Journal Jam 5 : Gather gratefully

Effy Wild is sharing a weekly Journal Jam live session in The Wilderhood (her Canadian Monday afternoon, my NZ Tuesday morning). I create spreads I would never do on my own and it's great to be led if you're feeling uninspired. Effy draws prompts and shares how she works in response to those directly in her journal, and you can follow her lead or go in a totally different direction. Find the replay HERE (April 21)
Doodle Effy started with a watersoluble marker so I decided to do the same... Dipped my hand into my box of markers with eyes closed = Pink Tombow. Started very loose!

Flip spread upside down and Add book text. I love found text. Because I am working in a recycled old book I went hunting and outlined some words with Faber Castell Ink pen and then brushed over those words with gloss gel so that if I go over the word accidentally with another medium later I should be able to clean it off. 

The words  are very appropriate for how I feel in these journal jams : light-hearted - gather - gratefully - grace. So I didn't flip the spread upside down - I will do that now for the next prompt. 
Mix your own colour Expecting that whatever I add to this page will activate the watersoluble tombow pen beneath. Followed Effy's lead of applying a glaze - this will give me a background layer. Mixed Phthalo blue and Quinacradone Red because I know a purple will work over pink if it moves. And I was running out of my first mix so used up around the page and then mixed again and of course it was slightly different.

This proves that there is always learning in your journal....I should have remembered that the paint at this point would just soaked into my old book paper. No glazing here. At least my words are saved. Still not flipping the spread until I have a decent pattern on here.
Cover something up Effy used a stencil resist with her glaze in the last prompt which I was unable to do because your paint needs to stay wet. Going to do that this time and I need light so using gold (you put the paint down and while still wet, lay stencil on the top and use baby wipe to remove paint)

Very happy with that. Now flipping the spread right way up. To be fair, I probably wouldn't have done it much differently anyway because aware of keeping those words. Effy's "cover something up" response was to add a focal stencil of a bird in black and extended it over the page with branches on impulse. I'm going to find a black focal as well. My search yielded a lovely dragonfly stencil which I combined with another to add patterning to the wings but lovely iridescent blue

Add overlapping circles Want to add some more light so was going to give white a go. Bit of a scarey move and I lost my nerve and instead added an overlapping circle stencil with iridescent violet.

That was the last prompt drawn so now it's up to me to finish and I had to sit with it for a couple of days. Finally today I got this finished and it didn't take long!
The pink bothers me...as I sat at my desk my eyes rested on a white crayon and it turned out to be just what I'd been looking for! It injects more playfulness and movement to the spread.

Just been watching another Dina Wakley demo where she shares her very first art journal. She was writing lots that rings true with all artists about not being good enough and trying to find your own artistic style and juggling creativity with other things calling on your time. This comment totally resonated with me : Whatever the outcome, the practice and process is a thrill  ♥