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!

 

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!

 

 

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!

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!

Divider Page: Halloween Art Journal 2013

Since the little binders/albums I bought to use this year included three chipboard dividers I decided to start out the Halloween Art Journal with a cover/title page.

This is the page I created. I used black craft paint to paint the divider. I used some subway art I printed online to highlight the page. Then I used some random materials that I had in my stash (from all those after Halloween clearance goodies last year, what a bargain!!) The green October are from a set of glittery chipboard alphabet pieces and look even cuter in real life!  That spider is two piece...a web sticker and then a three dimensional spider sticker on top of it!

I hope you are getting geared up to CREATE during October, I'd love to see your creations!

Halloween and Christmas Art Journals 2013

Soooo......I said I wasn't going to do a 31 page Halloween art journal....but now I am!!  Here's the cover of the 6 x 8 Your Life in a SNAP Journal I bought for Halloween. Originally they were 14.99 but Michael's had them on clearance for 5.99.  Love it!!

 

This is the first year I've tried the binder style so we will see how it goes. I doubt it will be as messy-artsy as last years was but I think it can still turn out super cute and document my favorite month of the year!

 

 

Here's what I did with the one for Christmas. I was going to leave the covers for last but you know me...I can never wait patiently!!  I'm hoping to keep the artsy quality by doing all types of pages...some page protector ones with photos....painted pages, and other manner of embellishments. And this year I swear I'll journal more....about what I am doing each of the days!

 

Your Life in a Snap

So I've been trying to decide what type of art journal to use this year for Christmas. The last two years I have used (first index card dividers then board book pages) an artsy loose pages bound with rings approach. This year I wanted to try something different. I still want it to be artsy....not scrap book-y (if that make sense) but I also wanted to "pull it together" a bit.

I dropped by Michaels today just to see what they had. First off I was looking for chipboard books (found some cute ones too and even bought a couple) but then I happened upon these Your Life in a Snap binders. I think they are 6 x 8. Not too bog and not too small.  They have two rings inside and also come with some pages (card stock thickness) and some page protectors with different sized slots. Also three heavy chip board dividers are included. They immediately drew my attention. I thought the shelf sign said 14.99 but at the check out they rang up as 5.99. If I knew they were so cheap I may have been tempted to buy more!  As it is....I bought an orange one for Halloween and the red one for Christmas. Now I can't wait to start some base pages!!  So excited!!

Base pages with lined paper, graph paper and sort of like a page out of a ledger. You can also see the heavy dividers...they will be cute for decorating!

This photo shows the little page protectors that can house cards, photos and other items.

I figured these were a take off of Project Life.  Like a more generic copy cat product....but not sure. It sort of reminds me of a cross between a Smash Book and Project Life.  There was a huge section of Project Life stuff but I tried to stay away from it. I want to do "smaller" projects right now because even though I love the Project Live idea...I know myself....I suck at long term projects.

Embossed on the back cover toward the bottom...it says....Simple Stories....I like that so  much that when I decorate the binder I am going to make sure I leave that showing!

Halloween Art Journal

Last year I created a Halloween art journal. I started with a set of prompts and vowed to journal 31 pages.

I journaled pages like the one above that documented some of the many fun things I did during the month of October.

I also created some pages that just had to do with fun "Halloween type" topics. 

This year I'm itching to try some more October journaling. I'm not going to stick to the idea of a page a day for 31 days. I might turn out to be that many or it might not. I do want to use it as a combination "art" journal and writing journal that documents my month.

I'm not particularly artistic but I do enjoy the process.

December Art Journal Cover

Here it is....the newly created cover for the Christmas Art Journal. I had so much fun with the art journal last year and I hope to this year also!  I'm not very good at all about pre-prepping pages like is always suggested. 

This cover is made from an old board book that I stripped off the original printed materials and then covered with some green card stock.  The Ho Ho Ho part is actually holiday packing tape!  The December is cut from a magazine, the 2012 are stickers, the snowmen cut from scrapbook paper, and the Santa is a recyled card front! I plan of doing the inside of the front cover next as a dedication page!  More details to follow soon.

Once again I am trying to create the art journal without buying materials. I do admit I bought some materials last year on clerance after Christmas so I will use those, combined with recycled cards and other materials to create! I am also "allowed" to use anything from my stockpile of materials. My goal is to eventually not have such a BIG stockpile!

Day 18 Scary Movie

It's an old movie but one that had me awake for nights....I can still hear the sing song chant when I close my eyes....CREEPY!

Day 18 was to create a page featuring a scary movie!

Day 14 Pages: Bats or Owls

Day 14 is to work a bat or an owl into your page. This is a creation by Tim, one of the members of The Creative Spirit Facebook group. Isn't it neat?  The owl is created with tissue page.

Day 14 using a bat cut out.

Day 14 by Jessica a member of the Facebook Creative Spirit group...I love the title...Bats Rock!

I'm loving the Halloween journal and the facebook group has so many creative people!  If you would like to join please check it out at:

Creative Spirit at Facebook

Art Journal: Day Three and Four

Things that Go Bump in the Night...I tried playing around with a thicker kind of white paint. I'm not sure I like it...I went back later and added some glitter purple to tame it a bit.

Creepy Crawlies....spiders (from Dollar Tree) and the white paint again with purple glitter.  Not my favorite pages but it was fun playing around!

Halloween Art Journal Day One and Two

Day One Prompt: Childhood Memories. Do your page about anything that you remember from childhood. A favorite costume. A special Halloween or even parties at school.

Day Two Prompt: Halloween Bucket List...what are some things you would still like to do that involve Halloween?

October is here and the fun has begun!!

Art Journal Materials

Gathering materials for the Halloween art journal made me start thinking about materials in general. People often ask...what do I need to make an art journal. The truth is as little or as much in the way of materials as you want. A basic would include markers (I LOVE sharpies.) I know some of you use more professional markers but for my needs Sharpies work GREAT and now they are in lots of colors. I have other markers too but find I like the strong vibrant sharpies the best. Also basic for me is an adhesive. I do a lot of collage so this is a must. If you paint and/or draw then this may not be as important to you. Paints and sketching pencils if you like that medium. And of course a book or pages to bind into a book! That's about it!
The collage materials are the most challenging for me. I look for them every where. In magazines, ads that come in the mail, newspapers etc. I often find some GREAT FREE printables online but one must be cautious of smearing with them! I don't BUY collage materials very often because they have such a "scapbook" feel. Not that I don't like scrapbooks but it's just not what I want in my journal.
However I did buy some collage materials at the Dollar Tree recently. See. I told you I look for materials everywhere! These great silhouette shapes will be perfect for the Halloween art journal!

They had spiders, owls, rats, and bats! There are 15 in a package and some of them have different poses. At first I thought they were tissue paper but they aren't. They are a nice crisp black paper, not exactly cardstock but thicker than just a sheet of paper! I had to take a couple out to see if they would fit my pages. I'm not using them like this I just wanted to see the size!

Can't wait to play around with these. Perfect for the Creepy Crawlies prompt...or...the Are You Afraid of Your Shadow prompt...or any number of the October prompts!

Prepping a Board Book

So after pondering and thinking and wondering about WHAT type of book I will use for the Halloween art journal, I happened upon some children's board books at the flea market. I thought hmmmm alter these? I counted the pages. Most board books would not work for the Halloween or Christmas art journals because they do not have enough pages. I counted, I counted again and again. Yep THIS one has 32 pages...I could use it by doing a final double page for Halloween.

Now how to prep the pages. Sometimes people just use the images on the pages as part of their art journal images but I knew this wouldn't work for my Halloween art journal.

I read a bit online about altering board books and discovered three methods.

1. You can use sandpaper to lightly sand the slick pages so things stick better.

2. You can use gesso and paint over the images on the pages.

3. Carefully tear off the top layer of the printed page.

I opted for method three.

If you start at a corner and work down along the edge of the page you can then pull it across the page and remove it as one large sheet. Sometimes it will tear off bits and they are a little more difficult to remove but overall it is pretty easy!

Now I have a nice blank board book for a dollar! Much cheaper than buying a board book at a craft store and again even in the store it is difficult to find one with the right number of pages!

Halloween Art Journal

I'm still thinking Halloween. I've created a prompt list for the Halloween art journal. I've posted it on The Creative Spirit Facebook page if you would like to get a peek at it, please ask to join. We would love to have you! As October rolls around I will post longer detailed desriptions of each prompt! You might also use them as writing prompts if that fits your needs better!

Facebook Creative Spirit.

Halloween Art Journal Pages

I know...I know...I have LOTS of other projects before the Halloween Art Journal....but....I'm thinking Halloween this morning.....so here are some pages that caught my eye..

Bat page from Glitter and Glue. It's made from cut outs from a gift bag!

Another great one from Altered Gypsy.

Another inspiring one from Spun Monkey Designs.

A fun two page candy one from Glitter and Glue. (again!)

From Art Journaling 101.