Why I Can't Keep Up With My December Art Journal

 

Every year I endeavor to do the December art journal a page a day. And TWO years I actually managed it!

 

 

This year we are doing PLENTY of December activities!  Like weekly Happy Hours at my house!  Elf wine....cute, right?

 

 

Photo Shoots......

 

 

North Pole Breakfast with the elves....

 

 

 

Tired Elf

 

 

Gratitude Friendship Brunch

 

 

Christmas puzzles, game day, crafts, and Christmas movies to watch!

 

 

Lego Advent calendar

 

 

 

Feliz Navidad dinner

 

 

Church Christmas program.

 

 

Painting for a Cause

 

 Concerts.

 

 

Visits from people spreading Christmas Cheer

 

 

Elf gifts

 

And there's still MORE before December 25th

 

Today we are off to historic St Charles Christmas Traditions to enjoy a day out with friends.

Tomorrow we are off to the Fox to see a Christmas Story and have dinner for Kelsey's birthday!

Monday and Tuesday...finish a creative gift with Evan for his mom, finish preparing for the Christmas Eve game,  wrap gifts, sort stocking stuffers, bake cookies, shop for Christmas Eve dinner etc. I got a bit behind schedule as I've been at the hospital every day for a week with my critically ill sister.

 

Last night I started feeling some anxiety over neglecting my December journal and then I thought....you can make time to journal or you can live life fully. Guess which one I chose? So yeah...that December journal is going to get finished in January!

 

Painting for a Cause

Last night I went to our local high school for a class called Painting for a Cause. The event is a directed painting experience and the proceeds go to a worthy cause. This year the proceeds benefit one of our local teachers who is battling breast cancer.

 

The first three photos in this collage are my painting from start to finish. The last one is my friend with her partially completed painting.  It was tons of fun and I might not have a masterpiece but it's the fun of the process that counts plus it was for a good cause.

 

Here are some other photos from the class....

 

Cresia's partially completed art.

 

Stacie's ornament masterpiece!

 

 

Such a fun night!

Christmas Journal Day 1-3

Today I'll start posting the pages from my Christmas journal 2104. I'll probably post from 1-5 days each week. It will most likely run past Christmas even though I end my journal on December 25th. That will give me a few days to get the rest posted after Christmas when things are less hectic.

December 1st.

Three new elves arrived on December 1st and they brought a game with them. I decided to use this snapshot of Evan as the focus for the page. He was so excited to see them!

December 2nd:

This was a VERY busy day so I decided to keep it simple with this patterned page and just a tiny bit of journaling. Hey when the days are hectic I figure a little is better than nothing. Journaling is not about writing tons, it's about capturing the essence of the day!

December 3rd:

 

I decided to highlight our tree on December 3rd. You can also see that I took an old card from and inserted it in (the red card with the ornaments. Then I journaled on the back of it. I love to use old card fronts in this manner...tucked into the journal they are so pretty and add a special touch as well as providing room for writing too!

 

 

Christmas Art Journal 2014

Last week I posted that I was going to use the little Snap binder I used in 2013 and just add another section......but I decided just to use another one of the Snap binders for 2014. I wanted a "fresh" start so to speak!

 

I'm doing a little advanced prep to make December flow a little smoother!  Last year I used this first divider front as December 1st but this year I decided to just let it be the "cover page" and do Day One on the back of it. This year I'm doing a Holly Jolly Christmas!

 

I have all 25 pages in the album, most are just paper or paper cut out to fit the inserts. I can switch them around some as I add pages to let them "speak" about the day!

 

 

Here's an example of one of the pre-prepped pages. This is just a generic Winter one, ready for journaling and a photo....hope we get at least one snowy day so I can use this one!

 

 

Another prepped page (which of course will be added to as the day/month unfolds) I tried to include different sizes and whole pages. I usually also end up adding some Christmas card fronts that are just so pretty and make excellent inserts because you can journal on the back of them.

 

 

And another example.

 

About the only thing I have "bought" this year for the December journal is this tape (washi-like) that I picked up at the Dollar Tree. They had so many pretty Christmas ones I just couldn't resist. I might go back and pick up some of the others at some point.

 

 

It's not too late....in fact now is the perfect time to pre-prep some pages for your December journal!

 

How Do You Document December?

This is my artsy (sort of) December journal from 2011. I've always loved the idea of documenting my favorite time of the year but alas some years seem more successful in doing that than others. I was happy with December 11th because I actually managed to keep up with the daily entries AND it was cutesy. Notice I don't say a masterpiece or beautiful....but when we get away from perfection we are better able to actually journal. This one I made by covering index card dividers the 5 x 8 sized ones.

This is the 2012 version. I used a board book that I took apart and painted or covered with paper. It was a little bit bigger canvas but I still managed it!

This is the cover of the 2013 one which I am also planning to use this year. I will just insert a chipboard divider between the two years and add "and 2014" to the front of it.

I love these little SNAP journal binders. They also have a new planner coming out for 2015 which I can't wait to get my hands on. It's called a Life Documented planner. I created one in 2014 from a hodge podge of materials but I REALLY want to give this set up a try.

Now here's a picture of my elf journal that I add to each year to document our elf adventures. It doesn't include everything we do...I mean let's get honest...I could never keep up with all of that but it does include a cute variety of things to celebrate our memories!

These two pages are from 2007 (the year where I forgot where I put the elves and had to send a new one (Professor Sugar Plum) to make do until I could "uncover" them!

 

It doesn't really matter how you document December but these sure are fun to look at each year!

Christmas Ornaments

These are the ornaments we made for the Elf Dinner in 2013. It is a clear ball partially filled with fake snow. Then we used our finger prints to create a little family of snowmen with white paint. After they dried we added the faces, scarves, hats, etc.  

Immediately after the dinner I found a similar idea with reindeer. I knew we had to make it in 2014 at our Elf Dinner. The advantage of making a decision that early (even before Christmas 2103 was over) is that I was able to snag some cream colored Christmas balls on clearance after Christmas for a fraction of their original cost!  I just need to pick up some brown craft paint and we are ready to go!

Halloween 2014 Artist Trading Card

I picked up a pack of blank artist trading cards on clearance quite a while back and during the great office/craft room purge I thought....hmmm....time to use or lose these.  Then since I have been having so much trouble finding any creative time I thought....well.....maybe I'll start small...I mean after all how long could it take to create a VERY small card. Plus I can sign and date them on the back and have a little running record of my mini creative adventures. Pictured above my Halloween card 2014.

Just to show you how truly tiny it is I placed a pen next to it! Artist trading cards can be a challenge being such a tiny palette but they are great for using up tiny scraps also! I like the fun and slightly "creepy" feel of this one.

Art Journal 2014 Edition

So right after Christmas I bought a new art journal. I was almost out of pages in my other one and I've changed so much in my creative endeavors I wanted a "new edition". It's leather bound and has torn edges to its pages. I've had a smaller version of this for a couple of years so I new I liked it. I bought a middle sized one too. Which I think I will use with different quotations, lyrics etc that catch my fancy.

Above is the first page in the art journal. Each month I want to add a calendar for the month that I can "journal" on through out the month and they will also serve as a divider for the pages. That way I will always know the month I created the certain pages in. No need to date the pages unless I want to be that specific. I need to fill in a few more notes on the January one....and below is the February one.

Please join me on the art journal 2014 project. I'd love to see some of your pages too!