Book of Days

I am participating in Effie Wild's 2012 project entitled Book of Days, officially beginning at the beginning of January.

Effie has invited anyone who is interested to join her as she seeks to develop a daily art journaling practice.  She has already created three videos for participants--one showing how she altered an old book for her own 2012 Book of Days, one showing how a basic composition book can be prepared for the project, and one showing how she created pockets inside her cover to hold letters offering appreciation to 2011 and setting intentions for 2012.

From there, she plans to provide us with two or three emails each week with tips, videos, and inspiration related to her own art journaling practice. 

A real sense of community is already starting to develop among those who have signed up.  Effie has already held one online chat (which I snuck in to check out for about one minute, but wasn't prepared to participate!), and plans to continue with those periodically.  Plus, there's a Flickr group that is already up and running, and a wildly active Facebook page.

All that, and the project hasn't even officially begun yet!

For my own Book of Days art journal, I chose a book from a library sale, called If We Had Wings:  The Enduring Dream of Flight, by Rinker Buck.  I made just a few key adjustments to the cover to "make it mine."  (You can check out the Amazon listing in the link above to see its original appearance.)

I chose this book because of its unique format.  It only has about 32 pages, which measure about 10 inches square (and I took some of those few pages out to accommodate collage elements and other pieces that will add thickness to the book).  All of them have something interesting about them--a pocket with a reproduced document inside, an envelope holding a letter to pull out and read, a flap that opens up from the side of the page.  It's an already altered book!  All of these features are going to make the book that much more fun to work with.

Effie encouraged us to select a word for the year as part of the process of creating our art journals.  As soon as I selected this book, I knew that a fun choice for me for 2012 is "WINGS."  I kind of like selecting a noun as opposed to a verb, and I also like all of the associations that the word brings to mind:  flight, airplanes, butterflies, fairies, risk, heights, energy, gliding...all sorts of associations that I can see playing out through the year, through my plans, and through my art journal.

If this looks like fun to you, it definitely isn't too late to play along!  Go to Effie's Book of Days site and sign up.

One Final Look

Here's one final look at some corners of my Gift from the Sea journal before I turn to a new art journal.

A note from Natty, who created the journal for me

photo of Anne Morrow, author of Gifts From the Sea

Using a transparency looks great on the page, but it's tough to photograph.

Up Next:  A look at my next art journaling project!

Is It So Wrong?

So now that Christmas has passed, I can confess that right before the holiday I went out and bought a BUNCH of presents...for myself!

I had no idea that I was going to run into such amazing sales...whole stores that had EVERYTHING for 40 and 50 percent off.  How could I resist?

I had a heyday in Anthropologie, one of my favorite places to indulge in impulse buying.  Look at all I got for about $50!

If you are familiar with Anthropologie, then you know that's a good deal!

I've never met a candle or a notebook or a little box for no good purpose that I didn't like.

Check out this book Nomad, by Sibella Court:

In addition to yummy photos of global interior design, the pages give me plenty of inspiration for art journal layouts.

It fits into the whole "eye candy" category.

And check out this RIDICULOUS desk notebook that I just couldn't pass up:

There must be enough pages in here for MORE than a lifetime of lists.

And I know that I probably *should* be decorating my own journal covers, but I couldn't pass up these pretty painted-canvas covered notebooks on deep discount on the back table.  (Worrying about "shoulds" is a waste of time anyway, right?!)

Just thought I would share some of my fun finds.  And while I'm at it, check out the hilarious site Anthroparodie.  They take the often-ridiculous, but always-cool-looking photos from the Anthropologie catalog, and provide an imaged back-story.  Always entertaining...enjoy!