Commonplace Box?

You gotta love Instagram. I enjoy scrolling through and looking at art and other inspiring ideas. Last week @kriscamealy posted an idea she got from @shapingtheriver (aka Christine Heister). The idea was to use a card catalog and write the kinds of quotes you put in a commonplace book on index cards and file them in the card catalog. Kris posted a photo of the card catalog/filing box she purchased and commented that she was going to file her cards by topic. I fell in love with this idea!

First, I love vintage filing boxes/card catalogs. I have a small collection of wood ones. I mainly collect vintage Weis boxes, which were made not far from where I live from the late 1800's through 1963. Plus I enjoy writing on index cards. In fact, when I go to estate sales I pick up packages of older index cards whenever I see them. Older index cards are made from a nice heavyweight paper. The index cards they sell in stores now are so flimsy. I like the weight of vintage ones.

Second, I love the practice of commonplacing. I have practiced it since long before I knew what it was called, always writing quotes or passages from books in my written journals. Here is a definition from a blog post I wrote about the practice way back in 2013 when I first learned about the term.

"Commonplacing is the act of selecting important phrases, lines, and/or passages from texts and writing them down; the commonplace book is the notebook in which a reader has collected quotations from works she or he has read. Commonplace books can also include comments and notes from the reader."  (From "Commonplaces: An Introduction" by John Hilgart and Van Hillard

Some other definitions:

• A book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.
• A notebook in which you enter memorabilia.
• The recording of words and ideas in a commonplace.
  

So, combining the idea of a commonplace book in a filing box on index cards - what could be better! And I love Kris' idea of cataloging them by topic. It makes them easy to find when I'm looking for a quote for a blog post or to place in an art journal. PLUS, I'm decorating them just a bit with some collage or washi tape. It all makes this a perfect ongoing project! 

Thanks Kris and Christine for turning me on to a great idea, or maybe a new addiction!

The 2021 Advent Words Challenge is just around the corner! You can read about what this year's challenge will look like here.

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

Journey of Transformation

I love the beginning of the year. Somehow it feels like, with the change of the calendar page, we can leave behind the past year and have a fresh start on January 1st. Whole industries revolve their marketing in January around this idea of fresh starts with the new year. We resolve to lose weight, gain control over our finances. organize our stuff better, change bad habits, add good habits...and we're going to start it all on January 1 with our New Year Resolutions. AND the companies and consultants and sales people in those industries are going to graciously help us overcome these issues..for a small fee.
But, usually after a few days or weeks of trying to push forward all this change for our fresh start in the new year, we begin to fade. We begin to slip back into our comfort zone and our bad habits. In Take Me Deeper this month our theme has been transformation. We are looking at God's desire that our lives be transformed into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. And our need to be willing, vulnerable and submissive to the process.
Personally, my favorite metaphor for the spiritual transformation that God calls us to is journey. Thinking in terms of a journey helps me keep in mind that spiritual transformation is a process. One that I will be on for a lifetime. I think this is why I read authors who write about spiritual transformation and spiritual disciplines -which are really just tools to help us along the journey. Some of my favorite authors on this topic are Terry Wardle, Ruth Haley Barton, Robert Mulholand Jr., David Benner. Jerry Bridges, Jan Johnson...I could go on and on.
I recently read a quote in a book by Terry Wardle that used this metaphor of journey for spiritual transformation and fit in well with our studies in Take Me Deeper. I put the quote on a page for my TMD journal:

The quote reads: 

"Real change occurs as Christians respond to the call to journey with Jesus, meeting God in the particulars of day to day life. It is not so important that one knows every detail about the path they will take in life. But what one discovers about oneself and God along the way is critically important to the process of transformation and change. In this process of discovery, the pilgrim allows the Spirit of Christ to redeem and recreate him in very deep and important ways. This change demands  surrender and willingness, foundational responses to the call of Jesus Christ. Surrender on the journey involves laying down personal agenda and self-interest. Willingness is the prerequisite for picking up the cross of Christ - the losing of one's life so necessary to finding true life,eternal life." ~Terry Wardle.

My pages for weeks two and three of Take Me Deeper:

What kind of a journey are you on? Or do you have a different metaphor that you prefer for transformation?

September Projects

In yesterday's post, Blog Hop With a Difference, I wrote about some of the projects I am participating in this month. Here are my art journal pages from those projects:
*Warning: I haven't posted much this month so there are a lot of photos in this post.

30 Days of Lists

The Documented Life Project

DLP Challenge 38: Use a feather

Made Course 2014

That's all for me today, Don't forget to stop back on Thursday ~ I have something to celebrate!

July Art Journaling

In July I have been playing catch-up in my Documented Life Project journal.

Week 19 challenge: A random act of kindness

Once my June pages were finished my DLP journal could hold no more! With July's pages I began a DLP volume 2 journal for the second half of the year.

And in my everyday art journal this month:

Stencil Girl Products hosted a blog hop last week for the Documented Life Project and I won one of their stencils! It was fun opening the mail yesterday to see which stencil was inside. So, today, I'd like to share that anticipation and excitement with one of my blog followers. Simply leave a comment on this blog post by next Friday (7.26.14) and then on Saturday 7.27 I will draw a name from the comments and that person will receive a lovely package of vintage papers and ephemera. Enjoy your weekend!