The Breezy Journaling

OK, I have to admit this probably should not be called "journaling" although it is about the Gratitude Journal. I am still working on covering the blank pages and challenging myself at the same time.

I was at the Paper Source last week and they had the strangest (to me) publication on sale for half price. It is called "Gothic & Lolita Bible" straight out of Japan. WOW, interesting catalogue.... which I figured out on my own. Yes, I really did before I "googled" it.

Who knew that Gothic Lolita is a distinctive Japanese fashion style. Nope, I didn't. I have never seen it before but it drew me because I found some Asian paper (The Bee) elsewhere in the store that I have seen in layouts in several publications. I figured I would like to use that paper in a layout and utilize some clip art I bought last year.

That being said, I don't work much in the Asian realm. It just doesn't happen. Having said that, I have to admit that the first "Asian" art work I tried was at the "Painted Page" Michelle Ward workshop in Wisconsin last year. The reason: just because I felt like a "challenge" and did not want to work in my comfort zone. Here are the two pages I completed there:

From there to here..... it took several days to work on this.... thinking and mulling over what exactly I was doing. Experimenting with torn paper and layering, I have to admit I like the two pages. You can hardly see the background paper that launched this spread. I used a paint chip from Home Depot, feathers, an illustration from my new catalogue, some clip art, a white transparency frame left over from another project and a circle picked up somewhere along the way. But the color worked on both pages.

It was like I was wanting to show the present and past both at the same time. This is one reason I went to the clip art and used it in the right lower hand placement on the page. At first I thought I might like to imagine the mother and daughter both in the same career in different eras. But that story was only in my mind. And then the second page emerged:

OK, I know the next thing I need to start working on is making the "journaling" a little more visual (you notice there is no writing on either of these two pages). One blog I have been following is a jewel in this art work, Lindart's Art. I became acquainted with her through Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team Challenges. Take a look at her journal pages. She has been working on a "prompt" each day in July. On her July 1 post she mentions that she is in Kelly Kilmers Journaling group. I'm not familiar with this group but am going to do some research. I think I might like to try something like this and when you see Linda's art work you will understand what is drawing me to it. Enjoy.