stages of a journal page

For me, the more layers I have in my journal page, the more likely I am to have 'eek' moments when I really don't like it.  These pages had a number of these and although I'm ok with the end result, they aren't my faves; and that's ok!

I'm challenging myself to art journal every day and from the middle of Jan to the middle of Feb I incorporated Rae Missigman's 30 day art marks challenge.  Today I thought I'd share the progress behind a couple of those pages.

I started with a madly coloured page which I toned down using Dina Wakley's heavy body white paint through a Stencilgirl stencil.

I challenged myself to use colours I don't normally use for these pages, and I was also trying out a different process, following one of Rae's videos and trying out different layers ..

...which included different papers added as a layer.

Adding a focal point of my own creation, rather than basing it on a stamped image, was a challenge for me.  I chose to tear paper into a shape and at this point the flower was my favourite...

..but once I added colour it was the leaves I was happiest with!  More white paint around the images made them 'pop' a bit better from their busy backgrounds.

I'm particularly pleased with how this challenge got me using my own marks, rather than always using rubber stamps.  I carved some of these into stamps of my own and I'm loving using them in a variety of ways.

detail from flower page

I love how challenges take me out of my comfort zone and encourage me to try new things.  Rae is putting together another challenge for March but it's not too late to join in this one here