Sunday, September 15, 2013

Growth comes in many forms

If you haven't checked out Effy Wild's Book of Days art journaling program yet, you're totally missing out. Psst, registration opens again in October so go sign up for her newsletter and keep an eye out! ;D  That said, I've been a total fangirl for anything Effy for some time now and my Book of Days practice has taken on a new evolution with Project Life!

I hadn't heard about Project Life until Shelly posted on her blog, Inspiration Everywhere, about it. Besides the fact that her art is amazing and her own Project Life book is something I drool over, can we just talk about her handwriting for a second? *fans self* If I could download her handwriting as a font into my brain to be able to write like that... ahhh! Okay, anyway, enough fangirling again.

After pondering over this for a couple weeks, I got a coupon from Michael's arts and crafts store for 40% off one item and picked up a big ol' variety box of page protectors. These are really cool because they are all 12x12 standard scrapbook page size, but with pockets split into 3x4, 4x6, and 6x6 sizes so you can insert a bunch of stuff without having to make a traditional scrapbook layout on a big 12x12 page. Now all I have to do is find my scrapbook binder that's hiding somewhere amongst my stuff... ;)


Until then, I'm trying to put in a little insert for every day. I haven't really succeeded in that goal just yet, so I'm just making it work till I find my groove. But instead of using the traditional Project Life cards that are available for purchase, I'm using index cards because somewhere along the way I decided I needed like 3000 index cards and they are a good, plain background for any kind of arting. I also have a ton of scrapbook paper to use, along with tons of bits and bobs for accents. I am trying to make do with what I have and only buy things that will truly serve me in my interests and growth, so I like to think this is helping me with that goal.

I have a few reasons I wanted to try this. First, because my most recent altered book art journal is nearly full, so it was about time to find a new one to work with anyway. Second, my previous Books of Days (Book of Dayses? haha) are all kinds of stuck together. Super sad face! I mean, who knew a page with glued-on stuff would stick to another page with, you guessed it, glued-on stuff? LAWL, common sense, I have none. I know there are ways to prevent this, like sticking wax paper between the sheets, using a spray-on fixitif, or rubbing the page with beeswax. But I was lazy and didn't do any of these, so peeling apart the pages of books that are now at least a year old is a little heartbreaking!

BUT, it's all about the journey when it comes to arting for me, not so much the outcome. Effy wrote a great blog about this recently that you should read if you're a creative type. :)

So anyway, I wanted to make my Book of Days worry-free when it comes to having things stick together. Another reason I wanted to try this was due to the varying sizes the page protectors allow. I've found I prefer working with a smaller canvas, so the small sized pockets work great. And if I want to go all out, I can work with a 12x12 page and put that in there with a standard scrapbook page protector, too! So it seems really easy to customize to whatever I feel like that day I sit down to slap paint and glue on the page.

Yesterday I had another 40% off coupon for Michael's (by the way, they have a 50% off coupon now... they really are good at having me give them money willingly) and went in there expecting to get one of the kits of pocket inserts. They didn't have any of the designs I was eyeballing online, so I picked up a teensy tiny Sakura Micron pen instead for $1.90. Yay! I think it was fate reinforcing that idea that I don't need pre-made stuff when I can make do with what I have. But all my black pens (all 50,000 of them, it seems) were regular ol' ball point pens with black-but-not-quite-black ink, or fat bullet-tipped Sharpie markers. That's my justification for that purchase, okay? Don't judge me!

OKAY OKAY OKAY. *waves hands* Now the whole purpose of me writing all that is to work up the courage to show you what I've done, art journaling-wise, for this new Book of Days. The Glitterhood group is doing the 29 Faces project this month, so that inspired me to try a face.


Once I have a page or two complete I'll show the whole layout, but for now I'm kind of proud of this little chicky. She looks... like a person! Granted, she's ghastly white because I haven't gotten the hang of shading yet (let's just focus on making the people-drawings look like people first). But she's there! On the page! Eeeee!

...anyway, it's a start. :)

So that's my Sunday Shiny for ya. Head over to Effy's blog to see more swoon-worthy posts and share your own. Thanks for reading!

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