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Saturday, June 29, 2019

Wellness Journal Part C - Example Pages and Printable Tracker List

There are a lot of pictures in this post.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Last weekend, my family and I went to the coast.  It was a beautiful getaway and we had a wonderful, relaxing, mini-vacation.  We drove to the coast so I knew there would be space for some art supplies. In addition to a package of rolls of washi tape, that is not pictured, the box below shows the materials that I brought to use.  As it turned out, I did not end up using everything I brought.

Travel box of supplies for the weekend
To read more about the idea behind, and some resources for, a Wellness Journal please look at these two posts, here and here. In the first one, I give an example of a time management technique and the second one, I share more specific information about a couple of dimensions of wellness.


In the evenings and early mornings, I spent a little bit of time putting my Wellness Journal together. When I was organizing how to set everything up, I decided that it would be more convenient to have a separate tracker for food and water consumption that I could keep in the kitchen.  And one that it didn't matter if someone splattered spaghetti sauce upon. For that purpose, I chose an old Composition notebook, pictured below. 

From the clearance section at Target a couple of years ago

Water and food tracker on composition paper


As time goes on, I might draw lines for columns for the days of the week.  Right now, they are just divided by open space in-between the washi tape days. The little scale and glasses of water to color in or mark off, are stamped images. This format gives me plenty of space to write down what I eat each day. Now, onto the main tracker/journal...


For my main record keeping, I decided to go with a Rhodia Dot Pad. I like the size of it and the dots.  Both sides of the pages have dots. I like to use things all the way up, so this will work for at least a year. Also, it is easy to remove pages, as needed. This type of paper works very well for bullet journaling, too.

Rewards that are meaningful to me written over a stenciled woman from StencilGirl
On the very first page, I listed some rewards that I may earn by achieving some of my goals.  Sometimes, it is nice to have a reward after working to achieve something.  Sometimes, the reward is in the achievement.  A lot of that has to do with mindset and effort, in my opinion.  And everyone is different in how important rewards are to them.

This is a double-page spread for my gratitude practice
The next page is used for recording daily gratitude reminders.  I kept the lefthand-side page blank so that there would be space for an entire month's worth of little hearts.  Those were leftover from a project made a long time ago.  At the time, I cut an entire 12 x 12 cardstock sheet (or maybe two) using my Cricut and the Art Philosophy Cartridge.

This is the back page of the gratitude page and opposite the main tracking page
Next, I want to track my fruit and vegetable intake.  There is a lot of conflicting information about whether 5 a day is enough fruit and veg or if it should be 7 or 10.  Some people say 5 is not necessary.  At this point in my life, 5 seems like a good number. So, for now, I am sticking with that.  If modifications seem necessary, it will be easy to do those down the line.

This is the busiest page because I wanted a one-page, at-a-glance type tracker
The first page with dates attributed to it starts in the middle of the year. That may seem strange.  However, we are halfway into the year and I like the idea of beginning something new at this point in the year. It seems less 'resolution-y.' So, all of that to say that means July is when I am beginning my trackers.
Goals have to be measurable and have a timeframe
The next set of pages are "Goals."  These are short or long term specific goals.  There are also some on-going goals for leading a healthy, happy life.  Most goals are measurable and have an end date.  Some are broad in scope.  This is another area that can be tweaked as time goes on.  Hopefully, some of the tweakings will have to do with re-evaluating specifics or having met some of the goals along the way.
Washi tape used to divide the paper and make columns.


Lastly, here is a list of items that might be useful to track.  Please feel free to use it as you work on your own journal.  And, if you think of something that you think should be included, please let me know.
Tracker Suggestions for Bullet or Wellness Journal

Sometimes all we can ask of ourselves is that we make the effort and do the best we can. We are going to make mistakes. That is ok.  With that in mind, I thought I'd share this picture I snapped a couple of weeks ago in the Target parking lot:

Being Ok is good enough!


All the best to you!  Let me know how things are going for you. Please leave a comment or email me at stampinbev@msn.com.

Most of the items used are from my stash.  However, here are some items that are currently available:

Friday, June 28, 2019

Dylusions Dyalog Journal

Decorated Dylusions Dyalog Cover - No Limits

Looking for the lemonade

Sometimes life provides you with enough lemons to make lemonade.
All of my art journals were damaged when our rented storage unit leaked while parked on our driveway this winter.  It was a bummer. 
I have been collecting quotes for decades. These were stored in the art journals that I have been making for over ten years. Now that the journals and quotes are gone, it was time to start fresh.  So I decided to start my new collection with a new kind of journal. This one has inserts with different paper colors or styles.  Each of the components is separate, including the cover. I opted for the plain cover so that I could decorate it.
Before drawing and coloring the cover it was a plain white canvas


It was a lot of fun decorating the cover with a variety of stencils and inks or paints.  Because I took this with me for a little weekend getaway, I limited the number of supplies that I could use for it. This was actually quite helpful because it also limited the color palette.

Below is a picture of my little travel kit that I took with me when I started two of the quote booklet/inserts a few weeks ago when I flew to Tucson.  This one is all black paper and has quotes by women. I love how easy it was to work on the airplane with my little booklets!

My airplane travel kit

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are making time for making art!

If you are interested in watching a video class of the woman behind the Dylusions brand, here is a link to a free class. It is a good introduction to Dyan Reaveley and some of the things she has designed with Ranger.

And here are some of the supplies that I used:

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Washi Tape as a Background with Diecuts for Cards

American Crafts Houndstooth Glitter paper cut with Altenew Caps Bold Alphabet Dies

It turns out that I have a lot of washi tape.  It is beautiful and I love it. But it mainly sits in a drawer. As I was putting away some alphabet dies from another project, (pictured above) I decided to make a quick card with a bit of washi.  This is a clean and simple card that takes very little time to create. It is 4.25" tall and about 9" wide.


Here is the layer under the die cut layer:
One way to use a variety of washi on a project is to make every letter with a different tape
You may have noticed that the picture of the completed card doesn't have the orange washi on it.  That is because I changed my mind and went with the preppy pink argyle instead.  That is one of the great things about washi, it is removable!

And because making cards with die-cuts is so fast and easy, the card at the top of the post is sort of a bonus card. It was made using powdered watercolor pigment on watercolor paper. Pouring the powder onto wet paper is a fun and easy way to make a watercolor background.  The strips around the "THANKS" are leftovers from a scrapbook page posted here.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Here is a list of some of the supplies that I used to make the two cards above:

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Wellness Journal Part B: Occupational and Intellectual Wellness as Related to Crafting (a Better Life)

My workspace
On Friday's post, here, there was a link to the University of California's Riverside campus. They have outlined seven dimensions of wellness. Today, this post is specifically about including Occupational and Intellectual Wellness as related to crafting. And, for me, that makes for a Better Life.

Wellness Journal Part B

It makes sense to include things that make me happy in a wellness journal. Mainly because I am more likely to slog through unpleasant things (exercise!) if I get to reward myself with things that bring me joy (paper crafting and quilting!) 

Gardening is another area where one can meet their Occupational Wellness goals

Occupational Wellness

To read about this more fully, please visit the UCR website here.  They explain about work/home balance and the importance of working at something that you enjoy. I was an elementary school teacher for a decade.  I Loved teaching! I Loved my students and for most of that time, I Loved going to work every day. It was great until I decided to become a Principal. After completing the coursework necessary to apply for state certification, I found that I needed to change careers because I dreaded going to work each day. I still loved the students and teaching, just not the stuff that goes along with middle-level management. Why am I writing all of this? Because sometimes we forget that we can change our direction and head down a new path. So that is my call out to those who are worried about being labeled 'quitters'. You are free to make the choice to be a 'starter', instead.

Hubby's computer is surrounded by my craft stuff

Peonies from my yard

Intellectual Wellness

The link for more information on Intellectual Wellness is here. The main takeaway for me is this sentence:
As you develop your intellectual curiosity, you'll actively strive to expand and challenge your mind with creative endeavors.
Isn't that great? Someone, No, A University, told us that we should be pursuing creative endeavors!  I love that!  Now only if they could fund it. Or convince my hubby that it should be a line item in our budget. 😉

So back to how this fits into a Wellness Journal...
If you are gathering your thoughts and materials to make your own journal, you may want to give some space in your journal for including things that contribute to these two dimensions of wellness. You have likely thought of the Physical, Spiritual, and Emotional wellness aspects but maybe not the Occupational and Intellectual. Maybe figure out a way to include your craft time in your journal.  It has value if it is important to you.


My Wellness Journal will be posted later this week. I wanted to give people enough time to get their heads around the ideas and have time for shopping their stash.

Thank you for stopping by! I'd love to hear what you think about wellness and or journaling. Please comment below or send me an email at Stampinbev@msn.com.