Olas Moon

2020 life journal

Hi Unity friends! It's been a really difficult year for us all. The separation anxiety, the stress of adjusting to changing the way we conduct life, the effects it has had on us all. I was super pumped and ready for this feature last November when the lineup was announced. I had all my projects planned and started. I was happily teasing all of you Unies and making beautiful progress until May when my family endured a life-altering event that really knocked the wind out of me in every way. I'm still finding my footing in this new arena.

The entry below was written back in early May of 2020. Shortly after, life changed and my special year-long project suffered a setback.💔

I am determined to complete it anyway so I kept this post as scheduled. 

Hello GIU followers! it's so good to see you again! I've been looking forward to this week since last year!

When my name was selected for GIU 2020 back in November of 2019 I was instantly inspired to create a journal dedicated to the amazing Unity & Unie family. The timing was perfect since my week landed at Christmas (again) giving me an entire year to complete my week of projects. I took advantage of the opportunities a year gave me. Immediately after my week was announced the ideas and inspiration began overflowing! So much that I had all but one project started before February 2020 arrived! Eventually, I did start second-guessing myself and got nervous that I might not be as excited for these creations in 10 months on reveal day. I also took into consideration all the new stamps Unity would release this year! Oh, man... Yikes! However, the beauty of working ahead gave me the opportunity to take my time, make changes, and not be stressed during the Christmas season.

For my first project, I created a mini journal documenting 52 weeks of my life using Unity's generous, "gift with purchase" paper bags, tags, and Unity stamp images from my collection. When I planned this the Pandemic hadn't yet begun. Luckily it didn't seem to matter as I am generally a homebody by nature.  

I've had this idea brewing for quite a while and I’m so relieved the timing was right to finally start on it. I had saved each little paper bag and tag Unity sent me for several years. I wasn't entirely sure what I would use them for but I knew it would be something special although I never imagined that I would also be documenting historic times of our world.

If you'd like the details of the pages keep reading below!
Thank you for joining me again this week! Don't forget to comment each day for a chance to be chosen to win a generous grab bag from Unity Stamp Co. 

Here's how I created the bag book:
I counted out the amount of bags needed for 52 weeks. I folded them in half and arranged them so that the openings matched - one side of the bags natural opening is shorter, those were flipped to meet each other face to face - I punched five holes in the side and bound the bags with the jute that Unity had included in one of those gift bags. I kept the binding snug but loose enough to allow the pages to still lay flat when opened.

The cover was created using the Kit of the Month “Crazy Tragic Life” from December 2015 and SMAK “Look Up and Get Lost" from July 2018 
I literally slapped and splattered ink and paint until I was happy, then went back and filled in the details with pearl ex powders, glitter paints & gel pens

I used the Sun from the SMAK kit on the front and the moon, stars, and constellation map on the back. I wanted to give the feel of a whole day. The hummingbird and sentiment from this KOM was just perfect for the title of my little journal. It reads, "I love this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic, awful, beautiful life." Which I discovered are song lyrics. Their design layout fits the center of the sun perfectly. 

I painted the hummingbird with Pearl Ex powder medium and powders, the entire bird shimmers just like a jewel. I added details with gel pens and accented it with glitter glues in various colors. They are a little hard to see but I filled in the empty areas with the trio of feathers from the KOM as well. I really love how it turned out. 

✋I originally planned to break this up over the whole week. Because of the situation, I decided to only share the first several weeks. Maybe I will share more at a later time. 

Week 1 & 2 
Firstly, I created a little notebook that fits in the first pocket. It contains a recap of 2019 and the struggles I had endured with severe anxiety and depression. I wrote about how the fellow Unies, Unity designers, and the Magnuson family helped me survive. I expressed my gratitude and dedicate the album to them all. I also do a bit of rambling. LOL! 

I used: "Frazzled" - a grungy stamp from "I am Who I am"  - the sentiment Breathe Deep is from the Itty Bitty "Tiny Mountains." The inside is also stamped with the Itty Bitty "Strong & Beautiful" 

Week 1- My granddaughter turned 2. I used Itty Bitty "She Always Knew" (Retired) and the balloon from "Sweet Elle" to represent her. 
I bought an exercise bike for my health journey and used the bike from KOM "Be My Bird"
We had the first full moon of the year/new decade so I used the moon from SMAK "Look Up and Get Lost"
The whole background is stamped repeatedly with the sentiment "This will be the best year yet!" From "Midnight Kisses" "hello New Year!" is also from that kit. 
To create the background I sprayed distress dyes onto the back of glittered tissue paper concentrating blue on the right for week two's night sky. The bike was stamped onto tissue in order to create the reverse image of it since I wanted the bike to face the opposite direction of its natural state. It worked perfectly. Because the background was so saturated it worked out to continue stamping all of the images onto tissue paper. I softly rubbed white paint with my finger over the areas where the images would sit so they stood out a little more from the background. I ended up at this point after many different attempts. I was so unhappy at one point I almost quit. But the white paint and tissue saved the day! I'm very happy with the final result.

Week 3 & 4

Week 3 - Been sick and housebound since Christmas, have a sinus infection but I'm finally recovering from the stress of moving, unpacking, decorating, and hosting dinners during the holidays. Finally the house as a home and loving it so much. Used "Heartfelt Warmth" and a grab bag goodie H O M E from "House a Home" faintly visible on edge under "love."

Week 4 Used "GiGi Party" to represent my dog Charlie who has had a horrendous time adjusting to our new home. I resorted to buying a sound emitter to train him and calm him down. Miraculously it works!
I masked off GiGi's party hat and cape, drawing on arms and a tail instead. 
The background was created by using the leftover paints from the house and another project by dipping a coarse sponge into it and twisting it, creating the swirls. I felt the swirls were fitting to depict dizziness from my illness, the sound waves from the sound trainer and it matched the circle designs on the large Heart-Felt house stamp... it's so large the whole thing didn't fit on the page!

Week 5 & 6 

Week 5- We have a Woodpecker that visits my Catalpa tree daily. I spent time with him/or her while having coffee this week. For this page I used the Itty Bitty Blu and just tweaked him a little to look like my friend.     

Week 6- I Love that my house is lined with huge Calla Lily's. My Grandparents had them around their house too. I didn't have a Calla Lily stamp from unity so I had to improvise again. I used the big flower from Blow Your Mind. You might recall I used that flower as a Poinsettia a few years ago too.  I just love its versatility. I used the biggest petal in the center and for the stamen I used the grunge element from You Can Do It. Because I had been so creative that week I used the Art sentiment from Let Adventure kit, which isn't on the Unity site right now. 

lots of goodies on these little pages

Week 7 & 8

I LOVE how this turned out! More art referencing and it was Oscar week! I had received a grab bag stamp of a group of vintage men from this KOM. I used one of them as my model for my oscar statue. 😁 He's perfect! 

Left: Unusual Day Poppy & Stay Classy 
Right: SMAK It's a Feeling 

 Week 9 & 10
 reached for the kit I wrote about in the mini-notebook this week. 

Don't Give Up & You Are My Person

Unity typically sends shipping tags in these gift bags. I also saved those over the years. When I began the bag book I also began preparing the tags. I splattered and sopped up the excess paints and inks (from other projects as well) with them to create interesting backgrounds. The tags tuck into pockets perfectly and give extra space for more images and journaling.

I hope I will feel inspired to work on this Life Journal again after Christmas. Despite everything that was going on, I managed to keep notes and follow the tips that I wrote out below.
Before you leave, make sure to pop into the comment section for a chance to win some Unity stamps! 

Thanks for stopping in! 

*Quick Tips

• If you’re ready to take on a 52-week journal like this I recommend keeping a lot of notes instead of relying on memory. I used post-it notes with the week numbers and dates through the entire book then added important details to them so they were ready for me when I had time to spend creating art in the book.
• Work in batches. As long as your notes are current it’s ok to fall a week or two behind (4 weeks is only 4 pages) this gives you time to think about what images would work best with your life at that time.
• Keep it simple. These are small pages and it taught me to not overthink or try to cram everything onto a page.
• If you’re blogging about your book, work ahead and don’t publish until completed. This keeps you from getting overwhelmed by a large volume of content all at once. This includes links to products used.
• If you're sharing publicly on any platform you're bound to be asked the who-what-where's of your supplies. Keep notes of what is used while creating so that you are able to mention/link them quickly without struggling to remember. 
• Each bag can have an opening - the closed bottoms can be cut open for more pocket space if needed throughout the year.
• Tissue paper (gift wrap style) works perfectly for reversing images or covering a mistake, trust me! I learned this week one! LOL! 
• Mistakes are fixable - Also learned week one! my first two pages were a mess! I almost gave up right then. White paint is amazing. Combined with tissue paper... MAGIC!
• Use what you have but keep your materials lightweight. The paper bags are super forgiving and a great substrate but they are thin so keep things light.
• Scraps and small leftovers from previous projects are perfect for adding accents and notes.
• Dictate your notes to save time. Email them to yourself and paste them into your blog. This is such a time saver and can be done anywhere!