How I did It: Art Journaling

You might have noticed that I have a "Big Idea Festival" badge on the left side of my blog. The Big Idea Festival, Words to Live By, is a free, 12-day workshop where each day, a different instructor gives a word of the day, and the participants use that as inspiration for their pages. Most participants are scrapbookers, but some, like me, are treating it as an art journalling class.

I've been getting some VERY sweet compliments on my pages in the gallery section of the workshop, and one person asked if I could elaborate on how I create my pages, the layers etc. So I took some still photos of the page and also shot a very amateurish video on Dwight's iPod, to walk through the steps. I seemed easier than typing it all out here.

Before I get into it, though, I do have to give a shout-out to Christy Tomlinson, a crazy-talented mixed media artist and creator of the She Art Workshop (and other workshops) where I learned a lot of the techniques I use. If you have any desire to do mixed media work, I highly suggest Christy's classes. She's incredibly generous with her talent and is just darling.

Now on to the show.


Here's a still of the complete page along with a shot of the supplies (most of them, anyway). I've labeled each supply and the place it's used on the page.


1. Acrylic paint
2. Roller stamp with more or less illegible script, perfect for texture
3. Watercolors
4. Book Paper from Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader (my favorite in the series)
5. Scrapbook paper, used on bottom right
6. Stylized flower stamp
7. Starbucks brochure
8. Flower border stamp
9. Gear stamp
10. Punchinella (sequin waste)
11. Plastic thingy I found at a craft store. You weave on it or something.
12. Permaball pen for doodling
13. More scrapbook paper, used at top of page.
14. More book paper, from an old anthology of Shakespeare works. Page is from Much Ado About Nothing.
15. Bubble wrap
16. Martha Stewart butterfly stamps (found on sale at Michaels - score!)

Here are some detail shots of the page.










I hope you enjoyed this. Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'll probably be sharing more art pieces here. It's something I've been meaning to do for a little while now.

Vlog — How to French Braid your OWN Hair

And now for something totally different.

I kinda sorta managed to figure out how to use my iSight camera and iMovie to shoot a little tutorial for you today. In the past week or so, I've seen at least 2 references to French braiding your own hair, implying that it was impossible - or at least incredibly difficult. I taught myself how to braid hair on my OWN hair and that's when I was like 11 years old. So if my 11-year-old self can do this, so can you, it just takes practice.

Now on to the show...

Hopefully you found this helpful. If you need further clarification, just send me an email or ask in the comments and I'll be happy to help.