Art Journal Every Day: A New Journal Begins with April 2016

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, there is a short introduction here.  All of the previous posts can be found archived here.  Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day!  No need to finish anything or even like it. If you've done some art journaling this week, use the hashtag #artjournaleveryday so that we can all take a peek.  Even if you're not on social media, you can see everything (from twitter, pinterest, instagram, and facebook) that uses that hashtag here.

Today I'm sharing the first few pages in a new journal.  This journal is a little bit different from my normal Junque Journals because it was bound with plain paper.  I am having fun using plain paper as a backdrop as opposed to my usual junque.  Sometimes I miss having a starting point, but I'm slowly filling the blank pages with excess paint and random marks.  I will say that the plain paper makes for cleaner images.  But, I'm not sure I like clean...take a peek:

These are the front "end papers" from my journal.

I've started to put the year in the front of my art journals because as I accrue more and more journals, I'm having trouble remembering which one is from when.

This is a small collage that I created on a piece of watercolor paper.  I was trying to decide whether to frame it or mount it and finally decided to simply stick it into the front of my art journal.

I was traveling when I created the first few pages in this journal, so you'll notice a lot of marker and pen work along with some stamping, but not a lot of paint.

I used Distress Ink to stamp all these little hand carved flower parts.  The page was lightly painted, so the ink bled slightly leading to a soft watercolor-like look.

I wanted to see if I could do something that was sort of the like the amazing dot paintings I was seeing all over Australia.  I used markers:

Here you can see some fancy lettering done with Moonlight Pens and a white Sharpie:

This face still bothers me.  It's not quite what I wanted it to be, but you know I really do practice what I preach.  If you don't like it, who cares?!  Flip the page and move on!

There's a glint in her eye that I really like!

More Moonlight Pen madness with all the doodled letters:

I love this hand carved stamp!  I've been thinking of turning it into a foam stamp so that everyone can play with it!

Hope you found something to inspire you!  Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!