for me, the nanojoumo commitment has been a big fail. i find i just have to think longer than one day to finish a spread. plus there's time waiting for paint to dry, etc. i'm still working on the prompts, but haven't finished a page a day. still, i've gotten back into the habit of journaling, and that's great. here's some recent pages i've finished.
it was so nice yesterday, i got to spray paint. and i learned that my favorite pens don't write over spray paint very well. especially when you apply too much paint, which i tend to do.
i also took a picture of my journal, almost full.
i love the way it's bursting at the seams. it doesn't stay closed anymore. but the binding is holding up well.
it's a beautiful day again today, in chicago. i've done some more journaling and am getting ready to knit some more christmas presents. i hope you enjoy your day too.
it's no fun when your art journal pages stick together. all that work and you end up with sticky and torn bits. the secret to keeping your pages from sticking? dorland's wax.
use it like shoe polish...for anyone who remembers polishing your shoes. rub it on your page with a soft cloth. then buff it with a new soft cloth.
if you have to wait a while before doing this, stick wax paper between your pages to keep them from sticking in the meantime.
i used to have a big problem finding a pen that would write over my acrylic journal pages. but i've been successful lately. here's what i use.
i'm most excited about the sharpie pen. it writes with a fine point, and it's available at the grocery store. the white pen is a gelly roll souffle. it goes on clear and then shows up ultra white. kelly kilmer let me know about that one.
disappointingly, the one sharpie you cannot write with is the ultra fine.
i use this pen a lot when i'm writing, but over acrylic it just dries up. so save them for something else.
i can not believe what a gorgeous day it is here in chicago! my mac tells me it's going to be nice all week. thanks mac!
the theme for november 4 nanojoumo was beauty.
sorry about the shadow. it seemed like a good idea to photograph it in the sun. you can barely see, but i stenciled dots all over the page. i used stencil creme and a foam brush. not nearly as satisfying as spray paint. i might be able to get in some more spray paint this week if the wind stays calm.
this spring we bought a beautiful little bush. it's called an itea. we had this hideously ugly pine tree bush that wasn't too awfully hard to remove. the thing i like best about the itea is so far it looks beautiful in every season. here it is when we planted it. it's covered in sweet little flowers. in the summer it was green and it's height complimented the other plants.
this is what it looks like now.
i love the colors.
i have some catching up to do for nanojoumo. solitude, felicity and compassion. but i did work in my journal nonetheless. i needed some black gesso in there. i'm finding it's hard for me to complete a journal page in one day. they seem to turn out too simple. but it's good practice to go down to the studio at the same time every day.
off to the studio now. taking a walk when the bears game is over. i'll be bringing my phone for the camera, even though i have yet to figure out how to get the pictures from the camera to the mac. i'll have to explore the verizon site a little bit.
have a great day! i hope it's beautiful by you too.
the nanojoumo journal prompt for november 3 was inspire. i thought of a lot of different people, and different artists, but settled on buddha. the way he lived his enlightened life is an inspiration to me. i have to continually remind myself to be more compassionate, kind, centered .... to just be in the moment.
i'm sad it's not showing up, but the rectangular strip above the dalai lama's image was from a parking receipt. it included the date and time. poo. you'll have to use your imagination.
i wanted to share some other work besides the nanojoumo pages. this is a seed stitch clutch (rav link) that i made for my friend's birthday...which was in april! i think i did the knitting in march. plenty of time, right? but then came the parts i didn't know how to do: crochet, line the bag and add a zipper. the pattern pictures included a lined bag, so i was disappointed when the pattern merely said something like "so you can line it and add a zipper if you want." the whole process intimidated me. i set it aside for a long while.
my friend was planning on moving away from chicago. i was determined that the bag should go with her. so one day i just finally decided to get serious. i looked at a lot of websites, read the happy hooker, looked at more websites and just got to work. i made a lot of mistakes, and i would probably do it differently were i to do it again. but i accomplished it! i was able to give her the bag at her going away party. only 6 months late (i've never been that late before).
here we are together for the last time. francine and gerri.
i've always been intrigued by NaNoWriMo. one month, one novel. but it's not really something i would ever do. i'm not a writer, as you can probably tell. this year a bunch of other NaNo...somethings came to my attention on november 1. already a late start if i wanted to participate.
there's NaBloPoMo to commit to posting on your blog every day in november. i gave that some thought. then i realized it was crazy for me. i've been feeling much better, but still struggling most days. i didn't think i could commit to that.
i also found NaKniSweMo to commit to knitting a sweater in november. from start to finish. a 50,000 stitch sweater. i'd love to be able to do this, but not in november. i wouldn't have time to knit my gifts.
but then came NaNoJouMo. This is the birth child of dawn sokol. the idea is to do a little art journaling every day in november. i discovered this one yesterday, november 2, so the pressure is off since i already missed a day. but that doesn't mean i can't continue. and yesterday i did two journal spreads to make up for my missed day. dawn provides a word prompt per day, and encourages us to work in our journal in whatever way we can.
i thought this would be great for me. a little bit of fun just for myself. i've been working on the publication projects for what seems like forever. and i haven't had anything to share. so a little for me, and a little for you. i scanned these, and my journal is so full it was hard to lie flat. i think i will photograph them and see which works out better. but for now, here they are.
less herger of comfortable shoes studio has been writing several posts on background techniques and other relevant techniques for journalers. take a look here. she has several other posts too, but you can go back a ways to see the videos she's added. do take the time to look at her other posts as well. she has journal pages and books to see.
i'm currently working on a couple of books and journal pages for an upcoming publication. i'm pretty much spending all my time doing that. i suppose i can't show that work here. so i've pretty much been stumped on what to blog about. here are some more journal pages from june to keep you company.
i just came across celine navarro's posts called "inspiration tuesday." scrapbooking isn't usually my thing, but reading between the lines i got tons of ideas for journaling. and supplies! i haven't been in a scrapbook store in ages, but celine made me want to go. oh the paper! the chipboard embellishments that could also be used with spray paint!! the fun stickers! perfect for my style of journaling.
my recovery from surgery seems to be slowing me down. at first i had a lot of energy, but it's all gone now. i'm still trying to read up on polymer and stencilry, to keep my mind on art. but it's frustrating when you don't even feel the energy to go down one flight of stairs to the studio. fortunately these aren't my stairs!
so i thought i'd show you some more journal pages that i made last month. i scanned them all and realized i only showed you a fraction of them.
i just got some new stencils in the mail. i think i may try them out. it's raining but my porch is covered. we'll see how that works.
i've been taking the online class "a prompt a day" with kelly kilmer. i'm absolutely loving it. each day she gives us a painting, collage and journaling prompt. these are some of the pages i've made this month.
i scanned this page twice so you could see that i had folded under a bit. the text reads "according to statistics on cancer survival rates, Lance Armstrong is neither alive, nor has he won the Tour de France."
john is going to be surprised to see these here. i never let him look in my journal. but these are responses to prompts, not quite off the top of my head thinking. they may seem personal, but my written journals are still the ones i keep private.
you may want to look at my other work in 1000 artist journal pages.
as you might imagine, i have a lot of blank books. i always make a special one when i am taking a class or going to an art retreat. in addition, i love to collect the blank books other people make. i use the books in a number of ways. sometimes i art journal with images, like below:
sometimes i combine images with a traditional journal entry:
and sometimes i just make lists. or write out thoughts without any "art" design in mind. just words. i have always kept a journal and i have dozens of written entries before i learned about art journaling. i prepared this entry when i was taking the class "31 days to build a better blog."
right now i'm working in a book made by bridgette guerzon mills. bridgette is a wonderful artist. she used to create mostly blank journals and sold them at amanobooks. lately she has been painting more. she works in oils, acrylics and encaustic. we made a trade, one of her journals for one of mine, and i was lucky enough to receive this one.
bridgette keeps a blog on amanobooks which she updates on tuesdays with journaling tips. she also has a page devoted to journaling tips. the blog is chock full of inspiring information and prompts. when i was going through my sabbatical, bridgette encouraged me to start journaling again. it was really invaluable for me and i think her tips are helpful to anyone interested in any form of journaling. do go over for an inspiring read. she's posted a new tip today, "know thyself."
i just started taking a class from kelly kilmer called "a prompt a day." for each day in june she puts up a painting, collage and journaling prompt. so far i love it.
so take down one of your blank books and start to work in it. your words and art deserve a lovely home.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=21ef0dc5-dcb6-4f41-858a-2f4865841826)
