I started art journaling in its most basic form, about 15 years ago. I was boarding a flight to Africa when a friend handed me a travel watercolor set and suggested I paint on the long flight. At first I would journal far more than I’d paint, although, I would paint a few decorative flowers along the edges to brighten the page. Several years later, I found my self home alone for the first time in the 21 years since becoming a parent. We had been homeschooling our 9 children and had reached a point where, because of health reasons, we felt we needed to put the youngest 5 in public school. I suddenly had huge blocks of free time on my hands and no idea what to do to occupy myself.