A New Ritual and Thanks for the Tips!

I was thinking the other day about how much I enjoyed making my first art journal. I put absolutely EVERYTHING in there. My calendar, my to-do lists, notes, as well as paintings and collages. I carried it with me everywhere. I even had other people add to it when I met them. When it was done, it was really a fun piece of my life to look back on. Since then, I've gotten away from that and started to use my art journals for art only, a conscious decision at the time, which I thought was a good one. However, I've noticed that it became more pressure to create "good" pages, and less of a journal of my life, and I don't like that. So I've started a ritual. I begin and end each day with 15 minutes of journal time, just for me. I am loving it!

Here's a new spread that is a result of that ritual...The big round flower sticker was on the outside of the box my 2010 planner came in. The black strips are 7 gypsies gaffer tape. I painted the red background right over the top of a coupon I had pasted on the page. You can still see it peeking through a little bit on the left. The left side of the page is a quote from Kelly Rae Roberts' book "Taking Flight" which I am just starting (and LOVE so far, by the way). It says:

"Are your daydreams trying to tell you something? In the spaces between your quiet moments are your whispers revealed? ... All you need to do is learn to listen" ~ Kelly Rae Roberts

I love that.

I also want to thank everyone who left me ideas for my Squirt carton! I loved them all, and they really got me thinking. I tried every can and jar in the house, trying to find one that would fit, but alas everything we have on hand is too big. So, what I ended up doing was fashioning little "containers" out of cardstock, and it worked great! Here's how it looks...

I just cut 3" wide strips of cardstock, and wound them into circles and stuck them in there!

I'm using it specifically to store my black and white pens and markers. Oh, and that reminds me - I found an interesting new white marker I wanted to share with you. It's called a "Meanstreak" by Sharpie. They called it a marking stick. Here's what it looks like. I used it to make the clouds on my art journal page.
It's very unique - more like an oil crayon than a marker. It's not for detail work, but it creates a cool effect - kinda like paint. What I like about it is that while it goes on wet and very greasy, it dries to a completely smooth, dry finish that you can easily write on. The first time I used it I was completely amazed at the transformation from wet to dry! I have to warn you - in the ad they say it's odorless, but in actuality it's very smelly when you open the cap. Here's what it looks like...
So, anyhoo, it's kinda fun to discover new things and I just wanted to share. If you are interested in trying one, you can get them online at Office Depot.

I also finished my layout for this coming Sunday's song at Scrapping The Music, but I have to wait to share that one. I had a lot of fun with it!

I hope you are having a lovely Friday! I will be back soon with another update! Thanks for stopping by!