Season of Words // Week 1+2
After a short hiatus on here, I’m happy to be back to share more of my art journaling process! My hiatus was due to the last three weeks of Season of Serenity where I was out of the house every Thursday. No joke. So those pages are all up on Instagram if you want to see them there.
The latest season is the Season of Words, which is super awesome and fits great with journaling! The first week of the season was dedicated to finding an old book and altering it in preparation as our new journal for the season. I picked up a wonderful little book at my local thrift store to use as my journal for this season. Once I got it home I discovered that it was a gift from 1899 – WHAT. No, really. So, somehow I managed to pick probably the oldest book in the store. A mere 116 years old – no BIG DEAL. And then the book promptly fell apart in my hands. I wasn’t sure if I was cool with potentially “destroying” such an old book, but after it fell apart I came to terms with it. Instead of tossing it now, I would be giving it a new life. So I repaired it and altered the cover a bit to add more character.
Since it was falling apart, I used some trusty E6000 glue to put it right. I found this scrapbooking paper in my stash to help with the repair and it happens to fit almost perfectly. I’ve been hoarding it for literally the last 6 years. I guess hoarding paid off this time! The pages have so much texture to them and are turning out to be terrific backgrounds for pages.
After jumping back into creating journal pages after a break, I managed to somehow get all the challenges/prompts done this time around. Unheard of! Since it’s a book, a bio about the author was necessary. Including a late night Instax of myself. Selfies with instant film is hard! I think this one made me look alive and not like a ghost (which is a success for my pale self.)
The next was a dedication to myself, one to encourage and inspire me whenever I opened this little book. I actually write a lot of self love, positive messages to myself. I’m a firm believer in believing in you, your dreams and your capabilities. It might a little cheesy, but sometimes just writing down the words you WANT to hear and to believe makes them feel that much more believable.
The texture on this page is everything right now. I remembered that you can print on vellum, so I added this lovely illustration. It seemed to just fit. And tissue paper. Tissue paper is everthing. Thanks Vanessa for turning me on to it!
Since the last spread was a bit dark, I tried to go against my desire to make the next one dark as well. The pages in this book are quite aged and a medium-light brown, so I seem to want to go dark with these spreads. Gesso to the rescue! And modeling paste, actually. Which is a new love of mine. I just love texture, really. SO much texture. This quote comes from the Internets, since I couldn’t find the originator of it. Even though it’s been said a MILLION times on Pinterest, it resonates with me as I am in the thick of pursuing a personal dream. What dream is this? You will find out soon enough š
That’s this week’s set of pages! Woop. I actually had some black gesso and matte gel medium arrive in the mail yesterday, so I’m looking forward to trying them out on some new pages. If you want to check out some other amazing pages, please check out the Get Messy site and everyone else who’s sharing every Thursday! Until next week: “Creativity takes courage.” – Henry Matisse.
