December Art Journal Cover

Here it is....the newly created cover for the Christmas Art Journal. I had so much fun with the art journal last year and I hope to this year also!  I'm not very good at all about pre-prepping pages like is always suggested. 

This cover is made from an old board book that I stripped off the original printed materials and then covered with some green card stock.  The Ho Ho Ho part is actually holiday packing tape!  The December is cut from a magazine, the 2012 are stickers, the snowmen cut from scrapbook paper, and the Santa is a recyled card front! I plan of doing the inside of the front cover next as a dedication page!  More details to follow soon.

Once again I am trying to create the art journal without buying materials. I do admit I bought some materials last year on clerance after Christmas so I will use those, combined with recycled cards and other materials to create! I am also "allowed" to use anything from my stockpile of materials. My goal is to eventually not have such a BIG stockpile!

Day 18 Scary Movie

It's an old movie but one that had me awake for nights....I can still hear the sing song chant when I close my eyes....CREEPY!

Day 18 was to create a page featuring a scary movie!

Day 14 Pages: Bats or Owls

Day 14 is to work a bat or an owl into your page. This is a creation by Tim, one of the members of The Creative Spirit Facebook group. Isn't it neat?  The owl is created with tissue page.

Day 14 using a bat cut out.

Day 14 by Jessica a member of the Facebook Creative Spirit group...I love the title...Bats Rock!

I'm loving the Halloween journal and the facebook group has so many creative people!  If you would like to join please check it out at:

Creative Spirit at Facebook

Art Journal: Day Three and Four

Things that Go Bump in the Night...I tried playing around with a thicker kind of white paint. I'm not sure I like it...I went back later and added some glitter purple to tame it a bit.

Creepy Crawlies....spiders (from Dollar Tree) and the white paint again with purple glitter.  Not my favorite pages but it was fun playing around!

Halloween Art Journal Day One and Two

Day One Prompt: Childhood Memories. Do your page about anything that you remember from childhood. A favorite costume. A special Halloween or even parties at school.

Day Two Prompt: Halloween Bucket List...what are some things you would still like to do that involve Halloween?

October is here and the fun has begun!!

Faith Collage

So the homework this week at church was to create something to express our faith.  For those of you that have read some of my earlier posts and things on Facebook, you may remember that back in January of 2012 I started a little (and I do mean litte) art journal called Soul Musings that I consider my spiritual art journal...so the idea presented was not foreign to me. 

In fact, a couple weeks back when the pastor encouraged people to start small groups I thought about suggesting a faith art journal group but then I thought..."ummm no, probably people would be afraid to join such a group saying they are not great artists." Those of you that art journal know you do not need to be a great artist....that's not the purpose of an art journal. So I kept quiet and then in my inbox that same week was an email about a Journal Your Faith class...coincidence?  I'm still keeping quiet... it's an idea on the back burner. Life has been hectic of late and I'm not sure how much time I truly have to spare.

I did however create a Faith Collage to share. Yes we are suppose to bring them to church but I am out of town this coming weekend so I had a short time line to create it....I'm not sure I LOVE it...but it is, what it is...and I taped a description on the back so people could understand the images better and how I see them tied to faith. 

Art Journal Materials

Gathering materials for the Halloween art journal made me start thinking about materials in general. People often ask...what do I need to make an art journal. The truth is as little or as much in the way of materials as you want. A basic would include markers (I LOVE sharpies.) I know some of you use more professional markers but for my needs Sharpies work GREAT and now they are in lots of colors. I have other markers too but find I like the strong vibrant sharpies the best. Also basic for me is an adhesive. I do a lot of collage so this is a must. If you paint and/or draw then this may not be as important to you. Paints and sketching pencils if you like that medium. And of course a book or pages to bind into a book! That's about it!
The collage materials are the most challenging for me. I look for them every where. In magazines, ads that come in the mail, newspapers etc. I often find some GREAT FREE printables online but one must be cautious of smearing with them! I don't BUY collage materials very often because they have such a "scapbook" feel. Not that I don't like scrapbooks but it's just not what I want in my journal.
However I did buy some collage materials at the Dollar Tree recently. See. I told you I look for materials everywhere! These great silhouette shapes will be perfect for the Halloween art journal!

They had spiders, owls, rats, and bats! There are 15 in a package and some of them have different poses. At first I thought they were tissue paper but they aren't. They are a nice crisp black paper, not exactly cardstock but thicker than just a sheet of paper! I had to take a couple out to see if they would fit my pages. I'm not using them like this I just wanted to see the size!

Can't wait to play around with these. Perfect for the Creepy Crawlies prompt...or...the Are You Afraid of Your Shadow prompt...or any number of the October prompts!