2021 Vision Board

 

2021 Vision Board

One of my favorite activities each year is to make a vision board for my word of the year. A vision board is a way of visualizing your intentions. I make my vision boards on wrapped artist canvas so that I can hang them, having a constant visual reminder of how I am going to journey with my word through the year.

The process begins with going through the magazine pages and clippings I have collected through the year. Whenever I weed out old magazines to go to the recycling bin, I first go through them and tear out any images or pages with interesting words. This gives me a supply of images and words to go through when I do projects.

I then take the images and words that fit with my intentions and my vision for my word and I begin to play with the layout and the groupings of words. This is a process of elimination time as I always have more words and images than I need. It is a form of meditation as you go through the words and arrange them. I am usually surprised with what I finally end up with. I tend to do this process on a large piece of cardboard or poster board so I can play with it for a few days.

The next part of my process is to cover the edges of my canvas with torn text from old books. 

I glue the pieces of paper around the edge to the backside, folding it on the corners in the same manner as I do to the sheets on the corners of my bed. 

Once I have all the sides covered I will apply a thin layer of gesso to make the text a subtle neutral background. I can then hang the canvas on my wall without framing it as the book text gives the sides a finished look.

Here is my final product.

January has been a good month of digging into the meaning of our word, setting intentions and a vision for it, and finally, making a vision board. These are all foundational practices for living out our word of the year.

For February I'm going to look at different ways of digging into God's Word with our word of the year. I hope you'll join me! You can follow along and share what you do with your word in the Words Art & Faith group on Facebook or on Instagram. Use #wordsartandfaithgroup and #wordoftheyear2021so I can easily find your posts.

2020 Vision Board & Moving Forward

2020 Vision Board & Moving Forward

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."                   Soren Kierkegaard

Generally I make a vision board for my word of the year earlier in the season, usually in February or March. It's a way of visualizing my intentions for my word through the year. But this has not been anything like a normal year. So, instead of just a board looking at the year ahead, I am both looking back  to see how I have lived out my word, and then looking ahead at where I feel called to go in the rest of the year. This is our theme this month in our Living Your Word of the Year Facebook Group, looking back in order to move forward. This is a regular practice for me. A few times a year at least, I will read back through my written journals and my art journals to see where I am in this journey of spiritual transformation. And generally, God will use this time of looking back as a time for me to reflect and evaluate where I need to focus. I wrote about the start of this looking back process in my post two weeks ago, which you can read here. 

I have made a vision board for my word of the year for quite a few years. In fact, it's one of my favorite practices of the year. I usually put them on an artist canvas and display them in my home studio/office. They are visual reminders of my journey.

I begin by going through my collection of magazine pages and other ephemera that I have torn out and saved because the image or words stood out. I enjoy going through my magazines every few months and tearing out the pages, and the bonus is it keeps my magazine baskets from overflowing! Even though I read a lot online these days, I have not lost the enjoyment of holding a magazine in my hand and leafing through it.

Next I like to cover the edges of my canvas with gesso covered book pages. I do this in part because I don't frame the canvases and the papers add a subtle decoration to the edges.

Over the past few weeks I have looked back over the beginning of the year, and especially the months since we began experiencing the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic. In recent weeks the horrifying events of racial injustice that have taken place have been added to my time of reflection. All of this is in my heart and mind as I began to think about what the future may look like. There is so much to think about right now and so much that is unknown about how life will be lived in the months, and maybe even years, ahead of us. Below I have some reflection questions that helped me and that may be of use for you as well.

• Re-connect with your "why" for selecting your word for this year. Have the circumstances of the past few months changed your "why" at all?
• How have your life values led you through this time?
• What have you held onto? What have you had to let go of?
• As you look ahead, what are you sensing God calling you to? What might He be calling you to leave behind as you move forward? What might He be calling you to keep in your future life from these days?
• What have you been thankful for?
• What has brought joy? What has caused fear or disappointment?
• What do you need more of? What do you need less of?
• Are there areas in your life right now that require more trust in God and His promises?
• How has your faith been? On shaky ground? On a firm foundation? What has this time of crisis shown you about your relationship with God?

Let me also offer two great questions I read recently. The first was in a newsletter from Shelly Miller. She is an author and has an online group called The Sabbath Society. Here is her question for reflection:

"If the previous chapters of your life prepare you for what lies ahead, how might God be using your right now circumstances as preparation for what comes next?"

The other question was posted in our Facebook group last week and comes from Suzi Stringfield Denis.

"How is God using this time to transform me?" 

This week our prompt in our Living Your Word of the Year group is to spend some time reflecting on the past few months and thinking about where God may be leading you now with your word. Try making a vision board from that time of reflection. This project may take some time to work through. In the next few weeks we will offer more reflection questions that will help us evaluate the goals and intentions we set at the beginning of the year, and seeking God, will help us move forward in the second half of the year.

My vision board process surprises me each time. As I go through the process of cutting out letters and leafing through magazine pages I don't immediately see how they will come together. But once I start laying things out on the canvas the pieces start to fall nicely into place.

I hope you'll give a vision board for your word of the year a try. If you do, please share it in our Facebook group and/or on Instagram with the hashtag #livingyourword2020.

Join us in the Living Your Word Community

My friends Bernice Hopper, and Valerie Sjodin, and I share insights through blog posts for creatively living a word of the year. In our Facebook group, we encourage one another by posting questions and prompts to inspire living out a word focus, keeping a journal etc. It is a safe place to ask for prayer and support. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word, you can ask to join our Living Your Word of the Year 2020 by clicking on the link below.

URL for Facebook group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/livingyourwordoftheyear/ 

Hashtag for Instagram:  #livingyourword2020

Check out their blogs:

Bernice: https://newlycreative.com

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

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

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.