December Daily-ish 2021 Complete

It's time for my final share of my 2021 December Daily-ish project. In January I created an accordian book form and shared my first spread. My intention was to create a book a season, but it just didn't happen. Happily when I decided to do a December Daily journal this year I already had this book form ready to use.

I've been responding to Michelle and Tamara's #ArtJournalAdvent challenge prompts. I was wondering if I had totally unrealistic expectations of doing any pages, but wanted to give it a go as an act of self care and I've been sharing weekly without expectations about how many pages that will be depending on how life is. Sharing the final 6 prompts.

AJA 19 : The power of love. A double spread - I love so many things about this.

AJA 20 : To simply be. I love being with my family. Hidden photo from Christmas day with my Mum and Aunty. The facing page is a print of a piece of my art from 2018 that I'd attached in January.  

AJA 21 : Come to rest. I decided I'd use a lovely image that makes me feel at peace after the bustle of Christmas day. An opportunity to add stitch which is harder once the back side of the page is complete.

AJA 22 : Looking back. One of my favourite projects this year as been #52tags with Anne Brooke. It's been a weekly challenge and I thought it would be fun to do a variation of my first tag from that project. The theme was white which is lovely here. 

AJA 23 : Winter wonderland. This is not going to work since I live in New Zealand...changed to Summer shine. Very excited to use my new pohutukawa wooden block stamp (purchased from Trade Aid) - used paint, a mouse pad for cushioning beneath, and stamped onto lovely dense handmade paper. Facing our final prompt, AJA 24 : Word for 2022. Always Shine. It's been a tough couple of years with many personal challenges. I look forward with hope. 

And here's how my book looks finished ♥

Scroll back through my December Daily-ish posts to see more detail about pages.

December Daily-ish : Week 4

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas day. It's already Boxing day evening here in New Zealand and time for my Sunday share of my current December Daily-ish project. I'm responding to Michelle and Tamara's #ArtJournalAdvent challenge prompts. I'm currently on holiday and it shows! Lots of prompts to share this week.

AJA 10 : Inner Strength facing  AJA 11 : Free spirited soul.

AJA 12 : Dreams that give you strength, featuring another centre tag, and AJA 13 : Priceless.

And then we turn to the other side of the accordian journal. 

AJA 14 : Hodgepodge. This prompt fell on the pages I did when I originally began this journal. It's a mix of Summer feels.

AJA 15 : Burst of courage. I also already had this tag in my journal and amazingly it fit perfectly with what I needed to express courage on the day I approached this prompt.

AJA 16 : Scent. Always lilies for me at Christmas time.

AJA 17 : To grow. Growing my art practice with the #fodderschoolproject

AJA 18 : Meaningful. Again, already had this print of my art on the page so swapped my prompts for this spread. Every step of my creative process is meaningful to me. I cannot imagine not creating art to celebrate, to unpack feelings, to de-stress, to learn new things, to experience joy.

Hope you are able to have some lovely rest and creative time this week. I'll be finishing up this journal to share by end of year I hope.

December Daily-ish : Week 3

Time for my Sunday share of my current December Daily-ish project. I'm responding to Michelle and Tamara's #ArtJournalAdvent challenge prompts with no expectation about how often I'll do these. I'm not behind - I am where I need to be. I finally finished work for the year on Friday so now I've got more time for art.

AJA 6 : Moment of happiness. This prompt inspired me to print a piece of my own art from 2018.

AJA 7 : Short break. Thinking about being present. Again repurposing some art, this time I've taken the base off a recent paper doll.

The beauty of machine stitching is that I could easily unpick the head from the back and I can reattach her to another base later. Added a few extra words and some new sari ribbon.

AJA 8 : Fulfilment. Reaching the end of the year and knowing I'm doing a good job gives me a great sense of fulfilment. I got lots of lovely cards with heartfelt messages from children at school last week. This handmade card was small enough to include and is a very special memory. 

AJA 9 : Boundaries. Thinking about how I push boundaries in my mixed media art, including using ALL the things including stitch and especially love when I have bits poking out over the edges. So much personal symbolism on this page.

So glad I'm doing this project and look forward to sharing more next week.

December Daily-ish : Week 2

Time for my Sunday share of my current December Daily-ish project. Luckily I've had no expectations on myself about whether you'll see seven pages or one! This past week was especially challenging and exhausting, and I thought I wouldn't be sharing a Week 2 post at all! But I really needed a break this weekend, and yesterday I made some birthday cards (I'll share the details in my next post) so today had a bit of time to be able to respond to 2 more prompts from #ArtJournalAdvent.

AJA 4 : Femininity. I wasn't sure what to do about this prompt when I was thinking about it during the week, but today it was easy, because of the birthday cards I made yesterday. You'll have to wait for next post to see them, but this page is directly inspired by them and came together very quickly. 

This accordian style has a few tag inserts. 

AJA 5 : Rituals. Again, my mind had to be relaxed for me to discover that this prompt had an obvious response. 

In my previous post I shared that I have been making bookmarks for my librarians for the last 6 years. I always make a few extra so that I was able to pop one onto my spread. It's also important to me that my home of gorgeous New Zealand is obvious in my pages - the star fish symbolises summer and our beach trips that are part of our December holiday rituals. 

I am so happy that this journal is evolving, although slowly. I only have another week at work so will enjoy the prompts as time permits. One of the changes is that I have decided to keep this journal for Michelle and Tamara's  #ArtJournalAdvent challenge prompts. I have thought of another idea for Kasia Avery's #caredecember which I'll share when this book is done. So my inside cover has changed from that shared last time

to this. I just put water on the top line of stamping and was able to scrape it off and place a serviette layer on top which now relates to Prompt 4 above.

Hoping you are finding some creative joy and moments of rest this December. Never underestimate the importance of self-care.

December Daily-ish 2021 : Week 1

On Monday I shared some December Daily free class inspirations, my gatherings, and my almost blank journal. 

I'm using the inspiration from Kasia Avery's #Care December and Michelle & Tamara's #artjournaladvent2021. Links to them in my original post HERE. I was wondering if I had totally unrealistic expectations of doing any pages, but wanted to give it a go as an act of self care and I've started! First up was to create a colour palette - Kasia has just shared a very useful blog post about how to do this easily if you've not tried it before. 

Then I decided to make my cover (in the photo above the only thing attached was the tape)

As I use various embellishments, I'll add leftover pieces either elsewhere in the journal or to my box of gatherings. It will add to continuity for the project.

AJA 1 : Here and Now. Had to include the poem by Victoria Erickson which finally inspired me to do this project. I want to try and include words from the prompts on my pages and the words are right there in the poem 💜

AJA 2 : Movement. I have helped classes at school make fabric bunting this year and bunting is festive. I made this from washi tape. Keeping it simple

AJA 3 : Glitter and Glamour. I have a lovely Christmas tree stamp which I stamped using an embossing stamp pad and then an Opal embossing powder. I love to use machine stitch in my work so attached the very sparkly ribbon with that and added a star brad to the top of the tree. I was then able to glue my background paper down. 

Here's a shot of my spreads so far accordian style. You can see I'm carrying elements across onto the following page. 

I've decided to share weekly on a Sunday through December with no promises or expectations on myself about whether you'll see seven pages or one! This coming week I may be too exhausted to do anything, but this weekend I did some work in hourly blocks broken up with rewards of short breaks for some art time. Setting a timer for both the work blocks and the art helps me focus. And it's felt better than looking at screens. Hoping you are able to fit some creative joy into your December.

December Art Journals 2021 : Free classes

I have 3 weeks left of work for this year and they are crazy busy in a school where I have a leading role in organising prize giving, editing our school magazine, stock taking the library books and creating a Summer Reading programme. So I may be a late starter when the prompts come out, but I do love a December Daily project. The following offerings are all FREE 💜

Tamara at Mara Kreativ Studio and Michelle from Raspberry Blue Sky are having another #ArtJournalAdvent project for 2021. Read all about it HERE - they have already posted links for how to make an art journal in preparation for this project focusing on mindfulness in December. December 1 - 24 : daily prompts in your inbox or follow their new insta account.

Kasia’s had an Advent Calendar project for the last three years. I participated in 2019 and last year I created an Autumn Journal using her 2018 prompts. She's doing it again this year but has changed the focus and name to explore a more holistic approach to self-care through mindful art journaling and celebrate the changing season. She wants you to focus on the process rather than making a pretty finished page. Sign up HERE. 20 days starting 4th December. 

If you are more inclined to stitch, Anne Brooke did a #12pagesofchristmas project last year that is still on YouTube and may appeal. This link will take you to the playlist of the 6 videos. Note you need to make sure the tin is big enough for the roll once all the prompts have been added. Anne's tin doesn't close now 💜

I adore Victoria Erickson's poetry, and these words have been in my mind since she posted them this week 

It feels like a push for me to do a mindful December Daily....Keeping Kasia's inspiration in mind, I went in search of a small hard cover book to insert some papers and secure them with pretty ribbon. What I discovered was an almost blank accordian book form which I had made in January and only done a little bit of work in. I'll start from the other end and just alter any spreads as needed.

It has 28 pages and some tag inserts - I can easily add some extra pages if I need them. 

I then hunted through my Christmas stash and found lots of scrapbook papers and embellishments that I had been gifted last year. They form the base for my colour scheme but it will be interesting to see how much of this I use and how they are incorporated. 

A few additions of recycled kraft and red themed cards and paper, appropriate words, some Christmas postage stamps and a few extra embellishments and I'm ready with my kit and my small journal. 

I will obviously be using paints and a few stencils and themed stamps which I haven't shared yet. So far I've only wrapped some lovely sari ribbon around and rested the words on the front cover. I've not committed to anything yet. Can't wait to see what's going to happen with this little book. I will respond to the prompts from both challenges as I feel like it until the end of the year and I'll share my progress as I'm able. 

Wishing you a happy December. I hope you are able to take some time for self-care and joy this coming month.