Art Journaling, A Love of Mine (Jurnalul de arta, una din placerile personale)

It is by now obvious that I like to mix materials textures, try out new mediums, products or techniques. Art journaling is one of the best ways I can do this.
I do have a private journal where I also write personal stuff, but normally I don't like to add words. These two pages are the last two I did for our "travelling sketchbooks" group, now on their way to Venice, Italy.

Jurnalele de arta sunt unul din cele mai bune moduri prin care imi pot manifesta placerea de combina materiale si texturi diverse, incercand totodata tehnici si produse noi.
Cu toate ca am un jurnal privat in care  scriu si anumite experiente personale, in general prefer sa nu adaug cuvinte in compozitie.
Acestea sunt ultimele doua pagini pe care le-am completat in cadrul grupului nostru de "caiete calatoare", acum in drum spre Venetia, Italia.

BOD -Inner Cover

So I decided to dedicate Saturdays to mu Book of Days project. I usually just rest from my weekly work, clean the house, cook and now spend some time in the evening doing my art journal entries (if my little one lets me).

This is the inner cover where I say goodbye to 2011 and look forward to 2012.

Edited later: A comment from Jo C. just reminded me forgot to say that the Cart Postale pocket is actually a card I received in 2007 from Bev, a dear online friend. I have been thinking about saying this all the time I was working on the page, but I guess I just had a hard day.

The great thing about the BOD is that it allows me to preserve some wonderful pieces of art I have received from friends all over the world. I have been keeping them in a box, but I have been always looking for a way to put them to good use. I am beyond excited to have finally found it.

Book of Days

Just before the new year I signed up for the Book of Days Program. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a year long Journal Art & Memory Keeping journey with Effy Wild. It is totally free but you must sign up to have access to it (you can click the above link for details and sign-up).

This is the cover. Took me 3 days to finish  it and like it. I will definitely not have the time to work on it daily but it is fun and instructing nevertheless.

If you have never done this kind of a daily-art exercise I strongly encourage you to. It will help you discover yourself as an artist, what you like and what you dislike, where you need to improve, learn new mediums and techniques, make mistakes and find ways to turn them into something good. It is also stress free, since you are free too explore, make and correct mistakes, take notes, have fun while doing it, no worries about cost of ruined materials because all you need to begin is an old book and some basic supplies.

I'd like to hear from you if you decide to take this challenge. Please leave me a note here if you do and i'll come and see how you are doing.

Faith.

As part of the program you are encouraged to pick a word for 2012. Mine is FAITH.  I want to learn to live by faith and try less to solve things by myself . 2011 has clearly showed me that it is only by the grace of our Lord that we can experience true happiness.

Just before Christmas I was desperately asking for a sign to find out which way to go and the sign came right while I was praying for it. 2012 will be a year in which I will pay more attention to the voice of God and try to record my experience so I have a place to find encouragement in harder times.