early december art journal
I haven’t posted art journal pages in a while. Here are some from the past few days.
december art journal
I’m *sorta* doing December Daily but this year I’m focusing more on the journaling. I’m sitting down to journal every day, but I realize that I’m not always going to be able to make an art journal page for it right away. So I collect the journaling and post it in as I create.
Here’s the spread for the first three days.
december art journal
Over the years I’ve collected a bit of Christmas themed papers, stickers, and other stuff. I also have a STACK of magazine images and photos and catalog images that I’ve cut out over the years to use for December Daily. Back in November, I went through the bin, got rid of most of it, and really like what I held on to.
I’m realizing a lot of my December pages might have those images and photos incorporated into them, but I’m okay with that. It kind of feels nice to sit down with a pile of beautiful images and just put them together. That way I don’t have to worry about finding something holiday-esque to put together or take photos of, or make up a story. I can just journal about what’s happening and illustrate the idea with an image in my stack.
december art journal
This is actually a hand-made card from Gracie that I bound into the center of the page with washi tape. It’s a note to her elf to please return.
The secret is that we hid the elf so well after last Christmas that we couldn’t find it for *this* Christmas. So we looked ALL over for a few days and I finally had to go ahead and order a new one.
december art journal
On the back of Gracie’s card is a leftover from some thank you notes she was making for her classmates. On the other side is just magazine pages and random graphic bits, washi tape, a label about us watching N’tl Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and a label from Gracie’s Star Wars Advent Calendar.
december art journal
Next two pages are very simple and straightforward.
december art journal
december art journal
I got this image from the cover of a museum catalog a few years ago and I’ve always loved it. It matched well with the journaling for that day so I used it along with some old Making Memories tape I have had for a while.
december art journal
I bound the journaling into the middle of the book..
december art journal
And on that back I glued another holiday-esque image and a littl ebit about our traditional advent countdown calendar that we put up every year. I try and get 24 or 25 of something every year to fill it with. Last year it was little tubes of paint (every day a different color) and this year it’s little bottles of nailpolish. It’s hard to find 24 of something, and Gracie really likes the Lego Advent Calendar the most, so next year I’ll like just put 24/25 small treats in it (aka candy) and leave it at that.
december art journal
This was a simple page- I printed out my journaling (it was about Chester and perfection… see my last blog post) and included a quote that arrived in my inbox that morning and the page from my daily flower calendar. It just felt peaceful and right.
december art journal
On the night of the 5th we finally decorated the house and Gracie’s new elf arrived, so I snapped a few photos and put it together along with the little letter I “helped” the new elf (who is a girl) write to explain to Gracie that her old elf got a promotion and was working directly with Santa which was why she got a new elf this year. Gracie seemed very pleased and taken with the idea of the girl elf.
We don’t do much with the elf besides bring it out in December and hide it every day. I see that some people plan activities and pranks with their elf, but that’s just not for me. Gracie likes finding him each day, and then she’s pretty content to just hang out with the elf (we’ve always let her handle the elf, which is supposedly a no-no). Sounds good to me.
december art journal
Finally, a small insert for day six.
Yesterday I felt really crummy so I decided to just use this picture of candles (it looked peaceful, which is how I wanted to feel), add a letter sticker, and journal on the back of a 4×6 card and bind it in my journal.
december art journal
So far, so good. I’m actually enjoying this project. I LIKE keeping it simple. It’s not so time consuming to find a pretty image or paper and put it together. And while we haven’t had much holiday-esque excitement so far (besides decorating the tree, etc.) the images seem to tell a good enough story about the *feeling* of the season, which is what I am going for this year.