No Blank Page Left

 

Oh the feel of an almost full art journal! I love when the pages bend and bulge because there are so many layers on them. It is very satisfying.

I bought this Strathmore art journal a few years ago and it was sitting empty on a shelf for a long time. I started working in it almost three years ago, but only for a short period of time. Finally this summer I pulled it out again. After having quit my job I thought it was a good time to start filling its pages again.

While it is still not complete, I can now say that not a single blank page is left. At least some kind of background is on each page and I know that eventually they will be turned into something that is not just a background.

Some pages I started out purposefully with journaling that I then covered up.

The first sentence often was a question or quote I heard or read somewhere. I journal in both German and English, depending how I feel at the moment, and often it's a mix of both languages. The page with the birds was written in German whereas the text on the page in the picture above is written in English. What I specifically love about art journals is that they are not accomplished art but opprotunities to try things out. The flowers above were painted with Derwent Inktense ink pencils that I had never worked with before and that I came to love for their brilliant colors. 

For the page above I used watercolors. I had never really dared to work with watercolors and was never "serious" about it. However, I found out that they make wonderful backgrounds and I enjoy mixing colors to create diffferent shades. In this page I also tore up papers that I had made with the Gelli plate, got the inspiration for the frame from some online workshop (I forgot which one) and used one of my all-time favorite stamps, "Silhouette Script" by Dina Wakley.

As you can tell, I really like this stamp.

Oh, and I love to work with stencils. They can add such fun elements to a page.

Sometimes I just create a page about something I love ("Sunsource" by Stampington & Company is another favorite stamp).

One Sunday morning not even two months after I had quit my high school job I felt so thankful that I didn't have to go to work the following day that I spontaneously created a page about the carefree Sunday mornings that I finally had back. I love our Sunday mornings - they are slow with a late breakfast and usually I spend them in my studio either writing or playing with mixed media. It has a very different quality from all the other days.

The last page I want to show you is my currently favorite page because it is the most meaningful to me.

I do my best work in the morning. Is it because of the coffee?

This elephant mug is my ticket for T Tuesday hosted by Elizabeth at Altered Book Lover. We also used to have a red one, but it broke several years ago.

The little "Trust" bird was made by Kelly Thiel, the little owl was a gift from my friend Jo when she moved to Portland, OR, and the dromedary I bought in Egypt many many years ago. These three things are very special to me.