There are so many words for these two pages of art journaling and then there are no words needed. Shaping my life and empowering it both with mind and spirit toward healthy lifestyle has been a total life changing experience and adventure. The image of a runner was the beginning of the physical side of shaping up my life so when I found it in my clippings, it was perfect.
The "Power to Shape Your Life" especially in your mind and spirit isn't as easy as one would think. My road to a healthier lifestyle has been, let's see...28 months now and counting. The power of the mind is stronger than anything I had ever known! Self-talk controls that because my body can do more than my mind thinks it can. I clip words, phrases, photographs from magazines, ads, newspapers (which I rarely read, just flip through) and stick them in a 12x12 plastic folder just for art journaling. Then when I am working on projects like this, I pull them out...and use them on pages...
...like here... These words empowered me! They were a list on an ad for something. I felt they were all great and could be used in such a way as this. I cut them down as i was working on this page. I had these "peace" signs from paper in my scraps. I thought empowering + peace = shaping my life. I also, took water crayons and marked around each word to give them pop and then brushed around them.
The runner had some great color within the ad that I adapted to the page. It was the same inks I was using to distress the page, water color based by the way. The gesso allows me to use more water on the page and it keeps it from soaking through the page below.
One of my all time favorite things is to crunch up sewing dress pattern tissue and gesso it down onto a page. It gives great texture to the page. That is what I did here and throughout the book.
Another technique I love to use on art journaling pages as well on the edge of ATCs is spackle. I have on hand white and beige. That is what you see on this page. It leaves a great texture on the page and it came cheap for me...I took it from my husband's shop LOL! =O You never know what you might find in HIS stash to use in art journaling...just saying...then you can move that technique over to scrapbooking or other areas of art...one never knows the possibilities of shaping up your life and where you might begin living strong and healthy.
When I think of distressing, inking always comes to mind. But markers, pens, tools roughing up the edges, and even more ways pop into thinking as I type. Here I used water crayons and ink pads. The area under the runner's arm is actually part of the photograph from the magazine. I thought it blended perfectly with the page. I love the water color crayons and how well they work. I use two sets, one I got from Stampin' Up and another set I got from Hobby Lobby.
In this corner, I used more of the spackle and left a portion of the hymn showing that I mentioned in my notes yesterday. I also used water crayons in the circle with the Bic ink for the circle outlines. It is such fun to play with different ideas on a page. I wonder if art journaling was started as a way to play with various techniques before taking them to the canvas...
Around the arms and hand, I used a darker water crayon to shad these areas to look as if the runner was moving on the page. I wanted a swish marking as if she were passing along the way on her way to shaping her life...
A closer view of the crinkled sewing dress maker pattern tissue, water color crayons outlining the word clippings and the distressing inks.
One thing I do find helpful, is using wax paper. I gesso several pages ahead, so I use wax paper to separate the pages to keep them from sticking. While working on this book, I was at the family fishing/hunting cabin. I forgot to take my heat gun to dry as I went along. Therefore, I thought I would just use the wax paper. It will be a staple in my supplies now. If it happens to stick, which it did on one page, so what...texture. Perfect...
New roads and new ways of shaping us happen. Art journaling these travels is a great way to bring respite and understanding to what we want to learn along the way both in our souls and on paper.
Hugs, Rita
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