Journal pages - inspired by nature, of course

It's been awhile since I posted journal pages so I'll do a little catching up here.

 Here's a collage I made using photos I took in my yard and my brothers' yard.  Also used a pic out of a USPS catalog and photo copied a couple stamps I have from the State Flowers and Bird series.  Then I printed the text out on ledger paper.  The small words you can't read (might be able to read them all if you click on photo to enlarge) are words inspired by gardening like sunshine, rain, cultivate, etc.  The background is deli paper painted with acrylic.  I now always have some near me when painting and clean all the paint off my brushes and sponges before cleaning them.  I love how it goes down on a page.  I cover the back with gel medium then stick it down.  It always gets some tiny wrinkles which make for a great texture. 

Here's a two page spread I did of Oregon Grape.  My mom painted a couple murals at an Oregon State Park near Shedd, Oregon this summer.  The park is called Thompsons Mills State Park.  I drove her back and forth to work on the murals and had alot of time to spend there while she painted.  I took my journal and a small bag of art supplies.  I had a sample set of watercolor pencils with me - 5 pencils.  There is Oregon Grape growing all over the park.  So, since I'm trying to work on my drawing skills this summer, I decided to draw a branch.  And since I was using the colors I had on hand it is non traditional colors.  I printed the words for this page out on ledger paper and glued them down.  While I was there I also made a background on the facing page, not having a definate idea for it at the time.  But ,as we were packing up to leave for the day I found a branch of Oregon Grape on the ground and put it in my journal.  A day or two later I made a leaf print from it using Golden Fluid Acrylics ( I'm pretty sure it was Phtalo Green).  Oregon Grape leaves are pretty stiff to start with plus this one was dried out from being on the ground and in between journal pages for a couple days so the print is not real intense.  Because of that I outlined it with a black Micron pen.  I stamped the words on this page with rubber stamps.  I think Oregon Grape is one of my favorite plants and I'm really happy with how these pages turned out.  I tried to think of something else for the drawn page as it seemed sort of plain, but finally decided it showed the "bones" of the Oregon Grape better left that way.

This next is a drawing I did with black Micron pens on a background I painted with acrylic paints.  I used cheap craft paints in various greens.  I had seen some note cards that were stylized prints of Acacia in various colors and liked the look of the plant.  So I looked it up on Wikipedia and found a lot of varieties!  Found an image I liked (it doesn't grow around here) and printed it out and drew this picture from it.  Realizing, of course, that you can't duplicate nature I did go for an exact Acacia but my own version in black ink.  In keeping with the ledger paper theme in this journal I again printed out the title on ledger paper and glued it on.  I think this is one of my fav journal pages so far.  But then, perhaps I think that each time I complete a new page!  Ha!  Well, it's hot here today.  A good day to stay inside and work on art! 

Hope everyone is having a creative weekend!