30 Days of Journaling - Day 1

[bestill]

I decided to go for it! I'm doing 30 Days of Journaling. Here's my journal page that I did today.




Although I did do an entire journal spread today, I'm not making that a rule. Here are my rules for this project.

• Every day for 30 days, I'll work in my journal and post what I do.
• When I'm away teaching workshops at Southeast Community College mid-March, I don't have to work in my journal (unless time permits), but I won't be able to post then if I do.
• I don't have to do long blog posts about what I did, or what material or pen or marker I used. (So each blog post doesn't have to be a free journaling workshop. This is for inspirational purposes to both me and you! But, if you feel like you are getting something out of this, feel free to use the donate button at the top right of my blog.)

That's it. The only way this is going to work for me right now is if I keep it that simple. The whole point of this project for me, even with the 30 Days of Carving, is to do something creative every day that isn't "work." And for this 30 days, it's to work in my journal. Since I am a self-employed artist (with no sugar daddy or partner), it often gets to where the only creative stuff I do is for work to pay the bills. And even though I love what I do, if I only do creative stuff for "work", it can easily lead to burn out.

So on super busy days (or days where I don't wake up at 5am, just lying there in bed because I can't sleep), I might give myself a time limit of 30-35 minutes, and whatever I get done on that spread is what I get done. Then I post it. Because my journal is bigger than my scanner, I have to scan each page separately, then hook them together in photoshop. It's time consuming, especially trying to get my book positioned on the scanner straight & just right to get the whole page. So I'll only scan it when I have a completed spread. On the days where I don't complete the spread, I'll simply photograph it and post that. It'll be much simpler for me that way and help me to keep continuing on with the project.

Okay, even though I said I don't have to tell you what materials I used, it doesn't mean I won't some times. For the headline, I used Crap Toy (large) alphabet stamps, and then at the bottom, I used Cheapskate alphabet stamps. The stamp of lines for writing is from my Journaling stamp sheet. I also used several hand-carved stamps from my 30 Days of Carving. I mainly used Faber-Castell Pitt pens, Sakura Glaze Pens & Souffle Pens. The cool circle stamp that I used on the right page? You can learn how to make that from my book Print & Stamp Lab (but you already have that, right?).

So there you have it! I'm excited to do this, and excited to be getting back to my neglected visual journal on a daily basis. Wanna join me? Bianca is also doing 30 days of journaling starting today. Check out what she's doing.