A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

making time for journaling

Whether I eat or drink or preach or counsel or whatever I do, my aim is to glorify God by the way I do it. This means my aim is to do it in a way that shows how the glory of God has satisfied the longings of my heart.  ~John Piper

I think things are supposed to start winding down this time of year, but it hasn't happened here yet. We have been blessed to spend a lot of time with friends, catching up, hanging out at the beach, laughing at the kids, and swapping stories. But when life gets crazy busy, I find it even more important to take time out to pray, meditate, read, journal and seek some semblance of solitude. It is amazing how a few minutes alone, drumming on the desk, singing at the top of your lungs and ignoring everyone who might be within listening distance refreshes the soul.

 

 

 

A few new journal pages in various stages of completion. And some highlights.

 

 

that's real nice, but what do you do with them?

Late one night I had the thought, I wonder what would happen if I cut up some of my pretty papers and sewed them back together again, you know, kind of patchwork style? Hmm. Let's see.

 

   

 

   

 

Wow. That's amazing. I wouldn't have thought the patterns would have worked so well together. I wonder what would happen if....

 

Oh, the possibilities!! So, what they would look like if....

 

Ah ha! I think I'll just camp out here a while and see what pops up next. I'm perfectly content to chase this rabbit as far as she will go. And since the journals are finally finished now and I just have to make some time to post them here and list them in the shop, all is well. It's not my favorite part of the process so I may put it off a day or two, but not too much longer. Especially since I feel batch number two coming on soon. 

more spray paint experiments

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you have a great weekend! We have friends in town so we'll be spending much of the weekend at South Padre Island (locally, just 'the Island'). A night out with just the grown ups (they're letting me come, too) is well worth some time away from the paint cans and sewing machine. Next week we'll be back to the school schedule but you can bet there will be plenty of time for art and play. That's how we roll.

serious stuff

 

Every morning before the heat index has a chance to rise to 110, before breakfast even, the kids and I make our way outside to the only patch of shade and our spray paint stations.

 

Who needs food? Who needs sleep? This is our sustenance and our rest: art! Okay, so I'm being a little melodramatic, but not much, really. I don't know what we're going to do next week when we have to reverse our routine and start the day off with icky yucky school instead of play--I mean, from the kids point of view. Certainly not mine.

 

We've been stockpiling papers like good little squirrels, and oohing and aahing over our brilliance with each one. A few days ago I tried forgoing our painting play to do a little reading and prep for school and, man, what a buzz kill that was. I've decided to ease into it, a little each day, so we don't overwhelm ourselves with academia.

 

Here's the kids' spray station. They couldn't bear the heat any longer and have already run back inside to the A/C leaving me alone to create--the wimps.

 

At least Rudolph and Chloe hung out a little longer today. I guess we know who the serious art makers are!! Hahaha!

 

 

 

 

thoughts on art journaling and a tutorial

I took my travel journal to the beach with friends last weekend not thinking I'd have any time to work in it but wanting to take it along just in case and I actually got a few pages done. It seems like I feel most inspired to journal when I'm away from home. Maybe from the living room floor, life just seems a little too mundane to warrant preserving it forever. I need to get myself out of that mindset, though. These every day routines with the kids and the dogs and the craziness are what I'm going to long for some day.

 

Visual journaling is a kind of poor man's art form, so to speak. Art that is instantly accessible to everyone at any time. I think we can all identify with the urge to document our lives in some way and it is a natural response to rely on pictures to tell the story, especially when we don't particularly have the words for it ourselves. Words are important, essential to clear communication, but when propped up next to an image, they take on a whole new kind of urgency. They appeal to the heart and the mind simultaneously.

 

 

I've had several requests for a tutorial on journal making and had been giving it some thought until I discovered something yesterday that gets me off the hook. Stampington & Company and Traci Bautista have put together a how-to video for making simple journals that's great and pretty much covers all the bases to get you started in the right direction. I'm not sure if they plan on offering these videos for a fee later, but this one you can watch for free here. Check it out and if you have any other specific questions, let me know and I'll address those later. Another good resource that I always point people to when talking about book making is Teesha Moore's downloadable instructions on How To Make Your Own Journal. I've used her method many times and its quick, easy and lends itself to lots of personalization.

 

So, no more excuses, go make your own journal! And if you're just not up for that right now, I'll be putting a ton of new journals up for sale very soon. I'm finishing the last touches now, so check back here in a few days or email me (see top right side bar) to join my mailing list and be the first to find out when the store is stocked.

slipping, dreaming, drowning

Last week I spent an entire day cleaning up and cleaning out my studio. It turned out to be one of the best things I could possibly do. Since then, I've had a hard time keeping myself out of there and, since the family's still getting fed and hasn't had to start recycling clothes from the bottom of the laundry basket, I'd call that a good thing.

  

 

 

I loaded up boxes of fabric and papers that I'll never get around to using to put away for a future project I've had on my mind lately.  One involving a coffee shop, an art studio, and the church. So much still unknown, but it feels good to dream.

 

 

 

The journals are moving right along. Whispering tempting new ideas to me every day. I could work on these forever. How many hours is too many to put into one book?

 

 

 

distractions

Still working on the journals, but it's slowed down. I just get distracted so easily...by online fabric sales...

 

 

 

 

 

...luscious sari ribbon...

 

...painting brick (more pictures to come)...

  

...packing and shipping...

 

 

...and trips to the beach with friends. Be back soon with more details.

spray paint + masking paper = art tip

This afternoon I dropped by Sherwin-Williams to pick up some paint for the desperately-needing-to-be-painted living room and noticed some rolls of craft paper, cheap, that looked promising for journal making. I picked up a few and immediately drove home to try them out. Maisey and I had fun experimenting with spray paint and our new paper rolls until the mosquitoes forced us in. The smaller rolls varied in width from about 4 in. to about 10 in. The paper itself is pretty thin but still strong enough to stand up against latex paint. Much stronger than newsprint but about the same thickness. These were labeled as "General Purpose Masking Paper" and, best of all, they were only about $3-5 a roll.

 

 

 

 

 

The store also had large rolls of "Builder's Paper"--which you may be able to find at your local hardware store, too. It's quite a lot thicker than the masking paper and about a yard or so wide. It absorbed a bit of the spray paint leaving a more delicate coloring, but also worked great with Maisey's finger paints and acrylics. And it was a steal at $9 a roll.

 

 

 

I love finding a new inexpensive paper source! So, go check it out. Then come back and share your own experiments--I'd love to hear about them!