Art Journaling Lately

 

Art Journaling Lately

This morning I received an email from Holly Schrader. Holly teaches middle school art in Stevensville, MD. Holly came across my "I Am" mosaic art journal page while looking for ideas for an art lesson focusing on social emotional issues. 

Holly adapted it to fit her lesson and this was her students first project of the year. Holly also submitted one of her students projects to a virtual student art show that was hosted by the First Lady of Maryland. Each county was allowed 2 entries and out of 24 counties her student's work was selected! You can see the sample Holly made for her students below along with the artwork her student, Chloe, won the award for. I love it when something I make can spark creativity in others. And I REALLY love it when they share their stories and art with me! Thank you Holly! And congratulations to Chloe!!!

Chloe's project

Mrs. Schrader's example

I am slowly trying to finish my 100 Day Project. When I took a break from it to do the Thessalonians Words Challenge I had 19 days left. I am now down to 9. I have not been working on it steadily, but I intend to finish it! My project this year has been #100daysoffoundwordscollage. Here are a few of my favorites from days 1-50. All of my pages from the 100 Day Project can be found on my Instagram feed (@foundonbrighton).

Day 38

Day 33

Day 39

Day 41

Day 43

Day 4

Day 10

Day 12

Day17

Day 21

Day 23

Day 90

I had a few projects in mind for September, but honestly there hasn't been a lot of art time this month. I've taken on a new project at work helping with resources for families in our school district while we are doing remote learning and the development phase of that has taken a lot of time. I have also been getting out of the house more and going to estate sales. I ran into some great ones so make sure you check out my Etsy shop. I'm always adding more items. Especially vintage books, papers and office supplies to use in collage and art journaling. 

I hope you are enjoying the start of fall - my favorite season! And I hop everyone of you is healthy and safe. Thanks for following my creative journey!

March into April: Art Journaling

March Art Journaling

The season of Lent began on March 6th, so that has captured most of my art journaling practice. I have mainly posted my art journal pages from Lent Words on Instagram and in the private Words Challenge Facebook group.  There are links to both on this page in the right hand column. Below is just a sampling of my pages for Lent Words. I began the challenge making painted paper collage church windows, and did that practice up until last week, knowing I would need to simplify things with two upcoming trips.

In our Living Your Word of the Year group we are working through the alphabet, connecting words to our word of the year. My word for 2019 is sacred. Most of the words I am selecting have to do with God's call on us to live sacred lives. To live "sacredly" is to live a life of worship. When we worship something or someone, we are devoted to it or to the One we worship; we behold them. God's call to His people is to grow in faith and obedience, living every aspect of our lives in ways that please Him and glorify Him. This year I am journeying through how I worship God through my physical body. Does my eating and moving and health behold and worship God? What does it look like for my body, my life, to be a sacred vessel to be used for His purposes?

For the letter F, I selected the word freedom. The more we live for God and follow His ways, the more freedom we actually experience. Sacred living is living a life of freedom in Christ - "For in Him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28.

I am making a journal monthly or bi-monthly this year just to have the opportunity to make journals, which I love to do. Making journals always inspires me. I used one journal for February and March, as I did not fill January's and did not want to have another half full journal.  I also started adding a calendar page for each month that I am using like a commonplace book, adding words or quotes or events that are significant to my days. I did my Lent Words pages in my March journal. My March commonplace page so far:

This week I am on vacation in Chicago. My friend, Bernice, flew into Chicago from the UK and we are spending a few days exploring Chicago, before she continues her U.S. trip. (#vacationwithbernice) I will get home Saturday and turn right around on Monday and head to Indianapolis for a conference for three days. I love to travel and explore, but I am also a home-body, so back-to-back trips will leave me very ready for a quiet weekend at home next week!

Into April...

Lent continues into April for the first 20 days. Here is the calendar of Lent Words for April. If you click on the photo it will take you to a downloadable PDF.

And here's one for Instagram.

The 100 Day Project begins on April 2. The idea is to pick a project and do it for 100 days, create a unique hashtag, and share on Instagram. It's a great way to stretch your creativity. I initially thought I would not do this project again this year, concerned that I would not keep up with it and the other creative things I am a part of. I did not participate last year, but I did enjoy it so much the previous year, and it really did stretch my creativity in making simple collages. So, I'm going to bite the bullet and jump in! I need to keep it simple in order to do this daily.

In 2017 I did 100 days of scrap collage, using scraps from my scrap box.  This year I will make small collages on index cards and use found words from magazines and books. Bernice gifted me with a wonderful vintage cardboard index box from a photographers studio. I'll add pictures in a future post. It is perfect to house this year's project! So here comes #100daysoffoundwords.

I spied my first sighting of crocuses yesterday on a sunny and mild day in Chicago. Now it feels like Spring! I hope you are experiencing Spring wherever you are. :)

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: 

Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

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

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

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

Everyday Journal April Update & More

I absolutely love Spring, but April this year has been a disappointment. Cold, overcast, snow as late as last Thursday - little is blooming and the leaves have not begun their arrival...until this week. On Tuesday it was 80 degrees, sunny and beautiful. The pear tree in our front yard had buds on it in the  morning and in evening when I got home it was in full bloom. I think nature is just as happy to see spring weather as people are!

I have not done a lot of art this month. I made a few pages in my Everyday Journal:

The 100 Day Project began on April 4th but I have only completed a few collage pages. I'm not sweating it and will just make pages when I can. I'm keeping with a "words" theme after doing Advent Words and Lent Words. My theme for the 100 Day Project this year is #100daysofcollagewords.

I had not taken any online art classes this year so I signed up Roben-Marie Smith's class called Salvaged: A Layered Pieces Journal. The class is about altering an old book into a journal and filling it with a variety of papers and ephemera. Altering old books into journals is not new for me but Roben-Marie taught us a way of binding the spine that I had not tried before. It has been a lot of fun gathering papers to fill it with. The class is not finished but here is my progress to date.

I used some old tea-dyed muslin I had for the spine and then stitched a few x's in it because I ran across a great spool of linen thread when I was digging in my quilting/cross stitch supply boxes.  The book is 8x11", which is larger than I normally like for an art journal, but I was drawn to the nature etchings on the cover. It did make finding paper large enough for the pages a challenge as you use paper folded in half to make the book signatures. I managed though! I'll post some pictures of the inside on a future post.

I reconnected with thrift shopping this month. It's been a while and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's more of a warmer weather activity. I did a shopping day with my daughter earlier in the month/ Another day with my hubby, and then last weekend the hubby and I went to a flea market. How I love digging around for old books and papers and other items! In addition to some books, a few vintage office items, and some ledger paper, I found some great wallpaper sample books, a bag of old letters and even a half full box of old Dennison's labels! The thrill of the vintage hunt is back on!

I'm going to see how the wallpaper works as background pages in an art journal.

I guess I did more art in April then I thought. It was just more building a journal than actual art pages. On to May!

My Everyday Journal and Other Art Bits

 

During the month of March I didn't do much more than the Lent Words Creative Challenge. I did the Lent challenge in my Everyday Journal. as that is my year long challenge in 2018 (everything in one journal). Because it was a 40 day challenge I have already filled up two Traveler's Notebook inserts for the first three months of the year.

I only managed to make one weekly page during March.

The annual 100 Day Project began this week. I hadn't planned on participating this year since I just completed a 40 creative challenge. However, I enjoyed it so much last year that yesterday I caved and decided to participate again. My theme this year will be "100 days of collage words", and in order to stick with doing my projects in my Everyday Journal, I'm going to mainly make small collages on my weekly pages, although I may do a few full page collages as well.

Day 1

Day 2

I'm working on getting connected to my word for the year once again: flow. I realized I have another intention that I didn't know of back in January. I want to let some dreams I have for my art life flow. So I'm going to work on the process over the next few months and see what comes from it. More on that later as I explore it.

It's spring break here, even though the weather in northwest Ohio feels more like winter. I'm enjoying some time off and spending this week doing some of the things that bring me energy.

Make sure you check out my shop. There are new items added this week. Link in sidebar on the right.

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/