Starts tomorrow

Are you ready?
I am on the Design Team for JustBYourself and you can see my October blog post using one of Anita's designs.

Anita has very kindly provided the art journaling sheets I used as free PDFs for anyone involved in the challenge blog to download.  If you would prefer them as jpegs you will need to visit her Etsy shop, where you will find lots of other lovely pages to purchase.


Followers
Welcome to all those who are following the blog.  I would recommend that even if you only do it for November that you follow the blog through Google Reader, an RSS feed or whatever way you choose to follow blogs.    On a few days there are going to be two posts as I have decided to make the Guest Posts separate and may not always be able to link the challenge post to the guest post.

You might also want to follow NewlyCreative through November too where I will be posting my journal.

Blog linky
If you would like to put a blog linky (I'm sure it has a proper name) on your blog, please download this image by right clicking on it:

Please link it to http://anattitudeofgratitudejournal.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks


Technique Challenges
Each day has a technique to use on your page.  If this doesn't stretch you enough or you don't have the products to be able to try the technique then you can download a list of other techniques.  I have designed it so that you can cut the page into strips, once you've printed it out, and you can put the strips into a container and pull one out each day.


Quotes and Bible Verses
Each day there is a quote or a Bible verse for you to use on your page if you wish.   If you want to be able to print them out in one go rather than each day then you can download them here:  Quotes   Bible Verses

I am so looking forward to seeing what you do over the next 30 days.  Please don't forget to link your blog post or photo of your work using the InLinkz on each blog post here.

Have fun.  And thank you for taking part.

Bernice

Thankful Thursday: one week to go

Recap

Each day throughout November there will be a blog post here with a daily theme.  There will be a quote, a Bible verse, some questions, videos or blog links to get you thinking and inspired and a technique challenge for those who wish to take it on.

There are guest posts during the month.

There's a Flickr group and a Pinterest board.

There's an InLinkz at the end of each post for you to link your work.  It's a text link so it will only show your name.

There will be a PDF to download every day.

There will be a post everyday through November on Newly Creative so that you can see how I have done my page.  And there's a post there tomorrow where you can see what journal I decided to make.

There will be a post here next Wednesday with any other thoughts I've had during the next few days which may help you during November.

Supplies
I won't be giving you a supplies list.  I suggest you use the inks, sprays, paints, stamps and papers you already own to make the journal truly yours.  When you look at my pages on NewlyCreative they are there solely for inspiration, not for you to copy.  I use a lot of Dylusions products but you don't have to.  Use what you have.  Some of the techniques may not work in the same way with different products but it doesn't matter. It means your journal will be unique to you.

Rules

Remember the rule: this is your journal and you do it the way you want to.  There are no other rules!


Oh, sorry there IS another rule!

 Have fun!
 

 

See you next Thursday for Day One of An Attitude of Gratitude Journal Prompts and Challenges.

And don't forget to pop in here next Wednesday for any updates.

Bernice

Thankful Thursday: Happy Mail

Decisions, decisions!

Have you decided whether you're going to join in?

If you are, have you decided how you're going to record your thoughts?   I hope the previous posts have helped rather than making you more confused.

Thanks to everyone who is planning to join in how ever much or how ever little you have time for.

See you next Thursday for our final Thankful Thursday before we start out November challenges.

Bernice

Thankful Thursday: Art Journals

Make your own art journal

There are lots of ways of making an art journal.  You only have to search online to find the different ways that people use.

I'm going to share a few ways that I've used.

Here's Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 Page Journal Part 1 of 2

Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 Page Journal Part 2 of 2

I bought a sheet of watercolour paper from Hobby craft and following the instructions I made this:

 I also made a much smaller version which is 13cm tall and 10cm wide.  Each sheet of paper was 13cm tall and 30cm wide and folded in a variety of ways.  I also added little bits of extra book paper in some of the signatures.

Each set of three sheets were sewn together to make a signature and then I threaded through the threads on the outside to bind the book together.

I recommend with this style of journal that you paint the paper randomly before you cut it up to assemble.  You can decorate it and journal on it when you have put it together.

This next art journal was made by deciding what size I wanted the page to be.  In this case 26cm wide and 21cm tall.  Then I added a further 4cm to the lefthandside and scored down the page at the 4cm mark.  Each page was worked on separately and at the end the cover was made and bound so that book opens at the scored mark.

If you want to use individual pieces of paper you can and if you have access to a Bind-It-All use that to bind the pages together.  Or punch holes and use book rings.

Lastly you could use a standard spiral bound sketchbook and take the pages out.  Carefully cut between the double rings so that you can detach the page and put it back. 

I hope you have found it useful to look at the different types of journal.  Why not share in the comments below what you have decided to do for your journal.


If you have time this video walks you through a finished version of the Teesha Moore journal.

Thanks for dropping by.
Bernice

Thankful Thursday: Journals

Quick Question
Have you joined the Flickr group yet?


Pinterest
I've also set up a board on Pinterest.  If you have a Pinterest account already and wish to add pictures to the board let me know by email and I will add you.  If you'd like an invitation to Pinterest please email me.  But be warned!  It is almost more addictive than Facebook, although you can often rationlise the time spent on Pinterest rather more than Facebook!!!


Anyway, on to Journals

As I said last week, you can use the daily blog posts to just give you an idea and then to write down 3 - 5 things you are grateful for that day.  It can be an ordinary exercise book or a more special notebook.

Creative Journals
If you like papercrafting you could make scrapbook layouts for each day.  If you do that I suggest you don't go bigger than 8x8" unless you've got lots of time.

You could make a minibook if you prefer.   Here are instructions for an A4 book that I made.

I found this smash book style mini book by Monika Wright

Or there's a photographic journal by Michelle Wooderson

If art journaling is your thing, you could use a ready made sketchbook or make your own.
Here's one being done in a Moleskine-type journal. 

Next week we'll look at different ways of making your own art journal.


Alternatively ....
... don't use a paper version at all.  Why not use your computer, phone or tablet?

There are Apps available.  There's a small charge for this one but there are free ones available.

Or you could blog your response every day.


And of course there's the option to read this blog and do nothing at all or find your own way of doing it.