Flying Unicorn Inaugural Art Journal Challenge

We're pleased to bring you a new challenge this month at the Flying Unicorn Forums - Art Journaling.

What exactly is art journaling?  Art journaling is one of the freest forms of papercrafting; it is all about personal expression and experimentation.  There is no right and wrong, so grab any supplies you have on hand - inks, mists, paints, gesso, stencils, markers, pencil crayons, stamps, Gelatos, magazines, scraps of paper, masking tape, canvas - literally anything you have can be used to create in an art journal.  You don't even need a journal (though if you'd like to pick one up we have 4 or 5 arriving in the Flying Unicorn store early next week); pages can easily be cut from cardstock and covers fashioned out of chipboard.

The Creative Team member hosting the challenge will provide an inspiration piece every month; you are welcome to use the mediums and techniques they did or strike out on your own and do something that resonates with you.

Here is the inspiration piece I've prepared for this month.  For me, my art journal is a place to play around, to stamp and color and draw like I haven't been able to when I was a young girl, to introduce some whimsy into my days, and to try new techniques on a smaller and more intimate canvas than a layout.  I saw this amazing technique developed by Vivian Keh using hot glue and Mix'd Media Inx to achieve gorgeous effects.  Though her effects are far more abstract, I instantly thought the 3D effect would be perfect for a tree trunk, and set out to create that on a piece of resist canvas from my Prima Mixed Media Album.

I applied gesso to the background in random places and dried it, then misted the canvas with water followed by various mists in blues and greens. I stamped the upper portion with a background stamp by Prima.  I then applied rumpled masking tape to my background, which I covered with gesso, into which I sprinkled my new Distress Stickles Dry Glitter then dried, before misting it.  I then went to work with my glue gun, creating the ridges and furrows of my tree.  It was a lot of fun to watch it come together!  When the tree was dry I misted it heavily with darker color mists to bring definition to the low points, then applied two layers of pigment ink to the raised areas.

The rules:

- Aside from the standard rules there are very few rules.  Use whatever techniques or mediums appeal to you.
- You can do a one page or two page journal "entry", however a two-pager will only count as one entry if it is a contiguous piece of work.
- Up to 2 entries per person, art journal pages only (you choose the size)
- Projects must be new as of December 30th, 2012. Challenge closes at 8pm EST on January 31st, 2013.
- Winner will be chosen by random.org. Each individual can only win one challenge per month to spread the wealth around. Winner must PM Alda their mailing information within 7 days or forfeit their prize.
- Entries are not eligible for any other challenge on Flying Unicorn.


Here's the RAK that's up for grabs:

 

I hope you'll play along!  I plan on making a two-page Kate Crane-style calendar page for each month to document the goings-on in our family I don't want to forget - the funny and touching things the kids say and do, the triumphs and the heartbreaks.