A-Z Art Journal Calm

by Linda | Oct 28, 2010 | my creative journal

A series of art journal pages…to find out more about this project, please read the first post here.

Today’s word is calm. Since I went a bit glossy-accents-happy, you’ll see the world has gooey shiny stuff on top. It’ll need to dry overnight to become clear and glossy, but I had to take a photo now. This page is about being in the midst of so many things…a big mess…and needing to find some peace.

A-Z Art Journal Brave

by Linda | Oct 27, 2010 | my creative journal

A series of art journal pages…to find out more about this project, please read the first post here.

Today’s word is brave. Whenever I do something out of my comfort zone, something new, something scary…I feel brave and always thankful after the fact. Whether a success or failure…I always learn something and conquer a bit more of my fears. Let’s all be brave… (Check out the Brave Girls Club, too)

A-Z Art Journal Anxious

by Linda | Oct 26, 2010 | my creative journal

A series of art journal pages…to find out more about this project, please read the first post here.

Today’s word is anxious. To experience worry, unease or nervousness, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. I feel anxious about a lot things in life and sometimes it’s a good excitement and sometimes the endless unease of something that cannot be resolved through thinking about it. That’s what I was journaling about today. I seem to draw my little whimsical girls when nothing else comes to mind. It’s bizarre to have something cute in the midst of turmoil-type thoughts. I suppose she is the mascot wearing the scarlet letter of anxiety…struggling to find a way create balance and peace…

A-Z Art Journal Beginning

by Linda | Oct 25, 2010 | my creative journal

Welcome, welcome to the start of my A-Z art journaling adventure! I posted about being accountable to myself and just wanted to do this little project for me personally, giving myself time to play and reflect…because I feel that it’s really important to nurture our personal projects – whether a concrete goal or just fanciful thoughts. With everything going on in our busy lives, sometimes it’s hard to make time to just creatively play. We all want to do certain things, but consider creative play an extra rather than part of our schedules. I decided to schedule time for my art journaling, because it is important to me and deserves to be a priority. Each weekday I’m going to journal on a topic around a chosen word, as I go through the alphabet A-Z. I like having that bit of structure as well as the beginning and end to this little idea. This will go on through November for Art Every Day Month as well…join me if you’d like to play along! So to begin I spent today making my journal and decorating the cover.

I didn’t have anything in mind and just went with my whim for everything. Sometimes we overplan and it’s just not as fun anymore…so I really want to get free and go crazy with this project. Go with the flow and just see what happens. I’ve been trying to organize and clean my space as well, so really trying to use all the bits and bobs I already have rather than buying more supplies. It’s so easy to forget that you have something in supply already! So I decide to go with a half-page size journal, not too ambitious to ensure I could finish a page a day.

Taking some watercolor paper I already had lying around, I took it out of the binding and just ripped each sheet in half, enough for the entire alphabet. I actually really like the circle part, so just left that in as part of the paper of my journal. Adds a bit of detail and texture already!

I poked my holes with an awl and just bound it together using the Japanese stab binding technique. You can find a lot of tutorials online and it’s super easy. I just sort of wing it…whatever holds it all together.

I ended up with an even number of holes, so the ends of the strings didn’t end up in the middle, but instead of trying to hide it on the back, I thought it would be great to incorporate into the cover of my journal. I painted with acrylic paint, scratched all over, added pieces of die-cut leather, felt hearts, paper cutouts and letter stickers for the titling. Just things I had lying around and quite happy with the results. I think sometimes if you just go with the process it’ll come out balanced in the end…no worries on perfect composition!

My favorite part is the messy painting and scratching parts. I just love the texture and sort of random natural forms…definitely fun, too! Here are so close-ups so you can see the details and that’s it for today. Just made the journal and decorated my cover to start with! Until tomorrow!

Let's Make Some Paper Angels

by Linda | Oct 19, 2010 | my creative journal

The other day I was playing around with paper circles and making flower embellishments for bookmaking and scrapbooking. I kept playing with the paper circles, experimenting with different sizes, patterns and arrangements…until wahlah! There amongst my scraps of paper appeared a beautiful, cute little angel! I think it’s the coolest thing…although I’m sure somewhere this has probably been done. However, I’m still in awe of how simple and easy it can be to create cute little decorations.

You can see from my prototypes that by varying the size, paper patterns and arrangement I can end up with a sort of ghost angel or super cute holiday angel… the possibilities are endless! So here’s how you create these cuties. Cut out a bunch of paper circles – although I image you could probably do this with fabric as well! I used my die cutting machine to cut lots of circles, but you could use a paper punch or even freehand it, because I’m sure the variation will end up looking shabby chic cool.

You will need 3 circles to create the body and wings of your angel, plus a smaller one for the halo and another even smaller one for the face. Of course, as you vary the sizing your angel will develop his/her own personality and unique features 🙂 To create the body you simple fold the circles in half and then open up and fold half the other way.

I suppose it’s a common origami move, but with the two folds, you take your circle and sort of squish it with your fingers to create the quarter-circle triangle shape.

If you have trouble doing the squishy move, you can fold your circle a few more times to create those extra fold lines…but you’ll end up with the fold in the center of your quarter-circle triangle shape, which you might not like.  I think a little practicing with a few circles will do the trick.

After folding all 3 of my circles, you simple glue them together to form the body and wings of your angel. I keep the center piece as the body and resting on top…then glue in the wings on the two sides sort of interlocking with the body piece…probably easier to just look at the photo to understand.

Then you just add the halo circle on the back and the face on the front…you can draw different expressions – singing, sleepy, smiley…

I played around and created a few of them as you can see and the one with smaller circles for the wings only creates a more proportional angel. You see that by experimenting a big, you can create really unique and pretty angels for your holiday decorations.

I like to put them on my pens and pencils, just hanging around! However, they would make lovely Christmas decorations, a beautiful garland or maybe even on the front of a handmade card or book/journal cover. Lots of ideas flying through my head!

Also, as I was experimenting I realized there are many more things you can create with just paper circles…for example, if you stacked a bunch of the folded circles together in varying size…it could look like Christmas trees…hmm… gotta go experiment some more now. Have fun and thanks for stopping by for this tutorial! Share you links and comments below!

Paper Flowers and Embellishments

by Linda | Oct 18, 2010 | my creative journal

So I saw the videos about the box flower and ornate version from the Cosmo Cricket blog and realized…hey, if I just played a bit with a bunch of circles, I’m sure to create my own paper flowers to use as embellishments. Since I now have a Big Shot it was easy to cut out a whole bunch of circles in various sizes with my nestabilities dies. Actually, if you have circle punches it would be super easy as well. I started by making the box flower…but then just started folding and connecting however I felt like. It was really fun to just play around!

I actually like to flatten everything out instead of puffing up flowers, because my scrapbook pages go in an album and I don’t like too much bulk. However, the more 3D versions can go on the cover of minibooks and such – suddenly ideas were spewing all over and I didn’t have enough circles to play with. Here’s what I’ve created so far and I think they are super cute… maybe this is old news for everyone else?

Who would have thought it really was that easy…if you use pretty pattern paper that you like, the results are bound to be lovely. I’ve never been a buyer of lots of embellishments because it’s odd to use the same item multiple times, unless it’s brads or simple elements. I tend to just buy the basics and try to combine elements to make it my own. One thing I’ve noticed is that I admire so many designs by other folks, especially when looking over the gallery at Two Peas In A Bucket…but I wouldn’t want to do it myself even if I think it’s pretty. Sometimes I look at a layout and just think…hey that’s xyz brand or line all over it and not even getting into the story or photos…which is bizarre because I want my photos to be the focus. I suppose some designers are just showing off their product…and I do love looking at those kinds of projects and admiring them…I just can’t get myself to create in that way. Sometimes I think my work can be a bit bland or boring in comparison, but I soon realize that adding more just because will make it like marketing for scrapbooking product – which is not my job 🙂  Anyway…just random thoughts there on scrapbooking!

Anyway, back to paper flowers…I’m happy to have played a little with paper and still amazed at how a tiny change like different buttons can give you so many different looks. I realize there are only 24 hours in a day, but since I’ve been working on a lot of digital stuff I am missing the paper side of things, too.

The Virtual Instructor with Free Art Lessons

by Linda | Oct 18, 2010 | my creative journal

Wow, I am always so thankful for all the wonderful people out there who devote their own time to spreading knowledge to others. I just came across this cool website thevirtualinstructor.com and specifically the youtube page for thevirtualinstructor. It’s full of free art lessons…videos of how to use watercolor pencils or mixing paint to create skin tones and composition theory. I believe that Matt is a high school art teacher and illustrator, just sharing information with all of us! It’s so wonderful to be able to learn something new, whether fundamentals or not…it’s always helpful to review for any creative person. Either way, it’s just fun to learn!

I find his way of explanation very easy to understand and follow. Not only is this helpful for adults who want to learn a bit about art…it would be great for homeschoolers as well – he offers free lesson plans. There’s a lot more material on the website than on the youtube channel, so definitely check it out and follow the blog. I guess other art teachers can use the info too… very cool. Hope you learn something new and get inspired this lovely Monday!