Even MORE Art Journaling Fun!!!

As a sort of follow up to my last post, I've decided to share even more fun with art journaling, in the hopes that I may inspire you all to want to try this fun and freeing activity for yourselves. Wait, did I say "activity"? To some, it even becomes a daily necessity :)

I have a lot of art products. Mixed media is so appealing that I often want to grab up everything I see. Being that I work long days on the weekends, I will bring things with me to keep me occupied while my client takes her naps. I've found that I want to bring more and more with me, though... inevitably, I'll be working in my journal, and the page will just need that one thing that I don't have. But I can't very well bring every thing with me... that would be crazy. So I've yet to truly master a travel bag that I'm happy with (that has EVERYTHING I want in it), but for now, I make due with what I do bring. And I think I've been doing OK :)

This piece above was created with colored pencils; some watercolor ones, some regular. That's pretty much it, and some torn paint color cards... I just wanted to have a little fun. I'm usually a lot more... careful, I suppose would be a good word. But today I just decided to play and see where it took me.

I then rubber stamped some flowers, colored them in, cut them out, and pasted them in. I also pasted in two butterflies from a pack of adorable butterfly napkins I'd bought a while ago. I like it overall, but I'm not done yet. I do have an idea of where it's headed, though...

I also decided to start working on a background to a spread I'd done last week. The basic spread was just a magazine image with two rub on butterflies, an antique-looking card, a hand-written song lyric, and photos of fabric squares, and I'd no idea what else I was going to do, so I just started doodling.

The first doodle I did above is what is called a doodle game. I learned about it in Diana Trout's wonderful book "Journal Spilling." It really is a liberating exercise! You can even see a great video she's made about the technique here! Diana is a wonderful and enthusiastic teacher, and she really loves what she does. Each time I look at her book (which is frequent!) I get inspired to do something else with my journal!

I then switched to random squiggles and swirls... just to add some variety and visual texture.

I finished by doodling pipes. I have always liked to do this... I don't know why. I can go for hours just doodling intersecting pipes... it's a lot of fun :) No, really.

After I'd filled in most of the background with doodles, I colored over it with my one and only Prismacolor marker. It dulled out the background doodles, but you can still see them. I sure like how it looks.

Finally, I had an idea today. Other's may have done this, but I haven't heard of it yet :) I drew a few half circles in a straight line over text in a magazine and cut them out, then glued it over a wavy white background, and colored in red center spots. Walah! Instant cool borders... see?

Well, that's it for tonight! I enjoyed making these journal pages, and although I've more to do with them, I sure hope that you can glean an idea or two from my creations and go forth on your own art journaling adventure!