art journal update :: jetpens review

So, I mentioned yesterday a little something about my art journaling attempts this year. I had thought that I might get artsy once a week. Yeah, right. That did not happen, but I think as I gain more confidence and explore new mediums, I might do more than the once a month I've done so far. Just like everything, it just takes getting started and it gets easier and easier.

I began by turning my book upside down and placing my hands on the page so that the middle part of me joining my hands together formed a heart. I traced each hand in pencil, painted it in a watered-down craft paint and then outlined it with a marker. You can see that I enhanced the heart shape my hands formed by painting it in the closest color I had on hand to the 2011 Pantone color of the year: Honeysuckle.

In the right hand corner, I used one of the awesome pens I received from JetPens to do some journaling. It's the Pentel EnerGel Needle Tip .5mm Liquid Gel ink pen. Loved that it provided me a very fine line...just perfect. I give it 5 Stars!

My journaling reads:

with these hands...
i create
i scrap
i sew
i paint
i garden
i cook
i mother

Using this pen, also available at JetPens, I outlined my letters {above} and then used the grey part of this double-tipped pen to do some shading. I liked that it was able to draw a thicker line for me without having to go over the letters several times to give it a prominent line.

Here are a few more shots of me creating my first art journal page {the one I shared yesterday} with all the beautiful sunshine streaming in through the window. 

It's the best seat in the room, really. There's another desk just like this one to the left of me and its only view is of the Mac screen and it's just a tad chilly in that corner. Yep, I'm lovin' sitting here on the crafty side of the desk doing a little creating.

I started with this blank journal, my selection of JetPens, my reading glasses and my mantra: Just Do It. Zach said that I would probably get sued for using a trademarked phrase, but I'm taking my chances. He was the photographer for all of the Mommy shots, by the way.

After painting my page, I tore my phrase into word-sized scraps, which had been printed on an old book page. I used ModPodge and my fingers to adhere it to the page as I didn't have any sponge brushes handy.  They were somewhere, just not handy. FYI, the ModPodge I have did not dry glossy, although they make several different formulas.

I made this stamp quite a while ago out of those foam sheets sold everywhere. I drew a bird shape and adhered several layers together to give it some thickness when I stamped. You can see that I am using removeable glue dots to hold my homemade stamp on the acrylic block. I used paint on this page, but have also used ink with this stamp and it also works well.

Ta Da! The finished product. I like it. I would do one thing differently, but all in all, not bad for my first try.

I encourage you to read this post over at write.click.scrapbook. where a more thorough review of the selection of pens available {think white ink pens, eraseable ink pens and even a pen that does a super job on textured cardstock} at JetPens is provided by Marnie Flores and myself. Marnie shares some wonderful insight that any scrapbooker or crafty person will find useful and interesting and I give a more detailed review of each of the pens I used for this page.

A big thank you to JetPens for providing me a large selection of pens to test and review. I guarantee that if you click over, you might be a few dollars poorer but you'll be a whole lot happier to have found an online retailer with a wide array of pens, pencils, and scrappy supplies, wonderful customer service and fast shipping.

I have more pens to review and my thoughts on them in the coming weeks.