A little drawing....

It's been a while since I have posted a drawing. I have lacked the motivation, desire, as I have been fighting through grief. So, I finally felt like doing a little drawing a week or so ago, and I am happy with how it turned out. It's a pencil drawing with a little color pencil on the eyes, I like to do that with my pencil drawings, to add a bit of color to the eyes, I like that contrast. I also am not good at drawing flowers and thought it would be fun to go back to my mixed media roots and add the poppies for a pop of color and fun. I love her. I think she is one of my better pencil drawings in a good while. Motivates me to continue on. 

2025 Journal Complete

Tonight, I finished up my 2025 journal. I'm fairly happy with this year's look. All except the ribbon. It's pretty, but it's too stretchy so it doesn't hold the journal closed very well. It just keeps stretching and loosening. So frustrating. But I like the retro papers and how it turned out over all. 

This is the front, sparkly retro papers. I was gifted this paper, so I was happy to be able to use it in this journal cover. 

 Below is how it all started. I start with a composition book, its cheap, I take it apart, removing the paper from the cover. I cut the cover in two.  Then I divide the papers up into sections for however pages I need for the year, each month usually 2 days to a page. Adding the month tabs on top, a calendar page for birthday reminders and appointments etc. I sew each section down the center to keep them together. I then go through the year and cover each page with a paper etc. like I have shown you in past posts. Now we are here, the binding. I use a good piece of cardboard and cut it to the size of my stack of journal sections. Cover edges with masking tape so that it is sturdier, as I am going to be using the hemp string to lay through the center of each section and then tie to the cardboard to hold in place. I also notch the designated number of notches for the number of sections I have. That way the string with settle into that notch and stay in place.

I decide on my papers for my cover inside and out and for the spine. All papers are mod podged in, sometimes I have to ruff up the front of the composition covers to make sure the papers stick better. I cannot do the spine of course until all are attached and front covers on. 

This is a picture of how I find the center of the section and lay the string down it and then pull it to the spine section and tie it and hot glue each tie to make sure they do not come undone as you see below. Cutting off excess string. 

Then I add a piece of heavier card stock to the back of the pretty paper I'm putting on the spine to cover this to make it sturdier and also to allow me to hot glue it to this mess of string without it showing the bumps through the spin paper. You have to do it in sections when dealing with hot glue. Overlap the paper onto the covers to make a nice-looking book. So there it is, 2025 all bound! I now will start a new book, making my sections, sewing the sections, I better get busy, the new year is just a few days away!! Thanks for stopping by!

Final Pages of 2025 Journal

Finishing up the last pages a little ahead of time. I had found some quotes that I wanted to use and they were fitting my moods. Also celebrated grandson Dominics 11th birthday. He is our first grandson.  Growing up so fast. 

I love this paper, also off of Etsy. Most all of my papers are. I used my cricut to print on the old cards instead of doing the regular cut out on vinyl. Cutting out the moths a bit to fit the cards in is a trick I like to use from time to time. I added some iridescent ink on the moths to give them some sparkle. 

This paper is yummy, I love distressed stuff. A bit of a pep talk with these quotes. Surrender and Faith go hand in hand.

This is one of my favorite pages of this section. The little girl with the wings and look on her face is priceless. I like the quote that I put with it..."If you could see the way God looks at you, you'd never question your worth again." I love that. 

Layering papers and some fun with a vinyl image of berries on the branch. Matching the art work I found on pinterest. 

More layering with a vintage looking set. Yes I used another moth, apparently its my thing, moths, butterflies, dragonflies..lol

This page I hope you can see. It's stunning in real life. I love the boat on the water with the stars, adding more vinyl stars across the page as if they just keep going.. More quotes that mean a lot to me. Quotes that speak to me on those days. 

This is a very vibrant page, yes...a butterfly!  I have been trying to be more in tune with my savior. I want to always do HIS will, to trust more, have more faith. So a lot of my quotes are reminders and instructions for me. 

I love this paper combo the floral and the plaid. So stunning. Using my sprocket to print off a few picture quotes to change things up. 

This page was inspired by my daughters outfit for her friends birthday party.  Going off the orange from her shirt I picked these fun papers out along with this angel girl with the same colors. 
 

Catchin up on sharing journal pages October through present....

 Sharing a few more pages, soon I will be binding this one up and setting it on the shelf, ready to start a new year.  It's been harder to do my journal or create any art it seems these days. I seem to still struggle with my grief. When you lose someone, especially a child, even though he was my 28-yr old child, it changes you, it changes the importance of things, what is, what isn't. The first year it was hard, but it was also something I needed to do, to release some of my pain. This last 6 months after the year mark, have just been hard to find motivation for anything. I have learned through the loss, that What really matters is my relationship with the Messiah, my family. Period. I have felt detached from the world. This world is not our home! So, my journaling comes in spurts. I play catch up a lot. I'm glad I do the work, being able to look back on and see what I have been through, see how the Messiah has brought me through. 

So here are a few journal pages from Oct through present month. 

I love searching Pinterest for images, then taking that image and searching out papers to go with and making up a layout. I find what speaks to me. 

This page included a layout for my grandson Mason's birthday. He is quite the character. Full of energy and full of life that one!

This page shows heartache, and it shows my middle son Luke visiting his grandmother who has dementia. He is a compassionate young man and loves deeply. She kind of favors him :)

started with the image, found the papers, which I usually purchase off Etsy for instant download. 

Again this started with the image. Being and artist, I appreciate others art a lot. 

Celebrated my 63rd this year...oh joy!

Seem to use a lot of butterflies and birds. 

Love this layout , and the one below, completely different, just a couple that seemed to work out. 

Another favorite, just the gingham and the butterflies make it so fun. 

Celebrated grandson Wyatts birthday as well. He has the cutest voice. He is shy, yet not. He is very kind. 

Love this layout as well, like piecing things in , creating a few layers. The quotes are good as well. 

Sepia tone layout...reminds me of my paper bag album days, making vintage themed mini scrapbooks. I sold alot of those things!

Fun layout with this paper, I got these cool paper books from Barnes and Noble for my birthday. I almost hate to use the papers in the books, cuz I just like looking at them! But I sacrificed a loose page for this layout. 

This page has my grandkids' school pictures on them. On the left is Trever, Addalynn, and Kyra, those are my late son Blaine's kids with Bethany. Above is Oliver, my son Luke's son. On the right is Dominic, Wyatt, and Mason, they are my oldest son Wesley's boys with Sandy and they have a little girl Amara, who is not in school yet. 

Sometimes I like to add something I posted on Facebook, such as this funny quote about being in the loop. I like quirky birds as well, if you haven't noticed , bird in boots, clothes, steampunk...YES!

Anyway this is the extent of my pages for this time. I will finish up November and December and post those pictures then I think I will post how I bind my journals into one big book. Show the finished product. Will have to be thinking what I want to use for the papers to cover my book this year..

a few more favorites from past months...

 It has been a busy few months since I posted last. I find it has been hard to commit to getting to my journal every day, I want too, and I need too, but sometimes my grief stifles my creativity, or mood to create something. Or just plain tired from working and life. But I do long for creating every day. 

We had stuff stored at our oldest son's house and after 2 years of living in our apartment, we decided it was time to move it to our garage here. Probably could of just dumped it all since we hadn't used it in 2 years! So that was taken care of as we moved into a garage closer to our apartment, then moved the stuff from our sons into the garage. We had gone through the stuff at our son's house and rented a dumpster to dump some things there. 

The grand kids started school, so always like to get them on the first day. Always fun. Birthdays, events, just keeping busy. I am finally getting around to add to my blog! 

I now have some catching up to do as I have been sick for about a week! 

this is my favorite page, just like the gloominess of it all, yet its pretty. I like finding artwork on Pinterest that makes me smile or feel a certain way. Adding to the pages. 

Sometimes I find the image and build the page from that. If you notice the picture up in the upper right..I absolutely love it, it looks like my Blaine and I wish I had it in a framed print on my wall. 

Shane and I celebrated our 42nd Anniversary this year. We must be old as we chose to stay home and cook steak in the airfryer then to go out!

Im a sucker from sepia tone....

This bird cracks me up so I found papers to match. I use Esty a lot for my papers, the downloadable availability is fantastic.  The fold shows my 2 older grandsons being safety guards at their perspective schools, on the same day! 

I made a fold out album of the grandsons Dominic, Wyatt and Mason and Oliver as well. They attended a back-to-school foam part down in a shopping area. They had a good time but after a bit it did get a bit chilly!

My journal has been a place to place my thoughts, cheer myself up, cheer myself on and a place to continue with my grief. I haven't done much actual journaling my thoughts in this album, I started out journaling every day, but I slacked off and just have gone on with finding what speaks to me that day and time. 

More Journal pages...

 I'm adding some of my journal pages from the last time I posted. I love these pages, the girl riding the moth is my favorite page in this section. It brings me joy and a smile to my face. I like adding in art I find on Pinterest that makes me smile.  Then I usually find downloadable papers on Etsy to match the theme or look for ones I have already downloaded. I am using Etsy pretty much exclusively as finding scrapbook papers at Michaels or Hobby lobby, that I haven't used is hard. SO, I have more luck with Etsy.

So, enjoy these few pages, until next time.