Explorations with watercolor crayons, page 4

Still playing with my Neocolor II's! Yesterday I started off with a striped background using 3 colors of crayons and a wet brush, another idea I got from the same Samantha Kira Harding video that I linked to yesterday. Simple, quick background:

I decided to paint over it with a cheapie craft paint in a tangerine shade, and then I outlined the entire page with another WC crayon in a pretty mint/jade color. I blended that out with a wet brush as well, and then went back in to certain spots with a hot pink crayon, and used a little water to blend that in as well.

Then yesterday morning, I saw this gorgeous, colorful page on Sparkleblue Faery's blog, where she wrote her to-do list on a coloring page, then glued it into her journal. She challenged her readers to do the same and write a to-do list on something different and unexpected. Since I have a monster to-do list, thanks in part to my parents coming in town on Tuesday, I decided to give it a try. I had this thick, postcard sized sticker page that my son got in some sort of Happy Meal a few months ago. He'd put the stickers on it, then put it on our fridge, where it's hung ever since. I love using ephemera in my journal, especially anything related to my son, so I pounced on that sticker sheet and wrote my list on it! I had a lot of fun with this one.

I'm halfway through my watercolor crayons challenge  and I've already decided that, not only do I want to hold onto them, but I think I need more! I only have about a dozen, so I think I can justify picking up a few more the next time I'm at Blicks.

In other journaling news, I picked up a new (to me) book at Borders last night, Diana Trout's Journal Spilling and I'm looking forward to diving in, hopefully later today. Actually WORKING a book is kind of a new concept for me. I tend to buy arts and crafts books, enjoy the eye candy, but rarely sit down and try the techniques. But I've been working through a few books I had and I'm loving the results. I used to think that following other's instructions or prompts would limit my creativity, but it's actually the opposite. I find that I am more creative when I'm trying something new or uncomfortable for me, or doing a prompt that I normally wouldn't. It opens me up to new ideas, instead of just falling back on the techniques and ideas that I know and am comfortable with.