get messy art journal blog hop

This inaugural get messy art journal season was the perfect way to get back into the groove after my long holiday break. It has been so awesome being part of such a supportive and inspirational community.

This week I broke from my normal pattern and decided to incorporate some digital elements. I know it seems strange, but digital art journaling is a thing. Sometimes I just don't have the time or the inclination to pull out the watercolors or stamps so going digital is a fun alternative. I don't look at it as replacing "real" watercoloring, rather I see it as building a whole different skill set where my supplies consist of a computer, software and a whole range of digi kits and brushes. I plan on doing some more in depth digital art journal pages, but for today I kept it pretty straightforward. I created a very muted background using some digital water color brushes in a bluish gray. I they created an overlay of text and knocked out the color to create a resist look. The words are lyrics to one of my favorite love songs..."Wild is the Wind"...the Nina Simone version.

One of my favorite lines from the song is "like a leaf clings to a tree, oh my darling cling to me." I liked the idea of recreating the leaf imagery...I wanted the leaves to appear as though they were blowing in the wind...but a bit more structured. I originally wanted to use real leaves that I had dried, but they crumbled in the process:( I then decided to choose some of my favorite digi paper patterns from One Little Bird and Paislee Press.

I printed them out on vellum and using a template I made, I cut my leaves out and adhered them to my art journal pages using some machine sewing. So yeah, that's it. This is one of my favorite art journal pages this season...not necessarily because it's the best, but because it reflected a lot of different loves for me...the song, Nina SImone, digital art, technology, words, and hand stitching.

In the spirit of this season of Love...please show some love to the other ladies participating in this blog hop and if you haven't registered for the Get Messy Art Journal Group...you can do so here.

1. Karyn
2. Lauren
3. Rebecca
4. Keshena
5. Kimberlee 
6. Nina
7. TC Larson

get messy | no. 05

Last week's prompts proved a little difficult for me. Some weeks I'm bursting with ideas and others...not so much. I love that the Get Messy philosophy is really about pushing through and making. While I know I can skip around and choose any prompt or just make something up...I really enjoy the challenge of creating with a framework. The prompts provide that frame.

I decided to do a page based on an author I love and a subject I love. Shakespeare and nature. Two of my favorites. Although this was loosely based on one of the prompts...I took some liberties as I always do. It's important for me to adapt the challenges and prompts to my liking rather than trying to adhere too strictly to what it says. This allows the ideas to flow a bit more freely. When it comes to art journaling I feel like I am always adapting and modifying my process. That's my favorite part...it changes as I change and becomes what I become.

This page consists of nothing more than watercolor. Last week really felt like Spring in the midwest. I didn't realize how hungry I was for the warmth. It has been bitterly cold and even a small bump in the temperature completely changed my mood. I wanted both the colors and the quote to reflect that. The orangey, coral and shock of blue reminds me of the outdoors and Springtime.

get messy | no. 04

This week I followed the prompts pretty literally. That's usually not the case. I tend to veer off in my own direction most of the time. Rather than focus on great acts of love in a historical sense, I decided to just focus on the concept of great acts. That led me to this wonderful quote by Victor Hugo.

The background was created using black, gray and white strips torn from a magazine. I wanted to focus on shades of a single color or non color rather and opted to cut the strips fairly thin. The background was really my interpretation of the quote. How great acts are usually the result of many small acts. I used the dark color palette to emphasize how these tremendous acts of love and kindness often occur in the shadows...in the darkness without witnesses and without praise.