ICAD 2024 - Week 2 and Hello ... Is There Anybody in There? ...

 ... Just nod if you can hear me ... Is there anyone home? Any Pink Floyd fans out there? I'm not a huge fan, but Comfortably Numb seems to stick with me and seems apt for the moment. As I shared earlier this year, I've really wanted to try to get back to blogging regularly in 2025, and while I think I've probably written more posts in the first half of 2025 than I did in all of 2024 at this point, I still wouldn't call it the "regular" posting I was hoping to do. Funny how things that were once strong habits can so easily fall to the wayside in this crazy over-saturated, internet-driven world. I do miss the more in-depth writing part of the old blogging world that's been taken over by the immediacy and in-your-face video streams of Tik Tok and, more and more now, Instagram. I've been checking out Substack lately, not posting anything myself, but enjoying the more long-format writing you can find there, and one of my old blog friends who I really enjoyed following, Christine Mason Miller, is now on Substack. I'm so glad I found her there. She recently shared a post there about this very thing - what happened to blogging? - and it really resonated with me. Maybe it will with you as well. 

I'm not doing ICAD (index card a day) this year, but I'm still sharing my ICAD 2024 work with you ... you know, since I shared hardly anything here in 2024! This was week two for me, above, and a close up of my favorite for the week below. I do miss doing ICAD but my world is still just in a bit of a mess right now like I shared here, and we're still working through all sorts of things that continue to come our way, so my art making time has been slim to none. I'm in the process of moving mostly back home to Jacksonville, as I've been given the go-ahead to work more fully remote for this next academic year. My daughters finished up undergrad this summer and are moving into my Tallahassee house for grad school, so while I'm not having to pack up and move the whole house, I am packing up and moving all my art supplies back home to Jacksonville. And I'm not ashamed to admit I, like most of us who have a variety of creative interests, have far more art supplies than I truly need! So it's still a rather large process. I've been trying to load up the back of my SUV with whatever will fit every time I go home, but I fear a small U-Haul may be in my future.

So ... Hello! IS there anybody out there? If you've come across this post, I'd love for you to leave me a comment so I know you were here. Just say hello and let me know where you are! And if you are following someone on Substack you'd like to recommend, please do! 

      

All the News That's Fit to Print

All the News That's Fit to Print... Well, isn't that a mouthful? So it's been a minute since I checked in here, totally wrecking my goal to get back to blogging regularly in 2025. This art journal spread is the first I've done in nearly a month, which is super unusual for me, but life has definitely thrown me some curve balls lately. I usually keep things upbeat here for the most part. Don't so many of us on social media? While we may try to outwardly present that things are always sunshine are roses, behind the curtain, things may actually be stormy and weed-choked. Isn't that truly the case for everyone? So how about some real life today?

I've been dealing with some challenges at work that have really been draining me. For the sake of professionalism, I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say there are those that are in top positions of leadership and power who aren't always right, yet they don't seem to be able to admit their mistakes. I've been dealing with an issue that seriously has me considering retiring earlier than initially planned. As a friend on my board said to me, "People are just unhinged lately! Totally unhinged!" and she's so right! It seems that the current climate in our country either has people acting in ways that are totally out of character for them or is giving them the freedom to show their true nature. I'm not sure which in this case, but it's been a doosy. We give so much of ourselves to our careers, and at this point in mine, I'm really giving myself grace and self-love, standing up for myself and my limits of what I'll accept in regards to how others feel they can treat me. I deserve better. I'll be glad when this situation finally plays itself out, but it's been one for the record books for sure. Lawyers and all!

In my personal life, I've been dealing with something I never thought I'd ever have to deal with ... my sister and I are in the midst of helping our 80-year-old father through a major life change. It's not health related; we could have expected that. Just a major change in his personal life, the outcome of which will affect so many different variables that we are still trying to wrap our heads around. And there, too, we have to protect ourselves and be firm with just how much we are willing to do, and that's hard to do with a parent, but we still have to give ourselves grace and self-love and stand up for what we are and are not willing to do. It just plain sucks. 

And then there's Thursday, April 17, 11:58am, the moment my family's life crossed paths with what's sadly becoming a common occurrence in this country: another mass shooting. I live and work in Tallahassee, and my daughters attend Florida State University, the site of a mass shooting last Thursday. One of my daughters was at work with me about one mile from the Student Union, where the shooting started, but the other was on campus in class not far from the Union. Thankfully my girls are physically okay, though I'm sure experiencing something like that leaves permanent mental scars. It was a super scary, super sad day, and I'm still wrapping my head around it, so I'll share more on it later in the week.

So all this to say, sometimes life is just plain crappy, constant storm showers leaving muddy, weed-ravaged ground. We all have our "stuff" we are going through. Every single one of us. Be kind to one another, as we so often have no idea the challenges others are facing behind the curtain. Give yourself and others that same grace and love, and let's help each other through our battles. 

Junk Journal January - Magazine Prompt

I've been working through the Junk Journal January prompts, led by @megjournals on Instragram. The prompt for this spread was "magazine." I love good old-fashioned paper magazines that arrive in my real mailbox. Something other than bills and junk mail! I'm always tearing things out of the magazines to use in my art journals.  

I created this junk journal I'm working in from a vintage children's book. It's a fun little book because it started with one story on one side, "Toby Tyler," and another story from the opposite side, "Rip Van Winkle." I took out the book block and sewed in three new signatures created from random papers, thus a "junk journal." I really enjoy working in these because it 100% takes the pressure off! 

How about you? Have you ever tried junk journaling? Interested in learning more? Let me know what you think!

Paint Pours and Long Stitches

 

I created this book with the help of a friend ... well, two friends actually! I learned the book structure from Ali Manning as part of my Handbook Book Club membership. It's a variation on a long stitch that I added to a bit to sew the spine covering to the book a bit more. 

But let's talk about that beautiful cover!  It's made from a paint pour that a sweet family friend created. She was looking to find a home for several she did and I told her I'd be happy to purchase them from her as long as she was happy with them possibly becoming books! And she loved the way this came out!  I've made two of these so far with Hannah's paint pours and I plan to create a few more with this stitch as I feel it fits perfectly! The finished size is 5 x 7" and it's filled with Canson Mixed Media paper for a variety of uses. It'll be on my website next time I get around to an update!

 

For me, this is an example of thinking outside the box, and it's made me look at other "old paintings looking for new homes" in a different light. I LOVE wandering through antique stores and thrift stores, and I often look for old books needing a new life in those places. Now I'll be looking at old paintings a little differently as well! So many things in thrift stores end up in the landfill, so why not rescue what I can to give it new life. Of course, I can spend hours going down the rabbit hole of watching furniture flips, so ... who knows! That could be in my future when I retire!

Anything but not Everything

I completed this spread in one of my art journals recently. "You can do anything, but you can't do everything." This is something that I have to remind myself of often. ⁣I saw a video posted by @awomancalledgeorge over on Instagram recently (I LOVE her) that really struck a chord with me. She shared that she had been diagnosed with adult ADHD and was struggling with that. As I listened to what led her to be formally assessed, I was shaking my head "yes, that's me too" constantly. (And it's not lost on me that perhaps that's why I relate to this woman so much in general) I'd never really thought about it, but once I did, I realized I have a lot of, um, tendencies? (not really sure what to call them? behaviors? characteristics? habits? tendencies?) that truly did point to that. So I took a free online adult ADHD test, and then another, and then another, and then another. I took at least four or five over the course of a few weeks. The questions varied, but the results of all of them pointed to the same thing: that I definitely show clear signs of adult ADHD.

Snapdragons and Crazy Brains

Funny story behind this journal I finished up yesterday regarding how my brain works. Comically, I have this theory that I can clean up my studio by finishing up projects. This never works. Why? Because my brain has a tendency to go down rabbit holes pretty quickly. I had been saving my Dove soap boxes to create some tiny journals like this one and decided I could use up some of the off cut paper on my table to make signatures for those tiny journals. I had several signatures all folded and ready to go when I remembered some graph paper I had that would be a nice addition to the signatures. I just knew that graph paper was in one of the cubbies over there under my laptop. Searching for that paper, I found the paper I used in this journal, but we aren't nearly there yet.

I came across this box of Fabriano Artistico folded cards that I'd had for years and had yet to use, so I pulled that box out and started folding a few sheets to see how it would work together for signatures. Beautifully!  I folded a few and then remembered that I had sat down on the floor actually looking for the graph paper for the tiny journals, so I sat that box down and set those few signatures aside and went back to looking for the graph paper. In one of the cubbies on the other side, I didn't find the graph paper, but I did find some books I had picked up from Goodwill that I thought would make good junk journals. But really, I'd had them for a while and they were in great shape and I did have a garage sale coming up, so maybe I should just put them in the garage sale ... so I proceeded to take all the pricing stickers off those and set them in a pile for the garage sale. Oh, right!  Graph paper, I was looking graph paper!  Oooh!!! Then I came back across the more than 100-year-old Bible I picked up at a neighborhood garage sale for $3. (Of course, I had to rescue it.) It was in pretty bad shape, but I figured I could clean it up and maybe even find its rightful owner.  Holding it in my hands again (graph paper, what graph paper?), I decided that at that moment, it was about dang time I did something with that Bible. So on a whim, I grabbed some scissors and trimmed down the cover where it had separated to just clean up the edges a bit thinking, hmmm, maybe I could fashion a new cover out of Kraft-tex.  I cleaned her all up and then started flipping through it again, and I came back across the memorial notice of one Paul Taylor who passed away at the age of 74 in 1954 in Deland. Tucked in with dear Paul's memorial notice, a family member had included some newspaper clippings and his obituary. Among other family members, Paul left behind daughter Helen Milliken of Tallahassee. Aha!  Perhaps that's how the Bible ended up in a garage sale in Tallahassee.

So off to Google I went to try to find Helen Milliken of Tallahassee. Of course, dear Paul was 74 when he died, so Helen was likely in her 50s then - in 1954 - so unless Guinness missed her as the oldest living human, she was no longer with us. But that did not stop me!  Maybe I could find dear Helen's obituary and find other members of her family still in Tallahassee. But alas, I could not find Helen Milliken of Tallahassee.  But hey!  Helen Milliken of Michigan, she's done some stuff!  She was the First Lady of Michigan Governor William Milliken and quite the political force in her own right! This Helen was the longest-lived First Lady in Michigan history, living to 99 years old and first lady for 14, and was a women's rights activist and environmentalist. During the 1970's, she was one of the leading proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Equal Rights Amendment had been passed by the United States Congress in 1972 and was ratified by thirty-five states, including Michigan, in the next few years.^. When the 1980 Republican National Convention, held in Detriot, removed language supporting the ERA from the convention platform, Helen, still First Lady of Michigan at the time, boycotted the convention's opening ceremony to attend a pro-ERA protest. You go, Helen! Thank you! (and thank you, Wikipedia, for that nugget.)  

Well, since I could not find Helen Milliken of Tallahassee, I put the Bible back in its cubby for now. I had completely forgotten about the graph paper at this point, so I sat back on the floor and created more signature with that yummy Fabriano Artistico paper I found. And three days later, I finished this journal.  I still haven't found the graph paper, nor made any further progress on the tiny journals, nor cleaned up my studio. But I did finish this journal. I'll keep you posted on the Bible rehab! 

Guest Artist for Vintage Page Designs

Hey there! I was invited to be a guest artist for the upcoming 5-Day Journal Challenge with Ali Manning's Vintage Page Designs. That meant I got early access to the videos! Here's my interpretation of the book. The challenge starts on March 7, and you can sign up on Ali's website here. Don't worry if you've never made a journal before! Ali is an amazing teacher, and she'll break it down for you step by step. This is a great structure to start with as it's not very complicated. Of course, adding beads and bling will be completely up to you!

Tiny Journal for Tiny Art - Made from?

I had so much fun working in my tiny journal that I decided to make another, this one out of a Dove soap box! I've been making journals from upcycled cereal boxes for years, so why not go tiny with a soap box! And I've been a Dove girl for as long as I can remember! I haven't started working in this yet, so far now it's just sitting pretty on one of my shelves.

Guest Designer on the StencilGirl® Blog!

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Hey there!  A couple of months ago, the team at StencilGirl® reached out to me on Instagram telling me they loved my art journaling and asking if I'd like to be a guest designer on their blog. How fun is that!? Well, that day has finally arrived! Hop on over to their blog and see how I created this spread using a StencilGirl® stencil. Thanks again to the StencilGirl® team for reaching out and inviting me!  

#100daysofuseitupkelly - 2021 Day 75

I finally got around to the April book for the Handmade Book Club with Ali Manning and Vintage Page Designs. This is a sewn over tapes binding. Neat story with this one...⁣
⁣
A friend of mine who's father recently passed away posted his entire National Geographic magazine collection on Facebook marketplace. I commented that ... "OMG, I'm a total Nat Geo junkie, but I absolutely don't need these." But she sent me a message that said, "Kelly, please take these! I will give them to you free because I know you will do amazing things with them!"

 

Soon I had 10 bankers boxes full of Nat Geos in my garage. And her dad's collection included part of her great-grandmother's collection, so there are editions back to the 1930s! My hubs and I have been having fun going through them and putting them in order (and he's hoarding the 1960s editions to relive his childhood!).

So as a thank you, I made this book for her. The cover papers are from a 1991 Nat Geo map insert of Germany. It's not perfect (I attached the back cover upside down, but hey! that just means it's like one of those two-sided magazines!) and I love the way it turned out. ⁣Ali's Handmade Book Club is probably my favorite of the groups I'm involved with.  Each month, Ali challenges us with a new book structure, some more challenging that others. I made this one a little differently than the way she taught it, and since I have quite a bit of experience making books now, I'm finding that I'm able to alter want I want to. Next time I make this one, I'll probably do a French link stitch over the tapes instead of a straight long stitch to jazz it up a bit.  See all of my 2021 100 day project posts over on my Instagram feed.

#100daysofuseitupkelly - 2021 Day 65

Definitely being a little more sporadic sharing this year's 100 day project on the blog! I need to build some blocks like I did last year!  This a Day 65 and a good example of how I often work. The first layer of teal and green fingerprints were done with leftover paint from another spread a week or so ago. Then the deep blue flower petals were done with the leftover paint and stencil I used for some of the postcards I created for iHanna's swap this year. Then I just added collage paper, washi tape, and black pen and acrylic marker accents today. I've discovered the Arteza acrylic markers and am really loving them. I imagine they are similar to the coveted Posca paint pens but are much more affordable!  You can see all of my 2021 100 day project over on my Instagram!

#100daysofuseitupkelly - 2021 Day 37

I've jumped into Wanderlust 2021 with Kasia Avery this year.  I signed up for it last year as well and never got around to it!  Thankfully, all Kasia's courses are there forever, so I can go back through when I've got time (always in short supply around here!)  This spread is inspired by Kasia's Week 9 in which she used a magazine image. I admit to being a magazine junkie, though most of mine are home and garden, decorating, art, or good old National Geographic. After seeing Kasia's demo, I might need to go back to subscribing to a fashion mag or two! 

#100daysofuseitupkelly - 2021 Day 22

Sharing a few close-ups of my 2021 #the100dayproject.  This year I've stuck with my hashtag from last year of #100daysofuseitupkelly. I figured it still applied since I still have sooo .... much .... stuff ....to .... use .... up.

I made this fun little house shaped book during a virtual retreat through our Handmade Book Club, with the amazing Ali Manning from Vintage Page Designs. The retreat was led by D.J. Gaskin. See more of D.J.'s work on Instagram @djgaskin29 here. (And did you know that you don't have to have an Instagram account to check out someone's Instagram feed!? Just a link like the one I just gave you!)

This book started its life as a CheezIt Box. Yep, a CheezIt box!  I am all about recycling and repurposing around here, and I love to use snack and cereal boxes in my book projects. 

And what makes this one even more fun is that the pages are cut from Publix grocery bags.  I'll share a few peeks of the inside later. I decided that this needed to be my little house of critters, so I'm hoping to complete each spread with a critter theme. Thanks for stopping in today!  

Jumping Into a Junk Journal

I've been fascinated by junk journals lately. I actually created my first very simple one last August in a class with Kiala Givehand and Tiffany Goff Smith, and I used that one for Kasia Avery's art journaling advent calendar last December. So while I was at home in Jacksonville earlier this summer, I decided to create my first more in-depth one with whatever I had on hand there at home!

I started with an Daily Q&A book that I never used and cut the book block out. I collaged painted and stenciled on the cover and then went from there! I added in a variety of "junk" papers, i.e. old sheet music, old book pages, maps, scrapbook paper scraps, etc, but the one thing I did not like about working in that first simple junk journal I created was that all the papers were a bit thin.

To remedy that, I added good quality mixed media paper to the signatures. Before sewing it all together, I created some tuck spots and sewed in a few bits and bobs here and there. It was a fun process! I can see how they can become a bit addicting!

A Walk in the Garden Art Journal Spread - Day 39

Here's a closer look at Day 39 from my #100daysofuseitupkelly 100 Day Project. This spread started out as a hot mess. It just wasn't working for me. But that's the beauty in art journaling. Don't like it? Cover it up! In this case, I spread some white gesso around to cover up some of what I did but left some little bits peeking through and started over. I'm pretty happy with the final result, and then that quote jumped out at me from my stash, which is exactly what I needed to hear (read? see? ... you know what I mean!) Couple close ups below.

We've been working through these challenging times the best we can, taking it one day at a time. Being able to play in my studio more has definitely been a benefit of working from home. Though I find that my "working hours" are all over the place. I seem to be the most productive work wise at home in the mornings and late in the evenings. I'll usually take a break and head into my studio in the afternoon if I don't have any Zoom calls scheduled. Interestingly enough, I learned this week that I had the virus and was asymptomatic. A colleague I work closely with when I do go into the office tested posted and became ill, so I went in for the rapid antibody test since I had not had any symptoms and had not seen my colleague in two weeks. Sure enough, I had just a trace of the virus still active in my system and was chock full of the antibodies. I got my girls tested yesterday as well to ensure they were okay, and they were completely negative - no virus, no antibodies. Hoping the same for my husband; he's not experienced any symptoms yet either.  I'm so thankful I didn't experience any negative consequences of the virus, and I hope you are staying safe and healthy!

Week 2 - #100daysofuseitupkelly

Week 2 of my #100daysofuseitupkelly 100 Day Project consisted primarily of a little series of 10 journals I made for my Chi Omega student exec board members.  Once I had them all done, I sent them all off in little happy mail packages to my students. I also had one fun little octopus necklace in this week. She sold the minute I posted her, and I received a request for another! You can see all my 100 Day Project posts for this year on my Instagram account here, and you can learn more about the 100 Day Project here!

Week 1 - #100daysofuseitupkelly

Hello there! I'm taking on the 100 Day Project again this year! I found that last year, it really did motivate me to create just about every day, even if it was something super simple. This year my hashtag is #100daysofuseitupkelly. If you can read between the lines there, so to speak, yes, I'm using things up! I decided I have so much crap - ah, I mean so many wonderful art supplies - that instead of coming up with something specific, I'll just make something every day out of something that is currently in my studio. This will be anything from an art journaling page, to a small book or journal, to a piece of jewelry ... whatever! I hope you'll follow along! I'll post in weekly batches here, and you can also follow along on my Instagram here (@kellynwarren if you are on IG). Yes, many of the things you'll see will be available for purchase, but I'll likely not list anything on my website until the project is done, so shoot me a note or comment if you see something you'd like to appear in your mailbox! You can learn more about the 100 Day Project and artists behind it here.

Finding Time for Bookbinding ... and Lots of Other Stuff

Well, hello there, old friends. Been a while since I've checked in here, hasn't it! My world had been getting a little overwhelming with the work, family, and the time to create juggle, but aren't we all on a pause now? I hope you and yours are doing as well as can be expected in these unprecedented pandemic times we are now working through.

As I work in higher education athletics and activities, everything has pretty much shut down for us for a while, and we're primarily all working from home, so I've been trying to find a new normal for me and my family. It's definitely a challenge keeping teenagers motivated! My girls have been on an extended two-week Spring Break, but they will be resuming school online starting Monday. I'm hoping to get them to a little better schedule that does not involve sleeping in until 10am daily!

I made this sweet little book a couple weeks ago. The covers are from a colorful almond box I found empty in our office break room, happy that no one had thrown it away! I'm packing it up and sending it off to a friend in California as a little surprise. Take care of yourself and your friends and family, and maybe use this time to decompress and rest. I've been wondering if this has been a message from God, the Universe, the Earth, whomever you believe sends messages, that maybe we all needed to slow down and take some time to appreciate everything we have. Be well.

 

Presence ...

Sometimes little messages come to you without even realizing it. Ever have that happen to you? When I was pulling this journal page together, all I knew at the beginning was that I wanted to use the big sunflower I cut out of a magazine and some napkin bits. I had both those parts pretty much coming together and felt like it needed a little somethin' somethin', so I dug though my scraps pile and found that presence scrap. The word and the definition were actually together on a vintage flash card type thing, but the spacing didn't work right so I cut them apart. I was just "looking" at the words, not really "reading" them. Does that make sense?

It wasn't until I was completely done with the page that the full meaning and the use of flowers jumped out at me.  And that gift of presence! After reading that, I realized I could quit beating myself up for not getting my website updated (ya know like for months now, given that I finished my #100daysofshinythings project in July)!  I hadn't made the time to do it because I was too busy being present.  So I was actually a little proud of myself.  Like I mentioned in my last post, I tend to stretch myself a little too thin, but I do my level best to be as present for my girls as possible. Since I have so much work travel, that time at home is precious. So things like getting my website updated tend to take a back seat.  I'll get there!  Working on a few uploads each week!  Hop on over and take a peek. I finally listed a few of my handmade journals, which I've been promising for months!   

Catching up on Documenting Life

I've been slowly catching up on my Documented Life Project journals. This was a page that came together surprisingly easy! I used some of my underpapers (the papers I keep under my journal pages when I'm working on them so it catches all sorts of random juiciness), and then added some fun napkin scrap faces from Jane Davenport, a few little dictionary page scallops across the top, some washi tape, pen work and called it done. I didn't like it so much at first, but she's growing on me. I'll do some fuller Documented Life Project spread posts soon! Thanks for stopping in today!