New Year's Resolution Update: Art Journal

*At the bottom of this post, you'll find a link to my 100th post giveaway! You can win a $25 Target giftcard and some of my favorite new finds!*

And now, on with the post:

Honestly, I haven't been the best about keeping up with my New Year's Resolution (insert link to New Year's Resolution post here). I started out running strong and fizzled out at about the end of February. I guess I fell into the typical stereotype of starting your New Year's Resolution strong and then just falling straight off the mountain after about a month or so, but I do really hate stereotypes. The truth is that life is busy and you can always pick something back up once you "fall off the wagon." Plus, I enjoy it, and that's really what matters.

My goal was to art journal at least once per month. Not a lofty goal. I did manage, however, to get one journal done for January and one for February. Then all of a sudden it was May, and I had no other journals completed! Oopsy! 

Here's to catching up on my New Year's Resolution and picking up where I fell off. I am now caught up for June and will continue journaling throughout the rest of the year. I am sure that I will have a few more entries than one per month for the summer, but I'm not making any promises! We'll see what happens.



Here's what I have so far:

January

February

March, April, May (oopsy!)

*nichts, nada, nilch*

June

These June journals (except for the dancer) are from a challenge that I thought I could complete (key word "thought") called Doodleaday June on Instagram. The goal was to doodle once per day. I think part of my problem with my art journal stems from my OCD and my perfectionism. Every time I journal, I feel like I have to create these over-the-top, fill-the-page journals, when that's not what this is about. I mean, it was killing me for awhile that you can see my eraser marks in my "under the ground" journal. I know--total perfectionism, but it seriously makes my blood boil sometimes! I hold myself to this too crazy standard; enough said, it looks great the way it is! I sat with the anxiety; I'm good with it.

I like to doodle. It's fun. I'm working on not having to make these journals "perfect" in my eyes. I really enjoy my "joy" journal as well. For June 24, the doodle was "starts with 'j.'" I chose "joy." I like this one especially because it's simple and I didn't over think it.

2nd June post (from Doodleaday): Prompt was "Go"

3rd June post (from Doodleaday): Prompt was "Underground"

4th June post (from Doodleaday): Prompt was "An Object Around You"--there was a crab on my coffee cup!

Because I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the prospect of doodling every day, I am going to use the rest of the ideas from the challenge to inspire me for future art journals. (It sounds crazy to me to say I felt overwhelmed by the prospect of doing something I loved, but that's OCD and anxiety in a nutshell!) There are some great prompts on the challenge, and I am excited to use them as inspiration.

If you want to check out the June challenge, it was started by @ellolovely. If you are interested in seeing inspirational artwork, check out #doodleadayjune on Instagram. There are some amazing artists participating in the challenge!

Here's to more art journaling this summer when the mood so strikes me!

Anyone else doodle or art journal or have another creative outlet?

To enter my 100th, post giveaway, follow this link to my 100th post!

Love and happiness <3 Holly