I can hardly believe we are nearly at the end of February - where does the time go? I thought I would show you another art journal page I worked on last week.
This time I tried a double spread. It is a painted back ground with scraps stuck on and then some stamping.
The words really express how I am feeling about being a parent at the moment - don't worry no major issues - just the general feeling that sometimes I am jogging through mud!! Although my girls bring me the greatest joy, they also challenge my parenting skills. No-one told me it could sometimes be this hard and that at times your heart could break. There is no handbook to give you the answers and you just hope you are doing the right thing. I'm sure every parent has felt like this. I just keep reminding myself that "this too will pass" and sometimes you have to go through the dark to appreciate the light.
I am enjoying creating these pages - learning to let go, experiment and just see what happens - which is something I'm not prone to doing on a regular basis!
Over on UK Scrappers, they are running a weekly class to encourage you to try art journaling. Whilst in the past I have admired those that express themselves in this way, I have not really felt the urge to try myself. The thing is my crafting time is limited and so when I finally sit at my desk, I want to get on and get some stories down and layouts completed. Taking time to play and get messy is not on my agenda. However since the class began in January, I have been dipping in and out of the forum, seeing what everyone is up to and it has encouraged me to give it a go.
On my first page, I decided to use my favourite colour - blue. It is a combination of scraps of paper, stamping and inking with distress inks.
On my second page, I got the paints out and used two colours I woudn't normal pick - red and orange. The words are stamped and then embossed with gold embossing powder.
Do you know I really enjoyed this. I'm definately going to keep going. The trick is not to overthink it - just grab what comes to hand and stick in on the page. I did both pages in under an hour - it took longer to tidy up the mess!
So if you are thinking of dipping your toes into the art journal world, I say go for it! You never know where it might take you.
