Art Journal- I've started!!!!

Hurray!!!! My art journal is green for go!  I'm sooooo pleased with myself. I painted the base colours yesterday and finished it off this morning. It's now drying happily on the table. I used a sketchbook, as the pages were nice and thick, but the ring binding is at the top (short edge) of the page, so it was a bit tricky to set out. Well, you'll see that a bit later on........

First step- create a background.


I painted the pages with white gesso for a textured base, then smooshed around some acrylic paints until I was happy with the effect.

I chose blue and white paint to try to get a bit of a wintry sky feeling. Looking out of my indow right now, the sky is a gorgeous blue and the sun is shining, but I know it's freezing cold too. So I watered down the warmer blue with a lot of white. I wanted some sunshine in there too, as a reminder that sunnier days are on their way, and also because this is the month where I get blinded on my way to work in the morning when the sun is sooooo low it glares through my windscreen......




Next step- decorations!

One must have element- the month! I love this See D alphabet- Typewriter font in Stazon Teal.

I stamped some bare trees across the bottom of the pages (Crafty Individuals stamps), in Stazon black and Teal, and added some spots by sponging through sequin waste in Distress Inks (Scattered straw and Faded jeans).

Excuse the 2 little squares, I'd started sticking them on before I remembered to take a photo.

I decided on a bit of ripped up book to accentuate the sun rays, and then added a couple more random sections- they're sponged with a little bit more of the Distress Inks.









Step 3 - Journal space

Like most crafters I have lots of odd bits of offcuts that I'm saving to use on something- well now I've used lots of them!! I ended up with 1.5" squares. i'd have liked larger, but they wouldn't fit......

So there are squares with cosmic shimmer mist on, squares that have been watercoloured with Distress inks and overstamped, all sorts of bits and bobs. I tried to use the same ones several times, to give a little bit of continuity, and chose a lot of the yellow and bluey green squares to tie in to the background. That said, it needed the splashes of purple and red to lift it.




So..... that's it. What do you think? I just need to fill in the 31 squares now. Next thing is to number them, and fill in yesterday's square.....can't wait!