December 17, 2011

Art Journal Year End

In January I made a commitment to take some time for myself each day in the form of art journaling, motivated by artist/scrapbooker/teacher extraordinaire, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  I can't believe the year is coming to a close!


I wasn't completely diligent, making entries or additions every day, but I consider my undertaking a success, and look forward to continuing in 2012.  I've come to a crossroads, however.  A decision needs to be made:  Will I start a brand new book for 2012, or continue in this one as there are many blank pages left in it?  I don't know how much more this beloved book can handle!

The current journal I am using is more of a sketch book, and I've been willy-nilly taping pages together to create thickness and resistance to leak through.  I may get this one as recommended and loved by my guru, Julie.  I like that it has the same dimensions as the one I am currently using, but with paper that can handle the wetness of watercolor, a medium that I've come to find  I enjoy using.

But those blank pages will haunt me.  



I took an online art journaling class with Julie last month.  I blogged a little about it here, and you can learn more about it from her, here.  One of the last projects we did was to play with the alphabet.  We worked on just a few letters a day, and the whole of it looks pretty cool.  


 It gave me an idea of what to do with those extra pages.  I think I will collect letters, and if I have enough pages, possibly numbers, too.

It seems like it could be a fun little "in front of the TV" project, looking through magazines and junk mail, collecting letters of different sizes and fonts.  I can add any stamp sets I have.  I may collage all the letters outside the outlines I made, and fill in the letters with doodles or color.  I may have so many letters that the page ends up covered completely.  I may get fed up with the idea and scrap it!  Who knows?! 

But I do think I've just justified a brand new art journal!  Haha!  It seems appropriate to me to start off with a fresh book for a fresh year, no?  Yes!
 

6 comments:

  1. That's a huge project. Great job!
    Thanks for stopping by my blog!
    I'm glad to hear your daughter love Copics.
    I have a bunch of tutorials on YouTube.
    HeathersHobbieHaven

    Heather

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  2. Loved your art journal, and your idea about filling in the pages with letters and numbers. Did you know you learned your letters when I cut a new one out of construction paper each day and taped it to the wall for you to see and think about as you lay in your bed for your afternoon nap? I'd tape up the letter, talk with you about all the things that start with that letter, and then kiss you and leave you to your thoughts and your afternoon nap.

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  3. Hi Lisa! I love the idea of regularly setting aside time to create pages in a journal...I'm considering the possibility of making a New Year's Resolution like this!

    The alphabet collage idea is awesome...I think it would be a great way of learning about different fonts and lettering styles for other projects!

    Happy holidays to you and your family...looking forward to seeing what you'll be up to in the New Year!:-)

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  4. I LOBVE the letters idea!! I will have to try it- I have a huge list of things I wanna try at this point- funny how I always forget once I sit in front of my table. About the blank pages maybe you can cut them out and put them into your new journal? No need to let them bug you- YOU are the master of the journal. ;) Thanks for your consistent encouraging words on my blog- been having an off month- maybe January will bring fresh new ideas..

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  5. What a great idea to use the alphabet to use up those pages. One of my ideas for this year is to work with the alphabet and writing more so I will add this idea in with some others I have. Thanks for sharing this and hope it will be fun for you.

    HOORAY FOR NEW JOURNALS!!

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  6. I have felt this same way many times. My probably isn't starting, it's overworking/never knowing when a page is done! I love your alphabet and I am glad you have made it to your art journal goals. Your finished books would look great in my flick gallery Overflowing! Here's the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/badjonesrising/galleries/72157629007634297/

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