My muse pulled a fast one on me.  She’s sneaky that way.  This started as just play, using up leftover paints in my art journal and then bam! This couple in the photo had something to tell me and my reaction took me by surprise.

Watch Art Journal Play with a Vintage Photo on YouTube.

Using up leftover paints on the palette is freeing because there is zero pressure.  After all, these paints were going to dry up and never used if I didn’t do something, them. So anything is better than that.

One layer of color play is never enough for me it seems, it is almost like these are Pringles…and you can’t have just one so out came the Gelatos .

Stamping with paint is so easy with a gel plate.  Using a Gel Press plate enabled me to stamp quickly with a Darkroom Door flower and then take a clean up print on a piece of book text.  That scrap clean up paper became quite useful too.

Remember how I said my muse was sneaky?  She was setting up something when the Going Global stencil called to me.  I had no idea how important it would be but at that moment, it just felt like fun.

There are so many different sayings and phrases on this Wall of Words stencil that it has become a bit of an oracle for me.  The words that pop out at me are often the words I need to hear.  Today’s message was, “Perspective is everything.’

Masking off just the words I wanted was a snap with Post It notes.

I still had no idea of the emotional impact that was coming.  It was still just play to me.

The very first photo from the box of vintage photos I’ve collected over the years was this happy couple. I imagined they had traveled the world (thanks to the globe) but nowhere was as amazing to them as home, that all important perspective.  I scribble journaled on the world getting out what feelings were coming up for me as I thought about them.

That journaling just wasn’t enough.  There was more I needed to get out so I decided to give myself a little perspective by writing a note from 85 year old me to me right now.

That letter hit a nerve, because as I wrote it, the tears began. I had been worrying a lot more than I even realized and it felt so good to release it and pour out all those emotions onto the page.

I am so grateful to this couple and their photographer.  I doubt they realized what an impact this would have years later but it was just what I needed.

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and it helps keep the free tutorials coming! 

What happens when Mary Beth Shaw of StencilGirl and Kristin Williams of Ephemera Paducah plan a weekend retreat together?  Magic called StencilGirl & Friends: An Art Journal Affair.

Who was sharing their art journaling talents with us? Pam Carriker, Traci Bautista, Seth Apter, and Mary Beth Shaw.  But they weren’t the only ones- in the evening there were Pop-Up Demos from Sherry Canino, Glenda Miles, Mary Nasser, Debi Adams and Kiala Givehand.

Here’s a peek at the play from my pre event workshop gel printing with Gel Press plates. These ladies were a blast and some had never made a print before!

What did I do Friday morning at the StencilGirl and Friends Art Journal Affair? I got to play and make @gelpress prints with fun and creative women…I mean teach a class…some of these ladies had never made a print before but I am not going to tell you who! @ephemerapaducah and @stencilgirl_products put on one amazing weekend. I am so grateful to have been a part of the play and able to spend time with these women! . . #acolorfuljourney #artplay #gelpress #stencilgirl #monoprinting #gelprint #gelprinting #arteveryday #artretreat #becreative #artworkshop #stencils #ephemerapaducah

A post shared by Carolyn Dube (@carolyn_dube) on Sep 26, 2017 at 5:12pm PDT

The thing that made this retreat so soul nourishing for me was the people.  Being able to spend time in person getting to know online friends over our art journals was pure joy.  My face hurt in the best possible way from all the laughter at the end of the day.

This is an art journal spread by Valerie McCoy over the weekend that sums it up, we were all with our tribe.

There were colors and ample products to try like a cruise ship buffet of art supplies!  This was my first time using the scrumptious Paper Artsy paints, and I will be doing a blog post just on those in the near future.

This may look like all fun and games, but there were some very scary times for me. For some, the fluorescent paint was out of their comfort zone. That wasn’t what made me nervous.

Seth Apter used browns, lots of browns.  And I was a good student and used them too, well, I wasn’t that good of a student, I snuck in some hot pink and purple. But I did use a whole lot of the browns.

Pam Carriker and Mary Beth Shaw were using a tool that causes me to twitch…the ruler…but I dodged the bullet with that one because they didn’t actually measure a thing with it!

I was so in to the play that I didn’t know which way was up, in my journal that is.

Upside down pages in a journal are just an O.O.P.S., an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly.  In this case, the opportunity to see things from a different perspective.

Where was this all happening?  At Ephemera Paducah.  If you are ever near Paducah, KY, I recommend stopping into check out a wide variety of creative goodies from art supplies to vintage treasures can be found.

There are ample places to sit and peruse the books and have conversations and take in all the art covering the walls, including in the bathroom!

A perk of being around this artsy group is that no one questioned the weird behaviors of a creative…when I bent down to take a photo of a fun shoe…no one batted an eye.  When I do this stuff around other types of people, they give me a pretty strange look.  Glenda do you recognize your feet?

All the play, all the fun stencils and supplies, they were fabulous but the part that meant the absolute most to me was the people.  Thank you to everyone who made this weekend so joyful!