Rediscovering Journaling...With a Kelly Kilmer Twist

It’s been a few years since I did any regular journaling. I have gone in fits and starts, and have large gaps in my journaling. Years ago--and for several years straight--I made a monthly 8" x 8" quilted piece, but due to neck and shoulder issues I have moved to paper. 

Yes, I have been busy. Super, crazy busy. But super crazy busy in your personal and/or work life (in my case both) can make you frazzled, panicky and maybe even sick. 

I did do small art pieces, but journaling got put on the back burner. The closest I came to journaling was using an old moleskin planner of my daughter’s and repurposing it as a journal, but not one I drew or painted or collaged in. I glued or taped all my little scribbled doodles and ideas into the book—ideas for paintings, art series, new ideas, and the beginnings of books that I someday hope to write.

A great side benefit to last weekend’s course with Kelly Kilmer, http://kellykilmer.blogspot.com/where I learned how to make my own journal from scratch, was that I also relearned how to journal. Kelly’s technique is to pick five or six background items from your hoard of ephemera and pretty papers, and one focal piece, then play with them instinctively until you have covered the journal page and glued them down. She also adds a little washi tape or torn snippet of paper here and there. Here’s the scary part—on top of the “finished” collage you do two more steps: 1) use either a stamp or a stencil on top of the collage, then add color with markers or paint to the stencil/stamp. 2) write on it, using a prompt or a favorite line or whatever words pop into your head.

I must confess that I just don’t have time to journal every day. I do, however, have the desire to journal every waking minute. This weekend I did about six or seven journal pages, and even took a trip to the Ink Pad and Utrecht and purchased some new supplies—gloss medium, washi tape, a cool rolling stamp, new stamp pads, t-pins, a new carved wooden stamp, a new rubber face stamp, acrylic blocks for mounting my previously unmounted cling stamps, sewing machine needles and an awl.

I am thinking about making a little “to go” box for work so I can journal on my lunch hour. I might get carried away and accidentally-on-purpose forget to get back to my job though.