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!

Day 2 Halloween Art Journal: Nevermore

Last year I had to stretch my creativity on "non activity days" of October. There's a lot of special events and activities that we do during October and those days are usually easy to create and journal...I have to stretch my imagination on the other days. For day two I focused on using a sort of "icon" The Raven...nevermore! I found a print online where someone had created a raven with awesome words inside it...from the story and descriptions etc...I used that for the center piece of the page and then added a few touches. The bird in the cage is one of the cheap, cheap, cheap sticker packs I picked up after Halloween last year. You can't tell but it's three dimensional.

I've actually skipped around a bit because of our Haunted Alton trip (page 5 is done) but pages 3-4 aren't finished yet and it's just easier to go in order....so I'll be sharing those a bit later.

Halloween Art Journal: October 1st

Since I'm only posting on Tuesdays here at the Creative Spirit this month. I will try to get photos up in my weekly post of the Halloween Art Journal. It's easy today...as it's the first one!! Several years back a group of family and friends decided to take up ghost hunting as a hobby. We have been on several different ones at different locations. However time seems to be a difficult thing to find lately so we haven't been on one for a while. This page reminds me of past hunts and sets up an October goal of going on one this month!