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Practice | One Little Word 2018

Before we begin: If you’re not familiar with One Little Word be sure to check out Ali Edwards’ page about One Little Word. She invented this concept and has all the info you need to get sucked into the awesomeness started.

For the first time ever I have felt really compelled to choose a word to be my guiding word for the year. And after brainstorming, sleeping on it, changing my mind five times and sleeping on it some more I finally landed on practice as my One Little Word for 2018.

Why ‘Practice’?

I struggle a LOT with biting off more than I can chew. I struggle with wanting to skip to the next thing as soon as something becomes too challenging or too boring. So I wanted a word that expresses ambition as well as forgiveness and self-care.

To me practice means sticking to a thing and allowing yourself to be bad at it until you’re not. It means forgiving myself for not doing an A+ job at something but to keep going. It means committing to things (scary things) I’ve been putting off and accepting the outcome. Practice means getting to work but being gentle with yourself.

To be honest, this could easily be my guiding word for life, not just this year. It’s really spot on for me. I’m already practicing a bunch of things (like being more social, becoming healthier and keeping my messy house neater) and I’m excited to see in which other arenas of my life I can apply practice to.

Making the journal

I made a mini album that serves as a journal for me. Mostly I will just be writing my thoughts so I could have easily just used a regular notebook. BUT I wanted to give myself a chance to sort of meditate a little bit on the concept of practice. By giving myself an opportunity to create visuals in the journal too I invite myself to linger on the subject and do even more thoughtwork.

Painted a nice cover on my favorite Clairefontaine Paint-On paper pad. Excellent for art journaling. 👌 I used a ton of different mediums, including POSCA paint pens, watercolors and acrylic paints (different brands – some dollar store, some nicer).

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

I also went through my stash and grabbed a bunch of scraps and bits. Most are white and neutral (for more writing space) and some have pops of color. I want to keep this journal fresh and fun.

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

The album is A5 size but some of the pages are cut narrower for a fun layered look.

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

Finally, I cut the cover art in half to fit on the chipboard covers, glued them down and bound the whole thing using my trusty Bind-it-all.

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

Here’s a quick look at the blank pages. 😍

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

Practice | One Little Word for 2018

I’ve already started working in the journal – that’s a story for another day.

Words I considered

  • Go
  • Make
  • Create
  • Strive
  • Focus
  • Limitless (inspired by Amanda Rose Zampelli)
  • Reach (inspired by Elise Cripe)

Do you have a guiding word for 2018?

xo Nina

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  1. Deb c: says

    January 25, 2018 at 16:11

    Oh gosh, your work is always soooo inspiring! Absolutely love your take on this project. Your use of scraps and different sized pages is fabulous. I haven’t been following your blog, just your instagram feed and just popped over here to see your OLW post after seeing it on Insta – going to have to add your blog to my list Thanks so much for sharing your creative talents.

    Reply
    • Nina Christensen says

      January 30, 2018 at 22:17

      That’s so incredibly sweet of you, Deb. Thank you so much for your kind words. :)

      xo Nina

      Reply
  2. cindy says

    May 2, 2018 at 09:04

    fantastic work

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. January Reflections on Practice | One Little Word 2018 - Paper Nerd says:
    February 28, 2018 at 21:51

    […] still super stoked about the look of this journal I made. And I’m loving the look of the POSCA pens with the black fine liner […]

    Reply

Hi! I’m Nina

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