I finished a week in my new No Excuses Planner journal and I'm excited to share it with you! I'm really glad I made the switch from working in a premade planner to using this watercolor journal. I've been playing with my tombows and a waterbrush and oh what a difference using the right paper makes!
Here's how the week turned out. In case it's not obvious, the color for the month is pink!
I made note of the different pinks I used at the bottom of the page. I discovered some new ones I hadn't really used much before, like the port red - love it!
It's really fun being able to journal like this. The teacup was a drawing prompt at the No Excuses Facebook group...
On both the pages above and below, I drew my journaling lines with pink tombows. The difference is that on the page below, I went back over the tombow lines with my waterbrush, to make them spread.
On the right you can see my new stamps from Jessica. As soon as I received them I tried them out in my journal, using my tombow markers and different amounts of water. As you can see, Krishna didn't get enough water, the hamsa hand got too much, and the tree of life was just right! It's fun to experiment, and when you do it in your journal, you have a record for future reference. I also wanted to record the meanings for each of the symbols.
I hope this is helpful!
That's all I have finished so far. Tonight I'm going to work on doing some calligraphy for the Artfully Inspired Life workshop in this book. I will let you know how it goes!
Thanks so much for visiting! Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Hi friends! It's a beautiful snowy day here in Minnesota; and the cats and I are cozy in the studio. Willie is in my lap, and Johnny is watching the flakes dance around on the lawn...
I am having an absolute blast in Life Book 2015! I've got a couple more pages to share with you...
This one is called "Hello World." It's from the seeds of love lesson taught by Tam LaPorte...
It's the intro page in my new art journal. Here you can see it next to the inside cover...
This one is called "Magical Studio," and it's from a bonus lesson taught by Violette Clark...
See that hamsa hand on the roof of my studio? That is a beautiful new stamp designed by my friend Jessica Sporn! I thought it was the perfect thing to have a hamsa blessing above the entrance to a magical studio! You can check out her new line of stamps here if you're interested. :)
I will leave you with a pic of my two snuggle buns taken in the studio late last night...
I hope you're having a wonderful day! Thanks so much for visiting!
Hi everyone! Thanks so much for all of your comments on my last couple of posts. I love hearing about your different ways of journaling! I'm so excited to share my February/March plan with you today!
Here is the stack of journals I will be using. There are four of them...
Here's the plan...
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Types of Journals for February/March 2015:
Name
What goes in it
Purpose
Format
When
“Follow your own Beat”
Art Journal
Finished pages. Whether workshop lessons or my own ideas, this book contains pages that I work on til they feel completed.Mixed Media.
Portable Studio. Showcase of my work.
Handbound Watercolor Journal
9x12
Work in it daily.
No Excuses Journal
No Excuses assignments and challenges; Artfully Inspired Life Workshop Weekly Overview with quotes; Sketches; Photos; ephemera, daily journaling.
Chronicle my life and drawing progress
8x10 Global Art Materials Handbook
Daily
Bullet Journal
Master To Do list, Commonplace Book, Workshop and other Notes, Project Lists, logbook, etc. (monthly calendar in back pocket)
Indexed reference notebook.
Orange Leuchtturm 1917 Squared Notebook
As needed
Once Upon A Time Journal
Chronicle my thoughts and assignments for the Brene Brown course “The Gifts of Imperfection”
Handmade Envelope Journal
As I get to each lesson.
My orange bullet journal is only about half full, so I am carrying it thru to February.
Here's a closer look at the other three:
"Follow Your Own Beat" (Main Art Journal):
I'm super excited about this one! I actually made the front and back cover a few years ago, inspired by an in-person workshop taught by Pam Garrison that I went to with my sister Renee. It's collage on top of art board, so it's super sturdy. Even though you can't see his face, I imagine you can tell it's Kurt Cobain right there in the middle. His music inspires me. :) After I made the covers though, I never bound it, so it's been sitting in my studio, waiting for the right time. I decided the right time is NOW! Yeayyy!
No Excuses (planner) Journal:
I'm changing over from a desk diary to a plain watercolor handbook to document my days. I'm using this one from Global Art Materials...
The desk diary was working fine. I just thought it would be fun to draw my own calendars and have a place to do my daily journaling too. More on that in an upcoming post.
and finally,
"Once Upon A Time" journal...
This is a journal I made in Roben-Marie Smith's "Ripped and Stitched" workshop back in 2013....
The cover is made of strips of handpainted fabric, and the inside is 9x12 white envelopes that are folded in half and gelli printed...
I am signed up for Brene Brown's "The Gifts of Imperfection" workshop, and I'm using this journal for the workshop lessons. There are 12 lessons, and 12 envelopes in this journal - how perfect, right?
So, that's it. It's going to be a fun couple months of journaling!
Thanks so much for visiting me today! I wish you a very merry Monday!!!
Hi friends! Today I want to talk to you about the bullet journal. It's a method of note-taking developed by Ryder Carroll, and it's been gaining popularity all around the internet lately. I can't remember how I came upon this video, but I was intrigued when I saw it...
There is an official website for the bullet journal here: bulletjournal.com.
Knowing that I have a swirly brain, and need structure to keep things in order, I thought I would give it a try. I actually started in November in a composition notebook, and it worked so well that by January, I had invested in a beautiful orange Leuchtturm 1917. It's the top book in this photo...
In my opinion, it's the ultimate notebook for bullet journaling! I can't say enough about how wonderful the Leuchtturm 1917 is! The paper is so smooth and lovely to write on! The pages come pre-numbered, and there is an index at the front...
I tried making the monthly calendar in a list-form as per the video instructions...
It looked nice, but I really didn't use it, so I won't be continuing with that.
Instead I bought a little 4x6 calendar to put in the back pocket of the journal. This allows for future planning too; something that the bullet journal system lacks...
Here's my key. I keep it pretty simple....
Sometimes I will do a weekly page where I track things. (ignore the year on this, it was actually from 2014 - ha!)...
My daily pages change and evolve as I go. Here are some examples...
In my Year of the Spark workshop, Carla suggested doing a daily journal page divided into sections for various purposes, so I've been doing that and it's super fun!
I don't do a daily page every day though. Only when I feel I need it. If my brain is feeling jumbly and I want to sort things out, I will do one. If I start my day with a solid plan in my head, I don't do one.
I also put other stuff in my bullet journal. Such as workshop handouts, and sketches...
Lettering practice...
Sometimes my pages are messy like this...
The main thing is - if I have an idea (or anything that I want to remember), I just open up to the next available page and write it down.
The two main things I always do are: 1. Date every page. and 2. Keep the index up to date. That way I can find things when I need them.
Hi friends! I've just finished doing a review of my Journaling system for January and I want to share how it went with you...
I know I posted this before, but here is a copy of what my plan for January was...
Types
of Journals for January 2015:
Name
What
it is
When
Format
Art
Journal
Story
of my life in words, images, art, photos, ephemera, etc. Includes workshop
lessons and any thoughts about them.
One
spread each day
Handbound
Watercolor Journal
No
Excuses Journal
Desk
Diary format:
Specific
purposes for the monthly and weekly pages. Follows a monthly color theme
Daily,
weekly & monthly entries based on NEA system.
Barnes
& Noble Weekly Desk Diary
Bullet
Journal
Master
To Do list, Commonplace Book, Workshop and other Notes, Project Lists,
logbook, etc. (monthly calendar in back pocket)
Daily
if needed
Orange
Leuchtturm 1917 Squared Notebook
Writing
Journal
Evening
Pages (stream of consciousness)
Daily
if needed
Silver
Maya Journal
Here's a pic of the journals...
Notice there are only three. That's because I never got going with the writing journal. I ended up doing my daily writing in my Book of Days. The bottom (largest) one is my Book of Days aka Art Journal. The middle one is my No Excuses Journal aka Barnes and Noble Desk Diary (I started to alter the cover but didn't finish). The top one is my Bullet Journal.
Here's another view...
So, how did it go?
What went well...
Planning to review my goals at the end of the month was the best thing ever. I've realized that my attention span seems to be about one month. Ha. Now I can feel like I did well with my goals, and it's okay to change them up if I want to! Yeayyy!!!
In the Art Journal:
I didn't quite make my goal of one spread everyday, but I came close. I think I missed four days, so my book was actually filled on February 4th instead of January 31st. That's totally fine with me.
Planner Journal:
Filled the January pages completely.
Bullet Journal:
Worked great. Used it when I needed to, but didn't obsess over it. I know I haven't shared anything about this journal yet. I will do a post on it soon for you.
I have a new plan for February. Some things will stay the same and some things will change. I'm loving this evolving system!
How about you? If you journal, how did your system go in January? How many journals are you using, and what are they each for? I am always soooo interested to hear how other artists are doing this.
Tomorrow I will be back and share my new system with you. Thanks so much for visiting! I appreciate you!
Just a quick share today, of a couple more pages from the Artfully Inspired Life workshop.
January's theme was "spark," and we were working on embellishing our own handwriting. I had tons of fun making this mandala...
Now we are on to February! The theme is "passion," and we are working on whimsical calligraphy. I have discovered that calligraphy is especially challenging if you are a left-hander! Wow! I did tons of practice on scratch paper before I tried writing in my journal. I did a search on youtube and found out that it helps us left-handers if you turn your paper sideways, so I tried it and it worked! It's still challenging to hold the pen at the correct angle, but I am enjoying learning this new skill...
Thanks so much for visiting today! I appreciate you!
Hey friends! I'm excited to share the rest of the pages I got done at my art retreat with you! These are all pages in my main art journal. There are a lot of them, so I won't go into great detail on each one, but if you have questions, let me know in the comments, okay? I'm posting them in the order they appear in my journal, along with the name of the workshop or challenge they were for...
