First check in with the idea of Art Journaling every day / being Creative Every Day – week 1 2011.
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer confesses on her blog today that she didn’t do anything in her Art Journal for the first three days of January . The good news though is that she inspired me to do a little something in my art journal ever day this first week of the year 2011!
I was even Art Journaling in the new year for the first time and it was such a great feeling. Champagne, grapes, my journal and water colour. Yum!
And each little piece glued in or mark made makes me so very happy! I’ve had the journal open journal on my messy desk and each time I see it my heart sings with joy. The only danger with this practice (as I see it) is that I think 15 minutes is nothing and 2 hours of painting is simply fun fun fun!
The first spread in the new hand bound by me art journal that I mentioned before. On the inside of the cover I always add a pocket of some kind, this manga library pocket is made by Malin W. The pink page is from a magic paper bag, but most of the other pages are ordinary white window envelopes. I think I’ve saved every one I got last year!
Each signature consists of a few envelope pages (that I decorated before sewing the book together) and a bunch of folded water colour papers like these, for painting, drawing, sketching and playing on! The envelopes are slit open top and bottom to create a folded paper, then decorated with pretty papers and magazine images using the sewing machine. This book is similar to my Travel Journal but the travel journal was just for writing and had no watercolour papers in it.
“Find influence everywhere”, a postcard by Keri Smith. You can lift the postcard…
…to reveal more birds and journaling underneath.
The yellow page with oil pastel dots was a background I did a long time ago and reused in this journal. This week I did the girl drawing on top of the paint, and then painted her with acrylics!
To the right, a whole page that also is recycled left overs from an altered book. I save the cute illustrations of course. And isn’t this squirrel cute? A keeper. Now safe inside my book.
The first day of the year I got to pick a “wise card” from a conversation pack mom found. This is the card I picked. It says: När de invanda mönstren bryts kan helt nya världar uppstå. = When you break your old habits totally new worlds can emerge. Taped it into my journal and when you flip it up you discover…
…yet another cute squirrel!
The first night I thought this girl looked horrible and evil, so the next day I went in with gesso and removed the face and did it again. Now I like her better. The headline is from an article about diary writing that I cut out.
Most of the first pages are still unfinished and are awaiting some text / journaling. Like these:
Envelope window so that you can see through the page.
Lots of space to write on. Or I might print my list of goals and glue it in there.
A envelope page painted pink and a text book page torn out from an altered book and recycled to here. The Hello Kitty tag is from my wee cousin’s Christmas gift!
This is the first spread in the book:
And a few close ups from this page on my favorite parts:
The prettiest cloth label ever: Vintage Stories. I could almost have bought the shirt just for this label!
Promotion Postcard that Rce sent me, about her book Creative Time and Space.
A frog on the previous page and now almost all of my “symbols” on this page: my cat, a heart, owls, Mr Buddha – and even a rose! The black tag stamped with an owl is from Sophie D. Pretty! All ephemera goes into the art journal.
BTW: I’m really happy (and thankful) that my creative ideas for 2011 got some of you started on goal setting. Kel used my headlines and created her own list of things of looking forward to for example. This year is going to be awesome! I’m choosing awesome. What is your choice?
Love what you did! I’m pretty sure your year will be very creative. I’m hoping to fill my art journal, I finally started after being so reluctant. Thank you for the inspiration =)
Well, thanks for the comment Cath! I wish you all the creative joy in the world with your art journal! I’m sure you’ll have fun with it! :-)
I love the words ‘Be Delicious’! And the ‘Vingage Stories’ tag – that’s really a clothing tag?? That is seriously cool! :D
Melanie, thanks! Hmm… now that I think about it maybe it was from the cloth company but came with the pearls I bought at the same time? Yes, it’s a jewlery price tag then. Still seriously cool. :-)
it has been such a treat to look through the pages of your new journal! i love how you use so many different items on a page. my word is together. i blogged about it here: http://blackbirdinflight.blogspot.com/2011/01/together.html
Thanks Laurie, glad you enjoyed all the journal pages! I just had to post all of it… almost all of it. There is more to come. Let’s make this year, all of us together a great one! Love how you describe your word!
so many juicy things on your pages ! You have wonderful collections of images and stuff, Hanna. It must be a pleasure to play in those bright and colorful pages.
Your unique IHanna style makes me smile.
Happy Creating !
This is such a great post, and such a great journal! I’m wishing now that I had made my own instead of using a tightly-bound pre-made book.
I was hoping to get a blog post up this week and haven’t managed it so far. I think you’ve inspired me to get into gear already!
Wow, this is so nice you’ve inspired me to open my art journal again! Only now I want to use recycled envies in mine like you have (I love to use recycled materials all I can). So how big are the envelopes you use? The book looks fairly large – I don’t get envies that big!! LOL
Wonderful pages! I love using postcards as flaps in my journals too. I like to make my own journals as well and incorporate envelopes as pages. I like the bottom picture the best with the picture of the kitty and the photo of the heart that reminds me of a Polaroid.
Very cool! And where did you get a Keri Smith postcard?!
Thank you Hianna :-)
thanks for past and a comment
;-) interesting your pages!!
ciao mary
Har du sett att Bodil s?tter upp en f?rest?llning, Enligt Bodil Malmsten? Turligt nog ska hon ?ven komma med den till Ume? s? jag har k?pt biljett!
Thanks for all your lovely comments!
Susan, the books is not that large really even though it is way bigger than previous books I’ve made, it’s because I couldn’t stop sewing pages and adding stuff when i was making it! I love to do that! The envelopes are standard size here: 23×16 cm (that is about 9 x 6,2 inches), so open the book will be just 32 cm wide. Start saving your envelopes!
Spooky, thank you. I would’ve mentioned where I got the postcard if I had remembered… I think that maybe it must be from one of her first books? It is a tear out kind of thin postcard, and I know someone sent it to me as a gift with other papers to play with. Maybe it was MissKoolAid? Sorry, I don’t know. :-/
Maria! Synd att du inte ska komma till Sthlm och se den, d? hade jag joinat s? klart! Vilka var ?rets b?sta b?cker 2010? V?ntar p? din lista!
I love what you’ve done so far! My art journaling hasn’t been that colourful this week except for my Sketchbook Project journal. I really need to finish it quickly!
And the Keri Smith postcard… not from me but I can tell you it’s from her “Living Out Loud” book (I still have mine in the book!)
Hugs,
Sophie
Hi MissKoolAid, thanks for clearing that up about the Keri book. I haven’t read any of her books but I’m of course a fan of hers anyway. :-) Yes, the sketchbook project. I just ripped the last pages out. Need to fix the cover, scan the last pages and then send it of to the exhibition people! Phu, what a huge project it turned out to be!
Hugs!
Thanks so much for sharing your awesome journal!
the pocket and flaps are my favorite part of art journaling… i love the pages that constantly play peekaboo!
So inspirational!!
If it wasn’t after 1 a.m already I would start working in my art journal right away after reading this, it gives that much energy and ideas.
helt fantastisk! jag har haft funderingar p? att g?ra n?got s?nt h?r ocks?, men det har hittills stannat vid funderingar… blir v?ldigt frestad och inspirerad av din art journal m? jag s?ga… kanske jag rent av kommer mig f?r att g?ra verklighet av funderingarna…
Thansk for all your sweet comments! I really appreciate it!
Malin, tack! Kul att du gillar den, du har ju bidragit med biblioteksfickan! Sj?lvklart ska du ocks? binda en egen bok, du g?r ju redan fina b?cker och har s?kert hur mycket papper, kort och material som helst att anv?nda! Mejla om du har n?gra fr?gor. Ser fram emot att se din bok!
Your check-in post is simply stuffed with all sorts of goodness and inspiration! It makes me want to do more, more, more with both my journals and my own check-in posts…(hope this isn’t a duplicate posting…it seemed my last comment didn’t make it through)
Thanks for your comment Michelle!
I’m sure not all my check-in posts will be this filled, it does take a lot of time to photograph, edit, upload and write posts like this one and yeah, I could’ve made another whole painting in that time! ;-) I’m glad it inspires though and maybe more people will will try to create something this next week. the page you posted is just totally delicious. I’m looking forward to the tutorial!
So cool this new journal, love it!
Can i find a tutorial on your blog of making (sewing) a journal like this?
Thanks Sophie!
Did you notice the owl tag? :-) So cute! I also have the envelope laying here with all the owl stamps! There is no journal-tutorial on my blog, sorry, but there are a lot of binding tutorials on youtube etc., and good books too. I’ve just sewn the spine together and then glued it to the cover. Kind of hard to explain, maybe I’ll do a tutorial the next time I make a journal. :-)
Take care!
Found you on the Strathmore workshop… great blog dear!
tee
greenislescrafts.com
wow, what beautiful pages! all of them! i guess i’m partial the the squirrel and the little peak at the bird the most. makes me want to search for vintage books just to cut the images out of. thanks for the inspiration, hanna!
Hanna, this is just so yummy and inspiring. I am making my way toward having more bravery with sharing my pages. I recently shared my whole Sketchbook Project journal on my site, but I am hesitant to share the writing I do in my other Journal. I’m loving the backgrounds and papers you are sharing here, and I’m working on getting ahead with surfaces so I can share them before I write in them. In any case, share or not, journaling really does something to open a person up and break down walls. Rock on!
Chris, thanks!
I saw your Sketchbook pages and you’ve done a great job with all those yummy colours. Mine will look plain boring next to yours, but I’m glad it is finished and ready to be shipped now. About writing/sharing. I don’t share all my pages and if I write a lot I don’t share it all, maybe just details or before finishing with writing. I think 2011 will be a good journaling year, there is just so much inspiration everywhere for art journaling right now! YOU rock on!
[…] I have been following along as you all know because I’ mentioned Julie’s project the very first week of the year when I too adopted the idea of more art journaling in 2011, then posting weekly updates/check ins to remind myself what I have done or not had the time to do. One of my goals this year is also to write more and to be open to doing guest posts… […]
Oh how i love this journal – it really makes me happy! You are so incredibly talented Hanna!
Love, Violette
p.s have you used safety envelopes in juornals before – you know the ones they hide things in – they have cellophane windows?
Thanks Violette,
so glad my journal can make you happy too! :-)
This entire journal is made out of mostly envelopes – all different kinds, some have those transparent windows. Sometimes they are difficult to work around (filling the page with the colours I want without covering the window too much) but they do give the page and extra dimension and a peek of what’s coming. I like that. Sometimes cut out the front of the envelope with window and sew it in, as an extra pocket. Have you tried using them?