besottment by paper relics

My Week In Journaling

This past week I have been busy and took some photos I wanted to share. I am going through a lot at the moment, and journaling helps keep me grounded...

I walked a local labyrinth (above) and felt so good for the first time in ages. I used a leaf I found while walking to write out the feelings I experienced while there. I then incorporated it into a subpage to add to my daily journal (below). On the page, I wrote out the thoughts I had about each word I wrote on the leaf.

Next up was a fire in the fire pit to get rid of some things I needed to purge from my life, including a journal from the end of last year. How fitting that when I tossed it into the flames, it flipped open to a #truthbomb saying, "focus on the sweet of bittersweet" - it was just the message I needed at the moment.

The last thing to share was an impromptu trip to the beach with a close friend. I took my polaroid, and had a chance to sit and journal while listening to the ebb and flow of the ocean sprawled out before me, which made me reflect upon the ebb and flow of things in my life right now. It was an amazing experience.

I have some more posts planned for the upcoming weeks - but wanted to share what I have been up to in the meantime! More soon!

Evolution of a Spread: My Fears

This post documents a journal spread I started in my Travelers Notebook. Usually I do a full spread in a sitting, but this one was big and deep, so I spent my time on it. I shared some of these photos as the spread progressed on instagram, but wanted to do a blog post with them all, from start to finish. This post, and all the photos, were put together and taken over a weeks time.

I started reading this book and it focused a lot on fear, I did not follow the daily steps, and was not completely sold on everything I read, but did get some gems, like what I wrote above with the mirror image I used.

Above I used 4 copies of vintage photobooth photos of myself, and here is where I made a list of all my fears. I broke them down into 4 sections based off how much they affect me. I blurred them out in the photo since they are very raw and I am not ready to share them yet.

Inside I added a vintage glassine envelope where I planned to write out a bit about my biggest fears.

I also dug out two ladies from my collection each facing a different direction and had the idea to put one facing my fears, and one turning my back on them (and I ended up writing about each further down).

Here is a close up. the "do the opposite of what your fear is telling you to do" is a truth bomb card that I cut down to size.

I did a little work on the front of my subpage/flap next. I added a photo of me in the light to remind me to see light instead of fear. And the words "Heart Energy" since I put so much into my fears, with a note that there are better ways to use that energy.

I also added more text about facing and turning my back on my fears. And finally did the hard work of journaling about my biggest fears for the glassine envelope. I thought it was fitting that if you look closely at the envelope you can see my words (fears) through it, just like if anyone were to take a close look at me, they would see my fears though my mask.

Here is a close another up. You can see I also added a torn vintage dennisons label that I typed "love is" on...

I added another vintage vocab card under love is... because to me love is bright and light!

Above the mirror image and quote, I used these amazing gold alphabet stickers that Midori makes (so in love with them. I already reordered 2 more sets!) to spell out "see my Truth.

I ended up doing some journaling and hand lettering to finish up the spread...

And I decided to end the spread with my biggest wish my fears are holding me back from... sharing my love and light with others.

 

Here is a quick video of the spread I posted on instagram:

 

My fear spread is complete! Look for a blog post soon! #midoritravelersnotebook #artjournal

A video posted by Hope Wallace (@besottment) on Aug 4, 2016 at 8:03pm PDT

 

 

That's it! I hope you enjoyed seeing this spread evolve! Check out my other recent evolution of a spread HERE.

 

Journaling The Story in my Head: Follow Up

A follow up to the post I published earlier this week in my Travelers Notebook.

 I basically added some papers and pretty tape as accents.

 I then used the left side to journal out my thoughts to help me work through where my head and heart are at the moment.

 I also added some things to the right, reminding myself, yet again (they say repetition works) that my stories are not truths.

 I posted this to instagram and blurred out the writing as it was pretty deep and private.

 

 

We all tell stories in our heads that cloud the lens which we view the world....

But Remember, they are just stories. Not Truths. 

 

 

Journaling The Story in my Head

 

We all tell stories in our heads that cloud the lens which we view the world.

I use journaling as a way to work through mine, to remember they are just stories.

Not truths.

 

If that is not enough reason to keep a journal - check out this amazing article: Why Keeping A Daily Journal Could Change Your Life

 

 

A peek into my Travelers Notebook that I use for everyday journaling, it is easy to carry, and I am travelling through life, so it seems fitting. In the spread above I did the following:

 I obviously used one of ladys I love to represent me.

  I cut her head open to show what is inside my head (that sounds a little gross, but you know what I mean!)

 I drew my new mala around her neck to represent that I am working on this and growing. Mala's work well for me because, for one, I meditate, and two, I am an ENFP (more on that in a future post!) and that means I tend to find meaning in everything, so each item used to make up the mala I choose helps me focus on growth. I recently purchased a mala from Tiny Devotions that is working very well for me.

 I wrote little notes here and there to help me see how it is distorting the way I view the world.

 I used a vintage label maker to type out "Ignore the story, see the soul", that I read in an article in Mantra Magazine.

The spread isn’t finished yet, but the important parts are there, I will probably add a quote and some other old papers for aesthetic reasons, but the journaling for growth is what I wanted to share with you. I encourage everyone to journal, whether it is just with pen paper, or a room of art supplies, for better emotional health, and to help work though issues in your life. The benefits of getting what is in your mind onto paper is amazing. All in all, journaling has been huge part in helping me become who I am today, and will continue to keep me on track with being the person I want to continue to be.

 

 

Evolution of a Spread: Hat of Growth & Goodness

I thought it would be fun to share with you the progress of a journal spread I recently made:

 I got the idea of this spread from an illustrated pin I saw about caring for yourself, and it showed flowers coming out of a head and them being watered (I cannot find the pin now to share, sorry!!). So that is where my mind was at when I found a lady to use. I used the heading under her to create the "Hat of Growth and Goodness" along with my own writing. I used an old tin type frame to frame her:

 Now I needed flowers, but I found some great imagery in an article form Happinez magazine that I thought were perfect:

 I then pasted her in and added some old french paper as a background.:

 I added some hand written text about my recent growth and goodness, and at this point I realized that I made it too big to fit in my Passport Travelers Notebook, so decided to switch gears to put it in my regular size Travelers Notebook:

 So I started to work on the overall page. I used some favorite bits of old paper, and a photo of the wish I hung on a wish tree in 2014, while at a retreat in California:

 I put in some words i typed on a vintage typewriter that have spoken to me for a few years now, "Turn the lens of your life to catch more of the light", that I read in Daphne Rose Kingma's The Ten Things to Do When Your Life Falls Apart: An Emotional and Spiritual Handbook. And I adhered my hat of growth and goodness piece:

Lastly I added some journaling, and outlined things, I tend to do that a lot... I outline everything!:

So that is the evolution of one of my journal spreads! I hope you enjoyed seeing the process!

Journal Prompt: Feeling-Based Goals

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” - Zig Ziglar

I recently wrote an article for a friends blog, and the post is geared towards people going through divorce, but the subject, Feeling Based Goals and the steps to work with them that I listed out in the article are ones I wanted to sit down and journal.

 If you want to journal along, here are the steps:

Steps to Cultivate Feeling-Based Goals

 

1. Identify the times you feel great, those moments when your cheeks hurt from smiling, or your heart feels light and free.
2. Name the feeling(s) that you are experiencing in those moments, and write them each down.
3. Next to each feeling, write 2-4 things that make you experience that particular emotion.
4. Now take a moment to review and reflect on all that you wrote down. Think about what you can do in your daily life to help cultivate those feelings.
5. Compare this list to your current list of traditional goals: see where things line up, and where they don’t. Think about how you will feel once you accomplish each goal. Do those feelings match up to the ones you listed in steps 1-3? If those feelings match up, great — you are on your way to making fruitful goals and growth. If they don’t, you may want to go back and reexamine each goal again to see how it can be adjusted to align with how you wish to feel.

I decided to take a small break from my Travelers Notebook and work in a Moleskine (in the large size) For the numbers of the steps, I used vintage numeric stamps (1-4) and I used a vintage photobooth photo of me that I had scanned and had printed 5x5.

You all know how much I love subpages! I added 2 to this spread/ My photo is one sub-page going off the page, and then I used a vintage flash card that said "Happiness" as a internal subpage under the first one.

I wrote a lot about joy, so I used the happiness card subpage area to talk about my views on the difference between happiness vs. joy.

 

 

Journaled Quote

"Be a lamp unto yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold to the truth within yourself, as to the only truth." - The Buddha

This quote spoke to me, so I had to journaling it in my passport sized Travelers Notebook!

Hello!!!

I have been getting sweet emails asking if I was going to be blogging again, and I am finally feeling inspired and ready to blog again! I also made the blog wider so I can share photos a bit larger!

I had a recent trip to visit with some old artistic friends (and go to the Farm Chicks show... which was amazing!) and it really jump started me. I started using a traveler's notebook a few years ago but had put it aside, but after being around fellow art journalers decided to bring it out again, so I will start my re-blogging by showing some peeks inside it

Here is a peek at one of the collaged covers I made and some of the bits I have in the plastic sleeve:

Here is an up close peek at the week with friends I mentioned, documented in my travelers notebook, I am using it as my daily now:

Here is an other recent week:

Lastly, I have started a new instagram account just for art journaling, I love my main account for everyday photos and the occasional art journal photo, but wanted a new account just to post journaling photos to, so please come visit at: instagram.com/besottment

Products shown in this post:

• Travelers Notebook (full size, brown)
• Travelers Notebook Clear Zipper Pocket
• Travelers Notebook Clear Card Holder
• Travelers Notebook Free Diary Weekly and Memo Refill

Did I miss something? If you have a question about a product or item I have used - just ask!