I never think I have anything to share on this site, but I realized today that I do. I love looking at journal pages done by other people, so why not share my own?
My everyday book is a journal that I keep for a year. Currently, I do one week per 2-page spread and I’m using the 11.375″ x 8.25″ Dylusions Creative Journal. I love the book, and the paper in it, as well as the way it’s bound, but it’s not my #1 choice for my everyday book because it’s SO heavy. I can’t carry it around easily, which is a bummer because I always like to have my journal with me in case of a spare moment. Doesn’t everyone?
In November, I posted my photos from an online challenge called NaNoJouMo, organized by Dawn Devries Sokol. I also signed up for one of her online workshops that is running from the end of November to the end of February, called “Winter Wonderfull.”
We’ve been at it for just over a month and I’m, of course, totally behind (I have a two-year-old, people!), but I am loving what I’ve done so far. My biggest takeaway so far is learning to paint with my fingers. I love Dawn’s pages and the effects she gets with layering and with paint, so I finally broke down and started painting with my fingers.
I have one word for you: Control. And boy, do I love control.
The part I don’t love is the way it feels — I have neuropathy in my feet and I think it’s starting in my fingers now, too, so it feels really yucky if I spend too much time thinking about it. Also, washing my hands so much in our dry climate makes my fingers feel extra icky. But as long as I’m liking the results, I’m going to keep doing it.
Here are the pages I’ve completed so far in this workshop. Enjoy!
I had a little bit more time to work on this during Thanksgiving weekend, so that was fun. I had no expectations as I worked on it, so it’s a bit of a jumble.
NaNoJouMo – Week 4
22 – crown. doodled jaggedy lines, similar to a sketchy crown.
23 – “groups of 4” was the prompt, but I did “group of 4” instead. 🙂
24 – sisters. The prompt was a photo of 2 girls, so I pulled out a copy of a photo of my sisters and myself.
25 – circles. I love making circles.
26 – gratitude. Words about what I’m grateful for in my life.
27 – shine on. I used some glitter on the page, of course.
28 – focus in on the color yellow.
And for the last two days in November…
NaNoJouMo – week4.5 2015
29 – ferris wheel. I used a new stencil from the Stencil Girl Club that mimics the lines on the ferris wheel.
30 – house. The prompt image used a really great shade of turquoise, so I decided to just use that on the page. (Spread isn’t finished, but November is.)
Weeks 2 and 3 were challenging on a number of levels, but mostly because I didn’t have as much child care as I normally do in a week. It was difficult to get things completed and I got behind on bills and groceries and all of the house management stuff, not to mention work, but I snuck in little bits of work on this here and there throughout that time. I’m pleased with what I did in the time I had.
NaNoJouMo – Week3
15 – Disney quote
16 – When in Rome
17 – Things to climb
18 – The city
19 – “simple as this”
20 – trees
21 – lady liberty (musings underneath the flap)
I approached week 2 in dribs and drabs and completely out of “order,” but I love how this page spread ended up. The prompts are below the image and I thought it would be fun to tag the photo so you can see where I applied the prompts to the page. Click on the image to see more detail.
Day 8: 5 hot things (I made a list around the edge of the page) Day 9: start a bucket list (I’ve never been big on bucket lists, but I put down a few things that weigh on me as I approach birthday #49) Day 10: little houses (I applied the color scheme from the prompt to my background, tied in with the prompt from day 12) Day 11: just doodle (there is doodling underneath the flaps on the right, you just can’t see it!) Day 12: spread paint and find an image (that sticker from Rubbermoon just happened to be in the right spot to sketch in a long, tall body wearing a dark dress) Day 13: dreams (Saturday, I thought a lot about the attacks in Paris (and around the world, and I wrote down my biggest wish for humankind) Day 14: I am (lyrics from an old R.E.M. song)
Artist and author Dawn Devries Sokol is running a daily journaling prompt project this month and she called it NaNoJouMo (National Nonstop Journaling Month), in a takeoff on NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).
Every day on her blog, Dawn gives followers a prompt and we are to take whatever we want from that prompt and use it to jumpstart our journaling for the day. Folks are encouraged to take what they want and leave what they want, to journal for 5 minutes, or 5 hours or anything in between, as long as we’re getting something down in our journals daily.
I love this project. I used to journal daily, first throughout the day, then every evening on the living room sofa, and now I find that most of my journaling is hit or miss, with no set times, but I try very hard to fill in the details of each day, even if I’m catching up a week’s worth of days. So what I decided to do this month is, since I work weekly in my journal, to take what speaks to me from each prompt and incorporate it into the page spread for the week. Here’s week 1 (I put the thought bubble over some sensitive writing for privacy):
Day 1: The “Hello my name is” sticker
Day 2: I pulled a similar orange-y color from Dawn’s prompt image and painted it around these two little weird guys.
Day 3: I added a tag to the page and wrote a little on it about “I’m not really…”
Day 4: Added stars and scribbles using a scarlet watercolor crayon and then mushed the color around a tiny bit.
Day 5: Added the little house shape, torn out of a book page.
Day 6: I scribbled around the edges of the little guys’ clothes.
Day 7: I may have forgotten to do the “the way to…” prompt. HAHA!
So, I started this week’s spread last night and I’m super excited about what is starting to happen there. But you’ll have to wait till next week to see it! 🙂
I think I started this in the wee hours of 7/25 in one of the journals I made in last weekend’s Kelly Kilmer workshops. This book is huge, with the pages measuring about 9.5″x13.5″. We worked with large images in our collage exercise in class, but I felt like painting the other night and grabbed this book. I was having fun twisting the delicate papers to enhance what I painted. I think this spread is awaiting a special focal image still.
(acrylic paint, oil pastels, watercolor crayon, pen, marker and collage)
Last week, I led a 90-minute session at the Colorado State Foster Parent Association’s education conference to introduce foster parents to visual journaling. It was a success, I’m happy to say, and when I mentioned this on Facebook, I had a number of my friends, some of whom have known me for years, ask what that is.
I guess I’m doing a bad job of letting people know what I’m up and marketing my own art!
One of my favorite page spreads in my 2014 journal.
Visual journaling, also known as art journaling, is a way to keep a diary of sorts, using both words and images to express your thoughts. Visual journals can be used for a variety of reasons, by a variety of people. There is no wrong or right way to do it. My hope is to bring visual journaling to foster parents as a new-to-them tool for processing events and feelings as they help their kids through their time in care.
my shelf of finished journals…one for each year
I’ve been journaling for years, beginning back in high school, when I’d carry an extra composition book around and used it to doodle and think when I was bored or needed to comfort myself (it was a rough time as my parents were divorcing and things were pretty bad at home). I still carry my journal around in my purse and work in it whenever I get the chance. These days I enjoy taking workshops to learn new techniques and practice new ideas. For the past 12 years or so, I’ve successfully kept one journal per year, usually a composition book, documenting my life, my thoughts, my happenings.
A page spread in my journal from February. This one is heavy on collecting memories of an event (a trip to Vegas).A page spread that’s more heavy on writing and doodling.
So there you have it! Watch this blog for more info over time.
When you asked for advice on how to live a long life she would say, ‘Use a lot of skin moisturizer, treat everyone nice, love your neighbor and eat your own cooking. Don’t eat at fast food places.”
It made me think about banning fast food from my life, of course, but it really made me think about how extraordinary Gertrude’s life must have been and how much I’d love to look at her journals. What if she had kept a journal? What would it look like? I can’t even imagine. I wonder a lot about my own grandparents and what I would give to have even a year’s worth of their thoughts, dreams, musings. It’s just another reason for me to renew my commitment to recording my own life and encouraging others to do the same.
The night before last, my pal Andie and I spent over four hours in my studio, drinking wine, trying out myriad art supplies, and generally having a good time. We had no plans, we just mucked about. I pulled out some random stamps, stencil-type things, chalk inks, Caran D’Ache crayons, glitter pens, gel watercolor crayons, sharpie poster paint pens, a couple of paper punches, a glue pen and foil. I had started the alien figure last week and have been randomly adding to it/her/him and decided that the pages around it/her/him needed some action. Here’s the result:
