2019 Vision Board

One of my favorite activities each year is to make a vision board for my word of the year. For our "E" words for the Living Your Word 2019 group, Bernice, Valerie and I decided to focus on vision boards. I encourage you to visit their posts about their vision boards. We each used different methods for making ours.

Bernice's vision board post: E for Envision

Valerie's vision board post: Explore & Experience Your Word of the Year With A Vision Board

Last year I made my vision board right in my journal on a fold-out page. It was a fun way to express my vision for my 2018 word flow.

This year, however, I decided to return to the format I've used over the past few years, creating my vision board on a canvas.

My process:

I begin by covering the edges of my canvas with scrap book pages. I do this to give a uniform texture on the edges which will peak out from beneath my photos and words. I fold and wrap the corners as you would with gift wrap.

Next I cover the book pages with gesso so that the texture is subtle and uniform.

My next task is to go through the file of magazine and book pages I've collected over the past few months. I choose words and phrases that catch my attention and seem significant to my word and to the direction I feel God is leading me this year. I cut them all out so I can play around with them until I have narrowed the pile down to those that seem the most significant. I will also use some letter stickers, as I did not find my word, sacred, in any of the magazines I had.

My focus this year is to honor God with my body, mind, and time. Living a life that is sacred places God and His desires and ways at the center of everything. I have tried many times over the past few years to eat healthier and to exercise more, but I never seem to last very long. This year I am studying God's Word about how God views our lives, our health, our minds and bodies. We are called to honor Him with all of it. So far, a little over two months in, I am actually not finding it as hard as I thought to change my eating habits. Building consistent exercise habits is coming along more slowly, but I press on!

I then printed out a photo of my vision board to add to a page in my journal for my E page. I used some of the words and phrases I had left to express some of my vision on the page as well.

Is making a vision board a part of your yearly practice? What types of methods do you use? Feel free to share in the comment section below or in the Living Your Word 2019 Facebook group.

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

Upcoming Class Sneak Peak

In just under a week my first class will launch. For this class I'm "stealing like an artist", to coin a phrase from a book by the same title. The artist I'm stealing from is...myself. I've looked back through my journals over the years and I'm copying some of my favorite techniques for journal making, background pages, collage and other art techniques, and I'm putting the tutorials in this class.

We'll make a journal with fold-out pages and use lots of vintage ephemera, just as I have done in my journals over the years.

The tutorials will include some of my favorite techniques such as collage strip backgrounds, hand cut letters, sunburst backgrounds, wavy journaling, lots of gesso, and a whole lot more!

The All in All Signature Journal Class will begin on July 18 and run through August 1st. The fee is $17.50 and will be hosted on a private class blog. There are also some limited edition class kits available for $10.00. To learn more and to sign up click here.

Our journals will be complete in time to use them for the next Words Art & Bible Study Challenge. Christ is All in All: Colossians Words begins on August 1 and will run for 20 days. This challenge will offer 20 words from the book of Colossians with a daily devotion on this blog to inspire your creativity. A private Facebook group for the Words challenges is available where you can share your art and join in the conversation and community. Link to the Words Facebook group is in the sidebar on the right.

Join us as we use words to journey through the book of Colossians!

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!

Advent Art Journal Tutorial

I have a "thing" for office supplies. Walking into an office supply store or a paper store is a little slice of heaven! So over the years I have combined that "thing" with my other "thing" ... art journaling. That combination of "things" appears in my Advent art journal this year. This summer while hunting vintage items with my sister, I came across some wonderful old pressboard report covers. I purchased them and stuck them away for a future project. Amazingly while in the midst of a creative slump, I got the inspiration to make a journal out of them and use it for my Advent project this year.

I began Advent rather early this year as I had the opportunity in August to join Kris Camealy's pre-launch group for her newest book, Come, Lord Jesus, which is a daily Advent devotion. Using Kris' book, which has 25 devotions, I will make an art journal page each day through the Advent season. My journal has pages set-up that open like a Dutch door.

There are 12 pages that are decorated on each side which will give me 24 pages to use for daily art. I intend to use the inside of the back cover for my entry on Christmas day. As I said a few weeks ago (in this post), I had some report covers left and decided to make a tutorial of my art journal and offer a few limited edition kits for sale. The tutorial is now available on this site. Click on the tutorials link in the menu above. I have a few of the kits left after initially offering them on my previous blog post. They come with a choice of cover paper: A (Christmas pinwheels) or B (winterberries).

Each kit contains a pressboard report cover, the papers to cover the covers, the mini prongs which make the dutch doors, 14 pieces of vintage book pages for the background papers, and a print-out of the tutorial. You can purchase a kit in my Etsy shop. Journey with me through the Advent season beginning November 27 as I make art based on quotes and Scripture from Kris' book.

In the Waiting - Guest Post for Kris Camealy

Yesterday I had the privilege to write a guest post on Kris Camealy's blog for her new book, Come, Lord Jesus. I have been a member of her pre-launch team for the past few months, reading the book in advance, and now promoting it here on my blog. Pop over to Kris' blog to read my post. But don't forget to come back here to read about my Advent plans!

For a number of years I have used art journaling to help me slow down the Christmas season and really immerse myself in the Advent experience. I will generally use an online devotion or book as my prompts and then make art in my Advent journal as a response. This year I intend to use Kris' book of daily devotions. 

I have made an art journal for Advent in one of my favorite manners: I altered an office supply item. I took a pressboard report cover and altered it's layout to make pages that open like a dutch door does.

I have had a blast making this journal and using Kris' book for my art prompts. You can follow along on my blog. I'll post daily beginning on the first day of Advent, November 27. I am also going to offer a free tutorial on how to make this type of journal. It will be available here on my blog a week or so before Advent begins. PLUS, I have enough materials left to offer a few limited edition kits for this journal. The kits will  include a pressboard report cover, the paper to cover the covers (in a choice of two patterns), the mini prongs which make the dutch doors, 14 pieces of vintage book pages for the background papers, and the instructions on how to make the book.

All of this for $12.00! As I said, the kits will be available in my Etsy shop probably in the next week or so. I currently have 9 available and may have 5 more in addition to those. The number I have available is based on the cover paper I have on hand. If you are interested in claiming a kit in advance of the release of them in my shop then send me an email at marybrack@gmail.com.

If you are interested in reading Come, Lord Jesus through Advent there is also a four-week Advent book club taking place on Christina Hubbard's website, Creative and Free, beginning November 27.  I plan to participate in the book club as well as my art journal.

So, those are my plans for Advent this year! Check out Kris Cameally's blog. If you go back over the past few weeks you can read what other guest writers have to say about the book and about waiting on God in general. Watch here for the release of both the Advent journal tutorial and the journal kits in my Etsy shop. Plus, why not take a minute and share with me in the comment section below how you slow down and experience the Advent season. What are your Advent traditions?