First Journal Page

Hello everyone, and a happy Sunday to you.  Welcome to Words and Pictures, and an especially big welcome to the new followers; I'm so delighted you decided to join up!

I'd like to share my first journalling attempt with you today.  I've been admiring art journalling posts around Craftyblogland for some time, and can see that an art journal is a wonderful place to play freely, and explore ideas, feelings, products and techniques.  But I was really scared about doing it!  I decided you've just got to start...

Regulars will see that this first page grew out of my recent Autumn tag, sharing techniques, colours and even some recycled leftovers!  I was so enjoying making the tag, and the autumn sunshine (definitely got that tang in the air now round here) and some of that feeling needed to overflow into another outlet, so here it is.

In fact, the first elements arrived out of playing with an earlier challenge - the Tim Holtz Whitewash stamping technique.  I was frustrated because I loved the effect of simply stamping in Picket Fence Distress Stain, and only reluctantly completed the rest of the stages!

I'd got myself a couple of journal books to play with, to try to tempt me into starting.  I got one with Kraft pages, as I do love working on Kraft, so it seemed a good idea.

I had to do something to break the barrier of all those blank sheets of paper, so I stamped down the TH Papillon text stamp in Picket Fence as my opening salvo.






From there, it just gathered pace... there's TH tissue tape (LOVE it!); the Artistic Outpost leaf came into play;








the Kaisercraft music stamp, using my newly discovered tissue paper stamping game;   a TH texture stamp from the Ultimate Grunge set;










and collaged pieces of the paper (Kaisercraft Timeless, with additional inking) left over from the previous project.












I tried using a left over Life is good quote too, but it wasn't quite right somehow, so I stamped myself a new one on less inky paper.  I also spritzed the whole thing with some Ranger Mushroom Color Wash, which gives it all some additional texture and a nice depth, I think.






I love that through it all, that Picket Fence stamping holds its own...

It's only a one-sided page, as it's the first in the book. I don't know yet what the cover is going to do, and I'm probably going to have to do something clever with sandwiching pages, as the paper is really quite thin so will need some buffering in the long run, but overall I'm happy to have got the thing started... I hope it will roll more easily now.

So, there you have it... you can see my mood is autumnal, but also pretty buoyant, I hope.  Just about to start a new theatre project, and I've heard there's going to be lots of singing so that always makes me happy!  I hope that whatever you're up to this weekend makes you happy too...  thank you so much for spending some of it here with me.  It's always a real delight to hear your thoughts, and I do always try to return the visit if I know you've been...

I'm entering this in the following:
The Art Journal Cafe who, by happy chance, are looking at Monochromatic pages this week
A final throw of the dice in the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, No Rules


If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you are right.
Henry Ford

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Lao-Tzu

The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings.
David Weinbaum