Daily Journaling 2017 : Week 1

I loved doing the Documented Life Project in 2015 and did it in a large Dylusions journal. In 2016 I incorporated some of the unPlanner prompts into my daily journaling, but it just didn't inspire me weekly in the same way. I always regretted that I didn't do the full original 2014 project. 

At the time I already had a calendar journaling process, so contented myself with decorating my work journal :

Having included daily journaling/memory keeping as part of my art journal in 2016, I am ready to go back to a separate daily calendar journal. I have had this small Dylusions journal in my cupboard for a while - pages are 5" x 8"

I have used up some paint on some pages of this journal so I have a few pages like this which may be incorporated or disguised :

but mainly they are blank. There are 48 pages so by adding just a couple of extra tip-ins I'm now good for the year. I had to tear out a few pages from my large Dylusions journal at the end of 2015, so I just folded 2 of them in half, trimmed them, and inserted into the journal held in place with a sparkly hair band down the middle

- easy peasy :-) I shared the steps for decorating my journal cover in my previous post. 

As well as adding those extra pages, I also trimmed some extra paper and lined the inside board covers so I can journal from the first spread to the last. This is inside the back cover

This is my first spread ready to be started: 

I'm going to follow the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. Each time I post I'll share the link to the original project posts (with instructions from the original artists) in case you want to play along with me. Here's Week 1 : photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door 
Totally okay that I start with some left-over paint already there...First I added more paint to tie the pages together, and decided to include the door to my studio - I am sooo lucky to have dedicated art space ♥

The original projected included flaps on every page. I'm not going to do that every week, but I do love the look of the tape on the edges of pages so will do that. As well as adding my word of the year, I also added lots of metallic paint and pens to start out shiney ♥

Click on the photo to see it larger - just need to fill in the journaling of my week. So this is how my daily journal for 2017 starts.

Looking forward to sharing this project weekly. Week 2 hopefully up on Sunday. I won't be keeping up this rate of blogging every day! Just always love to get projects launched at the beginning of a new year ♥
You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE.
Since doing this spread I have realised there is a FB group for 2017 - run by different people but to keep the concept going : it's called Life Documented 2017. I will let you know if I decide to incorporate that into this journal.

Creative Dreams for 2017

You can do ANYTHING, 

but you can't do EVERYTHING!

While I normally start a new year with big plans and a long list of projects that may seem impossible to achieve, I usually end my year with a "Ta Da!" list that never would have happened without the long list.... you've got to have a dream don't you?!
I know that creating is something that makes me SHINE so I'm making sure there's plenty of support for that! But be kind and realistic about what's possible for you. I was going to call this post creative goals, but changed it to dreams cos I usually have to review my expectations mid year and get a bit more realistic! January is dream time for me ♥ Everything seems possible....

ART JOURNALING
+ I am definitely IN with Effy Wild's Book of Days class for the year (link will take you to buying a full-year or first session option) Session One will take place between January 1 & April 1st. We will break in April, and Session Two will take place between May 1 & August 1. We will break in August and resume for Session Three which will run between September 1 & December 1. I find her style of teaching inspiring, and I adore her Facing Forward II class. The breaks will let me catch up and focus on other projects as well.

Effy's also co-host of Journal 52 (free weekly prompts for the year)
+ Documenting Life - I've had daily journals in the past, often in the form of a calendar journal, but in 2016 I just decided to include some memory keeping as part of my art journal.  I'm ready to go back to a separate journal for this purpose again and I'm going to follow the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. More about that journal soon....

+ I really enjoyed doing Life Book again last year. In 2016 I managed to complete 30 pieces of art from the lessons on offer, and In 2015 I completed 23 pieces of art. I went through a phase of feeling really disappointed that I wasn't getting to the lessons but now I've decided I'm not going to take on Life Book 2017, but will attempt to complete more of the lessons I've saved from 2015 and 2016 - plenty to keep me going ;-)

 + My Word of the year is SHINE - read about that in my previous post. I'm doing Ali Edwards' One Little Word again to keep my on track 

+ I also have Spirit Wings by Kelly Rae Roberts  (purchased because I just couldn't resist the bargain from her 10 Year anniversary sale...class now available for $99 lifetime access)

and Grateful HeART journal by Alisa Burke because I love her stuff and I got it on sale!

If you need some cheap and FREE online art class ideas check out my list HERE.
FABRIC and STITCH PROJECTS
+ I was gifted Sue Spargo's embroidery class on Craftsy 

+ More quilts to be made I hope - this one is waiting to be finished : 

+ Mixed Media fabric art projects - like my banner

As well, I hope I get the opportunity to teach again this year - I'll be taking craft club at school again at the very least. 

You can do ANYTHING, but you can't do EVERYTHING! On reading over this post I'm obviously going to try though...if I get half of this done by the end of the year I'll be doing well! Are your creative dreams as big as mine? ♥

Week 1 : DLP 2015 and Life Book Tag

My daily journaling will be worked alongside this year's Documented Life Project. Like many, I am working in this large Dylusions journal which I have had sitting in my cupboard for just the right project : 

click on any photo to see it larger

The DLP 2015 project is free and there is a monthly theme, and then a weekly challenge and prompt. On the Art to the 5th blog, you'll find links to the blogs of the artists sharing their process for creating their pages.
Lorraine Bell mentioned in her video that she thinks she would like to use the first couple of pages to keep a track of the challenges - kind of like a contents page. I really liked that idea so I've ruled up my first couple of pages....
This one is ruled into 12 sections (it faces the inside of the cardboard cover which I'll have to art up later)

and the next double-page spread is ruled up with 52 spaces for the weekly challenges

This is week 1 :

Coincidentally, the first warm-up exercise for Life Book 2015 with Tam was using a book paper background and then various layering techniques....so my base here is a bit of that as well as the documented life challenge. I started my spread by gluing down various book pages, adding some watersoluble crayons which I blended with water and then brayered gesso over the whole. This photo shows the gessoed effect on the pages, and on the side, the watersoluble crayons before gesso on what will be an envelope

click on any photo to see it larger

Then the spread was transformed with some of my gorgeous new paints which I scraped on with an old credit card

It's been really hot here, and I was in the pool before doing my journal page. It definitely influenced my use of the lovely iridescent turquoise like the water, surrounded by fluro hot colours...if you click on the photo below you'll also see how that fluro yellow turns the turq gorgeously green where they overlap

As I started this spread, I knew I was going to include my word for 2015 and also that one of the mini lessons for week 2 of Life Book was going to be making a tag with Roben-Marie Smith - preview HERE. This is my tag :

Roben-Marie also shared a link showing how to use stencils as stamps - it's inspiring and on her blog HERE. I attached my tag to the outside of a handmade envelope

A modified version of my blog post about my intentions to do with my word is folded inside - that's the "Be your own goal keeper" part of this challenge

This is the full spread

In this detail shot you can see the layers include my intention headings, and the flowers are sometimes stamped directly on the page, and sometimes layered onto coloured book paper or sheet music before being cut out and glued as another layer.

The daily journaling on each spread will be in a section to one side 3 1/2". Here's a closer-up of this week's - and you can click on it to see it even larger of course

Weekly challenge 2 goes up on the weekend...can't wait

Stitched Paper Daily Art Journal : pages 2-5

So excited about this new daily journaling project. This was my first page 

Pages from my 2011 project have now been turned into stitched paper daily journaling - click on any photo to see it larger : 

2011

Sept 2014 complete

2011

click on any photo to see it larger

Some of the pages have very few words - I like to just enjoy looking at the interplay of colour, images, and stitch - love the tactile nature of stitch as well

2011

2014 complete

Sew Wild technique here :-) Back view of this page so you can see the stitching

I keep my old sewing machine needles so when they get too blunt for stitching on fabric, I use them to stitch paper. I don't do anything special - just lengthen the stitch if I am doing straight sewing and make sure the paper is reasonable thickness - like scrapbook paper or watercolour paper. Otherwise, as you can see, decorative or zigzag or messy straight stitching all work just fine.

2011

2014 complete

I am loving both the {almost} daily practice and how these pages look when complete.

My new daily art journal : Paper & Stitch

As you saw in my last calendar post, I reached the end of my watercolour journal and had to think about what I'm going to use next.
I have the large (page size 11 3/8 x 8 1/4 inches) sized Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions journal which I bought with some Christmas money last December. 

You might remember this was a contender last time I changed journals. I had a couple of hesitations...
1) I have been finding my Full Tilt Boogie journal a challenge to fill because of the number of pages it has. My interest was waning in my Watercolour Journal by the end (I filled 39 pages in that). I have been thinking I would like to work in journals with less pages so I can focus on one kind of technique/theme - explore it, and then move to the next great idea...I am easily distracted! It's also good for your creative muscle to try different surfaces/sizes of paper/using different materials in your journaling.
2) I am seriously considering joining Life Book 2015 which begins January 1st and I'm thinking this would be a cool journal to use for that project - its pages are quite large and that envelope in the front could contain any notes I want to keep. Life Book lasts for a whole year so I should have ample opportunity to fill it. I think I've convinced myself that's the purpose for this journal!
So back to other options for my calendar journaling. I wondered about altering a book. I still love my December Daily from last year 

I really like the style of pages - a mix of words, paper, photos...

I was also very mindful of this :

Then I saw this sitting on the shelf and it all came together

I started this journal back in 2011 - read more about those beginnings HERE. In summary of that post, I found a photo album with paper pages. I removed the pages, decided I would add some watercolour sheets to the album as well, and started collaging. My intention then was to make "something pretty - collagey - papery - but also some stitch". I really enjoyed the collage, and did a bit of stitch on a couple of pages but then I got sidetracked by a number of other projects and the initial dozen pages I made just sat. 

Hand stitching on this one

When I pulled them out again, I still loved the collages, and thought they would make a good base for my project. Had to make a few changes first - these collages were done on double spreads to be folded into signatures. I want the freedom to work on individual pages and bind them later, without having to work out their order first, so I cut them all in half. Second change was that my initial collages were backed onto each other - that means I can't easily add stitch to those I've started. Luckily, I hadn't used very good glue, and I was able to peel all my pages apart!

So now I have piles of blank paper to add collage and stitch to as the mood takes me, and my initial collages pulled apart ready to have more stitch and other additions

And a cover that looked like this

and is now bare again waiting to be transformed into a cover that ties in with the whole project. I often wait until the end before I make my cover as you've seen here. This has got to be rather a long post, so I'll just share my first page that was made new for this project - click on the photo to see the machine-stitched details

I incorporated a copy of my desk reminder as a focus for this new project, and stitched all the elements before gluing this inside the front cover.

Next time I'll share some of the original pages now finished as part of this journal.