1001 Journals

For the longest time I've been wanting to find a place where I can post about my adventures in this particular community. I've had about 50 journals come my way so far and still more en route. I've been wanting a place to post the entries I made, talk of other peoples' entries and just plain talk about/share it. : )

I finally decided that maybe it's time I start so here I am again *waves*

What is 1001 Journals for those who don't know? It's a community in which people all over the world circulate their art journals. They make their entries and once done the journals get mailed on to the next person on the list and so on and so forth. Some journals have successfully made it back to owners, some are still traveling and others unfortunately have gone missing : (

This is where my creativity and such got started...a long time ago when I first got an LJ I stumbled on a community titled "alternate_books". It was the same basic concept and I created journals as well as recieved many others. I had a blast doing it but sadly the interest for that particular community died so I scoped and searched for similar places. I found 1000 Journals and was sad to see no journals were open any longer then I found 1001 Journals and joined. After that I started getting others journals and even circulating some of my own. I then scanned what I did because you can for the site but due to having so many scans I started deleting them off my hard drive and found it so sad that there really was no other place to share what I had done with them and what others had so an idea formulated to work on this newest online journal knowing/planning to eventually get to this post. Now that I'm here I'm ready to share a bit. : )

For those interested in looking into the 1001 Journals site here's the link:

1001 Journals

And now I'm off...but plan to be back soon. I'm not entirely sure how I intend to share these scans and such but getting this post up is at least an official start.
: D

Hooray for Experimentation!

So as I said in the previous post experimentation seems to be my new word. :)

Trying a new technique for me is an adventure in itself because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's a miserable failure and other times it leaves one with amazing results. With this second Chicago journal I have found I'm not so hesitant, not so afraid to try something new, try something different. I have also noticed that I don't seem to get angry when some experiment turns out to be a complete and utter failure. Instead I find that I'm enjoying the simple process of creating and attempting to create. I've taken a completely different approach to art journaling with this newest journal and am finding the journal to be quite rewarding.

When I first started the journal I kept saying it would never work out, it would be a complete disaster, and I had no idea what days I'd be journaling where. I like order and organization, and I always (in the first Chicago journal) did pages as I did entries. This journal is a wee bit different in that I just went with my gut instinct having no idea what I would be journaling where. The end result has turned out to be a reward in and of itself that has me squeeing as I stare and say "I did THAT?"

Yeah so I'm finding the fun and enjoyment in experimentation and am loving every minute of it...it's almost like playing : )

And now to a share a few more pages of my newest journal...

Oddly enough this second journal picks up at the tail end of the sci-fi convention I attended. The first page is what you saw in the previous post. The second and third pages are painted pink and just have journaling on them. The fourth page is a photo op I had taken with one of the guests Joe Flanigan and that is where my experimenting for this journal began. The end result?



So here what I did? I played with ink pads and scrapbook papers. I'm not one to use stamping much in journaling. I just haven't really developed much of a desire to fiddle with them, but I do so love those distressed inks by Jim Holtz. They look awesome when used correctly but for me that can be a challenge in and of itself. I'm not a stamper yet I found myself fiddling with it a wee bit here. The background paper is simply a special design sheet for scrapping. Due to the color of the background paper I thought of making it look kind of antique... I ended up using the "vintage photo" ink and rubbing it over the edges then just glued the pic on top. The end result? I love it!

The facing page is the start of my journaling on the Chicago Art Institute and again I wanted to stick with the vintage/antique look since the pages are side by side. I used a different scrapbook design sheet for this one and used distress ink again this time the color? Walnut stain. Not one of my favorites though in books I've looked at I love the results...it's just a bit too dark for my liking. The end result is this page...ended up looking kind of neat when I chose the photo I took. The photograph is a shot down Michigan Avenue. You can see the two lions that sit right outside the Art Institue. I'm fiddling a lot with photography lately too and deliberately took this photo for the angles and such. I'm very happy with the end result! : )



The pages that follow this page are inside the art institute. Well one is. It's a drawing that's on the top floor of a cat. I took a picture of it then cut it down to include in the journal. The second page is a scan of my ticket stub and a picture of the brand new "Modern" wing of the institute. The journaling was done with glitter pen in hopes that it would be readable over the background decoration. What's the background decorations made of? More distress ink this color weathered wood. How I made those little designs? You'll never guess... Did you ever try crumpling up a piece of aluminum foil wrap and using it to stamp on a page? Neat effect indeed...at least I thought it was : D





I think I may continue posting pages to this journal and doing a little chat about what I put into each page in case I'd like to try the same thing in the future or someone else might find it of interest. Hey it doesn't hurt to document how you do something, especially if you can't remember everything...I seem to have issues with that : D

Expanding My Horizons

Breaking out of the mundane...


Recently I completed my first full Chicago journal, well it's not fully completed yet but I'm at the end of it. : )

The Chicago journal is a journal that I started several years ago on the city of Chicago and all the trips I have taken to the wonderous city through the years. I like to label the journal as my "official" first art journal (well personal art journal), but other than drawing and doodling in it, journaling a bit, painting a few pages and adding a few pictures from said trips I didn't really do much else with it.

Now I have officially started my second Chicago journal and my exploration with art has kind of...exploded I guess...in a way that I never would have ever imagined.

I remember searching for the perfect journal to continue my Chicago trips in. It had to be easier to keep flat (my other journal is hard back and way wider than it should be :D ), and it had to be durable also, one in which each page would be relatively easy to work with. With trepidation I settled on a small spiral bound hard back journal not sure if it would be a good choice or a horrible mistake. I always worry that with spiral journals the pages will tear to easily out thus a major reason why I've not used many in my artwork.

Once I got the journal home and debated a bit I just started to decorate it not sure where it would lead, if it would hold up, if I could make the journal work out, if it would be better or worse than my first one...

Now? I've decorated approximately 10-15 pages and am going back to add in the additional pics and journaling that will complete each page. I did the same thing in the other journal but with this one... Well, let's just say it's become what I have always envisioned an art journal should be and I absolutely LOVE it!

Each page of this journal is decorated differently some with paper, some with paint, some with tissue paper and some with stamp pads. The end result? The journal looks great to me and I'm so loving it! So why did I just have to post and squee a little about this??

Because I just had to!!

I don't know when it happened, where the official "transition" actually occurred but somewhere along the way I took a basic starter art journal and have progressed into a pretty, fancy decorated one. My confidence and enjoyment in toying with paints and such have literally exploded. Where the transition happened I don't know, but I'm loving the end result! : )

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Yeah you know some day I should really purchase that book and maybe read it. Think that'll help me and my weird self out a bit? Hmm... *scratches head*

Yeah so the reason for the title has really nothing to do with stressing out or going nuts or panicking or any of that jazz...at least not at the moment, but what it's referring to, why I chose it as a subject header? Because during my most recent trip to Chicago I found myself wondering, thinking a lot about us, about people in general and how there are thousands, hell millions, of people out there in the world and we all get so busy, so caught up in our every day lives, every day stressors that we trump right along, racing, rarely slowing down, always in a rush to get here or there and in that every day hay day we always forget one small thing, one tiny little thing that at the time doesn't seem important but the older you get the more you take notice that all along while you're rushing around like a madman (or woman) trying to make ends meet, caught up in the rat race and everyday hustle and bustle that some where along the way you forget to look down or around or notice things that ordinarily are so pretty, so unique and so amazing but are sadly severely overlooked.

To what am I referring? To all the little things underfoot, before us, right in front of our very eyes, those small tiny little miracles or beautiful creations that if for one moment we'd just stop and take notice we might realize that the world really is a truly amazing place...

And what did I do with all that thinking and such? I took to photographing the overlooked, the small tiny things that few ever take notice to because they're so busy in their lives, we all are so very rushed that we never slow down and just say "oh". The end result of this unique, odd strain of thinking? I have tons of interesting pics (well interesting to me that is) of the small, minute, unnoticed, unseen that most people trample right over or stumble on by or never look up to see. It's sad really that some where along the way we all just sort of forget to stop and really look at our environments, look at what's around us and before us and just enjoy it all.



For those who are interested, curious or just need to know these pictures were all taken by me in the city of Chicago. The first pic was taken outside the Art Institute, the second is carved into one of the floors of the Garfield Conservatory and the third was taken outside the Field Museum. Goes to show that even in a big HUGE city there is beauty that is often unseen or vastly overlooked. :)

The wonders...of Seagulls??

Yes indeed seagulls is what I said and why? Well as I was driving into town today I started thinking about some of the pics I took in Chicago and my mind zeroed in on Sea Gulls. Why? Well, like I said my mind was wandering and I started thinking about an awesome picture I took of a sea gull at Navy Pier on Wednesday. As I thought more on the subject I realized that there's not been a single trip gone by in which I didn't photograph a sea gull...except maybe when I went to Australia last March. Other than that one trip I've taken at least one picture of a sea gull on each trip I've taken.

Why? Well, I know some people look at sea gulls and think ew they're dirty, or they're just not pretty...not true, so NOT true! I find them intriguing and interesting and like to think that they have literally "adopted" me since they seem to arrive at every place around the world I've vacationed in. I remember my first year in Vancouver, BC. I was walking in Stanley Park and this sea gull started following me. The person I was with at the time made a joke about my friendly buddy that just kept following us as if to ask, to implore that I would kindly take his picture. I wasn't going to take the picture of the sea gull. Seriously a sea gull who likes to see pictures of them? Yeah. Not happening, nope, no way, not in this life but...

Yeah I was suckered in I tell you! He kept following me and posing all prettily as if to say "please, please won't you take my picture!"

The person I was with told me I had a friend for life and that he'd probably follow me all the way back to my house. Well, he didn't but others did. Other sea gulls appeared as if by magic where I vacationed, and me? I just had to take a picture. So now I have these loads of travel pics from all my vacations I've taken since 2001 and interestingly among just about all of them there rests one little picture of a sea gull. Why? Well, I just feel this odd urge to photograph them and so I can say I'm a photographer of sea gulls. They follow me everywhere, well just about everywhere and still when I see them I get this big smile on my face, I prep my camera raising it ever so slowly while working the zoom lens and prepare to take yet another picture of yet another sea gull. Hey what can I say it seems to be an addiction of a sorts or something. : )

I'm here...

even though I'm strangely absent. It's awkward you know having two online journals and having posted to neither in well over a month. I swore I would turn a new leaf and start posting more consistently. I decided on the spur of the moment to create this journal here where I'm alone, as no one seems to be following me even now. Ah well I wanted a journal where I could post my artwork, explore my newly developing artsy side and even share my travel stories and pics. What's holding me back? Well, there's no audience to scoff at me or say "that's just plain stupid" and there's no one out there to stumble onto my journal and tell me that my journal is just plain boring and uninteresting either so it's not that. Some day there will be people but now in this particular moment in time I'm by my wee little self here trying to stick to a vow that yes I'll post more often only to realize that again things are being...forgotten? Neglected? I don't know but somehow life gets me every time and here I am rambling. I shall try to improve that shortly. Yes my artsy side has exploded recently. I'm experimenting more and liking the end results. I've even fiddled more so than ever before with my photographing...should see some of those pics I took on my trip from Chicago indeed!

I just returned yesterday from the Windy City and decided why not start posting here again. I have my next topic already sitting on the backburner. What's next? Resizing the pic I want to share and formulating a plan of a sorts. Yes so now that I've rambled and got that all off my chest I shall journey back to my other journal and continue reading through my lengthy flist...they are aposting more so than me over there. Ah well...that is in the works to be fixed indeed! *wink*

Practice, practice, practice...

Okay so like I said in previous posts I started working on art journals several years ago, mainly ones that belonged to other people. One day I decided why not create one for myself, a travel journal that I can take, put pictures in, items I find and that I can carry along with me when I do travel. My first attempt at my own personal art journal is this Chicago journal. I decided for my next two pages in the journal that since I spend a lot of time on the El (CTA trains) why not incorporate a map of the CTA system in the pages. The main line I travel is the O'Hare blue line.

I stay in a hotel fairly close to the airport and the nice thing about this particular hotel and this particular airport is that there's a 24 hour free shuttle bus that runs from the hotel to the airport about every 15 minutes. Also in what I call the "basement" of the airport is the entrance to the CTA blue line. O'Hare is the end of the line and it's very nice and convenient to take the El right out of the airport. Due to this particular set up you can enter the airport and head straight downstairs. Two trains pull in and out of there throughout the day and boarding the CTA is way cheaper than a cab, even though the trip from O'Hare TO downtown Chicago is approximately 45 minutes. It's the cheapest and easiest way to travel to the city, which makes seeing a very busy city relatively nice and simple. :)

When I first started this particular journal I was leery about experimenting. I didn't want to mess anything up, so I stuck with using my scanner and gluing what I scanned into the journal pages. As I progressed, learned some new techniques, bought more magazines on art journaling and continued to work on art journals from the 1001 Journals community I found myself daring to delve into more complex things...I drew a CTA train, painted some pages and fiddled around with ways to make the journal more appealing, more exciting and more interesting. After working on this initial first trip I decided to label each year I spent in Chicago. I used one word (or two) to basically describe in a nut shell how the trip was and I used some water colors and paints to express it. The more I worked on the early bits of this journal and the more I experimented the neater and more interesting each entry became for me.

Now I tend to do a lot of drawing and journaling in this particular journal but I have also started working on my own sketch book and my own personal art journal that delves more into my feelings, emotions and such. The more I learn about art, painting and sketching the braver I become in daring to try new things.

What's actually starting to happen? When my writing muse is slow I find myself picking up an art journal and going to town with it. Some of the entries turn out amazing while others not so much but each new "project" I undertake seems to be better than the previous one and I'm quite satisfied that I seem to be improving and expanding.

Photography

Another creative avenue for me is photography. I love to take pictures. I take tons when I go on trips and like to take my camera with me when I drive into town on Fridays. Sometimes I'll use it and sometimes I won't. It's no big deal for me to take over 200 pictures on any given vacation. I just love to take pictures...

Of course if you take note of the above picture it's rather old, has that old brownish tinge to it and actually has rounded edges, but when I scanned it I squared it off. Why did I add this particular picture to this particular entry? Because it's the FIRST picture I ever took on my very own. Way back when I was oh probably 10 maybe? I got a camera for Christmas, one of those old Kodak cameras with the click thingy to prep it for the next photo and the attachable flash. Yeah it might not have been a whole lot and by modern standards is probably called "antique" now, but I loved that old camera.

So what is this a picture of you ask? Well snow of course and somehow a slip of curtain got into that photograph too. I can honestly say they don't make curtains like that anymore! : )

This picture was taken at my grandmother's old house. I loved that old house. It was a big white house that sat on a corner and had a wrap around porch and all. My grandparents had one of those old coal stoves in the basement that they'd load for heat and the house had the neatest most beautiful cherry bannisters. I loved that old house and miss it dearly. It still stands today but sits empty and has been "modernized". It has little of the former glory it had back then.

Anyways this photo was taken in what we always coined "the back room" or to put a better name to the room we would simply refer to it as "the piano room". In it was contained two or three pianos. One was a player piano and my cousin and I used to go back, turn it on and act like we could actually play it! the carpet in the room was an ugly off orange color but that room held so much memory in it and due to that and where this photo was taken from I cherish this particular photograph.

I remember that view from when I was a kid. We used to (my brother and I) walk on the brick wall you can sort of see the outline of in the snow. My grandfather would get so mad at us for doing that he'd yell at us but we continued to walk that wall because we just thought it so neat. Off to the left of the photo and out of site of the camera was an old grape harbor. Oh the memories this simple photo dredges up...brings a bright smile to my face every time as I recall all the good times we had and shared in that house.

Both grandparents that had at one time lived there have now passed on. I miss them both, especially my grandmother, and I miss that old house. I can still hear myself giggling as I envision running up those steps my hand dragging across the smooth bannister as I ran. I can still recall walking down those steps and admiring the child-like pictures she had hung along the wall of cats and dogs and such. I would have loved to have those particular pictures but they are now forever lost. Still I can remember staring at them and into them imagining what those animals would be like. I can still recall how the lights of the local traffic would catch on the floor to ceiling windows in the living room and cast an eerie glow about the room.

I still remember the family gatherings we had there, the times my brother and I would run up and down those steps, the times we'd play for endless hours in that old back room, and I will forever recall my cousin and I sitting perched just so on the bench of that old player piano and giggle to our hearts content as we cranked it on and pretended to play the instrument with our own hands.

The memories that photograph stirs up are ones I will forever cherish. They sometimes bring tears to my eyes and while one can tell by looking at it how much of a novice I was to photography back then I'm so glad I took that simple little picture and have it as a constant reminder of a past too quickly forgotten, a time gone by too abruptly and of a little girl giggling with her very first camera clutched so tightly in her hands as she aimed it out that window and snapped her very first shot...

Closing the Door

As I mentioned in the previous post this scrapbook started out as a basic idea, a thought, a way to display ALL of my convention pictures so that they could all be seen. When I started it I wasn't sure what would come of it and soon the scrapbook became a way to close the door on a friendship that ended abruptly. I decided to scrap the different trips her and I took together and that led naturally into scrapping all the conventions we attended together.

As I mentioned before I didn't really go to conventions (well other than one X Files convention) until her and I started traveling to them together. Now I travel either alone or with my best friend to conventions.

This scrapbook was my closure for a broken friendship. If you look at the two pages above you'll notice that the very first picture is blurry and out of focus. We're also both smiling in it and how ironic I'm wearing a Xena shirt seeing as those are the only sci fi cons her and I attended together. I chose that first picture because it's out of focus. I felt it accurately represented the fading friendship we now had. We had been friends until a bad trip to New York in 2003. The first picture shows an image of our very first convention together and is blurry, which in my mind kind of represented the way things were. Under it I put that quote because with her I did laugh often and much and so did she, so I felt it appropriate.

The very next picture is a close up of her and I together. This ironically was one of the last pictures to be taken of us, and I selected it because it sort of embodies the way our friendship was I suppose. We were good friends and had a blast at the conventions and I just felt that pic appropriate.

The next page has the photo that's half blurry and dark. It's a picture of us posing with some friends we hung out with at every convention. Again the selection of that photo was totally and completely planned. It kind of shows the finality of our friendship. It was fun while it lasted but even then was fading into nothingness to be forgotten and filed away with all other memories from the past.

The last picture is one of my favorites of Angie. She's posing with Hudson Leick one of the actresses that her and I absolutely loved going to conventions to see. We had a lot of memories that involved Hudson and us going to see her and meet her after she got off stage. They were all good memories and I just loved that photo so I felt it appropriate to use.

If you notice to the side of that last picture is a an envelope tucked away. The envelope in fact contains a letter I wrote to Angie but she never saw it. This is my official closure letter telling her what I learned from her, telling her how I felt about the abrupt way she dismissed our lengthy friendship and wishing her the best of luck in the future. I don't really recall everything that's written in that letter, but I felt it an appropriate way to say goodbye.

The words on the page talk of how some people enter our lives for a purpose, some we recall, some we forget, some we'll always remember and she was one of those such people. It's kind of a finality on my part to her, the way to officially close the door and move onward with my life.

There is more to this scrapbook that I intend to post, but it will take some time. The first half of the scrapbook is the trips her and I took together, the second half? All the conventions we attended. The final page contains that quote about people coming into our lives for a purpose and serves as the final page for the entire album.

Overall I'm very pleased with how this scrapbook turned out and find myself looking at it more than I had ever expected. Scrapbooking, though I don't do it a lot, has become a sort of healing journey for me, a way to display images and voice thoughts, opinions etc on issues that have affected my life. I haven't done much scrapbooking lately but have several in progress. Each one is unique and contains personal aspects of my life. I find it enjoyable and relaxing to work on them though they do take a long time to complete. Still in the end I'm very happy I dared to take that wee step into scrapping and dove head first into trying something brand new.

Scrapbooking as a means to provide closure

So as I mentioned in the previous post my first scrapbook began a little oddly. I had no idea where I wanted to go with it or what I wanted to do with it. All I knew is that I had this sudden urge, or need, to just get right into it so without hesitation I picked up some supplies and started. The first page turned out to be titled "Life Lessons" and an idea formed in my head for where to take the journal after that. I had decided to use the scrapbook as a sort of final chapter in a friendship that had been lengthy but ended so abruptly it surprised and shocked me.

I had been friends with this girl for some time. It was with her I started traveling to conventions in the first place, which is why the scrapbook eventually headed that direction I suppose. I decided why not devote a scrapbook to her and to closing the door on a friendship that suddenly, abruptly came to an end. Low and behold that mode of thinking landed me smack dab into the "daring to attempt scrapping" department.

I had found a purpose for the scrapbook. It would serve as a way to gain closure, a way to move on, move forward...take what I learned from that friendship and apply it then move onwards. You know that quote about friends? Some people come into our lives for a reason, others for a season, others a lifetime...well apparently this girl was one of those "reason" people. She came into my life at a time when I needed something, stuck around for a while then just disappeared. I did learn some things from her like how to be more care free. How to become more outgoing. I learned a lot about tennis (way more than I ever expected) because she played it and loved it and I learned a few other things, but she wasn't meant to be in my life for more than a few years and when that time was up she vanished without a trace.

I've only seen her twice since she abruptly vanished with no explanation or reason as to why our friendship ended and each time I glanced at her and just went on about my business wondering briefly how someone could so abruptly dismiss a person they claimed to be closest to without a second thought or glance. Then I shrugged my shoulders and went on about my business. I'm glad I don't see her often because it's just aggravating to see her and how she acts now verses then...and to even recall how badly she treated me on our very last trip together just pisses me off thoroughly so I rarely dredge such memories up...but she was a part of my life and I felt it only right to put into scrapping words and such to show how she affected it and such.