Sometimes you just have to journal it!

Life has been, to put it lightly....really sucky lately!

Thankfully, I have my art journal on hand. Over the past years, I only worked in my journal on a 'hit or miss' time frame. And very rarely did I ever use it to really work through some personal issues. Well, that changed this week. I am not going to show you the super deep and dark pages just because they are super deep and dark lol  And personal  :-)

But do have a couple page to share today (like I would show up without goodies!)

A couple weeks back I was visiting Chris on her blog Parabolic Muse. If you haven't been there you need to pop in! She is funny and creative and her blog is a great place to lift your spirits....I just can't help smiling as I read of her antics :-) While I was there, she had some mandalas that she had done. She had been inspired by Emily Lagore. So I checked out Emily's blog too. Trust me, you don't want to miss that blog either!!! Such awesome eye candy and wonderful ideas! And Mandalas!!!

What can I say, after seeing all these great mandalas by Emily and Chris, I had to give it a try. I found it to be a very calming process....much like when I Zentangle.
I was using the back of a page that had some watercolor bleed through. I love the effect. I also used my Tattered Angels glitter sprays and some stencils to add patterns and sparkle to the page.

 

And since we started a new month, Challenge 2013! had a new prompt. Asian! Now if you have been here before you know that I have tons of Asian rubber stamps and just love the look! But this challenge threw me for a couple days....the color scheme has to be Emerald (or Apple) Green, Mustard Yellow (or Gold) and Chocolate Brown. Am I the only one that doesn't think these are the normal colors we associate with Asian art? lol

 

 

Thankfully the artistic side of my brain works while I asleep. Unthankfully, it likes to get up really early on Saturdays!  Needless to say, it woke me at 5:30 am and finally dragged me out of bed at 6:30 with the constant nagging!!!  :-)

 

While still working through some of the issues bothering me right now, I created this page. The woman is from StoneHouse Stamps. They have a huge selection of awesome Asian rubber stamps!!!  The man in the background is from Tim Holtz Life's Possibilities set.

 

I washed acrylic Ceramcoat Antique Gold over the entire page (had to get that gold in there somehow lol) I stamped the faint figure of the man. The ground is torn strips of a Chinese newspaper I picked up in San Francisco over 5 years ago. I just keep tearing out bits for projects (at the rate of usage, I have at least another 10 years to go before I need another one lol) I washed Ceramcoat Brown Velvet (sorry no paints in my huge stash called Chocolate Brown lol) over the edges before gluing them all down.

The bamboo is painted with Folk Art paints Fresh Foliage and Olive Green.

 

Finally, I stamped the woman on separate paper and colored her with Prismacolor pencils....in light greens, a couple browns, some gold (and a touch of red).

 

I wanted a bit more color and depth on the background so I sponged some Distress Ink on the upper corners. (Scatterd Straw & Tea Dye)

 

The verse at the bottom is "Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

 

I am really pleased with how it turned out. I came out exactly as I envisioned it AND it helped me mentally with some issues.....Win Win!  :-)

BTW the kanji is from the Cricut cartridge Pagoda....which has some really great Asian images!