My Salvaged Journal

In my last post I mentioned that I was taking a class with Roben-Marie Smith called Salvaged Journal. In this class we made a journal out of an old book and filled it with various of types of paper and ephemera in various sizes. It's almost like the junk journal concept that was popular w few years back. I had completed the journal in mid-April and have slowly begun to work on the pages.

Since the book I used had these great etchings on the cover of a bird, a flower, and a leaf, I knew I wanted to use this journal as a nature journal. It has a lot of pages in it so it should last me through all four seasons. I love starting it in Spring, which is my favorite season and the season in which the birds return. What I am finding with this journal, with its variety of paper types and page sizes, is that is encourages experimentation with art mediums. Here are a few of my pages before adding art:

For my title page I used one of my favorite techniques: hand cut letters. I used pages from an older National Geographic magazine because I love the vintage colors used in magazine photographs from the 50's and 60's.

So far I have a mix of pages using collage, paint, magazine photos, my own photos, painted tissue paper collage, and painted tissue paper cut letters.

I am really enjoying experimenting in this journal with different types of art mediums. It's good to stretch myself creatively. I have also learned that whenever I take a class it's important to me to keep my own style. Roben-Marie has more of an abstract style to her collage, and while I did try her style with some of the lessons, I found it just didn't feel like me. It's good to try other types of art and styles when taking class but it's also okay to take those lessons and adapt them to fit your own style and artistic voice. It's also encouraging to realize after a few years of making art that I have developed my own style. 

This weekend my friend Rox and I take our annual visit to the wildlife refuge on Lake Erie to experience spring bird migration. We have one of the top 5 birding spots in the country so close to us! Over the years we have exposed a few of our young friends to birding and will continue with that tradition this year. I hope to include some of my photos and observations in my new journal.

Some of my favorite art and bookmaking supplies:

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Everyday Journal Update & Repair

The photo below shows different page sections from my current Traveler's Notebook insert. This is a sketch notebook insert with heavy weight paper, similar to mixed media paper. Soon after I reached the halfway point some sections of pages started coming out. I repaired them with a long stapler designed for creating booklets, but soon more pages began coming loose. So this weekend I decide to resolve the issue more permanently.

I prepared each of the sections that had come loose and the main portion of the journal with holes and then sewed it all together like a book signature. Nothing fancy or pretty, but it's now nice and tight and I should be able to finish filling it just fine. The Midori Traveler's Notebook inserts I've ordered are assembled with staples, so I ordered some from a different maker who sews her notebook bindings. They should stand up better to the many layers I place on my pages. :)

We are almost a week into Lent and most of my posts have been about the Lent Words creative challenge, which I am doing in my Everyday Journal as well. I am also trying to keep up with my weekly page spreads. Here are the past two weeks:

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.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Hashtags on Instagram: #everydayjournals2018, #livingyourword2018

Check out the other blogs:

Bernice: http://www.newlycreative.com/

Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/

Also, join us for Lent Words 2018 -  A Creative Challenge Through the Season of Lent. More about it in this post. There is also a private Facebook group for the Lent challenge:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LentWords/

Everyday Journal Update

So far, just six weeks into the year, I am enjoying the challenge of doing most of my art and recording of insights for my word for the year in one journal. The "challenge" part for me is that I love to make (and start) journals and handmade books, so combining everything in one journal doesn't leave much room for making new journals. But I'm committed!

Here a a few of the pages I've worked on over the past few weeks:

My word for 2018 is FLOW. Each year I am amazed at how picking a word for the year ends up being a filter through which you see so many other things. The word,  or the concept of the word and my intentions for it seems to pop up everywhere. Last week I was digging deeper into the context of a passage we had been discussing in a sermon prep meeting. The passage was Hebrews 12:3-13, which will be the focus of the message in our worship service tomorrow at church. I was struck by so much in our conversation surrounding this passage that I decided to look a bit more into the context, which took me back to the verses preceding it. As I studied Hebrews 12:1-2 my word popped up.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Now, my word flow does not appear in this passage. But one of the main reasons I chose this word was that I want to live more in the flow of God's Spirit this year, and as I read these verses I was struck with a thought that was connected with my word: I cannot live in the flow of God's Spirit if I am hindered or weighed down and entangled, both by the things in life that weigh me down and/or by the sin I struggle with. I also think that my practice through Lent may come out of this revelation in some way. We'll see. Anyway, I enjoy how my word will pop up when least expected. I also love how living and active the Word of God is in our lives when we delve into it!

Of course, I respond with art and recording it in my Everyday Journal, so that I take it deeper and have a reminder of how God spoke to me through these verses.

I wrote a bit of hidden thoughts under the tag.

Six weeks into 2018! On some level it's hard to believe that this amount of time has already passed. On another level it also feels like it has already been 2018 for quite some time! I hope the new year so far has been filled with revelation and inspiration for you, in faith and in art. How are you doing with your word this year? We have conversations going on about our Everyday Journals and our word for the year over in the Everyday Journals ~ Living Out Your Word for the Year Facebook group. Join us!

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.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Hashtags on Instagram: #everydayjournals2018, #livingyourword2018

Check out the other blogs:

Bernice: http://www.newlycreative.com/

Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/

Also, join us for Lent Words 2018 -  A Creative Challenge Through the Season of Lent. More about it in this post. There is also a private Facebook group for the Lent challenge:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LentWords/

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!