GPP Street Team Crusade # 31 -Make it Your Own

How do I make it my own ? How do I use tools and pieces I have created on my own, tools I have bought, images created by other artists and mix them all together with bits of my imagination and creativity to create a piece that is all mine ?

That is the joy of art journal pages for me. No real rules. Just play and see what happens.
So here is how the process played out this morning. Take out the paint and play !

Make a background using some glued down pieces of scrap. Add an image of a fish eye that doesn't work after the paint is applied and scrap it off. Add more paint - ooh, that looks like a little map in the upper left hand corner...

Rip off the orange electric tape when the effect isn't quite what I want. Hmm, that white line may be a good place for journaling or a title of some sort.

Go through a file folder of images that I have collected along the way from magazines, old books, etc... See what jumps out at you, what seems to go with the ideas emerging from the background. In this case, this image from Oprah magazine appealed :

The words read "seek seek the source of the roaring the great replenishing, cleansing, life-giving river". Seeker...map...river...Inspiration, indeed !

I then looked through the drawers of rubber stamps, hand-made by me and store bought. Find this "seeker-girl" stamp from Magenta Stamps that was a gift from a friend at Christmas and has remained un-used so far.

Pick up the swallow stamp purchased from the $1.00 bin at Michaels. Flying seekers they shall be.

Play some more ! Compose your page - what fits where ? Create a map with a fine tipped black pen on that blob in the corner. Stamp the "seeker-girl" - argh, it kind of smeared. I am stamp challenged most of the time with those fine detailed stamps ! Oh well...
Add details with a ultra-fine tipped Elmers Painters pen. Now she looks a little less perfect - road weary maybe ? A little more mine, anyway ! ;)

More play...I keep going until it feels done somehow. Add phrase "Always a seeker be." in India ink with an old fashion fountain pen from my dad. I love the permanent black it leaves on the page, in spite of the permanent black it leaves on my fingers too. Add a little hard-to-read journaling with some gel pens. Throw in a spiral or two with that great white Elmer's pen. They always appear somehow, those whoopsy-do's of mine !

And there you have it - my very own art journal page !

I took the pieces...

and made it my own !

Join in the GPP Street Team fun - Number 31 and going strong ! It is a great place to be share bits of yourself, make your mark and cheer on the rest of the gang as they do the same !

Onward, Crusaders !