First Art Journal Completed!

I have completed my very first art journal!!!  I only started art journaling last year and my shiny new art journal seemed full of countless big white pages so its amazing that I have actually filled all these pages up.

I feel I've learned so much - about art journaling, the creative process and even about me!  and I can't wait to see where my art journaling 'goes'.  I am not an artist and before starting this journal I had hardly ever used paint.  Now I love it although I'm still pretty clueless about how to use it - but hey, its all about experimentation and fun.  One of the best things that has happened is that it has made me stop being a perfectionist - that's been really freeing and I'm still amazed that I can fling paint and ink about with abandon and not be concerned when the page doesn't come out exactly how I wanted :)

The last page in my journal had to be about this:

This page started with a piece of scrap paper where I had scraped a stencil clean of texture paste.  It looked so lovely I stuck it on the page.  Then I sponged distress inks, stenciled and stamped.  Here's what it looked like before I stamped the title and added the journaling strips:

 

The great thing about art journaling is using whatever you want, like the scrap paper with the texture paste residue:

 I love this big corner flourish stamp by IndigoBlu which I got free with a magazine subscription.

The girl with the swirly hair is another free stamp which came with the same subscription.

I used another piece of scrap card where I had punched daisies for the journaling - I need to work on my handwriting!!!

I had to add more daisies:

And then a butterfly which I'd had lying around for ages from another project:

There are so many amazing and talented art journalers out there who inspired me to start art journaling and continue to inspire me to try new things - thank you all.   I want to give a special thank you to Julie Fei-Fan Balzer who hosts Art Journal Every Day where we can all share our creations every week and who is such an amazing artist and inspiration, and thank you to Tracy who gave me my first comment which encouraged me to go on with my blog.

I'm linking up at Art Journal Every Day , Friendship Friday at Create with Joy,
and Creative Every Day

Draw Near and Trust

The scripture this week at Word Art Wednesday is a wonderful one and very much what I am trying to do all the time at the moment.  When we draw near to God we get to know Him better and can see how awesome He is so we can praise and worship Him - and that of course is definitely good for us!

The backround is my home made texture paste through a stencil with a mix of embossing powders which I saw Jennifer McGuire do on You Tube, see below.  I love this effect, it really gives a lovely texture.

 

Have a look, its really easy to do:

 

I'm linking up at Word Art Wednesday and Faith, Hope and Love Scripture Challenge

Clean and Simple

I quite like a clean and simple style so was pleased to see that the theme at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge this week is Keep it Clean and Simple.

The backround for this card is done with water colour pencils and the flower and leaf are Hero Arts Fanciful Filaments:

The card blank for this card is a hammered texture which gives a bit of interest and the stamps are by Hero Arts again - my favourite make of stamps :)

I'm linking up at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

The Wrong Sort of Butterflies

When I get anxious I get butterflies in my tummy.  Then invariably the chronic fatigue flares up and I get ill - all from letting myself give into anxiety.  This is what's happened recently due to an ongoing problem that will not go away or get sorted and there's absolutely nothing I can do to resolve it.

I've written lots of posts about praying and trusting - I do love to pray and most of the time I do trust God for the answer - but sometimes I get overwhelmed and look at the problem instead of God and that's when the anxiety kicks in.

When will I learn to trust my heavenly Father 100% of the time???  I guess the answer lies in what I wrote just above - I need to look at God and not at the problem.  When I look at God I can trust in Him for strength, wisdom and an eventual solution.

Here is my art journal page:

This page changed a lot as I did it!  I started off by painting white over some stenciling I had done which was too bright and I loved the effect:

Then I sprayed Cosmic Shimmer Red Firefly, Lava Red and Golden Fish through a Prima mask and covered it up too much!  I'm going to have to do that all over again on another page and not cover it all up:

The white bits were too white so I sprayed Cosmic Shimmer Blue Ice and stamped the IndigoBlu Script in black:

 I added the negative hearts and stamped Hero Arts Flourish:

Plus big white ink splats:

I stamped the title and journaled around the edges:

 The butterflies weren't clearly defined enough so I added charcoal and smudged on the insides and around all the edges:

I'm really pleased with how all the layers came out.

Just got to put what I've written into practice now and not let the butterflies in again!

I'm linking up at
Art Journal Every Day
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
Friendship Friday at Create With Joy
A Sprinkle of Imagination
Artful Times - Spray Away
Creative Every Day

Joy - a byproduct of Love

Here is a page from my journal on Joy - my one word for 2014.  The journaling is simple: "Joy is a byproduct of love".  When we receive the love of God in our hearts joy is the result!  Have you ever noticed that when anyone talks about the love of God, about how much Jesus loves them, their eyes start to sparkle, their faces get all glowy and they invariably end up with a big smile on their faces?  I think we can safely say that is joy welling up inside :) 

I loved doing this page.  That's the great thing about doing a journal on joy, each page just makes me happy as I'm letting that joy grow.

This one was especially fun because I wanted to use as many circle shapes as possible to enter the You Spin Me Right Round challenge at That's Crafty.  Circles are just about my favourite shape, I love all things spotty, so its also going into A Few of My Favourite Things at Inspiration Journal.  

The backround is blue, green and yellow acrylic blobbed and scraped all over the page - I really like the texture this gives.  Then I started stenciling and stamping.  Can you count how many different types of circle type shapes I used?

Doodles dots also included.

Punched butterflies with gem centres - gems are also circles :)  The theme this week at  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge  is Winged Things.

And here's the journaling with the joy coming out of the heart. 

The answer is 10 circle type shapes used, 11 if you count the gems.

May you have a joy filled day :)

I'm linking up at:

That's Crafty You Spin Me Right Round challenge
Inspiration Journal A Few of My Favourite Things
Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge
Creative Every Day

Not Big Mountains!

Don't you just love it when problems are cut down to size?  I don't know about you, but if I'm not very careful I can find myself worrying a problem into a huge mountain and getting very anxious.  However, when I start praying about it I start to lean on God and exercise my faith.  Better still, I get reasssurance from God that He is listening and in control.

The other day I was praying for my kids (all grown up now) and asking God for certain things for them.  I'd been getting anxious but I felt God say, "These are not big things to worry about.  In my great scheme of things, in the context of their lives and of eternity, these are NOT BIG MOUNTAINS!"  God is so great.  I felt He really gifted me that day with a little glimpse of how He sees things - He, and only He, has the full picture and He wants what's best for us.

Here's my art journal page:

This is acrylic paint - orange, yellow and a little brown, blobbed on the page and scraped all over with a credit card.

Then red through a stencil and yellow stamped with the rubber on the end of a pencil:

 

Stamped edging:

And my journaling is the mountain.... now my not big mountains!

 

I'm linking up at
 Art Journal Every Day
Create with Joy Friendship Friday

Easter

I had a lot of fun making these little mini pictures and bookmarks for a group of friends.  My friend, Julie, hosts a lovely ladies group every fortnight where we chat and share and have lunch.  Then we focus on something spiritual to make sure every part of us is fed and watered!  Knowing I'm a crafty kind of person, she asked me to do a card making session on our last week before the Easter break.  Julie also wanted to give everyone a little encouragement with the scripture below since it was our special Easter session.   

I did these last week so was unable to use this week's word art at Word Art Wednesday:

 

which is a shame because they would have been perfect for this project!

The butterfly stamp is a lovely Papermania Urban Stamps which I found at the big Hobbycraft Show in a sale bin for only £2.50!!!  What a bargain for such a beautiful stamp.  Its square, but I stamped it twice, turning it after the first stamp.  Then I sponged distress inks all over and dusted with Perfect Pearls for a little sheen.

It was fun doing different colour combinations:

 

I finished it off with a punched butterfly and gem:

For the bookmarks I used a beautiful Inkylicious stamp set, also bought at the Hobbycraft show - I really did enjoy the show this year and found some lovely things:  This one had different flower heads and stems and grasses.

 The backround is sponged distress inks and the flowers are stamped in black.  The edging is just the tops of a flower.

 

Most of the people there had never made a card before but they all took to it and made some beautiful cards.  I love it when someone discovers the joys of papercrafting!

I'm linking up at Word Art Wednesday

How to Rejoice Continually

Back to my Joy journal -

How can I rejoice continually?  By knowing that God never stops working out His purposes for me, no matter how they may look to the contrary.  When problems loom or times are hard, we need to hold on to the fact that God works for good in all things.

I had a lot of fun doing this very simple page:

 

I used my Derwent Intense bars for the backround.  Then gesso through a Prima bubbles stencil and some stamping.

I love ink splats!

Can't get enough of them!

The black ink splats are meant to be the bad stuff in my life which threaten to take away my joy, and the bright colours and spots are the joy which is still there despite the bad stuff! :)

I'm linking up at
Art Journal Every Day.
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
That's Crafty You Spin Me Right Round challenge
Creative Every Day