Art Journaling

I have been interested in Art Journals for some time now.  They are just so beautiful and personal!  And the lure of all that mixed media - paint, pastels, pencil, etc - makes it look so fun and free.  However, the supplies, the mess (although fun), and the time, well, are just not practical for me at this time.  I can't take care of a one year old with my hands full of paint...well, ok I could but that would just be a huge mess!
Enter digital art journaling...convenient, affordable, and a way to further my photoshop skills.  Now all I needed was some inspiration so I signed up for a new class at jessicasprage.com which started this week.  And so far, it has provided some awesome inspiration to get me started!  Jessica has teamed up with Nancie Rowe Janitz, who I already knew made some amazing works of art.  The materials included with the class are beautiful but I am having the most fun with the brushes by attempting to create depth in my pages.  I've even passed on using many shapes and have been pulling out my pencil tool and just drawing for myself!  eek!  It's fun.
You don't need anything special to try this out - just go with it!  Grab some fun brushes and picks some fun colors and do it!  You can use your friend google to find free and interesting photoshop brushes and ephemera all over the web.  Here are my first works: