Week 44: Creative Frames

Welcome to Week 44 of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey. I’m Melinda, and I’m here to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and establish a healthy habit of creative self-care through my simple form of art journaling, with one small-art and journaling prompt each week for one year.

I had numerous ideas for the framework of this week’s project, and tried several. In this week’s video I invite you to follow along as I try one of the versions that came to mind. The audio quality isn’t the greatest… but better than some of the earliest videos…

Scroll on down if you’d like to watch before you read…. And if you’re new and curious, click here for the intro video. And don’t miss Week 1, where we made our journals, and this journey, our own… Click here for the first 52-Week Art Journal Journey prompt.

If you need an economical mixed media art journal option to get started, here’s a link to what I use in most of my videos, and what we use for the art-journaling group at the library where I work. I love the paper, and it holds up well with wet, dry, and layered mixed media. If you use this link and make a qualifying purchase, I will make a small commission as an Amazon associate. This does not affect your price, but gives me a few cents toward supporting my sharing my healthy art habit with others. So, thanks if you do!

Getting started

This week you’ll need your art journal, masking tape, a black Sharpie or other pen, acrylic craft paints in a few colors of your choice, and an old plastic credit-card-type card… or Catalyst wedge. In my last Blick order I decided to invest in a Catalyst wedge for my collaging, etc., and, for me, it was a great little investment. They’re also available on Amazon.

You may want some other materials, but we’ll get to that in a bit…

The first step is using masking tape to frame and divide your journal page. I turned my journal horizontal, and broke my page up into six separate areas. A piece of tape along each edge. One bisecting it the long way, then two strips of tape dividing each half into thirds.

In the version of this project in the video, I drew long curvy loopy line through the top and then bottom row, going through each frame only once.

I thought about more lines, and would probably try more another time.

In the clip of another version of this project in the video, I made lines with my Sharpie, then random designs in each section, mostly with a Micron pen. I didn’t add any color to that one, because I added a lot of designs… a lot…

My original idea was to add color to the lined and designed sections with watercolor… and I’ll try to get a reel of that up on Instagram and Facebook… when I have time to finish trying it out.

But for now…

Remember the fun translucent cats we made in Week 33? If not, you need to check them out here and make your own!

Choose which direction(s) you’d like to drag your paint. I mostly went top to bottom of my horizontal page, but went from bottom to top in one area where the paint didn’t pull all the way from the top. I made my lines of each color of paint to drag narrow enough to use the narrow side of my card.

Paint… does not dry automatically. But, while you wait, you can JOURNAL!

While things dry

This week we’re going to journal a little more about grace, and giving ourselves grace. Specifically the grace we (should) give our art, the grace we (should) give ourselves in our art.

I wasn’t loving how things were going with the project I was filming. I didn’t like how dark the paints I chose were coming out over the pen lines… and were the pen lines too boring?!?

But as well as being a place for us to take a break from all the other things, and get lost in the flow of art-making, and practice creative self-care, our art journals are a place to experiment and LEARN.

About art and ourselves.

Has participating in the 52-Week Art Journal Journey helped you be more comfortable experimenting with art? Is it freeing to be able to create and express yourself in your journal without fear of what others will think? Have that comfort and freedom allowed you to give yourself more grace within the process?

Wrapping things up… but not really…

When it came time to remove the tape to reveal what my new little pieces of really art looked like, I did feel like they needed… more.

And I realized that when using the acrylic-paint-pulling method, it may be a good idea to paint first, then make lines over the color after it dries. And/or use lighter colors as I did with the cats.

What it came down to, basically, is something not totally unlike our Week 8: Boundaries small art. Though the two approaches felt completely different…

Long story short… Divide up your page… as evenly (different from Week 8) as possible without having to be overly precise about it… and add some lines… or lines and color… or, if you’d prefer, just color.

Make your frames. Make them your own.

Ironically, the trick is to forget they’re frames for this project to work the best…

Have some fun without worrying about the boxes. Then remove your tape to see what fantastic little pieces of art you’ve made.

I’ll be back next week with another small-art and journaling prompt! In the meantime, enjoy your frames. You can also check out past prompts for more inspiration. You can also sign up for my currently weekly, but slowing down in 2024, email, which will also allow you to join the private Art Journal Journey Facebook group, a small encouraging place to share your art. For more my art, you can click below to…
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And for those of you who received this week’s email, here are the links to the books I mentioned… Click cover or title…