There is no expiration date on collage material, it’s not milk after all.  But there is a point at which I have to face the reality that if the “perfect” project hasn’t come along yet, it probably isn’t ever coming.  I might as well just use it.

One of the pieces of paper in here, I have been saving for 19 years. How do I know that so precisely? One of them is a leftover copy of a drawing my daughter did, which I turned into cards for a Christmas gift for family when she was little. She’s graduated college now so perhaps it is time to use it in my art journal.

Things were going along swimmingly as I laughed at myself for having saved these bits so long. I was having such fun using them, adding color with Gelatos around the collage bits. Why hadn’t I used them sooner!

Then perfection paralysis hit.  I wanted to journal just the right words to remind me of these feelings and the moment.

But I couldn’t find the “perfect” title for the page.  So I scribble journaled here and there with a Pitt Pen as I searched for the right word.   The word never came.

So I turned to my rubber stamps for help with a title.  Using a black Gelatos I added the word “travel”.  It fit with some of the collage bits and these papers had quite a journey being saved through the years but it wasn’t the perfect title.

Nothing about this was perfect but a part of me wanted it to be perfect.  Gratefully, the part of me that wanted to have fun won out. Perfect isn’t much fun but play is!

I was lost and didn’t want to be found!  Lost in the play that is. As I added paint to this art journal page, I was guided by the abstract shapes gel printed directly in my art journal. I even had a crazy thought about keeping some white space.

Watch Abstract Art Journal Play that Started with a Gel Print on YouTube.

How did I make that background on the page?  Using hot glue and cardboard with a Gel Press plate.  You can see how  in this video.

Are these yellow circles inner tubes floating down the river or yellow sunshine donuts? This was the great question on my mind as I began covering up all the white space on the page in my Dylusions journal.  There was so much white space that I was driven to cover it all up with color.

When I started using the teal, I toyed with the idea of painting carefully around all of the pattern on the page.  But that much precision doesn’t bring me joy.

As much as I wanted to cover all the white space with color in the beginning, it was a surprise to me when I began to entertain the idea of leaving some of the white space.  I thought about it for a bit, but the color won out.

To write on the paint, I used a fountain pen.  For fine writing on paint, fountain pens provide one big advantage, they can take a lot of paint abuse because there are few working parts to clog up.  Since the ink flows down the nib, it is easier to remove any paint or paint residue from it when it builds up.  And if you’re writing on paint, it will build up.

Since I am not a huge fan of my legible writing, I used a stencil to help me write the title for this page.The very fine tip of a fountain pen makes it a breeze to get in to a stencil. The Wall of Words stencil has a plethora of words on it so I scanned through them looking for the ones that fit this page.

The words, this moment, reminded me of the good feelings I felt when I was totally lost in the play and color as I made this page.

Thanks for stopping by for today’s play.  Want to join in the fun of art journaling?  Check out my free workshop, Permission to Play, which is all about mixed media art journaling and play.