Five Shadows

I’ve been oooh-ing and aaah-ing over several blogs this past year that are all about art journaling. The journals all look so lovely. There are so many types and techniques shared in blog land, that I finally decided to just take a deep breath and jump in! First, I bought Dawn DeVries Sokol’s DVD Art Journaling, Pages in Stages. I bought watercolor paper and have painted a book full of background pages. I really like her DVD, easy to listen to and follow her directions.

Other ladies I’m watching are  Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and the group she has going called Art Journal Every Day, Mary Ann Moss, Diana Trout, Kelli Perkins, Lenna Andrews. Each have their own personal style and all share ‘how to-s’ on their blogs. And since I like sewing, I keep an eye on the fabric journals too. Gals like Sue Bleiweiss, Terri Stegmiller, & Rebecca Sower.

With so much inspiration, I’m trying my hand at several techniques, playing around, and hopefully finding what will be ‘me,’ what I’ll be comfortable with to make art journaling a part of my everyday life.

Here’s what I’ve been playing with so far.

Two pages, in their various stages from the DVD Pages in Stages, coming along just fine I think.

Another Pages in Stages, layering just beginning -

Playing with sewing on to the page -

The next two are from ideas shared on Art Journaling Every Day. Creating a background on watercolor paper. I used watercolor pencils.

And the last two pages are my attempt at sewing shapes along the edges of watercolor paper. I will add watercolor pencil in or around the sewn shapes. The first page also has a fabric strip sewn down the edge. I really like the shapes on the second page.

So you see, this is just a beginning. I’ve got lots to learn and more to try.

As it turned out, I did not work much at all on the journal this final week. Flipping through it the only new page I find is the doodle on the envelope page. So maybe that is kind of a closure – sealing up the envelope with all its pretty and strange contents and setting it aside for another time. I had a silly little project in mind, but the week was taken up in other activities. So here is the doodling …

Thanks for the awesome journey fellow wreckers! Thanks Jamie for hosting the Next Chapter. I have so enjoyed visiting all the blogs and getting to know each of you! Blessings to each precious one in what your future holds!

Wow! These two months are just flying by … Soon we will be saying goodbye to Sunny Days of Summer – and I am not ready for that yet! Are you ready to get back into the swing of a new school year? The good news is, my husband has found a one year position at our local state university and HIS school year has started this week! The girls and I have a few more weeks to play before buckling down to another year of school.

This past week in the Wrecking adventure hosted by Jamie Ridler,  I did tackle some of the ‘writing’ pages. Thanks ladies for the encouragement! I filled the ‘Internal Monologue’ pages with small print and won’t share it because it is after all my own personal thoughts.   I also filled the ANGRY page with a weird happening that involved a very ballistic person directing his anger at innocent by standers! (My daughter and Me!) And I have a few pages that friends helped with. Butch scratched ever so lightly on the ‘scratch with a sharp item page’. His last name is Rose and he scratched a very pretty rose on it, but it does not show up enough to share in a photo. And he left an ‘X’ mark cut in the ‘friend destruction page’  and Marsha ripped a corner off that page. Tee hee! Thanks my dear friends!

I received Kim’s lovely white pages filled with lace and trims and buttons and pebbles and other such items. It is a very pretty page! Thank you Kim – I think it is happy in its new journal home!

So what have I learned through this experience? I think the biggest thing was to just let go and have fun with this whole experience. I did step out of the comfort zone a bit. I found it fascinating how the friends I shared the journal with would just jump in and wreck away! (Altho some thought me a bit strange! You know the type who would never ever damage a book!? They watched, shaking their heads as the others wrecked!)

And I have so liked checking in on what all my fellow wreckers have been doing to their journals! I think I have visited each website – sorry that I did not leave a comment on each one. But I enjoyed each visit!

Happy wrecking ladies!

While in Knoxville last week, I solicited the help of my 8 year old friend Ruthie to help with the wrecking. She was more than happy to help out! Actually, rather gleeful! Wish I had a picture to show her in action! She is a very special and sweet child with Down Syndrome. Her name is Ruth Rachel, but by the end of our playing, I was calling her Ruth Rascal, which her mother said was very fitting! I showed Ruth my journal while her Mom had to run some errands and asked if she would like to do some ‘art’ with me. “YES!” she replied! So I turned to a blank page and asked her to write her name, which she did with no problems. Then I ripped out the page and crumpled it up so we could play Journal Golf. She was very good at kicking the paper ball through the ‘tent’ but the book is getting so full that I had to mostly hold it up.

Next I traced her hand and then she drew in her fingernails. She is so cute giggling as she colored away!

Then I turned to the color out side the lines pages and Ruthie did her thing!

By this time the markers are falling on the floor so I bent down to pick them up and Ruthie is just giggling and coloring away! BUT as I sit back up, Ruthie has turned to the pencil poke page and is adding her signature art work to that page! At first I thought “OH no! this page is just like I like it!” But the very next thought was “this is a wreck this journal venture” so I picked up a marker and joined in coloring in the circles on the page. And thus I started calling her Ruth Rascal.

The last page for last week was glueing in a newspaper page. I found the job fair page and glued it in as a hint to my hubby! He had applied to a job west of Knoxville, but had not heard anything back from them. I wanted him to call while in the area. He wasn’t feeling well by this time – picked up some virus or bacteria on our trip – coughing, sore throat, headache. Anyway the page is in and the good news is he does now have a one year position starting this week at a local state university in our home town! So thank you to all who have shared kind thoughts and encouragement in response to my post about the need for a job back in Week 2 of the Wrecking! This gives us some breathing space as his search for a full time position will continue. …. Thanks again for the well wishes during this time!

This week I found myself spending more time on just a few pages. I added to the ‘circle’ page while working on a quilting project with my daughter. Then I rearranged the ‘white things’ page and added more to it. I got out the pinking shears to do something destructive to the ‘sudden destructive’ page. Oh! And my husband dug up my ‘composting’ page while planting some ferns in the garden! He gave it back to me and I rubbed it on the ‘rub here with dirt’ page! That was a hoot! And last for the week, I added more stickers to the ‘fruit sticker’ page. Then I watched Jamie’s video – (our Wreck This Journal host, you can still join in if you want!) – and saw that she is also taking more time on some pages! How about that!

But there are some pages that are proving to be more difficult for me. I have been pondering what to do with them. I keep skipping over them – like the ‘ugly drawing’ page, the ‘write carelessly’ page, and the ‘angry word’ page. Jamie – any words of wisdom for tackling the hard-to-me pages?

Here are a few pictures of this past week’s destruction.

Newly revised circle page.

Improved white page. I like the flower pot collage on the left side.

I’m heading out on a road trip this week. So I think I’ll mail the journal home while I’m away. But can I part with it?

See you all next week!

Doodling over the copyright page with watercolor pencils and then spraying it with water now has my journal cover and first few pages popped wide open. All the more ready for more wreckage! Happy July everyone! For those of you in the States, I hope you have a great celebration on the 4th!

Writing backwards was not easy for me.

Lint from pockets and the dryer.

Some doodling with watercolor pencils.

I’m late signing up for this week but I have been wrecking. Funny that Jamie suggests we swap our  favorite page on her post this week as I have several that I am really liking now! Which one would I part with!? I’ve decorated the edges of the journal as you can see in some of the pictures, I’ve added lint, white things, random items, four letter words (with the help of creative friends!), smeared lines, dripped chocolate and other fun wreckage.

I used water color pencils for easy line smearing.

Friends helped with the four letter words. Aren't they creative!?

These random items did not come from my couch! They are just random found items!

I’m joining the “swap please” – - are you?

This week I have had a blast and lots of laughs as I have visited blogs of other fellow journeyers  on the Wreck This Journal book club. I personally have decorated the title page, added my fav number to “start numbering here page”, I’ve added sticky stuff, tea stains, fruit labels, punched holes and received advice from my daughter! The best part is laughing at what others have done with their journals. If you have no idea what I’m talking about – go check out the link!

Fruit label page. I added the Ale 8 label because we just took a quick trip to KY and bought the Ale 8. I read the label and they say they are a unique mix of ginger and fruit!

This is my sticky page that I will add more too as time goes on.

"Help" is my one word for this week! My husband's job ended May 31st. We really thought an offer was coming this week for a job he was very interested in. But alas, when the phone call came it was not with a job offer. Totally bummed. "Help" was the word I was internally screaming. Wrecking is a good thing to be doing right now!

I have more pages to share but need to run on to the next activity of the day. I look forward to continuing this trip with my fellow  brave  wreckers!

One of the things my hubby and I like to do is hang out at Barnes and Noble. I usually head to the Arts and Crafts section and then go to the magazines. Hubby heads for the photography section and then checks out the bargain books. Many times, but not always, we share our finds with each other, explaining why we think it is such a good book and then deciding if it should be placed on our ever growing wish list.

Several months ago, while at B & N, Hubby came up to me while I was flipping through Keri Smith’s book Wreck This Journal. I had read about the book and now I was giggling as I flipped through it. I told DH that I would one day buy this book. That day came yesterday! I happened upon Jamie Ridler’s blog and saw that she is hosting a book club using Wreck this Journal. So I high-tailed it over to B & N and bought the book.

When I got home, I paged through it and thought this will be a lot of fun and a bit intimidating. Will I be able to take it in the shower with me or drag it around the neighborhood? My gracious! But I jumped right in and “cracked the spine!” thinking that would be a good place to start and documented the purchase of the book.  Then I picked a blossom off my Christmas Cactus that has decided to bloom in June and pressed them on the appropriate page. And yes! it did bloom around Christmas too! What is it doing – over active plant. And I so do NOT have a green thumb.

So here is the beginning of what I think will be a crazy wacky summer of wrecking a book intentionally! I look forward to stopping by and visiting my fellow journeyers.  And Jamie explains on her blog that it is never to late to join in. So check out her blog if you think you might be interested! (see link above)