…try saying THAT three times fast! :) Today I want to share with you an interesting art journaling experience I had on Saturday. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in Kelly Kilmer’s online journal class, A Life Made by Hand. I’ve been using a lot of painted backgrounds, but have noticed a lot of folks in the group are limiting themselves more than that. When the subject came up on the discussion board Kelly pointed out “If ya’ll want to paint, stamp, -WHATEVER on the pages, PLEASE do it!!!! These are only techniques meant to GUIDE you. Nothing NOTHING is ever set in stone for an artist and for an artist’s creativity. If something tells you to smear paint on it, do it. If something says add a sticker or tape or whatever, do it!!” so I’m not fussing too much about marching (or painting) to the beat of my own drummer, but the other night I decided I wanted to give it a try, working “without wetworks,” as it were. So I set myself a guideline of only paper, stickers, tape, and pens (well, and gluestick of course!) and set to work. I had hoped to crank out tons of pages, as I set aside the whole day for this project, but found the limitation challenging enough that I only ended up doing four pages. It was surprisingly challenging, I had no idea how attached to my paints  – and to a lesser extent, my rubberstamps – I’ve become.

Today, I encourage you to set yourself a challenge, even a seemingly small one. Pick one color, and work only in shades of it. Journal only using cursive (or pint, if you usually write in cursive). Pick a magazine or catalog and make a journal page using only elements from that – including words. Raid your kids stuff and make a page using only their art supplies, nothing fancy. Have fun with it, and see how fun it can be to stretch your creativity in ways you’re unaccustomed to!