Art Journal Conversations Article...

Hi friends!
Today I am so honored to be featured in Ronda Palazzari's "Art Journal Conversations" series!  I'd love it if you'd come on over and leave me a comment!

Check it out here:

Art Journal Conversations:  Michelle LaPoint Rydell

Thanks for visiting!

The OLW is.....

It's the 15th of the month, and that means it's time for the One Little Word Challenge!  The word of the month for August is....

LOST

Here's what I did...

Just for fun, I will leave you with the video for the song that inspired this page...


Thanks so much for visiting! 

Come on over to the OLW site and play along with us!  Click here to go to the challenge!

I made a new travel journal kit in the Paint it, Sketch it, Store it class...

Hey there everyone!  How's your weekend going?  Mine has been great!  I finished my project from the Paint it, Sketch it, Store it class with Rae Missigman.  It's a travel journal kit!  Here's how it turned out...

It's made out of canvas.  We painted it with acrylics and made a velcro closure.  It's like a portfolio, and it measures 10.5" x 14" closed...

 I'm not gonna lie - it was ALOT of work - ha.  Not difficult, but lots of steps.  It was tons of fun too though, and I love how it turned out! It's something I will really use, so totally worth it.

Here's how it looks open.  The left side holds pouches for pencils, glue sticks, crayons, etc.  The middle holds up to a 9x12" journal, and the right side holds divider pockets for ephemera and collage papers...

As you can see, you don't need good sewing skills to make this  project - LOL...

The ribbon was hand-dyed as part of the process...

Once I start using it, I will post again, so you can see how it looks all filled up!

If you want to make something similar - check out Rae's Sketch it, Store it, Paint it Class by clicking here!

Thanks so much for visiting!  I really appreciate you!

Sketchbook Skool Rules!

I'm excited to share what I've been doing in Sketchbook Skool with you all!  I have been learning SO MUCH and having a great time doing it!

I've been through five of the six weeks so far, and I'm sad it's almost over.  When the next session starts (no date has been announced yet)  I will be there - I'm hooked!

I shared the first part of week one with you in this post.  Here's the third spread I did for week one with Danny Gregory...

In week two, we studied colored pencil with Koosje Koene...

In week three we worked on capturing the sky with Prashant Miranda...

and in week four, Jane LaFazio had us working on composition with a grid design...

I also decided it would be fun to do a line drawing portrait of each teacher, along with a page of notes from their class.  Here's how those turned out...

Each one of these teachers has inspired me so much with their unique style and outlook on their own sketchbooking practice.  It continues to be an amazing experience!

Thanks so much for visiting today my friends!  I wish you a wonderful week!

Now where were we?

Oh my gosh it's been wayyyyyyy too long since I've blogged - I've missed you!  As I'm getting ready to retire (68 days left now), things have been all aflurry and I've been having a tough time fitting in everything I want to do creatively.  Thus, the blog has been suffering, and I do apologize for that. 

I recently read Cathy Johnson's book The Artist Journal Workshop, and wow is it inspiring!  I can't recommend it highly enough!  In it, she talks about lots of different ways to journal, and one really resonated with me - it's called "integrated journaling," which really just means that everything goes in one book.

Here's a page I made in my Book of Days on the subject (click image to see it larger):

 (the page is inspired by an exercise in Judy Wise' Mixed Media Workshop)

If you know me, I'm sure you know that I am constantly changing my journaling "system;" so much so, that it has become comical to some of my friends (grin).  I've been ruminating on this for awhile, and while I didn't immediately change all of my books into one, I am heading in that direction.  Since I read about integrated journaling in Cathy's book, I've been inspired by others who also put everything in one book.  Two of my Sketchbook Skool teachers in particular - Prashant Miranda and Roz Stendahl have talked about this, and Roz even has this absolutely fantastic indexing system for her journals that just has me mesmerized.  Check it out here.

Anyhoo, as of August 1st, I've started a new Book of Days, which will now be my only journal besides my planner.  Here's the beginnings of it...

It's painted canvas in an 8" x 10" size...

I used my favorite binding technique (learned in Effy Wild's Bookbinding 101 free course)...

Here's the back...

(The layered painting technique is inspired by Rae Missigman's Sketch Paint and Store workshop.) 

I left the first spread blank, so I can figure out what I want to put there at a later date.  This is pages 2 and 3 (inspired by the new "personal sovereignty" edition of the Book of Days workshop)...

Next time I will do a catchup post on Sketchbook Skool (which I am still LOVING, by the way!)

I hope you are having an AWESOME weekend my friends!  Thanks so much for visiting!