caylee grey | art journal / project life mashup

There is no reason that different art forms should be separate. Two of my favourite are pocket documenting, and art journaling, and I’m finding that the two are blending into each other more and more as I create. When Joie de Vivre came out, with that gorgeous colour blocked paper, I knew that for this double page of memories, I was going to be making an active effort to look more “art journaly”.

It might not look like a typical art journal, and that wasn’t the point. The point was to try something different, and put more of myself into it. I achieved that goal.

To get the washi tape looking more real, I gave it a bit of transparency.

For this pocket, I used a photograph of the wildflowers I collected from the forest walk, laid it over one of the papers in the kit as an overlay, and finally I added the watercolour stain (and recoloured that yellow). I wanted to use the real flowers, but they were a lot larger than the pocket. Plus, after some pressing, they would look a different kind of pretty. And so scanning them in was the next best.

And then vellum. Glorious vellum. It softened up the spread, and it softened up the word art.

Other ideas for incorporating art journaling in your pocket pages:

choose non-scrap looking items (Joie de Vivre is a great kit to start with)
use non-scrapbooking items in your spread
use a permanent pen to journal directly onto the paper
journal thoughts and feelings instead of what happened
make your own colour blocked background
smear some paint over the actual plastic pocket to give a bit of pop
use an art journal page that you love as inspiration when making your spread
flick paint off a paintbrush to make droplets over a card (just be careful if you’re using glossy paper as it doesn’t sit as well)
art journal in order to learn new things to try
make a list of things to try, and try them
don’t confine yourself to one type of “art”
don’t follow rules, just go with it, and play around