I finally got started and literally dove right in! That was a good thing, as this sketchbook/art journal project for the Art House Co-op is due to be postmarked by April 30. Two things happened. I had been looking through my journals from when I was doing Art Journal Every Day and was feeling like I needed to start art journaling again . . . and then, I saw what my dear friend Frieda had come up with for her Limited Edition sketchbook on her blog, view hers here. So yummy! I simply fell in love with what she did and seeing her work really pushed me to get my blank sketchbook out and play. I started with the cover; so odd but true. It was Frieda's cover that gave me the idea to work with fabric.

I chose a piece of fabric I had printed up from one of my own art journal pages at Spoonflower.com.

On the front cover (above) I added one of my favorite photos I had taken in the last 6 months . . . You can see a better photo of it here - a feather caught. Then, I started working on the inside of the journal. Since my theme for the project was "Create and Capture" it led me to the idea of creating on the pages as well as showing a few of the beautiful images I have captured lately with my photography.  I got the idea to cut out windows so to "hint" at the images first.

I chose my images, printed them and laid them out through the journal with windows, and then today I started to "art up" the blank pages using watercolor crayons, paint, rubber stamping and paper collage -click on any image for more details.

water color crayons, circle template and circle stamps by Balzer Designs!

1st layer

More layers of paint and rubber stamping & I used embossing powder over white ink for the texture, below. That’s a map of the area here on the left, Palma Sola Bay, FL. I took the photo of the starfish while walking in De Soto memorial a few weeks ago. De Soto is located in the area of this map …this was not planned!

I glued on some lace & string paper around the window.

On the left I glued on marbled blue & gold paper first, then added ripped bits of "lace green with white thread" paper I found at Jerry's Artarama.

There is more to come, but I will save that for another post!