The End of Life Book 2015

We've reached the end of Life Book 2015. It was my first year at this, and I am so happy with what I've achieved.

In the last lesson, Tam provides instruction for different ways to bind all your loose pages into a book. I bound loose pages when I did my stitched paper daily art journal last year, and was going to use my same method of making book page hinges

Read about my whole process HERE. However, when it came to it, I decided that it's nice to keep the loose pages together in the fabric folder that I made to hold them at the beginning of the year.

This means I can still take them out and display them for inspiration

and the full folder fits just fine on my shelf of completed journals.

I created a Flickr album for all this year's projects HERE. This photo mosaic gives you a preview (make your own photo mosaic HERE) 

Go HERE to read all my posts about Life Book 2015.
It's been fabulous. A year of creative development and joy, as well as personal growth. I am so looking forward to what Life Book 2016 has in store - go HERE to find out more

....might see you there :-)

MY 700th POST and the end of DLP 2015

I did my first blog post July 13th 2010 : back then I said "I want to have a diary of my art experiments/projects; a visual record of what I am watching, reading, seeing, thinking. It's called ALL OF ME because I want to record all my experiences - mainly arty, but you'll occasionally read about family stuff too. Hopefully it will help make me more productive, and it will be fun to look back on." It has, and it is :-) I blog for myself : it's useful to have a record of my creative journey and I love that when I think "how did I do that?" my methods, my progress photos and any online inspirations to get me there are all together. As time has gone on, I also blog to inspire you - you don't have to be an expert / a teacher / call yourself an artist to be able to create and enjoy all that brings with it. I share the ugly, the okay, the things I'm proud of, because nobody creates great art all the time - you just need to find some time in your day, keep showing up, experimenting and learning to find your own voice and creative joy in the process.

How fitting that reaching this milestone of 700 blog posts should coincide with another milestone - my final spread in the Documented Life Project 2015 :-)

Saying goodbye to this journal and this year of inspiration, I also want to look forward. It's been a year of exploring faces - something new to me. I thought I'd like to finish with one as I look forward to 2016 and more development in this area. 

On every weekly spread in this journal I've added a journal block - I've included small photos of other projects I've been doing, what I've been reading and watching, noting the good times as the year has progressed. I love that I'll always have this journal to look back on and remember the everyday moments - "the underlying fabric of my life" (challenge words).

Right from the start I planned to journal in her hair. Celebrating my creative journey this year and finishing (as I started) with my word for 2015 on the page.

Click on the photo to enjoy it larger or see it in the Flickr album I've created for all my Documented Life 2015 spreads HERE.
And that brings us to the end of DLP 2015! A blank journal transformed :

You can see all my posts about this project HERE and here's a mosaic of all my spreads (create your own mosaic here):

DLP 2016 starts this weekend - it's going to be an unPlanner. Read about that HERE. Of course I'll still be art journaling in 2016.... hope you call in to see what I'm up to.

LB2015 : Sunshine and roses

I wanted to complete this lesson by Effy before I called Life Book 2015 finished for the year. It contained within a lovely way to honour and reflect on what I've accomplished in 2015, and to see what I want to celebrate and bring forward into the coming new year. Effy's project included the rose border and the words, but the face is my own addition. Thought I would just post photos of how this one evolved ::

Click on any photo to see it larger, or go HERE to see the completed art in my Flickr album of all my Life Book projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book HERE.

LB2015 : You are Wise

I've not had time to do any Life Book projects this month until now. Have been happy to have kept up with Documented Life weekly, to have made my Christmas cards and the bookmarks were a bonus. But yesterday (Boxing day) and this morning, we've had some time relaxing at home, and I was able to find time to make art. With a few project choices, I rolled the dice again. Another lesson created by Tam, this one was looking at some of our 'limiting beliefs' : those deep rooted beliefs we have that stop us from moving forward, or that hinder our progress and growth in life. We looked at how we can 'be present' to these thoughts, really become more aware of them and try and transform your thinking to liberating beliefs. I started sketching my figure. 

She is supposed to be soaring above a hill (which becomes a symbol for your liberating beliefs) but as I did her face, and pencilled in some swirl curls framing her face, I got the feeling she's my wise guardian angel - reminding me to rise above - to be strong - that I CAN...I added some colour to her face, and rather than starting to draw a hill, I found I wanted her floating above a garden (click on any photo to see it larger). 

Next step in the process was to add some collage, and before I knew it, I was channeling the botanical theme and applying some of my favourite serviette to her dress, and adding some floral tape....happily whilst looking for some text for another project, I recently found my word of the year again (in a large print book) - it feels right to include this somewhere in what could be my last Life Book project for the year since I'm about to start the process of choosing a new word for 2016. Time to add colour - I am loving her face and hair

Next was applying modeling paste with a spatula through stencils

I love the textural effect, and decided to keep mine white to add nice contrast to the colour behind

Hanging from her dress, a list of liberating beliefs to carry me into 2016

And I felt the need to add glitter - my word for 2015 overlays her heart

I noticed that at some point her face had some purple transferred to her cheek - I've left it there because it looks a bit like freckles, and I like the imperfect charm it adds

I enjoyed adding detail to the flowers

And here's my page complete : 

Click on the photo to see it larger, or HERE to see it in my Flickr album of all my Life Book projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book HERE.

Merry Merry

Wishing you lots of love and sparkles for Christmas

Sparkly Week 51 : DLP 2015

Information about the FREE weekly Documented Life project is HERE.

I decided to start by messily swiping 3 colours on my spread - now I'm not intimidated by the blank page and I can't ruin it cos it's not that lovely to start with! First layer....

Started with the turquoise and purple and then added the yellow which has turned green over the turquoise and brown over the purple = colour wheel magic. I am totally okay with the "mud" cos it helps to raise up the beautiful colours in contrast. Of course I could have written on the page first before swiping the colour for hidden journaling - but I liked the idea that Sandi Keene shared this week of hiding your message by overlapping your lines.

Then it was time to hide some of that with stenciling in a darker purple and some hydrangea serviette - all of a sudden I like where this is going....

time to add more stencilling and I'm having so much fun I forgot to take progress shots!

Couldn't resist adding glitter and some appropriate words

Gold tape for my journaling spot

and another way to add hidden journaling is a tag :

Lots of lovely layers - because it's Christmas week I decided I'd go all out using paint in silver, gold, iridescent green, and lashings of gold glitter....it's all over my studio table now :-)

Click on the photo to enjoy it larger or see it in the Flickr album I've created for all my Documented Life 2015 spreads HERE. You can see all my posts about this project HERE.

♥♥♥♥♥MERRY MERRY ♥♥♥♥♥