Art Journaling 2012

Something I love to do, but don't share often, is art journal. I plan to share more in 2012!

Usually when I art journal, I place what I do in to two categories, both of which keep from sharing my pages: either way too personal or (I feel it is) way too hideous to share. Yes, I do let my inner critic get to me. No more! While I will still continue to make pages that I do feel are too personal to share, and that is OK, I will no longer deem any of the art I create "too hideous." That is so against what I love about art journaling....the fact that it is free-form, funky. Basically, it is what it is.

To encourage me to share more of my art journaling adventures I will be joining in Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Art Journal Every Day this year. If you are unfamiliar with Julie's work you must check it out. She is an amazing artist. And I can say I have had the privilege of meeting her, too!

So, here is a page I am actually excited to share. Simple, yet meaningful to me...

I created this a few days ago with a technique I actually learned from Julie's blog, the drip. I used two shades of Adirondack Color Wash and sprayed them heavily at the top of the page, allowing them to form longs drips down the page. The journaling is done with acrylic paint (white on letter stamps for "BE" and black for the free-hand painted words). The flowers on the side of the page were stamped using a thin coat of white acrylic on a Hero Arts rubber stamp. I used Claudine Hellmuth acrylics in this, but I also use Liquitex quite a bit.

This shows the facing page that I got random squirts on! I plan to add to and build something on that page at some point, also.

I also wanted to share a couple backgrounds that I have started. The top was made using a few different colors of Maya Road Mists. The bottom was made using Lyra Watercolor crayons and a wet brush. Sometimes when I just feel the urge to get messy and play I will do a bunch of backgrounds in my book then come back to build on them when the mood strikes.

I'm linking up this post to Julie's first Art Journal Every Day post for 2012. I hope you will go to her blog to check out all the amazing creations linked up there!
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In the interest of full disclosure I need to put this out there from the start: I know me. I know how I am. I know I won't actually art journal every single day this year. I have decided that is OK! I will do it as often as I can and as often as the creative juices are flowing freely!