More Art Journal Pages

Ok...so I might be a little bit addicted to my journal right now. I love curling up at night in my chair and shining a light on my journal with all my buckets of crayons/markers/pastels....whatever I have near at the time! 

This particular 2 page entry is to journal that we did put up a Christmas tree this year. Last year was our first year in the house and it just didn't feel right not having my Mama here to celebrate the season with us. This year I decided that if I was going to put a tree up that I would honor my Mama and make it her tree as Christmas was always her favorite holiday of the year. 

watercolor pencil crayons and my fingers as paint brushes.

drew and colored in some images.

The double page spread.

Just because I love the cup of cocoa.

Our "Marilyn Tree" 

Merry Christmas to each and every one of you. Enjoy the magic of the season! 

A peek into my Art Journal

Watercolor Pencil Crayons & water/black archival pen

Black fine tip marker & Pencil Crayons, Markers, 

Markers/ Distress Inks

I am loving my new Dyan Reaveley Art Journal from Shabby Shutters! Finally a place to be able to put all my doodles and drawings. There is no particular rhyme or reason to my journal. I don't always do 'the next page' and sometimes skip ahead 10 or 20 pages. There is a combination of heavy cardstock and manila paper in this journal so it gives you two different surfaces to work on. I tend to use my heavy manila paper for my ink sprays and then I use the regular heavy cardstock for other projects. I do Gesso my regular paper before using it though!
No page ever seems complete as I tend to go back and forth between pages depending on my mood. I try to incorporate the date somewhere on the page so that I can look back and know when it was worked on. Some pages have journaling on them and some have just drawings...for now. I get in moods where I will do all watercolor one night, or all oil pastels one night and I just keeping flipping pages to add a little something to each page. Its like working on 30-40 pieces of art at once. I know this is not every bodys style, but its mine...and its what works for me.
Some pages have more journaling than others and sometimes its just a random "What I am currently doing" page where I will just write all the things I am currently doing, eating, wearing, watching etc. Its a quick and fun page to do.
I have a little space set up in the loft so that when I am on 'wind down' time and watching tv at night I can haul out my journal and do some freestyle drawings and doodles. Things don't always end up the way I wish they would have but in the end its art and nobody would ever know that something wasn't intentional on the page, right?

Large Holiday Tag

Holiday Tag

Tonight we are making THIS huge tag in class at Shabby Shutters. I am super excited about this as I love the colors and the little rosettes! Rosettes are made from Sticky Back Canvas ('cause you know how much I love that stuff!) and the rest is just inking and embossing! It is made on a huge 5'' x 10 1/2'' manila tag. The embossing is popped out from adding Black Soot Distress Ink to it and the entire tag is colored by using the Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Sprays! The top red dots paper is actually a space to hold a gift card if you choose to. Totally up to you! Just a matter of having fun with it!

Mixed Media Canvas

8 1/2'' x 11'' canvas

6" x 6" canvas

I am really into this Mixed Media Canvas Art lately. I love having 'no rules' to play by and use my fingers as my paint brushes. Paints, mediums, sprays, masks, stamps and markers all lay in a 2 foot space in front of me despite the 5' x 3' table I am working on!
For these particular canvases I had been wanting to do something special with the flowers I had made in a class at Shabby Shutters with Michelle. Someday she will get her own blog up and you can start to see all the beautiful creations she makes...but for now, I'll sneak some of her flowers in my art!
For both canvases I started by Gesso'ing my canvas and going crazy with tans and pink paints. Tissue papers and stamped words are scattered through out the canvases in no particular order. Sew Stampers are PERFECT to use on this type of art! Left over rub-ons, stickers are also perfect as well as scrap paper! A Sharpie marker fills in some doodles and a word or two. The vases were cut from scrap paper and glued on and then inked and doodled upon! Alcohol Inks, Stickles, Perfect Pearls sometimes make an appearance and Glossy Accents...always lots of Glossy Accents!
The star of the show though.....my flowers!!! Thanks Michelley!
Don't you think they fit perfectly into my vase?  ;)

Have a happy craftin' day!