First journaling for 2018

I've started journaling in my Inner Work journal (part 3). I won't share this one often because I use it a lot for personal writings, but thought I'd give you a bit of a peek to see the beginnings. My part 2 journal began in April last year

and I completed it nicely coinciding with December 31st

As well as written journaling, it's a great place to save inspiring pieces like emails from Brave Girls Club 

and photos of my art 

I also do a little memory keeping in the way of photos printed out and also keep a record of what I've been reading and watching each month

It's fun to set up a new journal. I shared my cover decorating HERE and here's how it's begun life

I added a pocket to the inside

Then I realised that most of my inspiration for this journal will come from class content for the only 2 classes I've signed up for in 2018 : BOD and Moonshine with Effy, so I printed and added those titles. LOVE the serendipity that they look so wonderful with my peacock feathers. Totally not planned but looks like I did ♥💜

Next is a selfie, as well as the journaling prompts for January - I don't answer all of these but if I feel like writing they are a good start.

I ordered a printable magical planner that ties in with my Moonshine class. Although the moon times are EST, other information includes Southern hemisphere times and the calendar pages are fun for planning and record-keeping

I did some written journaling yesterday, and I've also printed some pages from Susannah Conway's Unravel your Year. It's a FREE workbook which includes monthly reflections which will be fun to do at the end of each month. 

I'm interested in exploring Oracle and Tarot as a mirror to inner wisdom, so tried out a fun spread for the New Year today. I decided to do Gaian Soul's spread for the New Year with my Klimt Tarot

It's not predictive - it's about opportunities and challenges. I am most interested in my reaction when I read interpretations of the cards. I'm still very new to all of this so for interpretation I use The Creative Tarot book, and I find these online resources can be helpful too if I'm still not sure : Learntarot.com and Psychic revelation. In case you are interested in exploring for yourself, I have also been recommended The Tarot Coloring Book by Theresa Reed which I have ordered. I felt like the Gaian spread was very positive and makes me feel energised about my direction in 2018 ♥ 
And now I'm off to start my first art journal spread for the year....talk soon.

Cheap and FREE online art classes UPDATED

♥♥♥♥♥Happy New Year ♥♥♥♥♥

I originally created a list of Cheap (up to US$25) and free online art (mainly journal) classes in December 2013 and it's had almost 4500 visits since then! I update it every year plus whenever I hear of something new so HERE is the latest version- all links have been checked and are correct at time of posting.
These are my most recent new discoveries that have been added : 

Journal 52 : 2 options for pricing in 2018 : $5 per month, or class format of US$26 for year. Read more HERE.

Roben-Marie Smith. New for 2018 : Charming Challenge

Every Monday (January 1 - June 25) make an affirmation word charm that co-ordinates with each letter of the alphabet. Decorate an Altoids Tin or something like it to store them in. You can also make a changeable necklace for the charms. Also available, a mini workshop to make the charming box and necklace US$15
Tiare Smith : A creative "I feel positively" prompt released every week for the whole year. 

Go for the Free challenge (creative prompt and sneak peek of her journal every Monday) or classroom style (US$25). All details HERE.
Also see my blogpost from early December with some other FREE options for reviewing the past year and looking forward HERE.
Go check out the complete list HERE. You can always find the complete list by clicking on the link top right side bar with date last updated. Please let me know if I've missed anything. Happy Creative 2018 ♥

My 2017 Ta Dah! list and Creative plans for 2018

I ♥ being creative and I try and do something every day - as I've said over and over here on my blog, it's an essential part of my self care that helps me to SHINE and I also want to encourage others to add this joy to their days. BUT remember

You can do ANYTHING, 

but you can't do EVERYTHING!

At the end of every December, I like to take a moment to celebrate and share my completed creative projects from the year. This year I'm going to reflect on these projects and where I'm headed next year as well.
Art Journaling has been a major focus for this year and will continue to be so in 2018 with a slightly different focus. I worked in 4 journals this year and filled 3 of them!

Starting from the top : 

I followed the weekly prompts from the 2014 Documented Life project together with the Life Documented 2017 Blog and FB group - see all my posts HERE and my Flickr photos of all my spreads HERE. 

Although I've loved this project and adore the look of my completed bulging journal, I'm not going to continue with a weekly challenge next year. I want more freedom to choose what I will focus on each week. If you are interested for 2018 - the FB group has been updated HERE.
This year I decided I needed a journal to focus on written responses, and Inner Work was started mid-January. My first was completed in March so in April I started my second : 

I don't share much from here because a lot of the writing is personal, but I have found it invaluable and will be continuing in 2018 - see my post about creating the new cover HERE.

In 2016, I began with a second-hand art book to alter and use for the Life Book 2016 projects along with Documented Life 2016 and daily journaling. 

I wanted to see my artful journey in one place, and also incorporate other art along the way. I didn't finish in 2016 and this year I kept it just for my main art journal lessons from BOD. Go HERE to see every spread I've completed in this journal in 2017, and HERE for my posts about Book of Days. I didn't complete as many lessons in here as I would have liked (but given the rest of this post you'll see I've had a good reason!). This will be remedied next year since I've only signed up for Effy Wild's discounted bundle of her year-long offerings for 2018 : Book of Days and Moonshine (early bird pricing ends 31st Dec 2017)

These classes should finish filling this journal and will also contribute to how many Inner Work journals I use next year. I also hope to do a gorgeous cover to celebrate when I finally get to the end of this journal.

I have a great affinity with Effy's art and teaching style and her building of community suits me very well. See my Flickr album of art inspired by Effy's teachings HERE. 
My word for this year has been SHINE. That concept informed many pages in my Inner Work journal, and once again I participated in Ali Edwards' One Little Word class.
I celebrated our 25th Wedding anniversary and my 50th Birthday with Shine ♥
I've had a wonderful time exploring and I'm not done with it yet...I'm continuing to embrace SHINE in 2018. 

Read more about that HERE : Share, Healthy, Inner Work, Nourish, Enjoy
As well as those projects that lasted the year, I made a number of other things. In February I was back to work at school with a new diary cover

I managed to do things with fabric this year. In April I completed my Disappearing 9 patch quilt

At the end of July my Mixed Media fabric lap top case and accessory bag were delivered to my niece - this was an aweseome project which she loved and I didn't want to give away

In August I completed my Klimt in the Garden mixed media collage box

and also made some gifts of handmade stitched paper books inspired by Stitch*Bookery with Mary Ann Moss. Book 1

Book 2 

Book 3

I finally managed to make one for me in October. I am hopeful there'll be more of these to share in 2018.

My brother's birthday was in October, and I framed some of our great grandmother's lace for him

This proved so popular in my family that my mother and Aunty received their own versions for their birthdays in December

I also taught some classes this year, including lunch time craft club at school and continued to make birthday cards.  
At the end of the school year my student librarians received handmade bookmarks from me as a thank you for their work

Then it was time to make my Christmas cards

I love to see all my projects listed like this in one place and if you're a new visitor to my blog you've now got an idea of what you can expect when you visit next. I've had a creatively busy 2017 ♥ As I look towards 2018 I'll continue my art journaling as described above, and I want to include lots more stitch generally in my projects. There'll definitely be more mixed media projects and when I run short of ideas I described my concept of project jars as my inspiration in this post

What can you celebrate about your creative journey this year? AND what choices are you willing to make so you can create art in 2018?

Wishing you Creative Joy and plenty of SHINE in 2018 ♥