Wanderlust week 1

Excited to have signed up to the Wanderlust, year long Artfest! First prompt was "one word that describes you today"......completely impossible with the day I'd had. But instead of letting that block me, I let it guide me: how would I describe myself at that moment? Way too complicated! Art journaling is very personal and a great way of letting out and letting go of all those hidden thoughts and feelings. So that's what I did! I wrote a word that summed up what I needed to do that day rather than to describe myself that day -  that was BALANCE and all the feelings that I was trying to do just that with - you know like balance feelings of hope about one area of life V feelings of hopelessness/ helplessness in another area.

In the build up to Wanderlust I also signed up to another two art journaling groups. Journal 52 on Facebook and Embrace Your Art  with Tiare Smith.Tiare . There Taire is using ROUND pages. In a moment of inspiration (madness) I decided to use some of the old, unloved vinyl Albums gathering dust in my loft - the products of a hubby who was a part time DJ for many years back in the day of real records! That meant I would be having a heap of album covers and the funky sleeves to use up to - so they will be my journals. And here is how I've used the first one!

 A TRIBUTE album to Abba - of course I wouldn't have used a real Abba original! Gesso on that then I went wild with the DecoArt media misters. They are permanent when dry so brill for this kind of thing. 

 Played with one of my brush markers (Pentel - beautiful to use) on the sleeve. I couldn't believe how lovely this paper was to play on - I think it must be like the Deli paper I've heard people talk about as it is porous on one side (albeit a bit discoloured) and slightly waxy on the inside.

 On the other side of the sleeve I drew flowers and coloured them in. Then I journaled all my words using the happy ones on the pale pink flowers and unhappy ones on the yellow. I then

 I cut them out and used DecoArt Decoupage Matte glue to stick them all onto my spritzed album cover, applying the glue both to the substrate and the shapes. Worked a treat!

 A bit more writing around the border and some outlining of the main images with my Pitt marker, a fine nib pen and my brush marker again. Final touch was to add something to the middle of the lowers so I used some cosmic shimmer glue and sprinkled on some embossing powder. Finished!!