Cat got your tongue?

This months crusade on Michelle Ward’s GPP Street Team is about journaling and writing on your pages, using different writing styles. The writing has always come pretty easy to me. I haven’t been writing that much lately, I used to journal every day. When I was studying at uni (English and Writing) I wrote reams of paper.

When we had pregancy problems and we were grieving the deaths of our sons – I wrote – I didn’t know what else to do, so I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. Some of it I have g0ne back and read again, some of it has never seen the light of day – but it has served its purpose. It was therapy.

some of my writing journals from the last 10 years

I wrote and I created artwork – it has only been recently that I have discovered art journaling and begun to bring my writing and art together. I find it difficult to limit my writing and will write all over the page.

One of my favourite journals at the moment (yes, I have several on the go at once!) is my zentangle journal. While I was in Melbourne I bought a new copic multiliner sp pen that can be refilled and the nibs can be replaced – its a great pen for doodling. I just need to get a couple with different sized nibs.

So what are you waiting for, check out the crusades and get journaling!

GPP Street Team Crusade #29

#75 on 101 things in 1001 days was to Participate in the GPP Street Team Crusades each month for a year. This is the third month this year that I have participated in Michelle Ward’s Crusades.

So this month we are exploring different brush effects in our journals. In a recent post - I was inspired by a fellow crusader Julie Prichard to try painting with wet brushes and let the paint drip down my page. Usually I use a dry brush, so this was a great learning curve. I have used this type of painting when painting canvases, but not in my journal.

Today I tried applied a blob of paint directly to the page – I used a silicon tool to spread the paint around until I was happy with it and then I pressed another piece of paper to it. I was actually able to make two prints, so this is useful to make aditional journal pages. Each print looks different from the first.

The next step was to dry brush colours over it. I’m pleased with how it turned out – now I’m off to journaL it and I might do another page in my other journal – stay tuned. In the mean time go check out the Crusade blog and the other crusaders.

More Portion Control!

More pages that use portion control – don’t know what I am talking about see this post  or check out the GPP Street Team Blog.

After painting the background for this journal page – I stencilled portions of the patterns onto the page. Once dry I could ad images and my journaling. The journaling is done with a white gel pen – I love how the writing appears to float above the background.

For the next page I used a large flower stencil – that I have had for ages but never used. The flower on the right is the stencilled one. The flower on the left is a monoprint from the stencil.

With the collage added.

I write a lot in my journal pages – that’s just me I guess - I’m a writer and I have a lot to say. For this page I tried to write in a more expressive open script and limit how much I wrote – exercising portion control with my writing. I think it worked.

GPP Crusade #28 – Portion Control

Michelle Ward’s latest GPP Street Team Crusade is Portion Control - What does she mean by Portion Control?

“What do I mean by Portion Control?  I believe that part of something is more interesting than the whole.  It creates a sense of mystery, an engagement of the viewer to try to figure out what they are looking at.”

 I was a few days behind on my a prompt a day art journal pages that I am doing with Kelly Kilmer. So this evening, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone.

After preping the page with acrylic paints – I used my large alphabet stencil to stencil some letters onto the page. Some are complete, some are light and some are dark.

With collage elements added.

Complete with journaling.

Check ou the GPP Street Team Blog to find out more about Portion Control.

Shaping Up – Crusade #27

Contrary to popular belief – this is not about getting in shape for the new year. Although we could probably do some of that. This months crusade is about investigating shapes, positive and negative shapes. Michelle suggests that we create our own tools such as stamps and stencils as we investigate our shapes.

I made some square stencils using an old x-ray film and my paper punches. I also made a stamp using a champagne cork.

Have some fun and make your own shape tools. Check out the GPP Street Team Blog.

Final Wishes – Crusade #24

It’s taken me a while to work up to doing this crusade. I really wanted to do it – because I know how important it is – but I had to wait until I was ready to actually write about it.

What am I on about? Back in September Michelle Ward challenged GPP Street Teamers to document their final wishes for their loved ones. Michelle had recently lost her sister and was able to fulfill her sister’s final wishes.

I know how difficult it is to make arrangements after the death of a loved one, while coping with the grief of losing them. So I finally took the challenge and wrote about my final wishes. I wrote them in my Soul Journal – here is a glimpse – as they are personal I won’t be detailing them. Take a look at The GPP Street Team Blog if you want to know more.

Soul Journal – Prompt 9 – Web of Love.

Soul Journal Prompt 9 was Web of Love – thinking about the webs that we spin out in in our own lives, relationships and roles that we play. The background was created as part of GPP Street Team Crusade 21 Irresistable – Making wax rubbings.

The background was created using a fiskars rubbing plate, a white crayon was rubbed over the plate and then when the rubbing was completed I wiped frayed burlap distress ink over it.  The detail was journaled into the web using a white gel pen.

GPP Street Team Crusade #26

For this crusade Michelle Ward has challenged us to journal about scents. Scented candles, fragrances, smells that we like, or maybe even dislike. I started my journal page as an homage to my love of roses, but as I wrote my thoughts turned to my mother and her favourite perfume – which I had got a sample of the other day.

So what are your favourite scents?

Drop by the Street Team to see all the posts by other crusaders.