Art Journal - A little bit Stronger

Until a few months ago I didn’t know what an art journal was.  Now I’m seeing them all over the place.  When I first found out about them I was excited and went out and bought a watercolor notebook with the intention of making that my own art journal.  Then it laid around on my guest bed until I finally stuck it in a drawer.  After seeing a few more videos and postings about art journals, I decided to give it another chance.  Maybe this time I would actually put something on the paper.

I’m not really good with just staring at a blank piece of paper and suddenly starting to put something on it.  I’m not a doodler.  So if I was going to do an art journal I would need some sort of theme or direction.

I decided to use my struggles with joint and connective tissue pain as a foundation for my art journal.  I wanted it to be inspirational for those days, well, those days when things just aren’t that great.

For this first page I chose the lyrics from a song I’ve been hearing on the radio lately.  Every time I hear the song Stronger sung by Sarah Evans, it reminds me that I’m making progress, I’m no longer spinning my wheels, I am getting a little bit stronger every day.

So for my journal page, I wrote out the portions of the lyrics that are applicable to my situation.  The song is about recovering from a failed relationship.  I’m trying to recover from the times my body fails me –some of those are temporary conditions and others chronic.

Project notes:

First I wrote out the lyrics with a black Sharpie.

Next I used Ranger Ink to create the background.  I pressed the ink pads to my craft mat, spritzed them with water, and dipped in the paper wiping off the excess.  I started with darker more clouded colors at the top and work down to brighter lighter shades on the bottom.  I wanted to emphasize that I was getting to be more like myself again as I'm a bright and light color person.

I used some stamps at the top and the bottom of the page to show the confusion at the top and the better life at the bottom.

The stitching was meant to emphasize certain sections of the song.  It’s the only part of the page I’m not crazy about and I’m not sure why.  Part of doing art journal is experimenting with different techniques and seeing what you like and what you don’t.  Normally I love stitching on my pages it just didn’t work for me here.


The final step was to spritz with Angel's Glimmer mist.  I waited until after stitching so as to not get any  glimmer on my sewing machine.


The page is now propped up over my worktable and I can see it from where I sit with my laptop which isn't really on my lap - another adjustment I've had to make.  Eventually I'll put in a notebook.


Now that I've done one page, I've got lots of ideas for other pages.  It was fun to do and truly therapeutic.


Ingredients:  Ranger Distress Inks
Stamps:  Circle and Dots by Inkadinkado; God's Beauty and Petal Prints by Stampin' Up!
Various markers by Stampin' Up!