On this page I used a digital stamp from The Octopode Factory on Etsy. I absolutely adore the Octopode stamps! You can also get these in good old fashion rubber but I don't think they're available in the U.S. so I use the digitals. Depending on what you're doing and how elaborate you want your piece to be, fussy cutting is definitely required. The two elements on this page were easy to cut out, but I did another page last night using a good number of digitals and boy, I was cutting forever! But I really enjoyed putting the page together and that's what counts. (Can't wait to show it to you but I'm getting way ahead of myself!)

SO! Background by Dylusions! Lots of miscellaneous stamps here. The three colored mushrooms are from a magazine ad. I didn't add color to my girl because she's different from all other things, and although she can fit in easily with nature, she has a hard time elsewhere. She knows she's different, she can feel it on the inside, but people won't leave her alone to be who she is. Everyone wants her to be something else. Journaling to this effect was added after photo.

The Octopode Factory Blog

Inspired by...Art Journaling for Women

"Art Journaling is yours, it's personal to you, and here we have a safe place to share!" ~Lesley Regan Ratcliff~

Art Journaling for Women is a free Facebook Group where you can share your work, find some inspiration, support others, and know that you're among people of a like mind. This is a group of several hundred art journalers from all around the world. Every day there's more eye candy to look at and ooh and aah over. I'm always fascinated by the work of others, and this is probably the best place I've found where everyone is welcome to post their work. I enjoy the posts and I love the inspiration I get from other journalers. Especially when everyone is down to earth and super into having fun and supporting each other.

You should stop by and check it out. It's a private group so you'll have to ask to join if you're interested, but who wouldn't be?

Page done 10/2011 with Adirondack Color Wash and Stencils

When God closes a door...

Here's a simple page made with Dylusions Ink Spray and miscellaneous stamps. This was so easy to make! I'm loving the Dylusions Ink Sprays! The colors are vibrant and they're easy to work with! They're quite magical to be honest.

What saying would you think of if you saw a picture of a closed door? This is the one that always comes to mind for me, but somewhere along the way, some wise person (or smart ass, depending on your point of view), decided there was more to it. The wise person in this case, I believe was my late sister. She always chose her words so well, especially when she wanted to get a point across.

If you have a few closed doors in your life, maybe you should give them another look..

Isn't she cute? She's a Gorjuss stamp and her name is Ruby. There are so many cute stamps out there, and try as you might, you're going to get hooked on one of them! I have four Gorjuss stamps and I'm pretty sure there will be more.

Ruby helped save a page that I hated. I don't remember what was on the page before, but I'm pretty sure it was done with Ranger Color Wash, and I covered it up with Pan Pastels. I really like the pan pastels, haven't learned how to use them very well but they sure do cover a multitude of sins. The only problem is when you mix two mediums together like that, you sometimes end up with a funky color. I did this a while ago so I don't remember what colors I used exactly, but when I sprayed the hearts/flowers stencil (color wash on pan pastel)...they came out green. Ew. So I took some gesso and painted over the green...they turned blue. Oh. But it was okay! I was totally "good with it". Even after I put the border down the center of the page, I was good with it.

Inspired by...Donna Downey

Donna Downey has this thing that she does on Wednesdays and I'm pretty much addicted to it. She calls it Inspiration Wednesday. Each week, on Wednesday, (just in case you didn't pick that up the first two times), she produces a YouTube video while creating in her journal. You know what? It's fun!

I love to watch as Donna talks to herself us and describes what she intends to do, or not. Sometimes she has a plan, sometimes she just wings it, but she always makes an outstanding journal page! She's down to earth and honest about what she's doing, even admitting it when she doesn't have a clue. She's very entertaining and I love her thought process.

But more than that, I find Donna to be very inspiring. As accomplished as she is, there are days that she just doesn't "feel it". I've watched her talk herself through these times, quite often putting the brush down and stepping away to think about it. What she always ends up with though, is a piece that she's "good with". OMG, what a concept!! Video after video I've heard her say "I'm good with that" or "Yeah, I like that", or even "I think it's done now". OMG! I really don't think I've ever heard words like "awesome", "beautiful", "gorgeous", or even "brilliant", (although there are times that Donna Downey is extremely brilliant).

I know that every time I open a journal, I don't have to create a Rembrandt. I don't have to try and please someone else, I just need to please myself. But it's hard to practice that when you expect too much of yourself. I think we all do that to some degree because we want to push ourselves and accomplish more. But for me, being 'good with it' is good enough.

Visit Donna's blog: Simply Me. Watch Donna's videos: Donna Downey Videos

This is the first article in my own version of Inspiration Wednesday. Check back each Wednesday as I share some of my favorite people with you.

Serendipity

At times I'm astounded by the creations I make. I seldom have a plan in my head of what I'm going to do and I just start making a background. When that's done I don't always know where I'm going next, but the pieces come together...slowly. This is one of those pieces. I wanted to use my Dyan Reavely border stencils so I went ahead and inked it with Forest Moss Distress Ink. That was it....the brain had nothing more to add. I was stuck with some pretty color that kind of looked like water, and a mossy green leaf border.

Don't EVER let anyone stop you from clipping pictures and saving them! Just do it, and don't throw them out! You never know when you'll need help to spark an idea, and that pile of clippings that's been sitting there for a year? It just may have the answer!

I knew she was perfect for this page as soon as I saw her. She looked like she could walk on water and I just happened to have some! Then I was stumped again until I found my birdcage stencil. Mind you, this all took about a week to come together. In the meantime, I was working on other pages, doing other things, while this page put itself together.

And that, my friends, is called serendipity. "The accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it".

Background done with Dylusions Ink Spray and Luscious Leaves stencil border. Miscellaneous stamps.

A new beginning...

Happy September to you and happy art journaling day to me! Today, I plan on playing with some Dylusional Ink and making a fun two page spread in my composition book- turned journal. I've found that my comp books don't scare me like the hard cover journals...I'm not afraid to just let go and let the paint (or ink) fly! I normally use Strathmore spiral bound journals, but I bought a couple hard cover books and everytime I open one of them, I freeze up. Using the comp book was a quick fix because it was "there", and now I'm having some fun. I'm hoping I'll get so relaxed that I can move on to the hard cover journals without bursting into tears. :-)

Before I start playing with something new, I want to share this page with you that was totally inspired by Kathy at the Paper Pumpkin.

When working with a comp book, I like to first glue a couple pages together to give them a bit more body, and then apply a coat of gesso to the top of the page. Comp book paper is smooth and doesn't have any "teeth" for the ink/paint to hold onto. Without it, Dylusional Inks just sink into the paper rather than mix together and blend as you want them to. You can watch Dyan Reavely's videos for some great demonstrations on how to use her ink sprays. She's fabulous and so much fun!

The background is a combination of stamps and stencils that I use most often, and then I stenciled the flowers in the foreground with a black Micron. Once I filled in the color with Prisma pencils, I outlined them again with ink and black marker to make them pop. My beautiful vintage lady is a print that I picked up at Pringle Hill. I outlined her with black marker as well so she wouldn't just blend into the background.

All in all, I was really quite pleased with the end result, and very happy with the inspiration from the Paper Pumpkin!