binder is from Creative Imaginations Creative Cafe, it has been in my stash for at least 2 years. I knew sooner or later the right project would come along for it.
I painted the exposed edges with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso for a base coat and then Traditional Tan. The striped print paper on the top is from BasicGrey's new Curio line, it is called Table. The paper on the lower part of the cover is from their Basics Manila collection. I love, love, love the Basics, it goes with everything so perfectly. I added some of Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Ruler Ribbon near the top of the Basics paper. I really love that the Ruler Ribbon is canvas and has stitching added to it already. Everything of course got a touch of my favorite Distress Ink, Vintage Photo.
The inside covers are covered with Docket from the Basics Manila collection. The book has lined, graph, clear, dotted, and kraft pages and dividers just waiting to be decorated.
I embellished the cover with more goodies from the Curio and Basics collections. The star stick pin and flowers are from Maya Road. I added a bit of distress ink to the flower to age it a little. The brown velvet leaf is an unknown that has been in my stash for a long, long time.
I layered the Basics journal card on a piece of Sticky Back Canvas that I inked. I added some machine stitching to attach them.
I absolutely love this bird image. It is from one of the Chiffonier pattern papers from Curio.
The butterfly to the left is from the matching Take Note journal cards. The butterfly is on a clear matching overlay that is included with the card. The butterfly to the right is cut out from another clear overlay in the set.
I absolutely love this General Store pattern from the collection. I love the color combination in the stripe and the mix of text behind the stripe.
Okay, so there is the outside of my journal. I am really looking forward to creating pages for the inside. I think they will be fun to work on when I want to sit and create and play with product. I am going to consider it a "Permission to Play" project.
("Permission to Play" is my Big Picture motto. I should share about that sometime. . . )
