Week One - Starting off the New Year

The new year is upon us, and the holiday season is just another sweet memory to treasure. Winter is setting in and we have time to take a little breather from the mad crush of preparations to think and to create art just for ourselves.

Where do you want your life to go this year?  Do you need to focus more on your faith? Pare down your possessions?  Renew or repair relationships?  Create more?  Work on eating healthier? Spend less time "wasting time"  and more time "making time"?  Do you need to get more in touch with your true inner feelings?  We want you to think about a touchstone phrase, collection of meaningful words or a keyword that you want to embrace in 2015.  Often better than a whole list of "resolutions" that will ultimately go by the wayside, a single thought or phrase that you can focus on throughout the whole year will help keep you in touch with your goals, hopes & dreams for the coming year.  And having it in your journal, where hopefully you are creating every week, you can see that thought, that idea, that goal and stay better attuned to where you want to end up by the close of this year.

These thoughts will always be uniquely you. So express this keyword or phrase or collection of keywords in your own unique way; in a way that will be meaningful to you throughout the year.

Below see how we all put our own unique spin on this week's prompt in an artistic way.  Leave a comment for us and tell us what you think.  We will be anxious to see your work in Artful Journeys. Get busy, get creative and show us!



BETTY RICHARDSON - see her full page and process here

MELODY ELZY - see her full page and process here

TAMIE WILSON -  Acrylics, bottle caps for stencil circles, words from a magazine, washi tape, stencils, white and black wax pencils, Fairy Doll from a collage sheet of CBD; gems, bubble wrap for stamping, markers.  View her full post and process here

LYNN JACKSON -  This week, I used Apple Barrel brand crafters acrylic for the base turquoise blue.  I added some Tim Holtz tissue paper, and the Faith is a sticker...the bird came from from our own Melody Elzy. For the circles, I used a stamp with black ink. The "faith" at the bottom of the page is Washi tape that I cut out for the letters. The small words around the page are also by Tim Holtz.

The bird symbolizes my grandson. I have faith that someday my grandson will fly in his own direction in life. He struggles with finding strengths and things that he is good at. I have faith that one day it will all come together for him and he will be able to start his life and fly in whatever direction he chooses and succeed. When the days are long and tough with my grandson, I keep strong in my faith in him. I know that no matter the adversity he faces, he can overcome and fly high!