Documented Life Project ~ Intro & Week One

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2015! 

Time to put away the 2014 journal and start a new one. Look at the difference in thickness! My dear friend Rachel sent me a new agenda from France and I will be using it for the new documented life project. She had sent me my 2014 one too..Merci ma chere amie! 



The 2015 documented life project is a little bit different than last year, but so far I think it will be wonderful and offer even more than the 2014 project. Each month, there will be a theme and each week a prompt for a creative journal page and an art challenge. 



I spent a little time before the new year preparing my journal by adding monthly tabs and decorating the front with my peace mandala (see in the top photo).


I also used a second mandala (both from the Find Your Word emails by Susannah Conway) for the first page and a simple 2015 written on washi tape.


From the Unraveling the Year Ahead workbook (also from Susannah Conway), I included my 2015 First Aid Kit page and the 2015 Oracle page to the beginning of my agenda, covering some French information I didn't need. I used washi tape there too, on the edges. I love the splash of colour it gives. 


The theme for January is "the blank page and how to face it". The first week's prompts are "book paper" for the art challenge and "be your own goal keeper" for the journal. 

The A5 artists explained and inspired so much in their individual posts about this week's prompts. The videos were very helpful. My favourite was by Roben-Marie Smith and I followed her example. I especially liked the goals tab and the opposite page with the samples of the book papers used. 

With my new agenda, which is a bit bigger than last year, I cut my watercolour paper differently and I ended up with a nice size paper left over which was perfect for doing a second smaller page. I am not sure if I will do this every week, but it worked well this time. 

I decided to use a mix of book papers. I looked through my letters boxes and chose two envelopes, one from my father and one from my mother. I used two pages from old dictionaries that were given to me during a library workshop. A compass and drawings of boats from an old book I found at a thrift store. A hot air balloon drawing from a packaging of washi tape my daughter gave me at Christmas. 



I used mod podge to glue everything on the page. Once it was dry, I used watercolour paints to add colour. I doodled a bit and used a charcoal pencil here and there. It was a messy process and I loved it. 



I added an Alice in Wonderland art postcard from Rachel to write my goals. They are written on the back and I added a ribbon, from the same correspondence, to help turn the card over. I also added sticker letters to spell out goals. 



On the opposite page, I cut out samples of what I used on the art page, glued them and wrote a quick description. I wanted to add colour to this page too, so I added a little watercolour paint and a little charcoal penciling too. 


The entire process was again so relaxing and peaceful. I like the colours and the meaning behind the papers I used. This was  a great prompt to start the year with! 

Visit the Art to the 5th Academy to learn more about this *free* Documented Life Project 2015. 

Comments

  1. So lovely! The colours are incredible. I agree this prompt was wonderful. I loved the book paper I used too, they each had meaning behind them.

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  2. I've watched some of the videos and once I get my painting done for submission (today!) I am going to start this - so fun! Thank you for going through the steps you've chosen for this page!

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