I created this journal in a class with Roben-Marie Smith. It was fun to take an old ledger, remove the original pages but keep the cover in place and sew 'signatures' of new blank pages inside. I do like creating journals & books! I used to teach students how to make the Star Book, an Accordion book and other small books & journals, when I taught various mixed media classes. By taking this class I got to see Roben-Marie's teaching style and this confirmed that I think she does a great job! So much so, I signed up for more classes with her. 

Today I'm sharing a full page spread I worked on over a few days; I started with simply adding some leaves via a StencilGirl stencil designed by Rae Missigman. It's a new one for me. I first tried it out on an envelope to my son & his wife, then decided it would look great on the pages of my urban journal . . . 

I let that page sit just like that for a few days, I did not have time right then to do any more. But I left it out on my counter, open. I would see it when walking past and would think about it and what I might add. Then yesterday I had time and wanted to work in this larger journal. I pulled out another Distress Oxide ink pad in pink (picked raspberry!) and repeated the leaves, but staggered them with the green ones. I also used another stencil/art mask on the right side from Carabelle Studio and a light green Marabu Acrylic Art spray, both of which I found at Joggles mixed media.  Then I did a bit of paper collage with Tim Holtz's Tissue paper, a paper scrap and a print of my great uncle's painting a family friend cut out of the newspaper for us. I added a bit of Lumiere paint (halo pink gold) with my fingers, doodled on the pages and journaled a bit on the inside of the flap that is decorated with Roben Marie's art pops!  Click on any photo below for a closer look. 

I especially like the pink & green together! This journal is filling up slower than my pocket journal, but it has less pages . . . As I said before, I like variety. And I like that writing in my blog again is helping me to stay focused on getting some mixed media art done, yay! It is good for me. I hope this finds you well . . .  keep creating - little bits add up! If you would like to see more of what I've done in this journal and how I started, go here.