Documented Life Project Week 28 & 29

Week 28's challenge was to include a small photo of some sort.  Here is the page I created:

It's all about my best fiend who I will be moving away from when I graduate.  I will certainly miss her a lot!!

Week 29's challenge was to make a wish list.  I made this:

All of these are things I aim for!

Documented Life Week 27

Today I wanted to show you my Week 27 WIP for Documented Life Project!  Here is the weekly page:

And the challenge for this week was to add a puzzle to your page...

That is a "hard" puzzle...and I am good at them and I think it is actually quite hard.  I think the page looks unfinished so I will probably add more to it after my trip.

Documented Life Week 24

Hello friends!!  Today I am sharing Week 24 from my Documented Life Planner.

The week's page:

I got to spend time teaching adolescents how to art journal and I spent two days doing art therapy during one of our weekend workshops.  

Here is the weekly challenge page - the challenge was to use text on the page:

It's hard to tell since I used dark paint and collaged over a lot of it, but I used dictionary pages to make the background so there is a lot of text there!!

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a wonderful day!

Documented Life Week 23

Hello there!!  Today I want to show you my Documented Life planner!!

Week 23's weekly page:

This photo shows the weekly page and the "notes" page where I art journal.  The challenge for this week was gratitude:

I added an extra flap with the flyer from the Operation Thank You event since I am very thankful for the veterans than came before me:

What are you thankful for?

Documented Life Week 22

Hey there!  Happy Friday!!!  Sharing week 22 of Documented Life with you makes me all caught up!  The challenge for week 22 was to put a house(s) on your page.   Here is what I did:

I like how it came out!  And here is the weekly page:

I got to have some fun this week - a day a the pool, a trip to Wakulla Springs and then I got to go see X-Men Days of Future Past with some of my friends!  It was a good week!

Documented Life Week 21

Hey there!  I hope you week is going GREAT!  Today I am sharing week 21 from my documented life project planner/art journal!  The challenge from week 21 was to use embroidery floss on your page:

Here is the weekly page:

As you can see I was stressed out during this week!  Thesis is HARD (but also almost over!! yeah!!)

See you tomorrow for week 22!

Documented Life Week 20

Still way behind on sharing Documented Life Project photos with you, so this week will be my catch-up week!!

Week 20 - Use a stamp in a new way:

You can hardly tell in this photo but behind the black ink skeleton stamp is silver wings also stamped.

Come back tomorrow for week 21!!

Documented Life Week 19: Art Abandonment

I'm quite behind on sharing my documented life project with you guys, but there is a reason!  Here is my page from week 19 - the challenge was to do something nice for others:

This week is what kept me behind!  So, as you can see I created some stuff for art abandonment.  Here is what I created:

I just realized that they kind of matched the weekly page - I didn't do that on purpose but its kinda neat that it happened that way!

I've already abandoned two of the cards:

On a bench at the grocery store

On a table in a lobby at the community college where I do art therapy

I don't know if anyone has found the cards I left.  I am guessing so since I abandoned them last week, but as far as I know they have not emailed the address because I did not see anything about it on Facebook.

Well friends that is it for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Blog Hop Around the World!

Claudia over at http://creativeupcycling.blogspot.com/ invited me to participate in a blog hop!  Of course I said yes!!    

What am I working on? 
What am I not working on?  That's the real question.  I still have 2 months left of graduate school so recently a lot of my time has been devoted to working n my thesis! On the art front I have my WIPs - I'm doing the Documented Life Project, I keep an art journal, I do a monthly & yearly right brain planner, I keep a fitness art journal, I participate in the Happy Art Swap and I have a painting that I am working on.  Also, ICAD started yesterday!!  Here is my first card:

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I am not sure if my personal work differs from others.  I do art because it makes me feel good and helps me de-stress.  I do art to heal myself!  

On the art therapy front, I do think my work my differ from others!  I bring my own personal style into my work with my clients.  I like to use recycled materials.  Also, while I do have some art training (enough to go to school to become an art therapist), I am not as trained in art as many other people in my field.  A lot of my style and work/material preference has developed via experimentation on my own.  

This is a picture of a community painting we did at first Friday - we recycled one of my old canvases for this!  You can see a video of this painting being made at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_4jU7l8quA

Why do I create what I do?
As previously stated, I do art to feel better. I had surgery on my hip back in 2009.  It still gives me trouble and causes me pain.  I also struggle with depression - its definitely a chemical thing for me and hormonally linked.  In addition to my personal issues, I am in graduate school which means tons of stress!  A lot of my art has to do with motivating myself, thinking positively and feeling better.  I ALWAYS feel better when I allow myself some time to get involved in the creative process.  

I do art therapy because I feel that if art can help me then it can help others too!  I certainly want to work with veterans because I understand military culture and I know the challenges that veterans face.  I really hope that I am able to teach others how to use the creative process to improve their quality of life.

How does your creating process work?

I suppose my process depends on what I am trying to do.  Typically with an art journal page I start by selecting 3-5 colors (sometimes monochromatic, sometimes not).  I scrape them onto the paper with an old credit card or old insurance card.  Then sometimes I print other designs on them with different colors - sometimes not.  Sometimes I use washi tape and/or collage of different colored paper.  Then I select an image from my stash of images.  After I pick the image I go through my box of cut out words/phrases.  Unless I am making art for a specific purpose (for instance postcard swaps where I try to make cards about art making) I just pick whichever words "speak" to me.  

Part of the blog hop is that I get to direct all of you lovely readers over to three more people who will be participate in the hop!!  So, here they are:

Trece blogs at http://simplytrece.wordpress.com/  - This wonderful woman was the first of my online friends!  We have never met in person but we talk online and we have sent mailart to each other many times!  She has been super supportive and I am so glad I "met" her.

Sarah blogs at http://rainbowgeckogal.blogspot.com/ - I also met Sarah online and she has been a wonderful mailart friend.  She lives is Australia!!  She has sent me lots of goodies that have ended up in my art journal!  

Last, but not least, is Teresa and she blogs at http://www.rightbrainplanner.com/ - Like my previous two buddies, I met Teresa online too!  I have been doing Teresa's monthly Right Brain Planner since October!  Following her work has given me the opportunity to find news ways of journaling and planning.  

So, go visit my wonderful friends - they will positing the answers to the above questions on their own blogs next week, June 9th.  

Thanks for stopping by today!!  Have a great Monday.  

Week 16 & Week 17 Documented Life Project

Hey there!  Happy Thursday!  Today I wanted to show you some pages from my Documented Life Project art journal/planner.

Here is the week 16:

And the art journal page:

The challenge was to use something from cardboard food packaging - I cut out that cookie from a gluten free cookie package.

Here is week 17:

And the week 17 art journal page:

The challenge was to include your favorite shoes.  Yes, running shoes are my favorite.  Because I have plantar fasciitis I need the support that my custom orthotic inserts provide - and they only fit in running shoes.  But that is not the only reason - I have always LOVE wearing running shoes, even when I am not working out.

Documented Life Project Weeks 14 & 15

I'm doing my documented life project catch-up post after only 2 weeks.. I think that may be a first.  Anyways, here are some photos for you...

Week 14 was the week of the Homeless Veteran Stand Down and the CVA's Military Ball.  The challenge this week was to decorate the page with your name:

Week 15 - the monochromatic week... of course I did pink again! Here is how it turned out:

I like how both of the weeks came out!  Simple but good!  I hope you guys enjoyed seeing the pictures!!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great day!!

Documented Life Catch-up (again!) weeks 11-13

Hello!  Time for another Documented Life Project catch-up post!  Lets get to it!
Week 11 - Put a bird on it:

Week 12 - cut up a magazine...add:

Week 13 - Let someone draw on your page and finish it....

my friend and classmate Erika drew this mandala during a class

My finished page

Hope you guys enjoyed seeing my responses to the challenges.  Thanks for stopping by - have a great day!

Another Documented Life Catch-up Post

Well it seems I am not very good at staying on top of posting the Documented Life pages... so, here we go with another catch-up post.

Week 8 - Add a flap to your flap... I normally don't even do one flap but I did two for this challenge so I ended up with lots of pages:

Week 9 - Use recycled materials... everything I used on the page (except the paint) was re-used.

Week 10 - Answer "what makes me, me?" (I'm really not sure about the punctuation for that sentence ...please forgive me!)

Even though I have not been doing very well at posting my pages, I have been enjoying creating them.  Its a fun project and I am sure I will love looking back over it and seeing what I did each week for the entire year!

Documented Life Catchup (week

Today is a Documented Life Project catch up post!!

Week 5's challenge was to have a doodle boarder:

Week 6's challenges was to find a picture on Pinterest to inspire a page in the journal... so here is my inspiration page:

by Michelle Rydell 

My page looks like this:

 It is a message to myself because I have been VERY stressed out lately.

The next challenge, week 7 was to pick a shape and repeat it... so, I chose hearts because it was close to Valentines Day and my page was pink:

I left it very simple but I like how it turned out.  I hope you guys enjoyed seeing the pages.  If you are participating then I would love to see your pages to!!