Artfully Inspired Life...

Hi friends!  We're closing in on the end of January already - wow!  I've been working in my Artfully Inspired Life journal, and I'm excited to share how it's going with you!

The concept of the workshop is to artfully journal your year; but I had to change it a bit, since I'm already doing that in my Book of Days.  I decided to go with a musical theme, and focus on lyrics.  Each month with learn a new alphabet technique, focus on a new word (of our choosing) and then use the alphabet and word to create pages.  Here's what I've got so far...

Joanne's classes are always so much fun!  I'm excited to find out what's in store for us in February - it's almost here!

If you want to find out more about the workshop, it's not too late - click here to go to the info page.

Thank you so much for visiting!  I wish you a wonderful week!

Tweaking the System...

Hi friends!  At the beginning of the year, I posted how I was going to assign a separate journal for each project, challenge, and class I'm doing in 2016.  Here's what the pile of journals looked like...

I was having lots of fun with all these journals in the beginning; but I started to feel overwhelmed at the idea of keeping all of them up to date.  You are probably saying to yourself - well duh!  But hey, I had to try it!  :)  A few days ago, I got a new idea, and I'm super duper happy about it!  Here's what my pile of journals for 2016 looks like now...

I've now got almost everything combined into the top journal, which I will call my Book of Days.  The bottom two are staying separate.  I shared my Fauxbonichi setup in the last post; and I will show you the Artfully Inspired Life journal later.  But for today, I want to share my Book of Days plan with you...

This journal will combine a handmade weekly/monthly planner, along with (almost) all of my art journaling, in a chronological format.  It will hold:

The Documented Life Project
No Excuses Art Program
Journal 52
Book of Days
and/or any other random journal pages I decide to make.  Here's how it looks so far...

I handbound the journal in an 8x10" size. The cover is canvas, and the inside pages are all 140 lb watercolor paper. I painted it an ombre pink with acrylics and gesso, but still need to decorate it and give it a title...

Inside front cover...

 

I did the intro page using watercolors and a technique I learned from Danielle Donaldson's "Watercolor Words" DVD...

 

Then, there's the January quote page...

There's a collage page, which I haven't started yet;  and then comes the monthly view.  Still a work in progress...

 

The weekly pages, complete with tip-in, of which I only have one finished so far...

Then, my plan is to add in any art journaling pages for January, after the last weekly page.  Haven't gotten to that yet, but I will.  :)

Michael and I laugh about how I am constantly changing systems, but I really think this one is going to work great for this year.  What do you think?

Do you have a system set up for your 2016 creative practice? Was it the first one you came up with, or have you made any revisions?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Thanks so much for visiting!  Next time, I will share what's in the Artfully Inspired Life book so far.  Have a fabulous Friday!

Do you Kanban?

Hi friends! I hope your Tuesday is off to a great start!

I don't know about you, but I have days when I look at all the different workshops I've signed up for, and all of the different journals I have going, and my head starts spinning!  I can't decide what to work on first, and end up doing nothing but surfing the web, getting lost on youtube or facebook, and all of sudden hours have gone by and I'm mad at myself - AGAIN.  LOL.

I don't think I am alone in this dilemma, so I thought I would share with you what I've been doing to cope with it...

I Kanban!  Have you heard of it?  It's a free website that Michael turned me on to.  He uses it to track all of his college assignments; and I now use it to track my various journal projects too.  Here's a screen capture. (click the image to make it larger)

Right now I am using it in a very simplified way; but you can customize it to make it as detailed as you want to.  I've added a category under "to do" for each of my journals.  The little timer in the bottom left corner is called a pomodoro.  A pomodoro is a 25-minute timed session. Here's a closeup:

Here's how it works...

1.  I click on the category I want to work on, and start the timer.
2. After 25 minutes the alarm goes off and you get a five minute break.
3. During the break, I do stuff like check facebook or stick a load of laundry in the washer.
4. After five minutes the alarm goes off, and I click on the next category on the list and click start again.

I also keep a list in my fauxbonichi that I update every so often. The little green dots mean I have started the project.  Once I've completed it, I highlight the whole line.  On Sunday, I managed to get through the whole list - one pomodoro at a time...

 

To create your own Kanban flow page, click here to go to the website.  I hope it's helpful!

2016 Fauxbonichi Pages...

Hi friends! I can't believe a whole week has flown by since I've posted! Here's what's been going on in my new Fauxbonichi...

The book I'm using is this Research Notebook.  I'm super happy with the thick gridded paper, and the size (8.5 x 11") allows me to fit lots of stuff on each page - yeayyy!!! (Unfortunately it looks like it is now unavailable; but I did find this one that looks very similar, in case you are looking for one)

One thing about these pages is - they take a long time to finish.  I'm slow, and I don't want to hurry it up - what fun would that be? So I've decided to do bits each day instead of trying to  complete an entire page/day in one sitting.  For example, I've starting completing the heading (except for the weather) the day before, and then filling in the writing the next day. I also sometimes will put the extra things on (like the journaling prompts) on separate days as well.  This is working a lot better, and allowing me to continue playing in this book daily, while completing my other projects at the same time.  Love that.

I did not take that beautiful tree photo.  I got it from the internet.  I love the way the light shows through the frosted branches.

Ever thought about doing this kind of journaling?  It's lots of fun and so relaxing!  The Fauxbonichi Journalers group on Facebook is a great place to start.  It's a fun and super supportive community. Check it out here.

Thanks so much for visiting!  I will be back soon with updates on the other projects I have going.  How is your January going?

Happy New Year! How's it going so far?

Hi friends!  I can't believe it's already January 9th - eek!  How are you doing?  Do you have any fun creative projects going for the new year?  I've been super busy, but having a great time!  I love this time of year so much - everything is new again! 

This year I'm trying a new approach to journaling, by giving each project/workshop/challenge, it's own journal.  It's been fun setting this up, because each journal is a little different in terms of size and paper type.  (More details on that to come). Here's what I've got so far...

Left to right:  Book of Days, Wanderlust, Fauxbonichi, Artfully Inspired Life, Documented Life and Journal 52. 

I'm also taking part in No Excuses, and a workshop called Imagine monthly.  Haven't figured out how I will approach those just yet.

Here's a list of the journaling workshops I'm taking, with a short, "unofficial" description.  There's a link for each one that will take you to the page with more information and registration info.  I hope it's helpful...

Book of Days
Teacher: Effy Wild
Goes all year.  In-depth with multiple elements, such as: monthly themes, oracle card pulls, daily journaling prompts and much more.  Focuses on mixed media.

Wanderlust
Facilitated by Everything Art, with 26 guest teachers
Goes all year. Combination of  learning about mixed media product usage and miscellaneous techniques. Focuses on mixed media and exploring a variety of styles.

Artfully Inspired Life
Teacher: Joanne Sharpe
Goes all year.  Fill up a mixed media journal with beautiful art, new lettering techniques, and journaling.  Focuses on watercolor and lettering, and lots of bright colors!

Documented Life Project 2016: The UnPlanner
Teachers: Art to the Fifth Women
Another year-long project, that uses a ring-bound planner system to document memories in a unique and artsy way. 

Imagine Monthly
Teacher: Paivi Eerola
This class goes for six months - January - June, with a new mini-class each month.  The intention is to get you thinking outside the box to create art that is uniquely you!


I'll be back soon to share how it's going with each workshop.  So far, I am LOVING them all!

I hope your new year is going well so far!  Thanks for visiting and I will see you again soon!