Inspirational Book Find!

On my shoe hunting trip I went by a bookstore and found this little gem! It's very inspirational to me. I'll share a few of my favorite pages soon.

Stencils

 I think using all the various new stencils out there will be great in art jounraling for making backgrounds etc. I especially love Julie Balzer designs from Crafter's Workshop. I have a bunch of these already, but I picked up a few more with the thoughts of art journaling dancing around in my head.

Gesso

 I'm so excited to use black gesso.  I have been looking at a few youtube videos and it really gives that wow factor to some of the pages!

Paints for art journaling

 I have no idea what types of acrylic paints are best to use in your art journals so I just picked up this starter set, plus a few larger tubes of some colors that were not here. I am used to using small amounts of paint in my cardmaking and those are more of the twinkling H2O type, so I'm lost here, but I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Applying gesso question???

 I hit Hobby Lobby hard yesterday. Here are a few brushes I picked up. Are these larger ones what I need to apply my gesso?????

Art Journaling...Here I Come!!!

 I have been thinking about entering the world of art jounraling for a while now, but today I actually purchased a couple of journals to get started. I have dabbled in decorating books before, but it was before the art journal craze had hit, so I didn't really call it that. I normally stick to scrapbooking, rubber stamping cards, and making some jewelry making here and there. I love the feeling of freedom art journaling seems to create in me. I have practiced on a few pages here and there, but now that I have these books I have no idea what to put on the pages to just give me that jump start. Right now I am picking up a few things I may need to help in the art journaling process. If any of you out there do this form of art please let me know of anything else I may need.  

My new favorite embellishments!!!

 I just received my order from The Frantic Stamper of these little goodies, and I am in love with them! I have a cat card swap coming up soon, and I can't wait to use the cat cab on those cards. I have big plans for the mermaids too, and the cool female skeleton I don't know, but she was way too great to pass up! These little doo dads are definately my new favorite embellishments!

Treasures of the Trees

 I went to a wonderful little art gallery the other day and discovered this little necklace. It's actually bracket fungi that's found on trees and stumps helping with the decomposition and soil making. There are both necklaces and earrings available and are created by the artist Penny Lane in Floyd County, Virginia.

Ocean Dreams

 Ahhh...I needed an ocean fix today so since I can't take off to the beach for a few more weeks I decided to bring out my Stampscapes stamps and do a little scene stamping to hold me over.

Creepy Mermaid Dreams....

 Here's a little card I did today with the creepy little Stampotique stamps.