Creative Projects : Looking back and looking forward

I am always so inspired as we head into a new year. I like to do a review of my creative projects from the past year and where I'm headed next. 

Art Journaling was a major focus again last year. This was how my altered art journal looked at the end of December 2017

and these were my final Christmas pages with 11 spreads to go. 

In 2018 the pages mostly focused on the work I did in Effy's classes Book of Days and Moonshine. This journal was bulging at the seams and some pages were getting very loose so after some deliberation I tore out the remaining end pages (will use them in another project) and made this angel page my final journal page by gluing it to the back cover. I shared the finishing of this journal with the altered cover HERE.

I've decided on another old book for my next journal.  

It needs some preparation which I'll share in a later post. My new journal will contain the lessons from Effy's Book of Days 2019 which is turning into a collaborative this year. 

I've also signed up for A Year of Rumi 

I may do some interpretations of the lessons in this art journal, but mainly I'm going to be making mixed media art cards to fit in a collaged box which I made a couple of years ago. I'm really excited about this new project called "Klimt in the Garden with Rumi" - read the full story of how this original idea evolved and see my first mixed media card on this theme HERE.

I will continue my written journaling practice in my current Inner Work Journal -  I have continued to find it invaluable as a tool of self-development and writing things out brings clarity for me.

I have purchased the Southern Hemisphere PDF Planner for a Magical 2019 to print and use weekly. 

I want to continue my recycled doodle journals - love the process of my Magazine Faces 

And I'm looking forward to putting into practice all I'm learning from watching Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Gelli Journals class

I also did a number of projects last year that were outside my art journals.
I began by setting myself a new challenge of #52stamps = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. I carved for the first 12 weeks and made 21 new stamps! 

Then I decided to have a break and felt no desire to add it to my to-do list after that! A challenge is only good if it's inspiring you isn't it, but it was fun while it lasted and I now have a few more skills if I want to do more.  
In February I had terrible heartbreak when my lovely Dad passed away. Arting helped

In April I felt I was lacking Stitch projects and began #100daysofstitch which resulted in this stitched piece

and this 5th Stitch*Bookery project

I also made a start on my poppy quilt in June and while it's not quite complete I am up to the quilting stage and will be able to share it finished by the end of January

Additionally I made a number of cards 

I took craft club for 3 terms at school, decorated an altered book as a kindle cover for a friend, 

and completed Tam's She Blooms course and turned that art into a book : 

I enjoyed making bookmarks again for my school librarians, 

and l managed to make another gift of lace for my Aunty.

In November I started #arteveryday and it's had a huge impact on my productivity. I believe that you can mostly manage to squeeze some art into your day even if it's only 15 minutes. Those 15 minutes add up to completed projects more quickly than you would believe. Although I'm no longer posting updates here on my blog, I'm continuing to take photos for my own motivation and keeping that record in my Inner Work Journal : 

This project completed in December has been a turning point for me in terms of where I want to spend a lot of creative time in 2019 : 

I want to go on and make many more mixed media art quilts based on my art journal faces. Excited to see where this takes me. Remember : 

You can do ANYTHING, but you can't do EVERYTHING!

I've put my creativity way up my priority list in 2018 and it shows. How can you celebrate how you've developed on your creative journey over the past year AND what choices are you willing to make so you can create more art in 2019? 

HAPPY NEW YEAR. Wishing you Creative Joy in 2019 ♥

I'm going to take a summer holiday break with my family and I'll see you back here in about 3 weeks.

Cover art for my completed journal

In January 2016 I embarked on a new altered book for my art journal practice. It was an old art book purchased in a library book sale and looked like this : 

In April 2017 it needed re-binding to give more room in the spine

so it was just as well I hadn't started by arting up the cover....it had the treatment again in more recent months, 

and since I completed my Christmas pages, although I had a few spreads left, I decided that it was time to finish. I had some pages falling out 

which I stuck back in with washi tape and that was okay

but I was having increasing trouble closing the journal

so I took a deep breath and removed the remaining pages before gluing my angel magic page to the back cover

This art journal holds 3 years of my art journal practice. Although it's not the whole story, it's fabulous to have so much of my art journey contained in one place.

I've learned a lot - I've learned to work bigger, I've learned that such a large book is a big commitment to fill, I've learned it's heavy and a bit awkward to carry something this size easily to share with friends who want to see your art.... I've decided to try something smaller next year - that will be the subject of a later post. 

I usually leave altering my journal covers until the book's completed. I started with these simple thoughts : gold background, lovely serviettes, my current colour palette....began with white gesso so I had a light surface for my gold 'base' layer and to have 'tooth' on the spine over that shiny duct tape. Photo taken in the sun after the gold added to show off the gorgeous glow ♥

When I opened my cover to paint those initial layers, it opened to my art symbols spread that I created a couple of years ago - it includes my most loved colours and what they mean as well as the symbols that occur often in my work and why 

Then I checked out my Flickr album for this art journal and my favourite palette was confirmed : 

Iridescents and fluro have to be included - purple, lime, pink, orange, green-gold, turquoise - yum! I also love to include serviettes and stencils in my work :

Not worried about this base layer being perfect cos this will just peek through a lot of stuff on top if I follow my usual practice. Began with some stenciling and then added one of my favourite serviettes in a lot of places cos I love it

I quite like that it has a similar feel to my cover for Documented Life 2017 since that was my companion Daily journal last year.

Although I thought about including a face, I decided it will just be a riot of colour, stenciled layers and the dates of use  

From this

To this ♥♥♥

Love that this is complete and can now live alongside my other finished art journals

....can't wait to begin my new one