A Peek Into my Junk Journal and Plans for April...

Hi friends!  I've been using one of my Papaya Art Journals as a Junk Journal, and I just finished up the last page. I thought it might be fun to share a few pics, so that you could get an idea of what I collect in there.

Here's a pic of what the cover looks like.  How beautiful is that artwork?  I love the bright colors!

I have been using it as a catch-all for lots of stuff like...

To Do Lists (on the left), and sketchnote practicing on the right...

Testing out new pens...

 

 Lettering practice...

 

 Doodles and notes...

 

 Diary entries, line drawing practice, and more doodles...

 playing with washi tape...

 and of course, working through my ongoing system revisions - ha.  Here's my latest mindmap...

Which leads me to my next subject - Making a plan for April.  I love having lots of different journals, but I must admit that I have so many right now (10 or 11?), that my head spins everytime I try to decide which one to work in.  So my new plan is to focus on just a few each month.  Here's my plan for April...

April 2013

1.  Book of Days:

This will be my daily art journal.  My Book of Days work will go in here, as well as challenges, workshop stuff, experiments, drawings, etc. I am currently using a 9" x 12" mixed media journal by Strathmore that my sister Renee gave me for Christmas.  Thanks again Renee!

2.  Life Book:

I am continuing to collect my weekly Life Book pages on individual sheets of paper, and keeping them in a 3-ring binder.  This will go on for the remainder of 2013.

3.  Smash Book:

My sister Renee gave me a Red Smash Book for Christmas too (isn't she awesome?), and that will become my new junk journal.  It will contain all the kinds of stuff pictured above, plus any other stuff that inspires me along the way.

4.  Project Life:

While it's not a journal exactly, I include it here because I think of it as one.  It's main purpose for me is to tell the ongoing story of our life.  It will include words, photos, memorabilia and journaling.

And that's it for this month!  It means a bunch of other stuff will go on the shelf for this month.  The good thing about that is that I can look forward to changing it up in May!  Eek! So fun!

If you are a journaler, I'd love to know what your process is.  Do you do everything in one journal?  Or do you keep several going at once?  How do you divide your time?  What do you put in each one?  I know I've asked this question before, but it's one of my favorite topics!  I'd love to hear again!  Has your process changed?  Why or why not?  

Thanks so much for visiting!  I will see you again soon!

Green-Headed Tanager...

Hey there my friends! 

I got through all the lessons in Gina Armfield's "Daily Sketchbook" workshop, and today I started my own Sketchbook!  It's so FUN!!!  I chose a 5" x 8" Watercolor Moleskine.  It arrived today from Amazon, so I got busy right away on my first entry!

It started with a line drawing...

and here's the finished page...

I added watercolors, collage elements and a stamped title and called her done!  I decided to follow the Prompt 6ix challenge requirements for this week, which are...

1. Ocean (I used the color)
2. Brown or Sepia
3. Tea Bag (the green square)
4. Tiny Words
5. Staples

It was so much fun thinking about the challenge requirements because I wouldn't have thought to put that tea bag in there, but I love how it looks.

Prompt 6ix is a weekly challenge at the Daisy Yellow blog.  She puts up six words or phrases which are open to interpret however you want in whatever format you want.  It goes up on Tuesdays.  For more info, click here.

Thanks for visiting and have an awesome weekend!

First Watercolor Sketching Assignment...

Ever since I saw the video of Danny Gregory sketching his breakfast (see this post), I have been enthralled with the idea of a watercolor sketch journal.  I signed up for two workshops - The Daily Sketchbook with Gina Armfield, and Watercolor Sketch overview with Jane LaFazio. 

I'm still waiting for my special watercolor journal to arrive for Gina's class; but I finished my first assignment for Jane's class this evening, and I'm excited to share it with you...

I used my Koi Pocket Watercolor set, and I was really happy with how bright the colors are.  I learned a lot just from this first lesson, and I'm looking forward to learning more!

I can already tell that the two workshops are really different in style, even though they are on the same topic. I think they will complement each other well.  I will keep you posted as they both progress.  In case you are interested, you can find out more about Jane's class here; and Gina's class here.

Oh, and have you heard about the new journaling series from Martha Lever?  It's called Lollapalooza and it looks super fun fun fun!  Painty, messy, collagey and colorful!  There are three classes - Lollapalooza 1, 2 and 3, and each one has a totally different flavor to it.  They look like something that anyone could do, even if you are just starting out in art journaling.  I couldn't resist - I signed up for all three!  They start at the end of April, and go once a month for three months.  Find out more info here.

Thanks so much for visiting and I will see you again soon!

No More Excuses and Glue It Tuesday...

The theme for March in my No More Excuses journal is "Style."  The month is almost over, but I did manage to get in some time for blissful cutting and pasting this weekend, and my collage is done. 

Here's how it turned out...

As always, the right hand side is an envelope to keep receipts, handouts, images and miscellaneous stuff.  Some of the images were taken from my pinterest style board, and the taxi photo on the right is from an old photography book.  I included the big magazine image of Tiffani Theissen because I LOVE her hair in that photo.  The image is full of wrinkles and fold lines because I carried it around in my purse for a very long time, so I could show my hairstylist what I wanted my hair to look like.  I also had to include a photo of Stevie Nicks, cuz I have always loved her style mix of bohemian, hippie and magic.

I am linking this up to Glue-it Tuesday. 

Thanks so much for visiting!


 

Book of Days and Glue It Tuesday...

Book of Days Update...

One of the things I really love about the Book of Days program; is that it's more of a spiritual practice than a workshop.  Don't get me wrong - I love workshops (obviously cuz I take a million of them, lol); but with Book of Days - it's more like a community that is going through this expressive journaling thing together.  So, when Effy (the leader/instructor), creates her page - it's not so much that I want to make the same or even similar page, it's more like watching someone's thought process, and then going through a similar thought process, but coming up with your own answer.  Does that make sense?

So, this week I was thinking about all the different things going on in my life; being grateful and overwhelmed by choices at the same time.  Here's what I came up with...

The colorful background squares are bits of papers that I had leftover from other projects.  The images and words were just pulled randomly from my pile of journal fodder.  Individually, I didn't really know why I was pulling most of them, but together they capture my feelings perfectly.  

A note about where I am right now on my creative journey...

When I think about art that inspires me, alot of it has meaning that is not obvious; I love lyrics that are so personal, that they are only a peek into someone's soul, but you aren't sure exactly what they mean.  I love art that is layered and emotional; and makes you stand in front of it, tilt your head, and say to yourself - hmmm?  This is the kind of art that you may not totally "get" with your brain; but it speaks directly to your heart - know what I mean?

And yet I struggle with letting myself create art intuitively.  I have that part of my brain that says, "but no one will get that - you have to be more clear."  But really - do I?  The answer is a resounding NO!  I believe the best art comes from not thinking at all, but just following your heart.  I am making it a goal to remind myself of that daily; and encourage you to do the same.

A fun new discovery...

I am so excited to discover that Aimee over at Artsyville, has started a new weekly series called "Glue It Tuesday,"  in which she invites us all to participate.  Here is an excerpt from her blog...

"Bring your art journals, scrapbook projects, magazine clippings, collage work, googly eyes, etc. -- whatever you wish to affix to something else. This challenge is wide open to anyone who loves to cut & paste! No prompt or rulebook -- it's simply a weekly check-in to share what you've created..."

Talk about a fun way to get back to creating more intuitively!  I plan to partipate as much as possible, starting today!  How about you?  Want to join me?  Click here to find out more, and here to participate in week one.

So, that's it for today folks.  Thanks so much for visiting, and I hope you are having an awesome weekend!

Life Book with Mindy Lacefield...

We are still celebrating "Connections" in the Life Book workshop, and this week we focused on friendship.  Our guest instructor was Mindy Lacefield; whose work I've been a fan of for a long time!  It was so much fun to learn from her creative process!  Here's how my page turned out...

I think the biggest thing I learned from Mindy was shading a face with paint without really even drawing it first!  It made me realize that the process doesn't have to be complicated. 

While I was painting this, I kept smearing the extra little dabs onto a blank page in my Book of Days; and I ended up with a pretty nice background!  I will show you that next time, hopefully along with the completed version of the page!

I hope you are having an awesome week, and I will see you soon!

New Art Journal Pages...

The Mixed Emotions workshop is technically over now.  The classroom is still open so that students can finish their assignments; but the last lesson has been posted and things are quieting down.  It has been so inspiring to me to see all of the beautiful student artwork that has been created.  Feeling their enthusiasm about the lessons has made me incredibly happy!  My Monday Book of Days spread for last week was a reflection of those thoughts...

 

 My Multi-Day spread was random ramblings in the same color scheme...

This week's Soulistry prompt was about friendship.  I found a quote to reflect my feelings...

 This spread was done with watercolors.

I'm loving the thickness and smooth texture of my new Mixed Media journal!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Embracing my Ugly Monster...

In Life Book this week Mitsi B is encouraging us to embrace our "ugly side!"  HA.  All those traits I don't like about myself?  I got them out on paper, and then gave them a great big HUG!  What resulted is my first pop-up journal page!  OMG I had so much fun making this...

Here is the front of my page.  It is my ugly monster (who still has a warm heart...)

Then you open it up and it looks like this...

 I'm not gonna kid ya - it took alot of work to get all the pieces together and make it so it opens up right!  But when I finished it was so exciting!  

Mitsi has wildly-huge-talent, and a unique style I just adore!  I LOVED this, and it was just a mini-project!  I can't wait until later in the year when she teaches her main lesson - yeayyy!!!

I hope your day is going great!  Thanks so much for visiting!!!

Tearing Apart My Journal...

Hi everyone - happy Friday!  I know I mentioned in an earlier post that my Dylusions journal just wasn't working for my Book of Days.  The paper simply isn't heavy enough to stand up to so many wet layers.  It's a beautiful journal though, so I don't want to waste it.  What I did was tear off the cover, and the few pages that were finished, leaving the journal looking like this...

Not bad, right?  When I decide what to use it for, I will make a new cover and tape it right on top, over the red bookcloth tape.  It will be good as new!

In the meantime, I painted the cover  and finished off the part of the journal that I tore out, creating a completed Book of Days 2013, Volume II.  

 Here's the front...

 I did some layers of collage (you can see Jessica's retro flowers stencil peeking out there), and then painted the horse on top with acrylic paint.  I used turquoise duct tape to recreate a spine, and pasted the last two pages in the back together to form a back cover...

 The duct tape turned out a little sloppy, but it works just fine...

 So, there it is - a very slim BOD Vol. II that covers February 18 thru March 4, 2013...

I figure if something isn't working for me, why suffer through?  Now I am starting BOD 2013 Volume III, with a 9 x 12 Strathmore Mixed Media journal that my awesome sister Renee gave me for Christmas (thanks Renee xo!).  The pages are super thick and it's working great!  I will share more details about that next time!

Have a super awesome weekend and thanks so much for visiting!

It's Time for Another Stencil Test Drive!

Hey there everyone!  I'm so excited to be participating in another test drive for Jessica Sporn and Stencil Girl Products today!  This time I've been playing around with the Retro Flowers and Circles Stencil:

I picked this stencil because it has a 70's groovy feel to it that is just my style!  Let me show you what I did...

I had this quote that I wanted to make a page for, and I envisioned a misty, fairyland type atmosphere. I knew the Retro Flowers stencil would do just the trick!  So I started my page with some misting, stamping and collage; and then went to work with the stencil...

 The circles were reminding me of bubbles, with little floaty flowers resting on them; and I wanted to give the feeling like they were floating downward from the sky.  So I chose a few singular areas of the design to stencil onto my page with acrylic paint and a small foam spouncer. Can you feel the floating???

I hardly used any paint at all, because I wanted the fine details of the design to show through.  

Here's a closeup of the process...

 

 And here's the finished page...

I added some shine spots to the bubbles with a poster paint pen, and then outlined the individual bits with a white gel pen.  I drew in my flowers, and then ended up painting in the rest of the background with some distress stains, to really make the circles/flowers pop up. 

I had so much fun with this stencil, and I already have more ideas yet to try!  Stay tuned for those!

In the meantime, check out the other artists that are participating in the stencil test drive!  They each have put their own personal spin on this stencil design - just wait til you see...

Natasha May,
Maria McGuire,
and
Jessica Sporn

Thanks so much for visiting!

Life Book - Here Comes March!

We have a new theme over at Life Book each month, and for March it is "Celebration & Connection."  Here's how my first assignment turned out...

There are tons of fun layers here, and those little scrolls have notes of gratitude in them to some of the people and things that I feel a heart connection to.  Awesomely fun and meaningful lesson at the same time.  LOVE that!!!

I wish you a wonderful week my friends!  Thank you for visiting and for your comments and questions.  I treasure each one!

Excited about Learning...!!!

Hey there everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!  I have a few shares for you today, as well as some random thoughts...

I'm taking Joanne Sharpe's fabulous Letter Love 101 class, and having so much fun!  I have always loved letters and lettering; but really wanted to be more varied and playful with my lettering styles, and this class is perfect for that!  It's PACKED full of fun - lots of assignments and projects; and we are making three (that's right I said THREE) journals full of lettering!  Yeayyy!!!

The first one is like a practice book of sorts.  I had fun decorating it up...

 

 Can't wait to fill it with handouts, inspiration and assignments!!!

 I also finished my Monday spread in my Book of Days journal...

It's an homage to all of the classes I've been taking lately!  I am on a roll and loving all of the different things I'm learning!  The rainbow is made from layers of scrapbook paper, and I must say it was more than my poor Dylusions journal could handle.  It warped soooo bad, that I decided to stop using it as my book of days.  Don't get me wrong -  I will still use it at some point, but I have to figure out what kind of project it would be best suited for.

Anyhoo, I will keep you updated on my next Book of Days journal choice.

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, then you know that I am constantly changing my "system" for creating.  Do I want to put everything in one journal, or have different types of journals, and if I want different types of journals - then how many should I have going at once?  Oh my goodness, the hours I've spent pondering this ongoing question!  Well I woke up from a nap the other day (after making my Love Letter notebook), with a Eureka moment!  Taking all of these classes reminds me of when I was in college.  In those days I had a notebook for each different class.  I wouldn't have even thought of mixing my notes all up in one book; it would have been too hard to find anything when I needed to!  Sooooo, why not take that approach now?  YES - it's GENIUS!  I will have a notebook for each class I'm taking!  Just like the one Joanne had us create (see pic above) for Letter Love!  A place to practice, put notes, paste handouts, and inspirations, etc.  I'm so EXCITED!!!

I will keep you updated on how this goes...

Book of Days Update...

Hi everyone - I hope you are all having a great week!  I have a few Book of Days pages to share with you from last week...

First - here's my Monday spread.  Effy is following the Year In The Life of an Art Journal prompts once a month; and this prompt was to use your favorite quote on a page.  I decided to play along too, and was inspired by Effy to try doodling with paint...

Wednesday's Soulistry prompt was "the spirituality of work."  I combined that with my first lesson in Willowing's Fabulous Faces class, which was to draw a graphite portrait...

 and lastly, my MDS (multi-day spread) for the week...

These were all done in my Dylusions journal.  Last time I posted about this journal, I mentioned that I was having trouble getting things to blend on the paper - like watercolor markers and crayons.  I got a question from Sandra L - she asked if I use gesso on the pages, which was a really good point.  I had not used gesso on the spread where I was having trouble.  Gesso has helps immensely.  It creates a whole new surface to work on, which eliminates the blending problem.  Thanks for your question Sandra!

I should say that the Dylusions journal works fabulously for what it was meant for - Dylusions sprays! 

Anyhoo, that's all for today.  Thanks so much for visiting my friends!

Big Project Life Update...

Hi everyone and happy Sunday!!!  I worked on Project Life all day yesterday at my monthly crop, so I have a big update for you.  It goes from February 4 thru 17...

February 4 & 5...

 Owl calendar is a free printable from Owl Barn.  Using mostly Today's Story supplies from Photo Freedom supplies.  It was fun to include that Mixed Emotions started on February 4!

Here's the spread for February 6 to 8...

Closeup of left side...

My friend Lynn sent me the pic of the beautiful pigeon, just cuz she knew I would like it.  Because of Project Life, I have somewhere to put it now - I LOVE that!!!

 

Closeup of right side...

 

 The cute little cat (or fox?) in the top left pocket is from Dear Lizzy's 5th and Frolic line.  I bought the whole pack of diecuts mainly cuz I loved that little guy!  (ever do that?)  The bottom left pocket contains a 6x6 layout that I made way back in 2004 when I was a Stampin Up demonstrator.  I found it in a box of stuff the other day - a bit beat up, but nonetheless, I thought it would be fun to include it - why not?  The John Lennon quote was part of a piece of junk mail that arrived at our house.  Again - I LOVE that I have a place to put these little miscellaneous bits of life!

 February 9 - 14...

Closeup of left side...

 Blue-footed boobys are one of my favorite birds, and Christina sent me the CUTE photo in top left pocket - isn't he funny and adorable!  I LOVE how BLUE their feet are!  In the top right is an instagram of my sister Renee's cats, Daisy and  Henry.  Renee has an ongoing instagram story with these two, and every so often I love to include one of the screenshots.  They brighten my day!

Closeup of right side...

 I had fun sketchnoting a super-inspiring skype interview that LifeBook 2013 had with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, which is depicted in the top left pocket. The photo of the spool in the middle is the valentines gift I made for Michael.  I had so much fun making it!  When you unroll it, it shows a handpainted love poem.  :0)  Ephemera included here are the tickets to the movie we saw on valentines day (LOVED IT by the way!), and a valentines day postcard I got from Farm Aid (the two sheep - aren't they cute?).


 February 15 and 16...

Closeup of left side...

 

February 5th was the first day of my girls scrappy retreat that I attended with Christina, Lynn and Anne. We had such a blast!!! Ephemera includes the receipt and wrapper from a Vegan candy bar that I got at the natural foods store in town...

Here's my pal Willie, who wanted to be part of the photo shoot....

Closeup of right side...

 

More ephemera from the natural foods store, which I was ecstatic to find in the tiny town of Pine City!

February 17...

 

 another cat shot (I couldn't resist...)

Closeup of left side...

Pretty self-explanatory.  I wouldn't normally do a whole spread for one day, but I'm considering it my alternative to a mini-album about the event!

 Closeup of right side...

 Ephemera here includes a piece of my Diet Mountain Dew Code Red carton, which I labeled with my initials for identification purposes in the big communal fridge.  Of course, the fact that I was the only one who brought Diet Mountain Dew Code Red is beside the point - lol.

So, that's it for now!  I have the rest of February in process, so I hope to be able to share that with you soon! 

Have a great Sunday my friends!  Thank you so much for visiting - I really appreciate it!

Inspired to take another class...

I was so inspired by this...


that I signed up for this...

Online Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style Class with Jane LaFazio

I love the idea of an illustrated watercolor journal. Now I can't wait until it starts on March 21st!  Yeayyy!