Art Journal Every Day: Art Journal vs. Scrapbook

On Julie's Art Journal Every Day she asked a question, What do you think? What's the difference between art journaling and scrapbooking for you?

There is a big difference for me. My art journals are where I play with paper, paints, inks, nothing is planned, some of my journals are private some are not, they are all experiments.  Scrapbooking to me means that it needs to be planned; pictures printed, colors chosen carefully to fit the theme, and having the perfect embellishments.  Although in my head I know this isn't true. You can do anything in a scrapbook but my head and hands are still having a hard time remembering that fact. My very first journal that I started are stories about my childhood for my daughter.  Something would come up and I would tell her a story and she would say write it down!  Now as I continue to write stories I find myself decorating the pages more and adding pictures. It's not made with the perfect embellishments but in a way it looks like a scrapbook page. I still feel art journaling is just so freeing whether I use a picture or not.  As soon as I call it a scrapbook page my creativity stops. For me scrapbooking has rules and art journaling does not. I guess I have an issue, right? 

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Be Happy!

I've been making many background papers with stamps, inks, paints, and templates/stencils. By the time I finished a few backgrounds I had stuff everywhere!  I usually make my backgrounds on 12x12 watercolor paper but I had a few pieces that are 5x5 and decide to try it on a smaller scale for this card.

I found lots of plastic embroidery shapes (circles, stars, hearts, triangles) in my local craft store and used them as templates. They are so much fun to use.  For this one I used the circle and triangle shapes and only used blue and orange for color.

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Creative Jump Start Summit 2012

I've been taking a free workshop called Creative Jump Start Summit from Nathalie's Studio.  It is a group of wonderful creative artists from all over the world telling you how to jump start your creativity especially when you have lost it! It has been so inspirational and has reminded me to just play and not worry about what I'm doing. Just have fun.

When you join you receive one email everyday with a video from a wonderful artist telling you what they do to get their mojo started.

I just wanted to say thank you to Nathalie and all the creative women in this workshop. It has really Jump Started my creative process!

Wooden Frames and Liquidex Acrylic Ink

For some reason my go to colors have been red, yellow, and orange. Maybe because it's been snowing and its cold and all I want is warm sunny weather! I bought 5"x5" wooden frames and love to use them for many projects.  Instead of staining them a neutral color I decided to try Liquidex Acrylic Ink as a stain. It was perfect. Now I have to buy more colors and more frames.  This was so much fun!

I will be posting a step out tutorial on how I make these frames and my background papers.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Art Journal Every Day

Hello everyone! Today I have a journal page to show you for Julie's Art Journal Every Day. It was a simple page. I had the music paper on my desk already along with a few red hearts. This weekend has been very productive and ideas just came to me one after the other. 

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Collage Cards ..... so much fun!

Hello! Today I have three card fronts to show you. They are fronts because I haven't decided what color cardstock to use for the actual card yet. I make quite a few fronts and put them aside until I either use them for a card or cut them up for something else. These fronts are collages that I made from paper out of My Minds Eye Ooh La La for Her 6x6 paper pack (discontinued).  I really had a lot of fun doing it. I think I will continue with a few more.

As you can see I used a crafters workshop template to start the background with distress inks.  Then I used the paper to cut strips of paper, punches and fussy cut some of the focals from the paper. I really like to do collages on canvas but I wanted to see how it looked on a card.

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Do you like Valentines Day?

Today I have a quick valentines card to show you. I usually don't make them at all it's not my favorite holiday. I had tons of stuff on my desk and made myself use what was on my desk to make something so I made quite a few of these cards. I guess they can be used for any occassion and they are blank inside.

All the stamps are Tim Holtz, Adirondack archival inks, distress stain, and Sizzix heart dies.

Easy, peasy!

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Earth, Natures Canvas

I completed another art journal page with a prompt from Art Journal Everyday with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. One of her prompts is "play 10 minutes with whats on my desk".  Well, everything I used for the journal pages were on my desk but I played longer than 10 minutes.  I was done in 10 minutes but then found more stuff on my desk!

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Steampunk - Graphic 45 and Tim Holtz

Today I have two steampunk cards to show you. The first one is made with Graphic 45's steampunk papers and the second one with Tim Holtz stamps. It's been awhile since I taken paper and cut out focals and pieced them together on a card. I really enjoyed it.  Of course Tim Holtz stamps were perfect for both cards.

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Inchie on a Twinchie Swap on Splitcoaststampers

I participated in a swap on Splitcoaststamps called Inchie on a Twinchie.  I had to make it with Tim Holtz products.  I have lots of grungeboard and decided to make tiny hearts.  The last bead on the pin has a little glossy accents on it so the beads would not fall off.

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Art Journal Every Day - Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

This year I'm challenging myself to join different challenges, online workshops and whatever else I see without getting myself overwhelmed.  This year I'm joining Julie on her blog, Balzer Designs, for Art Journal Every Day.  Don't panic it's not everyday although I do try to do at least one page a day but there are times that I just can't get in my craft room. This year Julie is asking everyone to post at least one journal page per week.  Perfect for me! 

This journal page was made with Crafters Workshop templates plus a few other things I used as templates/stencils.  This page is about my daughter. She graduated from college last year and living far away.  I'm very proud of her with everything she has accomplished.  BUT my mother never told me how hard it was to let go.  From her birth until now, this has been the hardest thing I've ever done. This year unless I take a trip to see her (of course I will), I won't see her until Thanksgiving or we Skype. So that's what the page is all about. My growing pains!

Thanks for much for stopping by.

Sunday Stamper Challenge Week 187 - Time

Hello! On Hels Sheridan's blog, Ink on My Fingers, her theme this week is time.  I've been thinking about time and how fast it goes by. It's already January 8th and this weekend is over. Everyone would like an 8th day in the week or more hours in a day but I guess its how we use those hours. Although this weekend went by fast I did accomplish a few things that I haven't done in a long time.  Here in CT it was 56 on Saturday. It was warm, sunny, gorgeous!  I actually took a cup of tea and a book and sat outside in the sun for 3 hours reading. PLUS I took my camera with me.  I followed a squirrel in the Willow tree as it was gathering small branches off the tree for a nest. 

Caught him here with a branch!

Reading and taking pictures was so relaxing that when I went into my craft room and sat down I had tons of ideas. 

On to my tag for the challenge.

The background was made with distress inks, water, and stamps. All the stamps are Tim Holtz. The wings are Maya Road and the alphabet tiles I have had for a long time. When I was done I splattered vivid lime green Liquidex spray ink (homemade) on the tag.

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Journal Pages

Here are a few pages from my journals. I have been experimenting with watercolors, pan pastels, acrylic paints and markers.

This one is made with acrylic paints, dictionary and music paper, and distress stains.

These two pages are made with acrylic paints, pan pastels, watercolors, pens and markers.

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Winter Dreams

I'm still behind in finishing up Christmas gifts but I'm down to my last two. This one is for my nephew who lives in Florida. He loves the snow so I thought I would send some to him.

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Kate Crane's 2012 366 Challenge

On Kate Crane's blog, The Kathryn Wheel, she is having another calendar challenge this year, 2012 366 Challenge. Of course last year I just sat back and watched but this year I'm tired of watching. This year I'm choosing to do new challenges that get my hands a little more of a inky mess.

Here is my January calendar. I decided to do it in bright colors. I hate winter and snow (although snow is so pretty) I wanted to look at the calendar to remind me that spring is only months away.

As you can see today I'm home sick. The last couple of days I've felt like I have the flu so staying home from work was a good idea.  Although this afternoon I feel so much better.

Here are close ups of the pages.

I had so much fun doing this calendar. I'm already thinking if ideas for February. I have a few stamps I'm going to use for next month.

Forgot to mention the squares are made from a Spirelli square punch.

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Felt Anyone?

Happy New Year! Today I have a canvas (4"x12") to show you. I was given quite a few different shapes of felt and I wanted to use them for some time.  These little pieces were white but I colored them with spray inks. The background is made from a Crafters Workshop template.

Thanks for stopping by.