Last Minute Art Journaling Thoughts
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.Mae West
It’s time to put my fat hand bound Art Journal to rest, find a home for it in the book shelf and move on. It has a ribbon closure and it is thick with art. Much as is the way of this year in just a few hours. Time to reflect back and plan ahead.
My Art Journaling Thoughts
It’s time to look back on pages filled, colors mixed and palettes used. Time to print the DIY Calendar Pages and look through the upcoming weeks. Read through blog posts to compile a new List of Achievements for myself. And to sip some tea (oh well, maybe some Champagne tonight) and look through the pages of this year. Because of my 365-project I have been Art Journaling less frequently than usual this year. Even when you work on fun projects something else has to go, a lesson to remember, even though I can not blame everything on the 365 like I tried in my organizational post. I have been busy with a lot of things this year. Life stuff, writing articles for work, blogging, doing Week in the Life and working on photo books. I have been creating the layouts of two issues of the Embroidery Guild’s member magazine, and assembling a 20th anniversary book called Broderade berättelser (printed this spring) for the Guild not least. Right now most of my own embroideries are in a group exhibition at the City Hall, and I haven’t written a word about that either.
But let’s get back to Art Journaling for a while.
What I have enjoyed a lot this year is art journaling away from my desk, and outdoor creating this summer. In 2014 I am going to combine that habit with traveling, because I long to see something new and visit new places!
I have been a bit scattered with my journals this year. Doing square spiral bound art journals, hand bound ones, inspiration books, mini journals and also keeping a separate writing diary. I enjoy the diversity but I also feel divided. I will try to keep it together a bit more in 2014. I want to do more still life drawing, of items around the house. I think that will be my plan for January. To draw a little more, and to paint a lot too. Maybe make a journal that is filled only with watercolor papers, not the already painted papers I’ve been using quite a bit these days. I long for the white page. What a perfect longing for the last day of the year.
Let’s make the new year a blank page, a page that we can fill with what ever colours, patterns and ideas we want to!
One little word
Today finally, I came up with my word for next year. It came to me when I was writing in my diary and it was rather obvious what I want more of, what I need to work on and what will help me the most next week. My one little word is: willpower. I will write about that more soon. What is your word? Your creative plan?
Thanks for letting me share some of my art journaling thoughts, and ponderings… Where is your List of Achievements? These are the ones I have written, in previous years:
List of Creative Achievements 2012
List of Creative Achievements 2011
Creative Achievements 2010
Goodbye to you dear 2013. Welcome in awesome new 2014!
I wish you with all my heart a Happy New Glorious Creative Year!
xoxo
/iHanna
Further reflective thoughts
* How to End a Year in a reflective mood
* How to Start a New Year in a Creative Way
Discover more from iHannas Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Your choice of OLW caught my eye. I am reading Kelly McGonigal’s book, The Willpower Instinct. It’s really interesting!
Thanks Randi, I will have to look up that book for sure! :)
Happy New Year!
Hi Hanna,
I would like to take a moment to wish you a Happy New Year. Also, to say that I have soooo enjoyed your collages this past year. How wonderful to share them with us, each one holds it’s own unique beauty. My own collages have been made better by following yours. I have different “how to”collage books, etc., but following your collages has really helped take my own to a whole new level, I truly mean that…thank you for that.
A while back you asked what we would like to see in 2014 from you. So I was wondering do you have any plans in the future (not necessarily in 2014) to do any on-line teaching courses. I just think you would be awesome and have so much to offer. So one suggestion would be to do a collage course. Yours are unique and have a quality people would love to know how and why you put yours together the way you do. Just an idea. I have taken Randel Plowman’s online collage class this past autumn. It was awesome, however I would still take one from you in a heart beat if you did one. Yours are of a quality only a woman could create. Be blessed Hanna!!
my word for the year: NEW about covers it. I do the same thing, year after year, and this is the year that I’ll be: living by myself, starting to create with a sewing machine, trying new things (see my blog post for 1/1/2014) {:-Deb
Happy New Year to you Hanna! May it bring ‘willpower’ and everyting else you wish for! I ‘found’ my word real late too… it came to me last week and it is ‘adventure’… I am looking forward to start my new bound Chronicles journal this week with that word (I always start my “year-long weekly art journaling book called the Chronicles’ with my word and reflect on it)
I absolutely adore the look of your journals Hanna – so pretty
I don´t normally choose a word for the year, but this year I have.
I want to journal more, to paint more, to make more stuff for my shop, to follow my favorite bloggers more, to keep up with stuff more – so my word for 2014 is ‘Focus’
Happy New year to you and I´m looking forward to follow along in this new year
Tina
Isn’t it funny/nice/a little frustrating that the more we get done, the more we want to do! We make achievements through the year and want to reach out and stretch more, thus finding that we are divided one way and the next. It’s like, when you fill up your house and go looking for a bigger home… then you fill that one up too. Or, you make more money one year than the next year, but you still seem to spend what you make!
I think your word, willpower, is a great word in this regard. We not only need to fly, but the compliment to that is to rein ourselves in when we need to. A friend of mine told me a quote he read somewhere: for he who lives a hundred lives, a hundred times must die.
Here’s to reaching for heaven!
Oh, and also…. your journal stacks are completely AWESOME.