Heaven's A Little Closer In A Home - Art Journal Page

I have been wanting to make an art journal page ever since I posted about ideas back in February (you can find that link here).  I went back and forth about what I wanted my topic to be.  As I was looking through my items, I knew that I wanted to focus on family or home.  Then I decided that it would be great to have an artistic memory to celebrate the fact that we officially bought our home!

I will show and describe the process I used to create my page.  The great thing about art journaling is you do whatever you want and make it your own project.  There aren't any rules to follow.  Most of the time they won't be seen by anyone else, so you don't have to worry about being judged by how it looks.

Supplies used:
Old dictionary page
Mod Podge
Apple Barrel Paint - Lemon Chifon
Cardstock Stickers - The Paper Studio
American Crafts Precision Pen - Blue
Stamp
Ink Pad
Recollections Watercolor Pencils
paintbrushes

I started out by looking through dictionary pages that a friend sent me to use on my projects.  One of the pages happened to be for the word "home" so I decided to use that because of the topic of my page.  I began by tearing the old dictionary page to the size that I needed.  There is no need to be precise with this.  It gives an interesting edge to the paper that I really liked.  Then I glued the dictionary page into my journal.  I used Mod Podge because that is what I had handy.  You can use any type of glue.

Next I picked the paint that I wanted to use and mixed it with a bit of water so it was not too thick. I wanted to make a wash for over the dictionary page, but not cover it totally.  I lightly painted the page, leaving a few unpainted places where the word "home" was on the paper.

Next I got out my watercolor pencils.  I found this at a wholesale craft sale a few weeks ago for $1 and have wanted to try them out.  These are great because you get to "color" the picture before the painting part and can make sure that it looks just how you want it.  You can even erase if you need to.  I think I may look for additional sets of these pencils to have a variety of colors.  I really liked how easy they were to use, but would have enjoyed having a bigger selection to choose from. 

I started out coloring it lightly, but ended up going back over my work to make it darker so it would show up better.

Next I used the paintbrush that was included in my watercolor pencil set to finish my picture.  Not much water is needed to change it from a colored pencil drawing to a watercolor painting.

Next I applied ink to the words on my stamp and stamped the top of my page.  The words say "Heaven's a little closer.....In a house....By the sea."  I just left off the "by the sea" part of the saying.  I bought this stamp probably 14 years ago or so and have been hanging on to it all that time without using it.  I knew it would come in handy sometime. =)

I decided to add a little doodle decoration around the words to make it stand out a bit more.

Next I decided to add a cardstock sticker that says "Home Sweet Home".  I bought these stickers at Hobby Lobby last year when they were on clearance.

Next I added the month and year to the picture with a color pencil.  I have a horrible memory and would forget when exactly we officially closed on the house if I didn't add the date.

So there it is.  The first official art journal page.  For a first try with the watercolors, I think it was pretty good.  I'm going to keep practicing so it looks a little smoother next time.  I like my artistic way to remember when our home officially became ours.