journal prompt week 2: selfie!

the week 2 prompt for the journaling group I'm in was to incorporate a self portrait into my planner (journal).
I have a few photos of myself that I like, so I used one of those.

and then it sort of took a humorous turn....

I drew us under the photo. I like the weird look it has....like, cartoonish or something....sort of like Lynda Barry but not as good (of course) . just that odd hand drawn look

just don't look at my nose.

I want to get more comfortable with drawing people and these are the two I am around the most  :)

I'm still figuring out how I like to do my entries in this new format....

adjusting.....experimenting.......

those small pictures are prints from my Pogo printer -they are stickers!
easy...AND I can send photos to it via bluetooth from my cell phone: way cool.

here's the inside cover of my planner. I cut the address off of a piece of mail and taped it into the front, in case my planner and I ever get separated. 

I recommend that you do this in all of your journals. it may get your journal back home to you one fine day

my friend Penelope gave me those cool letters -my initials.....I glued those down and went ahead and glittered them right up.

ooooooo look at all the pretty washi tape :)  :)  :)
I used many different colors and patterns without regard to matching.

 my weeks won't be the same so why make their pages the same?

oh yah-this is one of my month pages I added.
I designed and printed these myself.
I haven't added tabs yet -not sure if I will or not.

I probably will - I like tabs, generally speaking. 

 thanks for stopping by - please comment if you like anything - I moderate the comments so they won't show up immediately, but I love comments and will publish them ASAP.

Namaste.

painting my journal cover

I started by applying 3 coats of gesso to my planner - I forgot to take pictures of the cover with the plain gesso.

I knew the effect I was going for and had an idea to try to get me there...

I love space and wanted my cover to look like a nebula out in space... :D

SO, knowing that a white background will make your colors seem brighter, I picked out a few fluorescent colors and went to work.

I applied a few larger areas of distinct colors on the front cover(above, right) - using my fingers in order to control the the paint application

and because it's fun to finger paint.

this is the back cover, where I used a paintbrush and got into a little brush stroke groove...

if you look at the bottom, left area of the cover you can see it is fluorescent GLITTER paint....

I mean seriously!

I added some pieces of old book pages I had punched into leaf shapes just before I began painting. You can see them above....I like the fish.

this is a close-up of a set of fluorescent fabric paints I used ....

And here is the final result:

I tried a midnight blue and a black acrylic craft paint and determined the black is what worked.

Those pretty shimmery colors are Glitz Spritz sprayed onto the dried paint. 

I used Royal Peacock Fire, Royal Emerald Fire and Royal Lapis Lazuli Fire.

There is also a bit of Hottie Patottie Pink Starburst Spray in the mix as well.

Do you think it resembles a nebula? 

leave me a comment - I love hearing from you!

Thank you for stopping by!

a new journal - of sorts

2013 ended in a hurried, uncomfortable way for me. We lost my father-in-law in November and the mourning period stretched through to the end of the year - Sunday, December 29 to be precise.

Without kvetching or whining too much, I feel as though I missed a lot of what I look forward to during the holidays, Christmas especially. I have written in my journal about it and am launching into 2014 with a fresh outlook.

I just wanted to share a little bit with you about why it has been so long since I posted on my blog.

I love the New Year - I like setting goals for the new year and feeling as though I have a clean slate;
that excitement of seeing 12 clean months stretch out in front of you like an empty highway begging to be driven upon.
Eventually I hope to be able to have this feeling every morning, but as of today feeling it now, at the start of this new year in front of us, is enough.

A friend of mine up north suggested a free facebook group to me that sounded very interesting - it's called the Documented Life Project. The premise in a nutshell is combining a planner and your journal into one, and filling it out with weekly challenges. 
I decided to post my results here so I have them all sort of collected together in one place online. 

this is the planner I chose - it's a lovely one made by Gallery Leather, found at Barnes and Noble here is Issaquah, Washington - near where I live. I liked this one because it was a lovely turquoise color, and is Made in the USA! The moleskine ones that were recommended in the group are mostly made in China :(   
So with a little patience and searching through what they had, I hit the jackpot. This is about 6 1/2" wide by 9" tall - larger than the moleskine too, which I prefer.

Week 1 Challenge: photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door.

I drew this with a micron pen, size 005, then watercolored over it with Daniel Smith water colors.

I worked from the photo below - it was too cold to stand outside to draw! :)

There is also an optional class that teaches you how to alter your planner, decorate the cover, and add "tip in" pages; these are really just flaps -\I always thought tips ins are when you add an entire page to your book - not just adding to an existing page-but whatever you call them, I did some. I thought I would take my own path -you know, see what the other folks were doing and just make it up.

So here are my page flap additions as of week 1:

what do you think of it so far?  :)