Art Journal Every Day: Friday Update

April is almost over, and I am continuing to challenge myself to work a little bit in my art journal every day.  Julie, who encourages us art journalers in this challenge, calls it "ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day...Just play!"  And that's exactly what I am learning to do.  I didn't push myself to do as much over the Easter holiday because there was so much else going on.  And not worrying too much about that was an important step too!

Inspired by the Good Friday and Easter services at my church, Media Presbyterian, I created this spread in my journal:

This is the first time that my faith has really played a role in the content of my art journal, and it is something I have wanted to do for awhile now. 

I used the mesh from a bag of clementines as the stencil behind one of the smaller crosses, and wrote lyrics from the songs we sang at Good Friday services around all three of the crosses. 

I used pan watercolors (also a first for me, as I've only used tube colors previously) directly on sketchbook pages not meant for wet media to paint the crosses and the butterfly.  By keeping the paint fairly dry, I didn't wrinkle up the pages too badly, and I really like how the butterly came out.  I used a yellow ultra-fine Sharpie to write the Biblical account of the women at the empty tomb in the background of the butterfly.

The current washi-tape craze has really captured my attention, and I've bookmarked various sites for ordering some rolls of it for myself.  But I've been dragging my feet, not SURE how I would use it.  At JoAnn's the other day, I found some "fabric tape" sold among the stickers, and I think it might be very similar to the washi tape I've been seeing. 

On this page, I just cut pieces of the fabric tape and taped it down kind of randomly down the page, then journaled around and between the pieces.

Finally, I collaged a few pages in preparation for future journaling.  I used some more of the tape here, along with discarded book pages, catalog/ brochure pictures, and a scrap from an old calendar.  I think the spread looks SO much better in person than how it came out in these photos, and I already have some plans for continuing with the pages.

And one final page in the early stages of preparation:

I want to share with you two blog addresses for women who sent me postcards in Hanna's swap, since I did not include them in my earlier posts.  You can find Adrianne's blog at http://aminpdx.blogspot.com, and Stephanie's blog at http://purplelotusart.blogspot.com/. 

Have a great weekend!