Journal By 5's - Complete!

A friend who knew I had been rather burned out with crafting recently introduced me to a new type of journaling. Well, new to me; maybe not to others. Journaling by 5s was a challenge put out by Shannon Green that was to inspire you to set aside your control tendencies and just enjoy the act of creating. After creating the book itself out of a typical composition book, we started the process with a 5 step program for completing each page. We had 15 minutes to do each set. After we had completed all five steps, we were to start at the beginning of the list and go through those 5 steps again. In total we were to have a completed journal of 20 pages in 2 1/2 hours.

Step 1: Background: Paint/Ink

Step 2: Texture: Collage/Craft, Recycled

Step 3: Pattern: Stamps, Stencils

Step 4: Focal Point: Words, Images

Step 5: Details: Pen, Pencil, Doodling, Drawing

I have to tell you, this was so hard for me. I had to do this journal twice. The first one I finished I totally had a "devil may care" attitude and just went with the flow. I did not like the end result and NO ONE will ever see it. I decided to try again but put some of my own style back into the process. In other words, I allowed my OCD to move in a little bit. I used the 15 minute timer for each section, but I limited my paint/ink colors as I had too many in the first journal. I made sure the collage materials I had available were more color coordinated with the paint/ink I had used. I limited myself to 5 stamp sets so I was less overwhelmed when choosing for each page. I specifically looked for focal point images that had the same theme as the collage materials and paints I had chosen. Finally I searched out quotes for each page that related to the focal point in some way, even if it was rather vague. I really like the end result for this one.

Tonight I completed the cover and now it is ready to share. Enjoy!

Now to figure out my next project.
Until next time...