My Resolutions and One Little Word Art Journals

{I had a few technical difficulties posting this weekend, but I did complete my art journals and wanted to share them with. My apologies for not posting sooner. Thank you for your patience.}
As part of a year long, on line sharing project called "Art Journaling Intentions and Resolutions" that I will be hosting, today I am sharing the art journals that I have made to record my progress toward completing certain resolutions and toward focusing on my "one little word." I will also make a journal that will help my track my intention to be "Fabulous at 50," but that will happen later this month.  My plan is to pull out these journals once a month, update them, and share them with you.  My hope is that you will do the same.  My plan is to host the share on mid-month, on whatever weekend falls closest to the 15th.

To make my journals, I started with 11x15 pieces of heavy duty watercolor paper.  Each journal required four pieces of paper.  I folded three of them in half (to 7.5"x11") and cut one in half for the cover.  I decided to make my "Resolutions for 2011" journal square, so I trimmed the three interior pages to 7.5x7.5. I decided that I wanted my "One Little Word Journal" to have a horizontal orientation.

The next thing I did was to decide on a treatment for the covers.  I decided to add gesso for texture and then paint them using Michael DeMeng's color wash technique. I decided on this treatment because it makes the covers sturdier than the plain watercolor paper and because I like the way it looks.  Other approaches would be to color with watercolor paint, acrylic paint, cover with patternerned paper, etc.

I decided to go ahead and create backgrounds for all my interior pages before binding the journals. I did them all using variations on Dina Wakley's watercoloring with spray ink technique.  For my resolutions journal, I picked stencils that had various nonspecific geometric shapes (but that I mean they weren't related to any specific resolution).  You can see some samples above.

For my "one little word" journal, which focuses on healthy, I chose to use botanical and nature images throughout.  You can see some of the pages above.  Remember that I'm working with three pages folded in half to make a total of 12 pages, so sometimes I've working on two facing pages at the same time and other times I'm working on one side/page at a time.

The next step is to bind all the pages together.  You have lots of optins, since it's such a simple journal - three folded pieces of paper and two covers. You could punch three holes and tie fiber, twine or ribbon through the holes or use a bind it all or probably even staple it! I chose to use a basic coptic binding technique because I like the way it allows the pages to lie flat.  If you google coptic book binding, you'll find a variety of tutorials.  I kindof like the abbreviated but well illustrated one here or you can check on a longer one at this link. Since this is such a small book (without book board covers) and just one folio per signature, it doesn't require the fancy equipment in the links.  You could also find coptic binding videos on you tube.

The next step is decorating your cover and deciding on a journaling strategy.  You can see my covers at the very top of the post.  For my resolutions journal, I titled it "To Do:  My Resolutions for 2011 and stamped the numbers 1-12 in stayz on ink.  I wrote a quote from T.S. Eliot on top with a white Sharpie poster paint pen.  It says "For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."  I wrote my 12 resolutions in white poster paint on the inside cover of the journal.  I decided not to do anything else on the inside pages for now.  I plan to treat them as backgrounds and create art journal pages (one a month) about whatever resolution I have accomplished.  I just choose whatever background calls to me at the time.

For my "one little word" journal cover (at the top of this post), I stamped health in brown paint using foam stamps because I thought it went along with the botanical/nature stencils I used inside the book.  On the back cover, I wrote the following quote by Terri Guillemets, which I found through Club Scrap: "My own prescription for health is less paperwork and more running barefoot through the grass."  The internal pages (directly above and below) are different than in my resolutions journal.

For each page, I wrote out one of the specific things I want to do around "my little word" this year.  Since many of these pages already seem somewhat complete from an art standpoint, I may simply add journaling to each page rather than adding more visual stuff. We'll see. I was also only able to come up with 8 specific things to write, but I'm sure I'll come up with four more before the year's over.
So, there you have it.  My art journaling plan for my resolutions and "one little word." With a promise that an art journal for my intention to be "Fabulous at 50" will be coming.  What do you think?  Are you willing to try anything similar?  If so, let me know and post a link.  I'll come check it out.  And I'll be returning to the project the weekend of Jan. 15th to show you what I've done and nudge you along your way!