Category: Art Journal

March is here

Looking forward for a new month full of inspiration and colours. My tiny journal is getting chubby, not much as I expected, February was a slow journaling month, hoping to catch up in March.

Today I woke up with a feeling of excitement, spring is coming but at the same time a feeling of missed opportunities: Did I learn all of the lessons from winter? Did I enjoy all its coziness? Did I dive inwards and really connected to myself? …My questions started with DID, it’s the past, now let me look ahead, to all the new possibilities of growth and blooming.

And you? How are you feeling about the change of the seasons?

Wishing you a flourishing new month, Spring or Autumn, both bring colours to the Earth.

In March winter is holding back and Spring is pulling forward.
Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.
Jean Hersey

Lovingly

These tiny cards are called inches, they are 2 x 2 inches. I love to set up a specific time to make them, not hurrying but inspired. I make them for myself, although I have sent a few of them to friends over the years.

I should have hundreds of them by now. I started working with small-size cards when I joined the #100dayproject on Instagram long ago. It’s a yearly project when we work on something creative for 100 days. I joined this project many years back, but I skipped it last year. It starts on February 22nd, and I am still deciding what I will do, it will be probably more inches, but I still have a few days to decide.

The main intention of keeping doing the same thing for 100 days is to burst the creativity making time for working lovingly on something that is important to us.

If you want to follow along with my #100dayproject check out my Instagram account. My QR code is below.

Joining Moonwashed Weekly Challenge – Lovingly

creative space

my desk

The space where I journal is always messy. I organize it once in a while, but soon it goes back to its natural state. I like this way, papers and colours spread everywhere. I enjoy looking under piles of stuff and finding some treasure buried there. Pens and pencils should be at hand as well as stickers.

This desk is in a room, in the basement, which I call my studio. Nobody goes there if not invited, my family knows that it is my space, and when I’m there, I will be writing, reading or creating something. They know I like to have ‘me time’, to be alone. As I get older, I value all the moments I have to be by myself.

As Virginia Woolf wrote “A room of One’s Own“

This week I set up the February opening pages for my journals and I prepped a few with watercolours for the weekdays. On the ones below I wrote my goals for the month. I liked how it turned out, the combination of colours and stickers.

Have a nice week ahead, and please find a pocket of ‘me time’ for yourself!

secret message

“Make something great” :: I found this card yesterday while cleaning my stationery drawer. I liked the background colour of the card, it matches my nail polish and called my attention among much other stuff inside the drawer.

We don’t need to make something ‘great’ but can make ‘great’ the tiny things that make us happy. I hadn’t journaled for a while, always letting it for later. You know how journaling is essential to me, and in spite of it, I was letting this habit slip from my hands. Writing a little bit early morning is a tiny act, but great for my mind.

I opened my journal and just glued a few images on the paper. I didn’t write, but sometimes images speak more than words.

I love to find secret messages on my way, and you? Are you paying attention to what comes toward you?

Art pages

prompt: Rumi’s quote

You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?

Rumi

Recently I’ve joined an art page on IG. It was great to explore a little bit of creativity using images and quotes. The top page was inspired by one of Rumi’s quotes. His quotes/poems are always so peaceful. The image I’ve chosen shows the lightness of the feathers and the happiness in the woman’s smile. It reminds me of freedom and the butterfly represents transformation, changes we need to work on to adapt our minds and environment towards freedom.

prompt: William Wordsworth’s quote

Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.

William Wordsworth

No better teacher than Nature. I used to say that doing nothing by a lake is great, but now I say that being by a lake is an act of self-care, so I’m taking care of myself when I’m by a lake.

prompt: green

Green means spring/summer time here in Canada. We have bare trees and greyness from November to March, so when the green buds start to show up it is a sign of warm weather on the way. 😊

A pop of colour

winter blues
it's dragging me down
bright colours

lifting up
creativity
stagnation

Middle of January is always difficult, winter blues guiding to lack of creativity. I hadn’t worked on any art page for so long, today I decided to add yellow and pink to a page. A pop of colour to lift my mood. I like my choice of colours: yellow and pink! Yellow means happiness and reminds me of sunshine; pink is related to self-care and love. This reminded me to buy flowers this weekend!

Haiku poem for Tanka Tuesday.

kindness

me time kindness
kindness
holding a door
a smile

a smile
a cup of tea
thank you

thank you
sending flowers
love you

love you
I'm listening
kindness

Tanka Tuesday – Kindness is the theme prompt for this week. I’ve written this poem but it doesn’t fit any of the classic poetry forms, at least that I could find. I love it, so I decided to be kind to myself and share it anyways. It is a syllabic poem, so I think Colleen will like. The form is 2:4:2, the last word of one stanza is the first of the following on and the first word of the poem repeats as the last one. I am thinking a name for it, but first I’d like know from the poetry experts if there isn’t already a form like this one.

Another gesture of kindness I’m sharing here, is a self-kindness. A few minutes every morning I give to myself to play with colours, images. It’s a ‘me time’ that I use for art journaling.

Hope you enjoy both of my creativity forms.