Creating a book a month : April Advent!

I have an Intention to create a book a month this year : small and gorgeous, mixed media and stitched. 

Very excited last week to find out that Kasia Avery has re-opened BOTH of her Advent Calendar offerings from 2018 and 2019 for FREE HERE. Even though both of these offerings were created with busy December in mind, they are relevant now too. During this challenging time, use them as a way to establish your daily healing art practice and take better care of your well-being. The 2019 prompts are what I followed for my December daily last year and I had already planned to repeat them in June for my birthday month they are so good. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Suits beginners too. I loved creating on watercolour paper and then gluing them into a book cover so that I could include stitch

Once more I want to work with a limited colour palette and for each of my pages to include stitching, sari ribbon and stencils. 
My monthly challenge rules specify "small and gorgeous". I have collected a stash of old book covers and this one inspired me immediately : my favourite colour 💜 A little larger than December - this one measures 5" x 8" (the red one is 4.5" x 6.5")

And thankfully, I also found I still had a pad of cheap watercolour paper to cut up for my pages. 

I wouldn't recommend this for serious watercolour work, but this is the same brand of paper I used last time so I know it's good for this purpose. So I started cutting the paper to fit that cover and then was thinking about how I had enough to make another book a little smaller and I changed my mind about my April project. 

I got out a brown book cover and cut it down in height so the pages will be 5.5'' x 7''. Although brown is the colour I am least inspired by, I can make it work since my April book will be Autumn colour themed and I'll keep my favourite purple for my birthday month. I cut all 20 sheets of that paper to divide between the books for their correct size so I will have more than enough to have quite a few double spreads in my journals. 

Excited to share more throughout April...and again in June. As usual, I've done a little gathering of supplies to keep my choices for this project limited. 

It all fits in one of my plastic containers to keep it all together. Let's see what it looked like before I packed it in there : 

Looks quite a lot but it is limited for me! From bottom left and clockwise : Acrylic paints in my autumn colours of red, orange, yellowed greens, gold, bronze and a little bit of aubergine. I am excited to have found some lovely Golden brand Mica flakes. They will be a very special addition. My brown journal with loose folded pages ready. Papers in colours as above - in my box I have split the colours into a couple of folders - greens vs reds. Sari Ribbons ♥ - I never saw a sari ribbon I didn't like. Stencils Leaf themed mainly and in the box you can see my extra large seed-head stencil. Washi tapes I've mainly limited myself to quite neutral ones. Hand stitching threads in 4 lovely colours. Heart and Flower Brads in yellow, purple, brick red and olive. Variegated machine thread which moves through red-orange-yellow-black. I will add pens, crayons, pencils as inspired along the way.
As I did in December last year, I intend to post every few days in April so you can see my progress. Thought I would share my first page here.
Day 1 : Self-Portrait. Decided I would include a photo of me as I am now. I had one from my last chemo session so resized into a word document and printed it directly onto my paper. Then added the necessary elements and a bit of documentation of where I am today.  

This journal is not about creating fabulous art but rather it's a documentation of my April, taking notice of the changing season and celebrating all that I am grateful for in my daily life. See you in a few days with some more completed pages in my Autumn Advent Journal. Check out my other posts about creating a book a month HERE.