Documented Life Project 2016 - the unPlanner!

It's 2016 and time for a new yearly challenge! I will be participating once again in the Documented Life Project.  Instead of working in the Dylusions art journal like last year, the Art to the 5th ladies are taking an entirely new approach for 2016.  Here is the blurb describing the "unPlanner" from one of the coordinators, Sandi Keene.

"Art to the 5th started a firestorm two years ago with the ORIGINAL Documented Life Project - a way to plan and document your life with art through community. We gathered 50 jaw-dropping top industry artists to inspire and stretch your art skills.

But being the art geeks that we are...we are not happy with just an ordinary planner...we are going to turn the planner world on its head once again with our new project for 2016. Introducing - The Documented Life Project 2016: The unPlanner!

We have designed a brand new system of year long documenting, planning, art challenging, life changing, community building, list making FUN that has us dancing in our studios! So sharpen your pencils, clear your desk and grab your friends  - join us for DLP 2016. It is going to be a year long amazing adventure!"

If you are at all interested in participating, check out this link for a short video explaining the project and to sign up. http://www.arttothe5th.com/journal/2015/11/25/documented-life-project-2016-are-you-ready  It's a nominal $12 for a year-long adventure!

  

So this year we are working in a kraft ring-bound planner. There are some downloads included in the class for various monthly and weekly pages as well as different lists. There is a monthly theme and each week you create different projects. 

For Week 1 we create the monthly divider, monthly view calendar, week view pages and a "pocket art card" (like an ATC).

Here is what I have done for this week.

This is the January divider. I actually copied Sandi's ideas on this one since we're just getting started and I wasn't quite sure how to proceed!  The strip with the tab on the right and the "ToDo" list are cut from the Bo Bunny calendar dividers that we are using (but unconventionally!). I sewed them,  along with a strip of painted paper,  to the divider. The list is a pocket which holds a painted tag on which I glued the monthly theme - Going out on a limb: Trying something new. The second photo shows the tag.

I didn't want to leave the inside cover blank so I added the "Don't Forget" pocket from the original divider. I watercolored it and used washi tape to stick it on. The kraft calendar label at the top was from the packaging of the kit. I typed up the monthly schedule and added it to the front of the pocket so I wouldn't forget what to do each week! The ribbon is hand-dyed seam binding using Dylusions spray inks.

This is the back of the divider. I used lots of scrap painty papers and doodled and painted petals.

I don't like the idea of having empty pages, and I might not have time every week to art on all these sides, so in the future I think I will print the pages back-to-back. 

This is the monthly view page. I like the look of both black and white pens on the kraft paper.  I used some washi tapes and some painted paper pieces to add color.

Here is the back of the monthly page which, again, I didn't want to leave blank. I scraped on some paint, stamped with paint and doodled.

This is the weekly view page. Because January started on a Friday, I didn't want to have a half-filled page, so I just started with Monday the 4th, especially since the first few days are represented on the January calendar. I printed this download on white cardstock. I will be mixing up the kraft and white throughout the planner. I used some watercolor on the headers, painted paper circles for the scallops and some stamping. For the left border I used small squares cut from a painted collage sheet and then doodled between. (I "stole" this idea from Sandi as well.)

And, lastly, here is my pocket art card. Our challenge was to somehow use #16 on the card. I painted and stamped the background and then added the chipboard number circles that I serendipitously  found on my worktable last week while cleaning up! For some reason the G in "begin" doesn't show in the photo but it really is there.

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Whew! Congrats if you've made it to the end of this post! This was alot of work this week but some was just figuring out the sizes and engineering the printing of pages. Tomorrow the second week's challenges will be posted so so far I'm up-to-date!