INSPIRE Art Journal Page

The theme this month at Art Journal Journey is - Inspired By

I am inspired to make art by practically everything I see on many social media platforms.  Recently on Pinterest, I was inspired by a dragonfly that had a clock hand for the body.

I won’t even bother describing the troubles I had.  BUT, I have to say I’ve had the most frustrating best time getting an art journal page finished.  

I see loads of painted backgrounds that I love but I find it difficult to get an acceptable result.  There is so much acrylic paint, and watercolor paint on this page!  By the time I get an acceptable result, I cannot seem to remember to stamp my images BEFORE using modeling paste!  

I trashed one page, I wasn’t going to trash ANOTHER!  I stamped the words on a separate piece of paper, tore it around the edges and glued it on.  Not exactly the desired look, but that leaves room for improvement, right?

I’ve had some silver metal words in my stash forever.  I darkened the metal with Timber Brown StazOn ink.    

The butterfly is a die cut from the first ruined page.  Until I ruined the first page attempt, I really liked it and managed to salvage most of the page to use in other ways.

I love the clock hand and a brad idea for the butterfly body.  I’m pleased enough with the page not to rip it from the journal.  Always an accomplishment for me still.

Me vs. Paints and a Flower

Me vs. Paints is typically a battle and the trash bin wins the prize of a quite unfortunate painting.  This time is different.  I think this painted watercolor flower is not completely unfortunate.

I think me and my inexpensive paints did a fairly decent job of it.  

I struggle with several painting issues.  The most debilitating of which is not being able to visualize the finish during the process.  So I don’t know when to quit fixing it.  Or even whether or not it needs fixing.  Another is not waiting for layers to dry.  For once I did use a heat tool at times to get it dry faster.  But I kept painting on it and making it worse.  It was destined for the trash bin.

Once I finally drew the scribbles, I could see it so much better.  But that just started a whole new fix-it process.  I thought one of us has to give in and I didn’t want it to be me.  I think I ended up with a fairly decently painted single flower for Sheila’s (Orange Esmeralda) A Single Flower theme at Art Journal Journey .

I haven’t actually pasted it into my journal yet as I’m undecided as to what I might want to do, if anything, with the page it will get pasted to.  

Update:  I have finished the page.

This theme runs for the entire month of March.  All mediums of art are welcome to join in.  It’s such a great theme to welcome the arrival of Spring.

A Single Flower

The very talented Sheila at Orange Esmeralda is hosting this month’s theme, A Single Flower, at Art Journal Journey.  Sheila inspired me to join in on the challenge as I discovered a single flower start piece in my box of odd pieces.

I decided to finish the flower as a page for my fabric book.  Which I realize is a type of journal of my textile art bits.

I created the flower by tracing two spirals onto Wonder Under and fusing them to the fabrics.

Cut them out.

I chose a base fabric for the flower.

I layered the pieces and fused them all together.

I did raw edge appliqué around the spirals and chose a decorative stitch to sew around the outside just catching the edges of the base circle.

A stem and leaves were added as well as some select selvedge words and color dots.  The base fabric for the page is a printed scrapbook paper onto Magic Fabric.  On the right side edge is a scrap of stripe fabric and another strip of selvedge.



Adding selvedges to my pieces is becoming a signature thing for me.

Thanks Sheila for suggesting and inspiring me to join in the challenge and adding to my fabric book art journal AND getting another odd piece finished up.

Anyone can join in for the monthly challenges.  All mediums are welcome.  Have a look at the other talented artists works here and be inspired to join in the fun.