Art Journaling

Today I am creating in an old Happy Planner I found. It was a dated planner and I hadn’t done all that much in it so I decided to turn it into an art journal.

I love using items like this to create in because they don’t feel precious and it also feels good to be using something I might not have otherwise.

I had a little fun looking through the beginning of the planner as it was when I was pregnant (and had just found out) with my youngest. I took those pages out to be used elsewhere and began thinking about what I wanted to do in the journal.

I started off with a coat of gesso, some paint and some tissue paper and that was as far as I got the first day. You can see the little video I made about the planner below.

When I sat down to work in the planner for the first time I wasn’t feeling great. My thoughts kept running negative, cranky and no matter what I did it just felt like I couldn’t shake out the negative. So while I was painting, and feeling cranky, I decided to just let all the thoughts that kept coming up in my mind out onto the paper.

I did a lot of illegible writing which I love. It let’s all the emotion out but there is no need to go back and read it again so it’s perfect for use in an art journal.

Especially when it’s cranky thoughts.

I wrote everything out using a Tombow marker which was great because it reactivates when it gets wet and I was able to blur the words out completely.

I stopped on Friday with the page just started but I felt so much better! It was a release of that energy and went into the weekend feeling great.

When I came back in to work on Monday I really didn’t know what I was going to do. I felt so different so I decided to just have a play and see where it went. As you can see in the video below, it went all over!

That’s my process though. I need to feel my way into most things and eventually the screaming girl that was going to look like me turned into a completely different, happy person with blue glasses.

Who knew?

I had so many moments during this process when the negative voice was jumping in telling me to turn off the camera and stop pretending to be an artist. I decided to keep making art anyway and I am so glad I did because I just love how the pages turned out!

I was inspired to add a house and I am not really sure why but I love how it came out-even though it’s not where I thought it would go. I think my favorite part of creating is to set out on a wave and ride it in never really knowing where I’ll land.

I hope you enjoy the videos and that perhaps you can set aside a few minutes to create along side me. Wishing you a lovely day!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante