Trent, over at “Trent’s World” is hosting his “Weekly Smile” invitational again now, and I thought I’d throw in my reason for smiling this week. As many of my regular visitors know, I’ve been dabbling in watercolor painting this past year — primarily for the purpose of de-stressing. Playing with watercolor relaxes me. But the more I played with that medium, the more I got interested in adding a few other mediums to the mix as well, and the next thing I knew, I was playing with ink and then with a whole new set of markers, and who knows where it will lead next.
I’ve kept journals that were connected with my writing and with my ministry, but I had never started an art journal. So this Christmas I decided that I should put a good mixed-media journal on my list of wishes so I could use it to practice and experiment. And sure enough, I got a beautiful journal that is filled with a combination of excellent watercolor pages and sketch pages. Now, that really made me smile. But that wasn’t the end of the story, because every time I do something new in that journal, my smile grows wider. I’ve been doing watercolor, ink, graphite sketches, marker drawings, and poems — all in the same book. So I’ve been smiling a whole lot this past week.
I’ll share a few of the pages below, and just maybe one or two of them will make you smile as well.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
The Happy Wordcrafter 
Beautiful! You have a flair for mixed media art. So enjoyed seeing what you have been doing! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you. It’s great escapism mostly, but once in a while I can do something that is a blessing to someone else.
You are welcome!
Very cool. I think a mixed media journal is a good idea. I have blog friend who does journalling where every week she creates an elaborate illustration but leaves a place for a written journal entry for each day within the picture. I do like the pure art one you are doing as well. Very nice.
I’m actually putting some of my poetry in this journal as well, but those pages didn’t offer much in the way of pictures to show. 🙂
That makes sense. It is a cool idea 🙂
I love your multi-coloured Haiku. … yes, it did make me smile and pause to reflect. I love the idea of keeping an art journal
Thank you. I’m glad you liked the haiku. I’ve actually just started keeping this kind of journal. By having both kinds of paper in the same journal, makes it very easy to record poetry there too, so I use it almost every day for one or the other or both.
These are beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Colline. They were fun to do.
I had never thought of this Sandra. Excellent idea.
Believe it or not, I just now noticed this comment. Sorry I didn’t reply earlier, but thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
Beautiful and yes, staying within our squares would make life very boring.
Thank you for your visit and your comment.