It can be hard to know where to start, especially if you have never done an art journaling page project before (or, like me, you have never scrapped with paper!)
In order to make digital art journaling a little easier, I have created the first (in hopefully, what will become a series) Value Pack that is geared specifically toward digital scrappers who would like to try art journaling. It is called "Go Left" and is available exclusively at Scrap Girls:
I used only this Value Pack to create my art journaling page, "She Shall Determine Her Own Path."
It might look complicated, but it was really quite easy and fast (and fun!) to create. Here's how I did it:
FIRST: The idea
Recently, I ran across the saying "When nothing goes right, go left." So, I themed this pack loosely on that phrase. I wanted it to be about choices, decisions, life paths and journeys. I included a general pack of embellishments, including my Victorian ladies, a pack of word art with lots of arrows and then some masks and blenders.
When I designed the page, above, I was thinking about how far women have come in the last few centuries and how most of the women before us may have never dreamed possible the advancements in equality that women today enjoy. (Well, at least most women in developed countries...but, you get the general idea...)
SECOND: The background
I opened an 8.5" x 11" document. I decided to use the paper ephemera included in the pack to piece together a background. I changed the angles on some, flipped and rotated them, until I got this:
THIRD: The midground
Next, I added one of my Victorian ladies. I duplicated and resized them and converted the largest one to grayscale (SHIFT+CNTRL+U). Then I arranged them from largest to smallest and changed the opacity and blend modes. Here are the settings I used (left to right, largest to smallest):
Blend Mode: Darker Color, Opacity: 79%
Blend Mode: Darker Color, Opacity: 84%
Blend Mode: Normal, Opacity: 100%
This is my "midground" result:
FOURTH: Edge and corner masks
Next, I added some interest with an edge mask and a blender. (Specifically, JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_Mask-1 along the left side and JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_Mask-4 in the upper right corner). I sampled a white color from the paint splotch in the BG (already on the paper included in this pack) and clipped that color to the masks. Then I arranged them over the midground layer and it ended up looking like this:
Then I added some word art in the corners (JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_WA_ThisWay). First I distressed the word art, by using one of the masks (JZI_SS_EMB_GoLeft_Mask-4). To distress it, I placed the WA in a layer OVER the mask. Then I clipped the WA to the mask and moved the mask around until it distressed the word art the way I liked it. Then WITH THE MASK LAYER ACTIVE, I CNTRL+CLICKED the WA layer. (Marching ants should appear around the WA). Then I inversed the selection and hit DELETE. This removes the excess mask and leaves only the distressed WA. Then I arranged the WA and my page looked like this:
SIXTH: Embellishments
Finally, I added some flowers across the top of the page. I resized them so they were quite small, added drop shadows and -- Voila! -- my art journaling page is complete! 
This is just ONE way to use this Value Pack for art journaling. You could also:
- Create the background by clipping a fill layer to the masks/blenders and layering them.
- Use real photos, instead of the Victorian lady.
- Create a midground with styles applied to the embellishment templates in the word art pack.
- Create a midground by recoloring and layering some of the word art, like a collage.
- Apply styles to the mask and blenders instead of clipping them to a fill layer.
- Add more embellishments.
- Use no embellishments.
- Add your own journaling to the page with a pen tablet or handwriting font.
Thanks for stopping by! :)
