Art Journaling With Circles

I got sidetracked over the weekend, what with the start of the motorcycle racing season, the final events of the Olympics and that beautiful journal I began filling. There just wasn't time or motivation on Sunday to work on the weekly Positively Creative Art Journaling exercise. But rather than skip the week altogether, I've worked on it over the last two days. First step: paint the spread with a favorite color (the violet mixed with white). Second step: stamp circles on it with another color, in this case my green. Dale Ann suggested using a lid for this, applying paint to the lip with a foam brush. I had this little plastic cup sitting on my work station, the perfect size for my smaller pages, so I stamped away. Not every circle perfect, showing that a bit of care needs be taken in that application of paint. However, here, it matters not.

This lesson's theme was sort of a summary of the journaling done thus far, reviewing what we had written for the previous prompts of what makes you smile, laugh, grateful, things that are favorites. Reading through my pages was enjoyable on its own, and it was telling that "friends" showed up on every page (except the favorite color one, of course). So pick out enough of those words to have one for each stamped circle, cut them from magazines and paste in, then look for images that either visually match them or also express things that generally make you happy. (Remember, this is basically a happiness journal.) These images would be added as circles about the same size as the stamped ones.

I admit, I'm such a "follow the rules" person, and I've been trying to be a good student here, doing everything just as Dale Ann suggests. But a few times I've revolted (as I'm sure she would expect). Either because of a past less than successful attempt or because I just didn't care for how she had done her sample page, I found myself, albeit with some guilt, going my own way. Seriously, Dale Ann does encourage this, but as I said, my nature is more to be the good girl and do as told. Not on this one. Frankly, I didn't care for the way she laid out her circles and then added the circles of images cut from magazines and finally journaled between all that. I confidently went my own way. Some of my image circles were cut smaller to add needed visual variety, and I liked the look of some of them overlapping the stamped circles. As for the journaling, I kept it to short phrases inked directly around the outside of the circles. No need for deep thoughts about how I felt about this page and its contents. I needed a more joyful, playful approach as it had been that kind of week.

But wait, you may be thinking. I thought you were only supposed to be working with circles and I see some non-circular things in there. Yes, this was the beginning of the rebellion. The butterfly in the lower right corner was the first thing to go down, a sticker I'd jokingly said I'd earned after a really positive post-op visit with my doctor. I should have been embarrassed when the receptionist, straight-faced, handed me the basket of stickers to choose from, but I wasn't. (I also accepted a sucker.) As for that rectangle of batiks - I did try a circle of fabric first, but that space just called out for something long and narrow. Also, the glass of wine simply looked off in a circle, and again, the space dictated something a bit smaller - a more oval shape fit the bill. As a final touch, each circle and word was outlined in dark pen. Well balanced? Not really but overall not a bad spread. And as I viewed the finished product, I caught myself saying, "Now THAT was fun!"