Autumn Advent Journal : Days 1-4

I have an Intention to create a book a month this year : small and gorgeous, mixed media and stitched. I share HERE my picking of the cover and paper and that my April book is going to be inspired by prompts from Kasia's 2018 Advent Calendar.

My pages measure 5.5'' x 7''. Although brown is the colour I am least inspired by, I can make it work since my limited colour palette is inspired by Autumn : red, orange, yellowed greens, gold, bronze and I might even be able to sneak in some purple. Each of my pages will include stitching, sari ribbon and stencils. As I did in December last year, I intend to post regularly so you can see my progress. 
Day 2 : Rituals We have developed different rituals with our Covid-19 lock down. 

I needed a double spread to be able to include small photos : our house = our bubble, daily family walk, morning check in on the computer with coffee - some work and art time after, daily lego challenge with extended family in a FB group, communicating with friends and family via phone/text/messenger and continuing my art practice every day.  I added bubbles of music because we have spotify or the radio on wherever we are at home. Love that they have rests in them. And as I was cutting out the photos I decided to take the Bubble shape further...and add some found words.

Day 3 : Things I know I was gifted a whole lot of cards for documenting and decided I might use a few of these in this journal. Not many people like their own lettering but this journal is a reflection of who I am right now so it feels important to include my own hand. One of the things I learned in Joanne Sharpe's letter love classes was that if I slow down I can form my letters in a more pleasing way. 

Quite happy that this page is facing my Day 1 : Self-portrait shared in my first post about this project. I went back and refined my lettering on that original page as well. 

Day 4 : Collage using 10 elements from the first 10 pages of an old magazine. I am so lucky that I have a stash of magazines that have matte paper and wonderful words, so my main 'problem' was choosing which one. I decided to go with an old "Good" magazine - chose it because it was a March/April issue.

After I'd glued down my pieces I trimmed them to the size of the page and then I needed to add the stitch, sari ribbon and stencils to finish the page with my rules. I actually really liked the feel of this so kept my elements simple. Washi tape and sari ribbon added as collage elements, then simple hand stitching and subtle seed pod stencil shapes. 

Working on separate folded sheets means I have the freedom to add stitch as I like. As each spread is completed, it will be glued into my cover. I edged inside the cover with tape so that when I glued in Days 1 & 3 it all fits nicely. 

Then the back of Day 2 was glued to the back of Day 3 and so on...

Looking forward to sharing what's next. See my other posts about creating a book a month HERE.