Vision Boarding

My friend Jen is always inspiring, but last year she totally blew my mind when I attended her "make a vision board" party. I had never even heard of a vision board. She explained it as a way to visualize your goals for the year by using photos and phrases clipped from magazines and other sources that represent your intentions for that year. You then take those clippings and paste them to a poster board or other substrate and hang it somewhere that you can see it everyday, like in your dressing area or by your desk.

We made a trip to our local hobby store for supplies, including inspiring papers, stickers, washi tape with motivational quotes, and other embellishments that spoke to us. Soon it was party time. We all sat on the floor flipping through magazines and clipping away. Everyone shared their New Year's resolutions and goals. Many of us had just watch Marie Condo "tidy up" and de-clutter on her Netflix series, so those sentiments were on several boards. Some goals were definitely copy-worthy and universal, others were very personal and specific.

Most everyone completed there Vision Boards in the allotted 2 hour time frame, but yours truly could never finish a project of this caliber that quickly. The ideal of 'vision board' had been swirling in my head for weeks and I new it was something that, for me, had to be a thing of careful consideration and beauty. This would not be something I would throw away when Jan 1, 2020 arrived, nope, I would treasure it always. Something to "spark joy" as Marie Condo would require of any item that might otherwise be seen as clutter.

I left Jen's house with a ton of magazine clippings and lots of ideas of how to make an aesthetically pleasing board. I decided to use a canvas, canvases are synonymous with fine art after all. I had always seen collages as a lower form of art, what my fellow high school art classmates made when there only goal was to get a passing grade while doing as little as possible in class. Boy had I been wrong all those years.

Collages are hard. You have to do some serious filtering, 50 clippings aren't going to fit on an 18x20 canvas. Then there is the arranging and rearranging. Collages tend to be cluttered, which is fine (ha ha Marie Condo), but I wanted my vision board to be pretty, yes pretty, and my goals to be clearly seen. I also wanted to use a variety of materials so that it had a found object/mosaic feel to it.

In the photo of of my 2019 vision board , I notated some of the items I used to make it. I had fun using beads to spell out some words. I also attached two small sticky note pads, one I used for current goals/active plans, the other was to-do lists. I used a butterfly shaped punch, cut shapes out of colored card stock, used a super cute laser cut wood frame, scrapbook paper and, of course, lots of magazine clippings. I totally support raiding your kids' craft supplies to find fun bits and baubles to include in your own masterpiece.

This year we are in the process of moving. I almost missed making a vision board, but I'm so glad I got my poop together and made one. Jen, of course, was involved. This time we had a vision board "play date". We let our kids play while we vision-boarded (new word I think).

My vision board keeps me inspired to reach my goals for the entire year. I don't stare at it endlessly or feel guilted by it, I just enjoy it and am reminded that I've got a purpose, goals, and plans for reaching them.

Vision boards can be used for more than yearly goals. I plan to make some less extravagant ones to help with some interior design projects. I could see them being useful in planning a vacation, wedding, or just about any large, somewhat intimidating undertaking.

Happy Crafting

-Susan

(Thanks again Jen)