Art Journal: Last Pages of AJA

I finished the 2017 Art Journal Adventure but had pages left in my journal.

I finally completed the journal.

Here's the last 2 pages.

Phenomena:  I discovered a secret liking of the Lindy's spray color Whale Watch Blue. It's a beautiful cool neutral that can look like anything from stone to metal to a cloudy sky. It's a new favorite.

The Circle is Now Complete:  Very hard to photograph this page. The background is a metallic, glittery paint and it just doesn't reflect it's color. It's two shades of purple that I was trying out for some "other" things.

Thanks for looking in!
-Wy

Art Journal Adventure: December 2017

Another Journal Adventure finished though I still have pages left in this large Dylusions journal. I will just be doing my own thing on those pages to fill it up.

The Art Journal Adventure is on the Joggles blog and Facebook group and is wrapping up for the year. I've followed (to the best of my ability) the weekly prompts. So here's the line-up for December:

Week 49: Make a List: Santa's List:  So I decided to just go holiday. A naughty list and a nice list. Used my "I never use these" Inktense pencils. Something simple because I just wanted to color.

Week 50: Pick a Quote: Marbles:  I love quotes and have a little book dedicated to keeping some of my favorites. But I decided to go with something snarky as I never seem to have the occasion to use these stamps of Dyan Reaveley. Once I had the quote I knew what I wanted to do. I sprayed the pages with ink and used a stencil to add large circles of transparent texture paste. I like the glossy version best. Once dry the paste will resist more watercolor/ink. Naturally though, I wanted to use black paint to cover the background. It will wipe off rather well when still wet but the paint does dry on top of the paste. This page isn't entirely finished yet. I want to add more circles on the black background with some gel pens. Quote: "You may not have lost all your marbles but there's definitely a hole in the bag." (NOTE: I was doing the last page for these prompts and discovered that these pages had stuck together!!! I'm not sure what happened exactly to make it do that. The paste was dry but the sticky surface made them stick to each other when I closed the journal. I ripped up some of the circles trying to force it open so I decided that I will not put any more effort into this page. I did add some Dorland's wax to the surface and hopefully that will keep them from sticking again.)

Week 51: Trees: In the Forest:   I found these cute little forest animals on a Joggles collage sheet and decided to just make a forest for them. It gave me the excuse to use my Mermaid markers as I haven't really decided whether I like them or not. I REALLY like the new colors of them that are now available but if I don't use the ones I have what's the sense in getting more? So I'm trying to make up my mind about them. So this was good practice.

I'm still not sure about the markers. I can't decide if I like how I use them...is it the marker or the maker? I may just keep practicing.

Week 52: Endings...and new beginnings: End of the World:  I remembered this quote in part and realized that I had not written it down in my quote book, so I looked it up and added it. It seemed perfect for this prompt and a good way to finish off the journal.

I had a good vision in my head of what I wanted but I just wasn't certain what media to use for it. Should I collage the focals or just draw/paint them in? Should the background be more mixed-media like or like a scene? When I answered these questions, the page came together rather quickly.

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the Master calls a butterfly."  --Richard Bach


So that finishes off the Art Journal Adventure for 2017. I will probably play with it for next year but I'm undecided how committed I'll be.

My next post will be my annual lengthy overview of the past year and a declaration of my upcoming goals. I will evaluate my previous years goals and see where I stand. It's always a good thinker project for me. It may not be exciting to read but for me it means a lot. It puts down in writing my vision for the upcoming year as well as a reflection on what happened in the last year. I usually write it off the cuff but I'm hoping since I had my "projects" complete, I can use my time to really process where I've been and where I'm going...and the things I want to change.

Thanks for checking out the photos this past year, readers.
Thanks for reading the posts, visual procrastinators.
Happy New Year!
--Wy

Art Journal Adventure: November 2017

Once again, I find myself behind the 8-ball in art journals.
I always try to keep up with prompts but then things go awry and I end up not finishing them with the year.

So as usual, my 2017 art journals will be finished up in January.

But for now I have completed my November Art Journal Adventure prompts. Take a look.

Week 45: Bird: Lovey Doves:  I decided to de-stash some more flowers and use up a Joggles collage sheet. Mostly I wanted to play with some new color sprays I had bought to test out the variety of pinks. That flower stencil in the background is one of my new favorites. Despite it being winter, this spread feels very tropical to me.

The only problem was that a later page leaked through the spine and bled into this page. Normally, I don't sweat that too much but the contrasting color was soaked up by some of the flowers and I was disappointed. This, to me, is the only drawback of working in the Dylusions journal. I try to be careful but sometimes that ink just gets away from ya. Otherwise, I consider it a very successful page.

Week 46: Clowns: Neon Clown:  I'm not much of a fan of clowns. But I tried not to cop out on this prompt. So I tried my hand at a face. I did glue down a magazine cut-out face first then just painted my clown face over it. I more or less just wanted to play with some neon colors.

Week 48: Splash: Splash:  This prompt didn't merit a whole two page spread so I bumped it ahead of Week 47. I basically just threw down more neon paint and called it done. Honestly, that was hard to do but it does seem finished.

Week 47: Thanksgiving: Space:  Ok, I honestly have no idea what this has to do with Thanksgiving but sometimes a prompt just doesn't hit me. While I try to stick to it and tie it in, sometimes, it just feels like I'm working too hard. In the end, it's my journal and I can do what I like in it. My brain was craving deep colors and more black. I had done my autumn pages and my brain was already engaging in Christmas. Doing another "Thanksgiving" page felt like a step backwards. So I moved away from the prompt for this week. Very far away.

The trend of "galaxy" backgrounds is one I can ride for a long time. I LOVE them. And these pages came out so great that I didn't want to put anything over them. But I felt I should try to add a little something. So out came my underused Lawn Fawn stamps. I added the images in a long line to draw the eye across the page and to relay the feeling of the vastness of space.

I may be adding a quote to this page but since I considered it "finished" with the galaxy, I don't know if that would be overkill.
I will be making more galaxy backgrounds in this manner as it turned out with just the right colors and all with Dylusions products. I was amazed at that. I was certain the colors weren't quite right but the Pomegranate color was exactly what my collection had been lacking for this to work.


There probably won't be another blog post until after Christmas so Merry Christmas to those who celebrate! Hope to see all of you back here to help me ring in the new year with my list of goals, resolutions, and reflections...my to-do list for the coming 2018 year, so to speak. I will be trying some changes to the blog posts next year as I don't anticipate doing as much Art Journaling.

But anyhow, hope you'll join me again soon!
-Wy
"The children all nestled, all snug in their wee little beds...while visions of sugar plums danced in their wee little heads." 

Art Journal Adventure: October 2017

Back to the Art Journal grind!

I'm playing catch up with the journals and it will once again be a struggle to finish them by the end of the year. But the Adventure continues with the prompts from October.

Week 40: Triangles: Triangulation:  I decided that easy and simple would be the way to go on this one. I just love maps.

Week 41: Halloween: Halloscream:  As you recall from October, I was trying to use up old scrapbook paper. A task that was ultimately unsuccessful. However, I did find some great colors that were "non traditional" for the season. So I made a layout with it. Love this page.

Week 42: Puzzled: Flowers:  I thought about puzzles and then games and then puzzle pieces. Nothing was really interesting to me visually. When I opened my journal, I realized that this page and the next already had black paint on it. This one was the large dots. How was I gonna get puzzle pieces out of that? But then, I realized that the mechanism of a puzzle is interlocking pieces. Everything fits in just right. So I decided to make flowers out of the dots and fit them around each other.

It also gave me the opportunity to practice with my mermaid markers. I think that's why I love this page so much. The colors blend so well and came out so wonderfully. It was great practice. I may recreate this again!

Week 43: Outward from the Center: Don't Do It:  I started with a black painted page. All I knew was that I wanted a spiral. So I broke out the Moonlight gel pens and doodled one in. I figured this to be a take on Alice in Wonderland so I pulled out a Dylusions die cut that reminded me of Alice. The words, "Don't do it", were placed on there mainly to tell me to leave the girl blank. I flip-flopped so many times on whether I should color her in but decided I liked the contrast better than adding more colors.

Week 44: Eye: Eyes in the Sky:  By the time I got around to this prompt, it was late November and Joggles had an amazing sale on Dinky Stencils. This Eye was one that intrigued me. After I received it, I took a closer look at it. It reminded me of clouds so I put them in the sky. I then figured if they cried, it would rain. I honestly like this page for the color, the simplicity and naturally, all the eyes.

I also used a new paint that came in my order. A glamour dust paint, I think it's called. It made great rain when used through another stencil.

So those are the good, bad, and ugly for October. Hope to have November finished up soon. Just one more page to go!
-Wy

Art Journal Adventure: September 2017

Whew, October is over. That was fast and furious, fun and funky!

But now back to our regular blog programming.

Here's the Art Journal Adventure pages for September.

Week 36: Wing It:  What can I say, I wanted to play with paint. The little joggles birds just matched my colors so well. I also wanted to try out the spray ink over paint again. I have a hard time getting that just right. Simple but effective.

Week 37: Trash to Treasure: Ode to Inspirations.  I have kept packaging from products that I use thinking I can use it eventually. Guess what? I was right! The black packaging of the Joggles stencils, the bright colors of the Dylusions journals, even the photo of Donna Downey on her stencil packing. The Dina Wakley tag from her product line. The black and the bright colors was really my vibe. So here's to my inspirations. Even a little Tim Holtz thrown in...it's the quote.

Week 38 & 39: Abundance and Changing Seasons:  Leafy.  I combined these two weeks as it was peak leaf peeping season here in Northern NY. The leaves are all cut from scrap paper using a stencil. The background was almost too luscious to cover up. I love the color Pure Sunshine in the Dylusions line and I just invested in pot of paint. It's just extraordinary. (Even better when coupled with the brand new vanilla custard color.)

Again I was practicing inking through a stencil on top of paint. I used a Lindy's spray here. I outlined the leaves with some sketchy lines. Those sticker letters have been in my Mom's stash forever. But I like the look of them here.

On to the next!
I actually may be more caught up in this journal than my Inspiration Wednesday journal.
Damn, why does it take modeling paste forever to dry?

-Wy

Art Journal Adventure: August 2017

So in between my October projects, I managed to complete my August pages.

The Art Journal Adventure is hosted at Joggles.com and they have a Facebook group for sharing. Find the details on the link.

Let's dive!

Week 32: Water: Octopi:  With the theme of water, I just decided to pull out all the octopus stamps I have. (and wouldn't you know I did forget one. On the up side, it's probably too large to make it into a single page layout along with all the rest.) I'm not a big fan of fussy cutting so I knew I wanted to stamp the octopus on the page directly. I'm also not a big fan of coloring in a background around focal images. Sooo...I stamped the octopi directly over the blue background. I used Moonlight Sakura gelly roll pens to color them in. It worked way better than I thought it would. Those pens are really opaque so they came out well on the colored surface. (I did lose some color intensity as it dried but I didn't mind that as these sea creatures are supposed to be underwater.)    

Week 33: Mythology/Fairy Tales: St. George and the Dragon:  This was just a quick page with nothing special about it. I just wanted to preserve that sheet of paper I've been hoarding for years. Remember that Once Upon a Time paper pack from DCWV? I think you can still get it. The papers are so cool that I don't like to use them. So why not just preserve the stuff I like.

Week 34: Patchwork or Mosaic: Luna:  I called this page Luna because the sticky snippet in the center (on the yellow square) reminds me of the moon. It has a lot more detail to it that the photo suggests. All these bits of paper came out of my scrap pile and I used up some old stickers as well. The doodling is done with a metallic gelly roll pen.

 Week 35: Collage:  Butterfly Kiss:  When I decide to do a collage, I generally start with a color palette. I had just received my new Dylusions colors so decided to test some out here. I used Rose Quartz and Lilac paint on the background then added stenciling with the Lilac spray. I really liked the soft pink and found the photo of the woman (as seen below) to match it well. That led me down a victorian, romantic, shabby chic, floral, soft lilac and pink path. All my collage elements were arranged in a horizontal line then I added the vertical. 

Even though I have a page of similar color in this journal, I decided to add a butterfly just like that one. Well, almost. This is the new butterfly stamp I have...the one from the new Dyan Reaveley set. The set with the tentacles. (I have no shame in admitting that I bought the set for the tentacles. I've got a million butterflies it seems but I had to have those tentacles! Those will be showing up soon.) I cut the butterfly from some scraps of already sprayed paper and just glued her down. These might be Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays...leftover from my Masquerade page.

So that's August. Not sure when I'll get September done as I'm using my art time for October projects. We'll see what September brings. Have a great week.
-Wy

Art Journal Adventure: July 2017

You can catch the prompt for the Art Journal Adventure over at the Joggles Blog. Or join the Facebook group and share some inspiration or get some more!

So here are my pages for July...minus the last one. That might be included with August. Since July 31 was a Monday...most of the week was August. (That's my excuse because the prompt is to include a Mandala and I already know that's gonna take me some time to do.)

Week 27: One: Singular Sensation:  I decided to go with the straightforward design presented in the prompt. I did try mixing some new colors of paints I had gotten to see what came of them. After I had my giant number attached, I felt it needed something else. I colored the die-cut with ink sprays. This page fits the theme also as that I only used one line of products...those by Dyan Reaveley. Only the actual number is not, it was a scrap of paper hanging around my desk. (I named this page because all the while I just couldn't get that song out of my head. I think it's from "A Chorus Line". I used to see a commercial for it all the time as a kid and the only part of the song it played was, "One. Singular Sensation....blah, blah, blah." Amazing what gets stuck in your head.)

Week 28: Wonder: Ancient Wonder:  I wondered a lot about this prompt but finally decided that it fit in with another project I needed to get done. I did this page and a similar one for the other thing. It allowed me to try something here to see if I liked it for the other. The quote is a song lyric from Suzanne Vega's "Song of Sand".

Week 29: Incorporate a List:  Flow Chart:  I am a writer of lists and a fan of them. They do keep me organized...when I can find them. But they are also sometimes rather private or long term. I never keep them unless they are "in use" so I was a bit stumped with this page. I didn't want to copy a list I had and I had no idea where to take it if I used the list(s) as a background. So I went with more contrasting colors, a flow chart stencil, and a couple of old scrapbook journal mats with a couple hastily added lists. Not great, but done.

Week 30: Opposites: Eclipse:  I wanted something different. Not the usual. I decided to use opposite colors on the color wheel. Then, I had an idea of just using circles to make it look like positive and negative space. As I was looking for paper to match my colors, this yellow and eggplant combo reminded me of the up coming Solar Eclipse. (I know it looks black in the photo, but the dark color is really an eggplant purple cardstock.) After dwelling on this prompt for far too long, I just love it. It worked out just the way I wanted it. I thought about adding a word or phrase but I think this abstract says it all. (which is very unusual for me!)

So that's it for this/last month.
See ya next time.
-Wy
(I'm hoping to stay caught up but I'm starting to make out my Halloween Project list. Those projects will have to be worked into my already tight...as in I have no free time now...schedule.)