Traveling Art Journal - words of strength and encouragement

The second traveling art journal I worked on yesterday came from Laura Harms. Her theme is "Words of Strength and Encouragement". Here's the page I made:
The journal is a 5"x8" sketchbook with pages meant for drawing. I added so much paint, glue and extra paper that the page started to buckle! Luckily, Laura encouraged us to "Thickify" the pages (love that word!) so I hope she won't mind.

The words are something I heard Jane Davenport say in the class she teaches for "21 Secrets". I was watching her video and she sort of casually says "be gentle with your expectations" and it resonated with me so much that I stopped the video and got up to find a scrap of paper and pen so I could write it down before I forgot. It's been tacked on my bulletin board above my work table for months. It's such a lovely reminder to be kind to ourselves in the creative process.

These two journals will be lovingly packed and shipped to Maria on Monday. Can't wait for the next one to arrive!

Traveling Art Journal - Home

When I got home from vacation I had not one, but TWO packages from my Traveling Art Journal group waiting for me. These are the pages I created for the lovely Sarah Cooper's journal. Her theme is "Home", a subject dear to my heart.

The first page features lyrics from the Talking Heads song "This Must Be the Place"


"Home is where I want to be but I guess I'm already there. I come home, she lifted up her wings. Guess that this must be the place. I can't tell one from another. Did I find you or you find me? There was a time, before we were born. If someone asks, this is where I'll be"

If you look closely, you'll see the paint and text is layered over an photo of my house. And if you look more closely, you'll see the front door has a handle and the word "open"

When you open the door, the page looks like this:

Turn the page for this two-page spread:

Of course when I was writing on the back of the door, I forgot that the text would appear upside-down once you flipped the page! Oh well, I kind of like it that way.
I'll show my work in journal #2 in a separate post.