February is the perfect time to express love. Historically it is the month of love, what with Valentine’s Day being on the 14th. Four years ago, I saw a little post on Instagram called the 28 Days of Love. It was an ode to the month surrounded by love, February. I must admit I was at the time searching out for something positive, as I was soon to turn 51 and be officially at the precipice of the cliff of “old age”. When I saw this little post, an idea bloomed. A daily art challenge around expressing love would be just what I needed to keep myself busy and my mind out of my soon to be age of OLD.

I decided there weren’t any other rules other than your theme had to be LOVE. Even the theme was loose in that you could express your love of or for anything really. You could participate for one day, 2 days, a week or for the full month. You could work on a piece of scrap paper or in an art journal. During the 28 days, you create daily art all under the theme of love. Traditionally I work in a smallish art journal and use quotes, sayings, terms of endearments, excerpts from music lyrics, books and movies. Sometimes I just let the imagery speak for itself.

Below are the last four years of the 28 Days of Love Art Challenge journals and a bit about each of them. My likes and dislikes and how helpful this yearly challenge has been for me.

As you can see this was an itty-bitty little thing. It was, at the time the smallest art adventure I had undertaken. The size was definitely a challenge initially, but I soon overcame it. It was a completely freeing experience. It was also the first of my art journals that sold as art. Click on the image below to see the making of this little art journal.

In 2020 I decided to work in a disc bound journal. I found it quite a challenge and have never returned to this style of journal since. I also decided to upload daily videos over on my YouTube channel. I have a handful of favorite pages in 2020 and I loved how the cover turned out. This art journal is available in my shop. If you would like to view the complete making of it click on the image below.

In 2021 I choose to use UmWow Studio’s Bookbones for my binding and cover method. Maybe because I had two years under my belt at this point or possibly because I loved working in DeeDee Catron’s Bookbones but this was probably my favorite over the last three years. This is the first of my 28 Days of Love journals to sell at the Southern Arizona Artist Guild or SAAG Gallery. The woman who purchased it fell in love with it as much as I had. To watch the complete series over on my YouTube channel, click on the image below.

While I enjoyed trying out a concertina or accordion art journal for 2022 it was not my favorite style. I’m not sure I’m a concertina type of art’er. I’ve tried it since this journal was completed but still am not a fan of the style of viewing. I did enjoy the making of it as well as how the cover turned out. Maybe I was burnt out on the daily video posts or possibly it was a combination of the style of journal and daily videos. Either way I lost my 28 Days of Love mojo during the 2022 journal creation. The 2022 28 Days of Love art journal is currently on display at the SAAG Gallery for sale. To watch the full making of this journal, click on the image below.

In December of 2022, while planning the coming year I decided to NOT continue with this art challenge. I feel it has lived its course and I wanted to leave myself open to new possibilities. If you are interested in seeing all the images from those who have joined me over the years, head over to Instagram and check out the following hashtags: #28daysoflove , #28daysoflove2020 , #28daysoflove2021 and #28daysoflove2022 . If you are interested in the free love quote downloads, I created for these challenges click the button below.

Free Downloads

The 28 Days of Love Daily Art Challenge