A Journal Page with a Secret

Good Morning Everyone!! Lynne here, and today for my design team post I want to do something a little bit different.  I want to share with you a page from my private art journal and give you a tiny peek into my art brain and to describe a little bit about how my creative process works.  But before I share my page with you I want to share the two guidelines I have made for myself that have made my Art Journaling so much easier and a wonderful journey at the same time!  First I am allowed to use only what is on the counter in front of me (otherwise I become paralyzed with too much choice!) and Second I have to DO whatever my first thought is... No Thinking... otherwise I over think.  I worry waaaay too much about what is "right" or what looks good or what the rules are.... so I made a rule for myself that in my Art Journal ... No Rules Apply and no thinking!  And this applies to what I write as well... I put my pen down and write whatever comes into my head... No Matter What.  Follwing these two rules have taken all the pressure off me when I sit down to "do art" and I love seeing the end result of what comes out of my heart and soul when I am not paying attention!

I started the bones of this page a while ago using a stencil and pushing some modeling paste through it and letting it harden - and there it sat until I was surrounded by scraps from the last layout I created for my design team post.  I also had in front of me - all my dylusion sprays including my new White Linen opaque spray and a cup full of gel pens from my doodling journal.  I sprayed the page with pink and blue dylusions inks and then added a few spritzes of water to soften the colors, letting it run where ever it would. Mostly it ran into the cracks of the stencil pattern which was just fine with me!

Next I glued down all the leftover bits from my last scrapbooking layout without thinking too much about where I wanted them... if it felt right I glued it down.  The word scraps "Beautiful Daydreams" and "Bouqet" are actually the title strips that I cut off the SKW patterned papers I used... Cool huh!  I drew in the word CREATE, and colored it in blue gel pen, but it was too bold for my taste so I faded it back by doodling patterns in white gel pen all over the letters... the end result looked so good I just had to accent it using my liquid glass.

At this point the top of the page started looking a little empty so I stamped some more words in pink ink but again these words seemed too bold for me so I sprayed the entire page with my new white linen dylusions ink and blotted off the excess - it worked like a charm - fading back the too bold words to just where I wanted them.

And finally I just HAD to use this house I had created from Susan's Le Mason stamp, stamping it on three different patterns of paper, cutting it out and reassembling it in colored paper - but if I glued down the house Where would I put my journaling? and then the AH-HA! moment occurred... I would make it a hidden journal box... behind my house...BRILLIANT! And I LOVED it... using some duct tape for strength covered over with some washi tape for decoration this "Journal Flap" will stand up to all the flipping I can give it! 

And just when I thought I was done my brain said "Spatter!  You want some white Spatter!"  To get this wonderful solid white splatter I used some watered-down gesso... it really, really works.  And as aways (for me) the final touches with my stickles and a black pen finished off this soft and pretty page.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little trip into my "Art Brain"... and maybe you want to try adopting my little rules to help you take some pressure off yourself and allow you to follow your own artistic instincts and start your own Art Journal!  Just DO IT!

Cheers!

Scrapbook Lynne Mizera
PS:  If you are curious about what I wrote on this journal page, come visit my Blog post where I shared it with all my followers...smile

On this project I used Susan K. Weckesser's Bouquet paper and Le Mason Unity Stamp