Art Journal Pages

Participating in Dina Wakely's out of the journal challenge has been amazing and also so freeing.  I have definitely conquered my fear of painting on canvas, and am proud of what I've been creating.  My canvas this week memorializes this journey.

Also, creating canvases has helped me return to my art journal for what it it's meant to be - a journal of experiences, experiments, and where I can embrace my creative self without judgment.  Here are some of my pages from the last few days:

Last weekend, I was feeling in such a funk.  It was hard to see the sunshine and feel the beauty of my life.  We had a very busy weekend with too many "to dos" for my liking, and that was part of it.  Also, I was very aware of it being the second to last weekend of the summer.  The thought of packing up and closing our little summer cottage weighed me down.   Even though I could identify the sources of my mood -- stress and genuine sadness, it was hard to kick it.  I had to accept the fact that some days are just blue.  Even though I wasn't in a great mood, I loved the colors of this page.  Here's a close up that captures it more.

I think most moms will be able to identify with the "fly like a butterfly" side of this spread.   As much as we love our kids, sometimes it would be nice to just fly into the sky with no one to be responsible for but ourselves.  I guess it might get a little lonely after a while...  The butterfly page was done with 3 stamps, keeping with Julie and Nathalie's Second Floor Challenge to make a layout using 3 stamps.  First, I stamped the page all over with a Michelle Ward rubber stamp called Graphic Details.  I stamped Artists' Butterfly stamp several times on white copy paper on which I had scraped a pale blue background, painted the butterflies with fluid acrylics, cut 3 out, and pasted them on the page.  Then I used alphabet stamps (don't remember the brand but from Michael's) for the printed lettering.  I hope that still counts as 1 stamp! 

After several days of being blue and snippy to everyone around me, I woke up yesterday and decided: today I will be sweet.  I will not say a mean or grumpy word to anyone.  I will not gossip or be catty or cranky or cross.  And I'm happy to say I went to sleep last night having succeeded in keeping true to my affirmation.  I felt pretty pleased with myself!

Linking up to Dina Wakely's Out of the Journal,  Artists in Blogland, and Paint Party Friday Please visit those blogs and spread some love to the amazing artists there.

Also, A Year in the Life of An Art Journal has just posted a very cool prompt to do a layout where you're speaking to your younger self. I'm definitely going to participate!  And Creative Every Day's theme for September is "Time."  I can't wait to see what people do...

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment.  Hearing from you means the world to me.