How does your Garden grow Spread

I made another page in my Altered Book, and used my latest acquisition, Inktense Blocks. These are an offshoot of the Inktense Watercolour Pencils. Instead of in a pencil, the colour comes in a block and you activate it by spraying or brushing it with water. And then watch the colour explode. Really these blocks are pure pigment!

The leaf stamp is from Dylusions, the vintage lady is printed on canvas and coloured in, and on the opposite side I've used a transparency of an image obtained from Mary Green. The words were stamped and then coloured in. There's a lot of outlining with a metallic gold marker but the scanner is not great at picking this up. I love the little flower stamp for journalling. Great for colouring in and having little accents here and there.

I'm not quite sure about this page but that's okay. Art Journaling is a new art form for me so I'm really experimenting on these pages. I've outlines some words from the text in the book I'm altering and together they read:

innate strengh

heroine of real life

deprived of home

last surviving link

The book I'm using dates back to 1895 and really the language is amazingly florid!

Alone Time Spread

I'm art journaling in several different albums, so that I can work away in one while gessoing a page in another and waiting for paint to dry in yet a third. Also I'm using different formats to see what suits me best. One of the things I'm trying out for the first time is working in an old book and altering it. The person I have to thank for finally getting me started is, of course, Lenna Andrews and it was her lessons in the 4Artists4Ways class that gave me the final push to do it for myself rather than endlessly reading about it in various magazines and books! That's another thing I have to thank Lenna for. My life would look quite different artwise if we hadn't "met" online all those years ago.

In fact, so keen am I to make up for lost time as regard to art journaling that I have to remind myself occasionally that I'm a quilter and should spend some time at least making quilts. I'm rediscovering all my old art supplies that have been lingering in the cupboard and of course, also indulging in some new ones that weren't on the market when I first started, such as Inktense Colour Blocks (as opposed to pencils) and Portfolio water soluble wax pastels , not to mention the exciting mica sprays which have been put to good use on this spread, combined with masks.

I journaled this page while John was away last week and I had a lot of alone time to cope with or enjoy (secretly I did indeed do that, although it's great to have him back!!). For a week I didn't have to talk, or eat meals at regular times, nor did I leave the house apart from the dog walks. I wish I could say I didn't spend any money but alas, I'm an Amazon junkie! The only person I had any social contact with was our postie! You can read my thoughts on this alone time on the page. I know the "Alone is not deformed" text is a bit forced but the Deformed word came from the book I'm altering and I wanted to use it. Not a word you ever hear used nowadays but the book I'm altering (The Squire's Daughter and Other Tales) was published in 1895. Language and how we talk about people has most definitely changed a lot since then!

You can see the first pages I altered in this book here. And I should also mention that the building transparency is from Altered Pages. The lovely lady originates from a vintage postcard.

My first Art Journal page

Lenna has long been an inspiration to me and we have been following each other's art journeys for many years now. We did classes together (online as she is in Florida and I'm in Scotland!) and she taught me about stamping while I hope I have shown her how much fun sewing and fabric can be. We did the Sketchbook Project last year and again this year, as well as the Vintage Gluebook class. Lenna herself teaches many great classes online, such as this one.

So when she started an Art Journal and started working in it every day, I paid attention, not just because her spreads were beautiful but also because I had many journals in my studio but sadly they had remained empty so far. I had purchased them to make me start but that hadn't worked and all they were doing were making me feel guilty. However what those journals couldn't do, Lenna achieved by simply showing me the way. So I have started, and with a vengeance. I have one altered book on the go to journal in and 2 Moleskine Sketchbook Journals, one portrait and one landscape orientation.

If you want to start too, have a look here where Lenna gives you some hints and tips to do so! And for further inspiration you can't do better than to look at all the spreads she has produced so far on her blog.

I'm not aiming to journal every day like she is, but I will try and finish at least a spread every week or so and show them here, without much explanation, but simply to demonstrate how I journal and what I end up with. Having the shed to work in is a great help as that way my quilts and my paints don't get to meet up unless I want them to! I started this first spread in the altered book and had painted and sprayed the pages weeks ago when I was painting something else. Then I added my pictures of a red geranium, added the tape, started doodling flowers and then wrote. I found doing it in different stages really worked for me, I like letting things just happen. No idea where the Persevere idea came from, perhaps because I was having a difficult day at the time but it seems to be rather appropriate for the start of my Art Journal journey!

It took a few days before I finally decided this page is most definitely done and showing it here means I won't go back to it again.