Thursday, January 25, 2018

A Few of My Favorite Things ~ Plus a Tutorial!

It is no surprise to anyone who follows my blog or views my art journaling and photographs - I love birds. I enjoy watching them, studying them, photographing them, and include them often in my art. 

Another passion I have is for Bible study and theology. Last week at the library book sale I found a new book by one of my favorite pastor/author/theologian/ Bible commentators, John Stott. I usually buy any book I find by him when I go to book sales, but this one was special. It's called "The Birds Our Teachers: Biblical lessons from a lifelong bird watcher". A book that combines two of my favorite things by one of my favorite authors! And I had no idea that John Stott was also a bird watcher - bonus!



A few weeks ago I found out that 2018 has been named the year of the bird by Audubon and National Geographic to mark the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It's a good excuse for me to continue to use birds in my art. Jeanne Oliver is doing a year long project called Series 52 which she says is a way to create a body of work that is just for you. One of my favorite art mediums is collage. Last year for the 100 day project I did scrap collage projects on Rolodex cards. It was a fun challenge to make them on such a small background, but what I loved most about the project was that I did collage more frequently. So I thought doing one intentional piece of collage per week would help me stay connected to this art medium and would be a nice way to work on a different size than my Everyday Journal, although some weeks it may be in that journal. And since it is the Year of the Bird, they will be my focus for my weekly collage.


My collage for week one was made to go into my commonplace notebook.

My collage for week two was inspired by the illustrator Richard Faust, who often includes small geometric collages on his work. This one was done in my Everyday Journal, which is a Traveler's Notebook.

In 2015 I was a member of the foundation team for a group called His Kingdom Come. We did a number of classes that year that were exclusive for group members. Now that this group is no longer in existence I thought I would share the art journal I made for the course we did called God's Aviary. It was a course that studied birds in the Bible and combined that with art journaling.











This was one of my all-time favorite art journal projects! I added the tutorial and the video flip-through of my journal to the pages at the top of this site. Or you can click this link to go directly to that page. Enjoy!

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Art Journaling in the New Year


As I mentioned at the end of last month, this year I am joining Bernice Hopper and Valerie Sjodin in co-leading a group that will be exploring using Everyday Journals and living out our word for the year. [Links are at the end of the post.] I'm using a Traveler's Notebook set-up again this year. I really enjoy both the size and the system of having a number of notebook inserts.

So far in my notebook I have dug into my word for 2018, flow.



My church spent six months last year going through the book of Galatians. Out of that time I came away with a greater desire to walk in the flow of God's Spirit. Galatians is such a rich theological book, yet it is also full of practical guidelines for living out our faith. Just a few of the spiritual nuggets found in Galatians:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. Galatians 5:13

...walk by the Spirit...led by the Spirit... Galatians 5:16,18

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

My word for this year has come out of - flowed out of - this time we spent in Galatians. I want to flow this year in the movement of God's Spirit. I want to go with the flow more this year, responding rather than reacting. I want to walk in the flow of the freedom that is min in Christ. And I want to create a healthier flow for my life, eating better, developing an exercise habit, keeping focused on what I need to do to restore energy -both physically and emotionally. Last year my word was "whole" and I experienced some areas of healing and being restored in wholeness in Christ. This year I want to continue in that flow. I captured my intentions for this word's influence in my life on my Vision/Intention board in my last post. I'm combining my journey with this word in my Everyday Journal along with capturing events from everyday life, quotes from books I'm reading, Bible study notes, art journaling, etc.

2018 Week 1


One book I am slowly making my way through is The Deeper Journey by Robert Mulholland. He is on the top of my favorite authors who write about spiritual formation. The Deeper Journey looks at our false self and and the spiritual journey of discovering our true self in Christ. He uses the book of Colossians quite a bit in this book and below are some notes I was reflecting on that show the false self and the true self in Colossians 2:20-3:17. Jotting down notes and mapping them out creatively are one of the ways I take God's Word deeper into my heart and mind.


2018 Week 2

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I are using one journal to record events, experiences and relationships and  to explore our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We are each blogging about our experiences and our art. If you would like to connect with others about creatively organizing your word, your ideas, thoughts, prayers, events, or your projects all in one journal, you are invited to join our Facebook group: Everyday Journals – Living Your Word of the Year.


Hashtags on Instagram: #everydayjournals2018, #livingyourword2018

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: http://www.newlycreative.com/
Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/


Some of the products I use:

I get my calendar inserts and some other inserts from Yellow Paper House on Etsy.  Other products can be found on Amazon:



My favorite art journaling pens:


A note about Amazon links on my blog:

I am giving Amazon affiliation a try, which means I may receive a small percentage off sales made through clicking on the Amazon links found on my blog. There is no additional cost to you.


Monday, January 15, 2018

2018 Vision Board


Over the past few years I have made a vision board for my word for the year. I used a method suggested by Ali Edwards of cutting out magazine pictures and words and adhering them to canvas. They made great visual reminders through the year of what I hoped to see happen through focusing on my word.


This year, with my focus on using an Everyday Journal, I thought I would do something different than the vision board on a canvas. I wanted to do something that would fit in my Everyday Journal. Using two pieces of cardstock I folded them in thirds and then glued them together, overlapping one of the thirds on each piece. This gave me an accordion fold journal page to insert into my journal.




My plan was to take one side and put together a vision board with pictures and words that fit my word, flow, and my goals living out this word for the year. Then on the other side I would write out my intentions. Intentions are simply goals or plans connected to my word for what I would like to see happen over the next year.



Once completed I attached the accordion fold journal to a page in my Everyday Journal. 





Side 2:




If you are a part of our Everyday Journals ~ Living Your Word of the Year group I want to encourage you to create a vision board for your word. Vision boards are a good way to visualize your word and its meaning, as well as thinking about your plans for your word. Then consider setting intentions or goals of how you would like to see your word lived out in your life in the year ahead.

You can join our conversation around our faith, Everyday Journals, and living out your word in 2018 at facebook.com/groups/everydayjournals livingyourwordoftheyear.