Bewilderment: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey guys! What's going on? For me, not a whole lot. School has been going good, although today, right before lunch, they had a major pocket/locker search. Six people had their phones confiscated. It kind of stunk, because everyone was storming around in a rage for the rest of the day. None of it really applied to me, because I never have any problems with the rules at that school anyways, but apparently some people do. I don't know. Anyways. Let's focus more on the art now, shall we?

I decided to do another portrait today; for what purpose, I have no clue. For some reason, I've just really been enjoying doing these pages. However, they do take quite a bit longer than any other pages I might do. Because I'm trying to get a recognizable subject matter, rather than a bunch of colors and patterns that look good together. It's not that abstract doesn't take work. Because it does. Definitely. However, for me personally, it comes a lot easier than realism. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I am very impatient. Not necessarily in a bad way, so that I can't wait at all in everyday situations. But when it comes to art, I like these things to be quick. However, if I can see progress, then I might be willing to spend more time on something.

This page took me two hours to create. When you start at 8:00 in the evening, that can become quite the ordeal. I enjoy doing it however, so I make time.

I used another quote today, which I seem to be enjoying. I'm not quite sure what led me to these, but I find that often times another person can express, with much more precision, what I was thinking. Today's quote is as follows, as I realize that the above photograph is slightly difficult to read:

"Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid."

I'm not quite sure why this felt so applicable to me today. It kind of goes along with how I've been feeling about some of the life situations I've been dealing with. However, it would be very difficult for me to try to explain, and I'm sure you people don't want to hear about my high school drama. :P 

Anyhow. I'll leave you guys today with a bit of detail shot of both the background and the face itself. The color and shading of the face is built up of many, many layers of paint; probably around 20-25. Also, I did it all with craft paint. I know a lot of people think it's not worth it to use cheaper paint, because you can't get the same effects. And maybe that's true. Maybe you can't get the same effects. However, you can get different effects. And sometimes that's what makes something unique.

I've also felt myself being drawn to these brighter colors as of late. Maybe it has something to do with my mood. Maybe it's about how I want to feel. However, any way I decide to take it, I do know one thing for certain. And that's that I like it. It's different, that's for sure. Perhaps it's not what I normally do. But maybe my style is developing. Maybe I'm changing into something new. 

Normal: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey everyone! How's it going? Hopefully you all had a good Tuesday; I know I did. However, I do happen to be exhausted. Today I had open gym at my school, and I basically played basketball for at least two hours straight. Like I said, I am very tired. I almost fell asleep on the floor.

Anyways. Enough about that. Let's get onto the art!

Today's page feels quite a bit more graphic to me for some reason. I'm not exactly sure what caused me to go in this direction with the page, but I quite like the way it turned out. To me, it really seems quite reminiscent of Traci Bautista's work. The minute I thought of that, it reminded me of all the old series I used to do on the blog. The work through of the Collage Unleashed book, even though I stopped and started it a million times. And I also brainstormed some ideas for a couple of new series.

I will still be continuing my own challenge, Resize It!, even though I need to sit down one of these days and record. It just seems to be such a hassle. I like doing it though. It doesn't feel like a chore, while, at the same time, it does. It's difficult to explain. It also has a lot to do with the fact that I'm lazy. However, the fact that I started brainstorming a bunch of new ideas means that you guys aren't going to have to simply see my work every day. You get to see my work with some sort of structure. And I hope you'll enjoy that. :)

Here's a better look at the quote I used for this page. I love it. So much. I saw it on Pinterest, which just so happens to be one of the most useful tools I've had for art journaling thus far in my life. And that's saying a lot. I can find inspiration for pages, as well as clipart, free collage sheets, and quotes to put on the pages themselves. I just think it's cool.

Anyways. I've had this quote pinned for a while now, and thought that it would make a good page. This describes me perfectly. I'm not normal, and I'm 100% proud to admit it. I don't have a problem with being different, and perhaps just the slightest bit weird. I consider myself slightly eccentric, though I think my sarcasm trumps all. 

I thought that I would leave you guys with just a few detail shots of the background. I did a collage initially, using a bunch of pieces of paper and things that I normally would have thrown in the trash. That's something else that I've been experimenting with a bit. Keeping all of the things I'm tempted to throw away. And USING them. That's the key word. If I don't use them, then there is no purpose to it, at all. It's just clutter. However, if I do use them, that's just more fodder that I can use in my collages and art journaling. 

Just one last thing; I used all kinds of shapes in today's piece; hearts, flowers and circles. Though they normally don't go together very well, I like to think that it works. You can't be afraid to play. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If I would have stopped at the precise moment I thought I should, only because I was scared of ruining it, then I would have missed out on this great page. If I didn't like the way that it turned out, I always could have tried to cover it up in some way. There are no mistakes in art journaling, only opportunities.

Anyways. I hope you guys enjoyed today's post, and I'll see you all next time. :)

Flight of the Butterflies: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey guys! What's going on?

I didn't have a whole lot of time to create today, as I had to study for an Anatomy test I have tomorrow (I still need to do some more of that) and I also had to clean my room. So even though I didn't really go anywhere today, I was pretty busy. However, I did manage to carve aside a tiny bit of time to create; a lot of my pages as of late seem to have been created later in the evenings in the time span of about an hour. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less; I don't really time myself. It's pretty much just an estimate. 

Here's a bit more of an up close of the title. There is a bit of deeper meaning to what I have here, I promise. I'm not just talking randomly about butterflies migrating. I actually just watched a movie by the title of this in an IMAX theater the other day at MOSI. I was so inspired by their colors that I just had to create a page around them. However, the black and orange of a monarch butterfly were just too halloween - like for my taste. So I added in the blue. That really helped me.

Also, one of these days, I need to show you guys the method I've come up for organizing the letters that I've cut out from magazines and newspapers. I used to store them in plastic baggies, but that got really annoying to try to mess with. One day, I promise I will show you. The sorting itself is very tedious, but I generally do it while my mind is busy doing something else; watching television or the like. In fact, just this evening I was watching a recording of the All-Star NBA game that came on last night, and was sorting out the letters while watching that. However, I need to try to find the last two periods of that game online somewhere, as they didn't record on my VCR. That makes me sad. 

Anyways. One last picture for you guys before I go; a detail picture of the background itself. I can definitely see myself pulling out the typewriter and putting some some simple journaling inside of this star. Why not, right? It looks like it would fit perfectly, if I'm being completely honest. Maybe a quote from the movie, or something about the emotions that I felt while I was watching it? Again, I'm not really sure. However, sometimes I just need to let things sit for a while before journaling. I think this is going to be one of those pages.

Thanks for looking guys! And I'll see you next time! :)

Linking to Mandarin Orange Monday and Creative Every Day.

Beauty: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey everyone! I know I wasn't on here yesterday, but I actually do have a legitimate reason for that. I was gone all day, and didn't have time to do any art at all. It was a Saturday, my dad was home from work, and we all just wanted to hang our as a family. Every now and again I'll have a day like that. A lazy day, when I don't feel like doing anything. Nothing at all. Just going out and having fun as a family. And I'm not going to beat myself up over something like that. Yes, I miss the blog when I don't do it for extended periods of time. But a day here and there isn't going to kill me. I hope you guys understand. :)

Anyways, now that I've gotten that cleared up, let's get on to the actual art now, shall we?

I decided to go with a face page today. I know I don't do a whole lot of these, and I'm hoping to change that a bit. I'm not quite sure what inspired me to create this page, but I quite like the way it turned out. It just so happened that I'm actually not horrible at creating face portraits; I just feel intimidated by them. I'm not sure why. I just always have. 

Here's a bit of a close up of some of the facial details. I didn't use a tutorial, or use another photo for reference. I did this completely on the fly, from the top of my head. For that, I would say this is pretty good. Of course that's me. And I'm extremely biased. It's not a problem. It's just a fact. My biggest problem with creating faces, at least that I've found, is matching the colors. I'm not quite sure what it is about it, but I have the most difficult time matching hair and eye colors with the colors of lips and clothing. I think it might have something to do with the face that I don't wear a lot of make up. Because of that, I tend to have difficulties when trying to make it look like my creations are wearing some. 

Here's a bit of a close up of the background, just so you can see what's going on. There is a very likely possibility that I will go back and add into this background in the very near future. I'm not very satisfied with it personally; I don't think it covers up enough space and seems very random and unfinished to me. A few more layers, working it into the hair, would probably do the page a lot of good. And journaling, as always, will be added later. 

Here you can see the hair a little bit better. I'm not exactly sure what made me decide to go with an orange hair color, but I'm glad I did. I think it fits the mood of the page perfectly, and really goes with how I was feeling at the time I made it. 

And now, just one last photo for you guys before you leave. A close up of the facial details themselves. I think the nose is my favorite part. It just turned out so nicely. I was really worried that it was going to look overworked in the finished piece; there was really no way of knowing for sure, and I was kind of going out on a wing. However, everything turned out in my favor in the end, and for that I am grateful. 

Thanks for coming to visit me everyone, and I'll talk to you again next time! Goodbye everyone. 

Linking to Try it on Tuesday.

Joy: Daily Art Journal Page

Hey guys! What's up? Hopefully you had time to get done everything that you wanted to today, and, if not, I hope you enjoyed yourself anyways. :P

Today I had a half a day of school, so I got home at noon. However, I was exhausted, and passed out on the couch, not getting up until around four-ish. So it was like I had a full day of school anyways. I managed to push that aside, and got to doing some art, using a concept I had come up with yesterday. You see, for Valentine's Day, I received a red carnation from someone at school, and a whole bunch of white ones from my dad. So I put them together in a vase, and I really liked the way they looked; the red contrasting the white. So I decided that I wanted to paint them. Which was strange for me, as I'm not much of a realistic painter.

However, I really like the way they turned out. Somehow, even though they barely even resemble carnations, I still was able to express the emotion that I had wanted to through this page. I also was able to document a moment in my life; one that I would have written down in a journal if I would have had one instead. That's what I love about art journaling. It's a documentation of your life through pictures and art. That's cool to me. It gives me a chance to keep a consistent journal, without having to forget about painting, which I also really enjoy.

Something else I love about this page is that I was somehow able to keep true to myself in the creation of this page. Just by looking at it, I can tell that it's mine. That makes me happy. And definitely gives me confidence; a desire to move forward in my work. 

I had a lot of fun in the creation of this page, and was glad to see it through to the end. In the beginning, when I first started it, I wasn't sure what was going to become of it. I wasn't sure if everything was going to work out in my favor or not. But I had to be willing to try. That's the thing about art journaling, I think. You cannot be afraid to try new things. To try to incorporate new and different things into your work. You just can't. If you are intimidated, then you can never proceed. You can never grow as an artist. That's why I keep working in areas like this. And in the area of painting faces. Because I'm not good at them, I try them anyways. I was actually considering doing a face page tomorrow. We'll see.

Anyways. I hope you guys enjoyed looking at today's art, and I'll talk to you all again soon! Goodbye everyone. 

Linking to Art Journal Every Day and Paint Party Friday. 

Heart Investigation 1.3: Wild

Hey guys! Heart Investigation is back, for it's third installation. And it's Valentine's Day! I feel like that's kind of cool. I hope you guys had a good day today; I know I did. I didn't think it was going to be too different from a regular day of school, but it was actually pretty fun. I got a carnation and a chocolate bar from one of my very good guy friends, because he's awesome. And know's I like chocolate. Or food in general. :P

However, getting away from that, and the day in general, let's focus more on the art. I played around with a concept that I've been considering for a while now; two overlapping hearts of different sizes. I was playing around with some cutouts the other day, and I thought it would be interesting to try and build a page around it. 

I didn't have a whole lot of time to create today, unfortunately.  So I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do for today's page. Normally I would have done some in depth collaged background. However, I knew that would take quite a while to do. So, instead, I just did a subtle collage. I let some of the lines from the original paper show through in areas, and put down random pieces of paper I had lying around my desk. It was almost a clean up sort of project, even though I'm not even close to having a clean desk. I used some graph papers, a couple of different kinds of tissue paper, a couple pieces from a magazine page, and some newsprint. Also, I used an ATC sized piece of cardstock I had written a few notes on. 

I didn't need it anymore, and had layered a bit of paint and india ink doodles on top of it. I just pasted that down and used it as yet another layer in the page, which I quite enjoy the concept of. Something that I would have otherwise thrown away being used. That's always nice. 

In this photo, you can see the layers quite a bit better. The cardstock piece is the one with the doodles on it. I collaged stuff down until I was satisfied with it, then used my fingers to paint in the rest of the gaps with pink and white layers. Of course, there was more done than that, but, for the most part, that was the general gist of it. 

Also, just as a bit of a parting farewell, I thought I would share a picture of how bulky the tabs are starting to get. Personally, this is my favorite part of my 2013 journal so far. Of course I love the individual pages, as it really expresses how I've been advancing as an artist, even over the course of just this new year. However, the collectiveness of it all is what really makes me proud. When a journal starts to get full and bulky, it just makes me well up inside. It just looks so cool, and is so fun to flip through the pages, just to see what's going on. What was happening in your mind when you did the things you did. And now I can tell when I was thinking those things, which is a cool aspect.

Also, I'm thinking that sometime over the weekend I'm going to be working on the cover for this journal. We're already halfway into February, and I still haven't done that. I think it's going to be a necessity, and I'm looking forward to creating something I'll be able to look at with pride for years to come.

However, before I go, I would like to thank you guys. I've been really enjoying being back with you guys again this year; I've missed art journaling in general, more than is even possible for me tho humanly explain. It's something that keeps me grounded. And when I separate myself from that, I'm lost. I'd like to thank the followers of this blog. The people that visit me and read what I have to say. The people that look at my art and leave me comments about how inspired they became after seeing my work. That's amazing. It makes me feel good, and is literally the highlight of my day. However, even though I may inspire you, it's you guys that inspire me. So thank you! And I hope you all have a GREAT day. :)

Compassion: Daily Art Journal Page

Hello everyone! I'm here with you guys again today, with a page that holds a bit more meaning to me personally. I don't know if I mentioned it here on the blog, but yesterday, on a field trip through my school, I went to the Holocaust Museum here in Florida. It was my first time being in a place like that, and even though it wasn't extremely morbid, graphic, or anything to that extent, it still had a pretty emotionally draining affect on me. I didn't quite know how to react.

For as long as I can remember, I've always felt very deeply for people. It's just something that I've always had. Even fictional characters. I cry in movies and television shows all of the time, even though I HATE to, because it messes with me and gives me headaches. Anyways. Basically the entire trip, I was close to tears. I was trying my best to control it, as I knew it would be extremely awkward for me, and for everyone else if I just started bawling. I realized that I needed to wait until later on to get all of that emotion out. And that's what I did. however, I did it the following day, and through art. 

This spread is what I did. The idea for the tree actually came from a painting that I saw AT the museum. I liked the simplicity and the meaningfulness of it. There was jut something about it that drew me in. So I decided to work with it a bit in my own work. I actually will be adding journaling to this page as well. This is one of those pages that DEFINITELY needs some. To make sure that I don't forget what I was thinking when I made it. However, the journaling that I typed out just so happened to be extremely personal. This is one of the few pages I'm not going to be able to share the fully finished thing with you guys. Maybe eventually I will. But I think I need to let the feelings relax a bit before that point.

The page itself was extremely relaxing, and nice to work on. I had about a million layers before I was finally finished with it, but I like the end result, for many different reasons. I love the meaning behind it, as well as the documentation of a major event in my life.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. A perfect day for my Heart Investigation series. That page should be quite a bit happier, just for that reason. However, I like using art as a way to express myself, and my emotions, as well as what I've done and been through. So there are going to be a few sad and depressing pages every now and again. However, that's all I have for you guys today. And I'll see you tomorrow! Bye everyone!

Age of Ignorance - Daily Art Journal Page

Hola people! I'm back today, with yet another art journal page. Today, I used the opposite page of the beginning of the spread I began yesterday. I realized that I wouldn't like it as a full spread, so I decided to paint over the one side of it. I liked the depth I knew I would get, and I think I may have mentioned my plans to do so yesterday. 

Anyways. The title (Age of Ignorance) is actually the tile of my current most favorite song. One of my guy friends, whose style in music is very similar to mine, sent it to me on Facebook over the weekend, and I haven't been able to stop listening to it since then. Actually, I'm listening to it right now, even as I sit here typing to you guys. I'll link to the song itself here, if you want to listen to it for yourself. It's about the corruption of government and society in America. 

Because it has been stuck in my head for so long, I knew that I had to do something about it. And the only thing I could think of was to record it in my art journal. At first I was planning on actually putting some of the lyrics from the song on the page, but the more I thought about it, I thought it would be interesting to do some of my own thoughts on the concept. 

Here's a few more of the details. I had some punch out letters that came with a scrapbooking kit I had from years ago, and I just painted over them with some metallic paint, to make them blend with the rest of the page. And I really like the way that worked out. Some of the leftover paint I had from painting the layer on top of them created a sort of mask on my scrap paper, which was kind of entertaining. 

Also, today I went to the Holocaust Museum as a field trip with my school. It certainly wasn't a very happy experience, and was very emotionally draining. I got to a point, near the end, where I wasn't completely sure that I wasn't going to burst into tears. However,  I managed to keep a level head, and have taken some time since then to work through some of the emotions. Expect some pages based on that in the very near future. It was an emotional experience, and that's what I like to journal about. Things that mean something to me. 

Linking to Ruby Tuesday.

Forget - Daily Art Journal Page

Hey everyone! I'm here again with you guys today, with yet another art journal page. I worked with some more prompts again today; so far I've really been enjoying doing that. 

Before I get started with today's post however, I would like to make a comment. Even though today's page looks like a spread, it actually isn't. I had originally planned to work over the two pages of the journal, but after I had started to try to work it out, I finally decided against it. Tomorrow's page will be built over top of the page on the right. It will add more layers. More texture. More color. And hopefully more interest and depth. Anyways. Onto today's page.

Here is today's page. The idea came about when I was trying to consider what would happen if I became just the slightest bit more graphic with my art. I tend to add a lot of layers in my work, and then one stenciled pattern over the top to add the graphic qualities. So that it doesn't look like everything is blended together. However, I thought it would be interesting to try some freehand paint doodles, just to see what happened. And I have to say, I quite enjoyed the result.

 There aren't very many layers on this page in particular, but that is because I became happy with it so quickly. It is very possible that I could have continued on with more paint and perhaps some stencils. However, I didn't want to ruin what I already had. I loved it far too much. I started off with a random layer of green collage as my base. I took a bunch of my own hand painted papers and simply tore them up randomly. Then I added some lime green paint to the top of that. After that, I added the paint doodles in orange. The oil pastel border followed soon after, as well as the title and journaling, which is actually a quote that I found on the internet. It felt so relevant to me right now that I felt I had to incorporate it. 

I also added some "X's" to the edges/border of the page because of a prompt. The second daisyyellow Prompt6ix has "Treasure Hunt" as one of it's prompts. The first think I thought of, naturally, was "X Marks the Spot." And I decided to use that. 

I had a lot of fun creating this page, even though it didn't take me very long to make. It seems that's how the majority of my things have been lately, as I do have so much going on with school. I personally don't really mind how long something takes me, as long as I'm happy with the result. Anyways.

I thank you guys for visiting me here today, and I'll see you all next time! :)

Linking to Prompt6ix, Mandarin Orange Monday, and Creative Every Day, 

Heart Investigation 1.2: {Torn}

Hey everyone! I'm here with you guys again today; sorry that I wasn't able to share anything with you guys yesterday. I wanted to, but my brothers had some friends over, and we were playing Call of Duty. I was distracted. And I didn't do any are at all.

So today I wanted to make up for that, and do yet another Heart Investigation page. I've really been enjoying this, and my 2013 journal in and of itself actually looks really cool. It's a bit more cohesive than my journals have been in the past, which I really enjoy. 

Today I was working with a daisyyellow prompt; the very first Prompt6ix prompt. There are quite a few more that I have to catch up with, but I was inspired to attempt this one. And I personally quite enjoy the result.

Quite a few of these pages still need journaling added to them, and I will eventually get to that. One day, when I'm really in the mood to get some of my emotions out, I'll get my typewriter out, and just type a bunch of journaling segments based on page titles. 

In this photo, you can see some of the heart pencil doodles I did in the background of this page. I only had a couple of layers down when I decided to add them in. I thought it would look cool, and would just add that much more depth to the idea for the page. And I think that it accomplished what I wanted it to. I personally quite enjoy it.

That's something that I've noticed myself saying quite a bit more as of late. And I wouldn't say that's necessarily a bad thing. It's good that I'm confident in myself. That I enjoy my own work. Of course I love looking at other artist's work. Much more than I enjoy looking at my own. But when I can look at my own personal piece of art and smile, I feel a sense of accomplishment. That's always a good thing.

Finally, I'll talk about the heart itself that I was working on. After all, this is HEART Investigation. The idea for the page came from the prompt on daisyyellow, one of which was "decision". I can never make tough decisions. And it's a horrible feeling for me personally. So I'm always extremely torn internally. So I took a heart, and I tore it in half. Meaning on multiple levels. That's also something that I enjoy in artwork, or in any type of media, including books or movies. And that is a meaning. A good concept. It draws you in, and interests you. That's what I'm trying to accomplish with my art. An intrigue. A pull. Something that makes people want to look.

Anyways. I thank you guys for checking me out, and I'll talk to you guys later!

Linking to Creative Every Day, Prompt6ix, Sneak Peek Friday, and Show and Tell Saturday.

{{Face Your Fears}} - Art Journal Spread

Hey all! Jordan here. 

I've got a couple of pages to share with you today. Or rather, just a spread. I guess it could technically be considered a couple of pages if I wanted it to be. Personal preference. That's what I'm going with.

With this page, I would like to make a quick note. I actually started this page a couple of days ago, during a live stream I did. This was on Monday. I loved doing the stream, and I think I was on for about three and half hours. I did quite a bit during this stream, and I got fairly far into this page. However, until today, I hadn't touched it since.

Then today, I walked into my room and saw it sitting on my desk. And I knew that I had to finish it up. It was staring at me, and was calling my attention to it. The only problem came when I didn't know how to continue on with it.

However, after a bit of experimenting, and flipping through magazines, I finally decided to glue an image down, throw a wash over it, and add a title and some journaling. Then I would call it done. And I really like the way it turned out.

Here's a close up of some of the detail on the left page, where the title is located. This is one of my favorite parts. I love the ironic quality it has to it, even though it was completely unintentional. I put the "face" part of the title over the face of the girl.

I'm not really sure how that came into being, but I'm not complaining. I'm really loving it.

Also, here's just a bit more detail on the journaling. Again, I did it on my typewriter, except here I took one of the words and stamped it out. I love the way that turned out as well.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this page. Very satisfied. Quite frankly, I love it. There's a possibility that it's my favorite page since I've started up art again. However, that's arguably happened to me every time I've sat down to create a page. 

Anyways. I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you tomorrow!

ICAD Update: Cards 50 - 51

Hey guys! What's going on? I'm here with a couple of ICAD cards for you guys today, and I hope you enjoy. They're really just some more zentangling ICADs that I was working on as part of a "series" of sorts. I wanted to try out my new papermate pens on something (I got 4 new colors) but I didn't know what. So I decided to do something with my ICAD cards. I had done the zentangling before, but not in color. So I decide to try it. This green one is from a couple of days ago.

This purple one was from just yesterday. I actually really love the way that this turned out. The thing with zentangling, at least for me, is that I will often times run out of patterns to use on the cards themselves. I just can't think of any more. It's a rather difficult dilemma. I know that I could simply go online and search google for some ideas, coming up with literally thousands of patterns in the process. However, when I'm right in the middle of something, I find it rather difficult to do so. To tear away from the work that I am doing right at that moment. So maybe, not that I'm really thinking about it, what I should really do is to look ahead of time, before I start my doodling. Maybe it'll help a little. Maybe it'll generate some more ideas. Maybe.

Anyways. That's all I have for you guys today; I'm considering popping in tomorrow with a tutorial for all of you. We'll see. We will see. See you then!

Summer of Color 2012: Week 6 + Challenge Announcement

Okay all. I have something pretty cool to share with you guys today. At least I think it's cool. Though I am biased. It is my work, after all. Anyways, I am presenting to you, today, Week 6 of the Summer of Color 2012, in which the colors were a pink and a black or dark brown. I used some of both. An extremely dark brown. Again, I made my painted papers, as I did in the past, this time creating a total of eight. I had it worked out in such a way that I would be able to come out, in the very end, with a total of 40 painted papers. And I achieved that goal effectively. I have decided, somewhere in the middle of this challenge that I was going to add onto this challenge on my own time, and I will actually be inviting you guys to participate in it as well. But I will discuss that later on in this post, after the reveal of all the papers I completed for this challenge in the past 6 weeks.

Let's get started now, shall we? Okay. I had quite a few ideas for these papers this week, which made them go so much faster. It was nice to not be struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with the blank pieces of paper I had staring at me. The two above each started with a watercolor wash background; the one on the left with black, and the one on the right with pink. I added acrylic and watercolor paints as another layer on top of the background to create the effects shown. Also, with the stars, I outlined the pink stars with an oil pastel (non water-soulable).

These papers were very simple to complete. Each only consisted of two layers each. The one on the left, I started with an acrylic paint wash over the entire background, to create a vibrant, but not TOO vibrant color. Then, I used some black acrylic to paint the lines and squares over the entire page. I've done things similar to this on art journal pages before, so I just thought it would be fun to play around with. With the page on the right, I used a dark brown watercolor paint (extremely watered down) for the background. Then I took some bubble wrap and stamped with pink acrylic paint over the entire page. And that was that.

These pages were fairly simple as well. The one on the left is simply composed of layers of watercolor paint on top of each other. The one on the right is a bit more complex, though not a whole lot. I started off the page with a white roseart crayon. Then I used it to draw circles all over the entire page. I didn't really pay too much attention to where I was putting the circles, as I couldn't see them that well anyways. Though, I did do my best to cover the entire page with these circles. Then I used black and pink watercolors over the entire page to resist the crayon.

Here, the page on the right also uses a crayon resist, though I used a black crayon that I could actually see. I drew a bunch of little black dots all over the page, then used an acrylic wash to resist the color. Out of all the papers that I made today, this has got to be the one that I am the least fond of. However, that's okay. It's not too bad. The paper on the right was extremely easy. Just alternating stripes of black and pink watercolors. And that was that. Technically only one layer. But I love this one layer. It's just cool.

Now, before I actually get to the challenge that I'm going to be announcing, I would like to share with you one picture that sort of reviews all of the papers that I made this past 6 weeks. I separated them into their specific weeks, but other than that, they are in no particular order. When they are all stacked, I came up with a stack that's a bit more than an inch in height. That makes me proud. I can see that I have actually accomplished something. And it's crazy, because this is actually my second challenge that I have completed this summer. Last summer I started a whole bunch of challenges, but didn't complete anything. Sadly. However, this is my SECOND completion (the first, of course, being my 30-30-30 challenge, though I'm still trying to decide what to do with those loose pages) and I am expecting to have two more at the end of the month. :) And perhaps some more next month. It just makes you feel so completed, you know what I mean?

Anyways, moving on, let's get to the challenge itself that I am presenting all of you faithful viewers of my blog. First off, I thank you for being here for my first challenge I am presenting to you guys. It means a lot to me. So here we go. The challenge that I am presenting you guys with is the "Limited Supply Challenge". I know that it doesn't have a big fancy challenge name or anything like that, but that's okay, in my opinion. It's realistic. It's real. And that's what I like. This challenge actually developed from my desire of wanting to do something with the increasing stacks of papers that I was creating in my studio, and also wanting to have a purpose for my Summer of Color papers; you know; the ones I just showed you. So that's what this challenge is going to be about. Using up all of the painted papers that we have created. And, if you don't have any papers yet in your collection, don't worry. You still have some time to prepare. And actually, they don't even have to be hand painted.

They can be anything that you want them to be. However, I am going to set a rule. I want these papers to 8 1/2" x 11". If you want to use scrapbooking papers (which is fine, by the way), I would prefer it if you would trim them down to that size. The reason for this being that I don't want anybody to have any more or less material than anybody else. So here's the deal. We are going to make as many art journal pages, ATCs, mini book pages, scrapbook pages, collages; WHATEVER. We are going to make as many projects as we can with these papers that we select until EVERY SINGLE SCRAP of paper is gone. I know that sounds like a lofty goal, but doesn't it sound fun?

Here's the deal. These are the supplies you are allowed:

1. 40 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 printed/painted/collected paper. 

In 6 color schemes. 

5 of the first two.

 6 of the third. 

And 8 of each of the last 3.

2. 5 paint colors. These can be any kind that you like.

I recommend red, blue, yellow, white and black.

Because I am graciously allowing you to mix your colors. ;)

Also, if you would prefer anything else (colored pencils, oil pastels, crayons, etc) because that is the medium you work in, feel free to substitute paint with that supply.

But you can still only have 5.

3. A journal. Or canvas'. Or blank sheets of paper.

In other words, any surface that you want to work on. I am not limiting you at all in this aspect. Not a bit. You can do what you like here.

4. 15 Texture stamps.

This can be anything you want. They can all be collected stamps if you want.

Bubble wrap.

Mesh from an old window screen.

A sponge.

Or stamps you bought. But 15.

Of course, if you don't want to use stamps, you don't have to.

5. Any other BASIC supplies.

i.e. scissors, glue, pencils, pens, white copy paper, etc.

But that is all.

And that's the challenge!! Limited supplies. To use up a total of 40 papers. Who's going to join me? I believe that I will start the challenge on the first of next month. Are you guys ready for this? Do you want to join me?