Create because you want to…that’s all the reason you need.

by Linda | May 28, 2010 | my creative journal

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the process of creating and the reasons why I do what I do.

Whether I’m taking photo, altering them, doodling, painting, creating digital graphics or randomly making whatever I feel like at the moment… it’s something I enjoy doing and feel that I must do in the moment. Often I’m inspired to make something because I see someone else do it – a cool project or idea that just has to be tried. However, most of the time it’s about channeling ideas out of mind and feeling good through the process.

Making stuff makes me happy. Isn’t that enough reason to create and do something?

It just feels good to keep my hands busy and the process of creating art and crafting seems to take me into a relaxing zone. It’s not work mode, when I have a game-plan in mind on how to tackle the problem in the most efficient manner possible, etc etc. My creative time doesn’t come from a plan and even when I think I have a plan – it turns out completely different.

I semi-finished the little binder book I started yesterday and decided to use it as an address book. The pages are made of kraft paper folded into pockets, so it can hold business cards and tags. I suppose at some point it might get really bulging, but I actually like how it fans out anyhow.

After making that little book I immediately felt the urge to create more…I wasn’t done bookmaking perhaps. I automatically went to folding papers and cutting leather to make another classic journal. I just did it without much thought or planning… it felt so satisfying in the end.

I don’t really sell much stuff at all even though I’ve put it out there online, but I just keep doing it anyway. Why is that? Shouldn’t I be discouraged and give up already? It’s bizarre, but I have these internal debates with myself sometimes. I’ve realized that sales doesn’t equal satisfaction for me. It would be great to one day be a self-sufficient artist, but either way I’ll be creating. I just like it. It’s fun! I want to be happy and enjoy life, so I just have to do these things.

Perhaps it’s moving to Italy that has changed my perspective as well. Previously it was all about satisfying social norms and being that “perfect person” that I thought people wanted me to be. The successes that I thought were imperative ended up being pointless in the end. No satisfaction, no happiness, no feeling. I’ve changed so much and my priorities have completely shifted. I feel like life is so much simpler now.

Am I oversimplifying it? I feel like I’ve stepped back from the whole “scene of life” and now I can see the big picture more clearly. I’m sure there’s still much to learn, but I’m so happy and grateful for the life I have – gosh, I can never gush enough.

Sigh…all this to really say that I wish everyone would create because they just want to. Don’t let fear hold you back. You do it because you want to. Because you love the process, because it’s fun and feels good to express yourself. Because you have to just create. That’s all the reason you need, right? I hope you all have a happy weekend and lovely holiday in the USA…until next time my lovelies 🙂

Art Journal With Me – Just Drawing

by Linda | May 25, 2010 | my creative journal

Hi everyone! Another week of art journaling with me, thanks for stopping by as always. I thought I would continue with drawing my funky ladies in the black journal of watercolor paper. When I go to draw, there’s no plan or picture in my mind. I just start with round eyes and go from there, whatever my hand happens to do on it’s own really.

This time I ended up with an alien-looking lady and the writing says “swirls, it’s magic now” – musings that just come forth from within. It’s nice to just draw and not really care about how it all ends up. It’s the process and act that is wondrous and rewarding. I think that art journaling is really about that exactly – the free creative process. Sure it’s nice to be able to share a beautiful result, but first and foremost art journaling is about you and your expression. You can pour yourself out and whatever comes out or doesn’t come out – it’s all good for the soul in the end. It doesn’t matter if you want to draw or collage or splatter paint. Creative therapy for life I suppose? Hope you have a lovely week and if you like art journaling consider joining the ning communities Milliande and art journaling – I’m on there, so look me up. Ciao ciao!

Learning From Turtles and A Frog Girl?

by Linda | May 21, 2010 | my creative journal

When we start to eat lots of strawberries, our turtles subsequently get fed all the strawberry tops. We know they love ’em and I’m always mesmerized watching them chomp away. They get all red around the mouth like lipstick…so funny!

Doesn’t he look like he’s hoarding the strawberries? Mine, mine, all mine – muhahaha! In the end he couldn’t finish them anyway. It made me think about the way I hoard materials. I instinctually want to “save the good stuff” and wait for the “right project” – even though we probably all have our stashes still stashed away. How bizarre! My mother-in-law has been cleaning out house as well and we keep finding treasures hidden away. At least, treasures if you are a fan of antiques! It got me thinking again about posessions and how we like to pack things away. In the end, we might have never used or enjoyed those wonderful things we stashed. It’s all very weird when you think about it, right?

Shouldn’t we use more often the things we love and enjoy them to the fullest? Shouldn’t we spend the most time and money on those everyday things that make a difference in our lives…instead of that super expensive something we hide away for fear of “ruining.” Enough of the insanity, right? Perhaps it’s the warm weather making me feel free and wanting to break out! My husband and I are going on another IKEA run this weekend and I will take the opportunity to get even more organized with my own crafty supplies. Wish me luck on organization, it does seem to be a constant endeavor.

In other news, the lovely journal I made yesterday has its first drawing inside now. I did a little sketching with my niece and she actually helped me color this girl in. Of course, she’s a frog girl because that’s what my niece said the face looks like. You can see from the close-up that I have a thing for round eyes. Maybe that looks froggish? My style is definitely not realistic, instead I like the whimsy fantasy style because you can make-up whatever you want. I suppose it’s okay she looks froggy. I still have to work on expressions and making my ladies not so generic. It’s true that often the female faces we see appear to be quite benign…

Something for me to work on with my new journal. Well, enough updates on my random musings and thoughts. Thanks for stopping by as always and happy friday! BTW, if you want to check out more photos of our turtles, see them on my Flickr photostream. Otherwise, have a lovely weekend, ciao ciao!

Creative Workspace – Laughing At Myself…

by Linda | May 20, 2010 | my creative journal

Sometimes I just have to laugh at myself, rather than assuming the worse like perhaps – I’ve gone mad! For example, today I decided to make a practice journal out of leftover watercolor paper. I have a lot of leather lying around, so cut a little cover and sewed it together. Until I realized midway that I was sewing a different black leather journal. Yeah…talk about zoning out. This is what happens when you have too much stuff on your desk, right? Somehow, I got my covers and papers mixed up and starting making a different journal…ehhh! The one I started working on – or thought I was working on actually got shoved into my leather stash pile. Jeepers…I just laughed at myself. Oh well, extra journal to add to my Etsy store! Sometimes I get into the zone and it’s a bit zombie-like for me… *tee*hee*

So the one I made for myself is a bit larger, but stitched the same exact way – just one signature of paper and wraparound leather closure. I already watercolored on one page, but planning to do colored pencil and acrylic practice in here instead. I don’t like the paper for watercoloring, so will use it for something else!

In another corner of my desk, I also have these cut-out journaling tags and shapes (you can download in my last post). I will be adding more embellishment to them…but not sure what yet…

Another little craft I’ve been doing is paper collage with my niece. I decided to go with Claudine Hellmuth’s style of using the b/w people heads and putting them in cute situations by collaging and illustrating. This one is of me and my husband – together. Yeah, I’m mushy like that and often end up with lovey dovey hearts here and there. That’s my kind of art! 🙂

Still lots to finish today as I decided to break up my days into smaller blocks and chip off a little of many different ongoing projects. I’ve been finding this method more productive, going along with my ADD nature. Sort of like doing daily bird illustrations, I also do the daily bit of clean-up, scrapbooking a page, crafting, art and of course the necessities like work! It might only be 10 minutes or so for one little step, but suddenly a week has past and I’ve got something done. It’s a great feeling! This method of working also put me into the mode of writing “finished” lists instead of to-do lists. It’s nice to note all the things I’ve accomplished and see it at the end of the day…you might want to try it!

Inspiration from Nature

by Linda | May 17, 2010 | my creative journal

Nature is so inspiring to me and I’m always amazed by the forms and patterns I find in the details of ordinary things. Sometimes it almost seems unreal, like perfect spiraling tendrils or perfect circles you see in plants. This weekend I went on a little walk with my niece, collecting wildflowers. I came across a “weed” along the side of the road and the leaves look just like cute little hearts!

How amazing and adorable does this little plant look? I was inspired by the pattern and had to take it home with me and photograph all the views…not to mention the colors are beautiful as well…from greens to yellows to golden reds.

There’s something about the heart shape that just touches me so much. Even though our hearts aren’t exactly shaped like this…which led me to wonder how the shape form was created in the first place. I found an interesting article about the history of the heart shape and coincidentally the last theory comes from nature!

This little “weed” plant certainly inspired a lot in me and led to other heart-related discoveries and experimentations. I hope you enjoyed this little heart-full Monday inspirational post – maybe you might want to step out into nature and see what you can soak in! Thanks for stopping by and now I’m off to create some heart patterns inspired from this plant. Ciao ciao!

Tissue Paper Roll Mini Album – Finally Done!

by Linda | May 14, 2010 | my creative journal

Woohoo! I am so happy to have finally completed my first tissue paper mini album…sweet! It seemed to take forever, given this new format and the tags inside the flattened tubes. Although I’ve learned a few things for next time around, I’m super satisfied with the results.

First of all…mini albums are just uber cool. I’m not worried about archival issues and I want it to be touchable and explorable for kids and adults alike. The size makes it a less challenging project as well. I used papers from an Ikea stationery set and just printed out photos at home.

This mini album is just select fun times when we were in the USA. Disneyland was a big component of our fun times. Partly because I worked for Disney and we went there for free all the time 🙂

The little tags come out from the inside of the flattened tubes. It was a bit tricky because I had flattened them out so well and glued paper over that it was hard to stick tags in! I actually used my bone folder to “stretch” out the openings a bit.

The book “pages” are just tied into the binding. Pretty simple way to bind the book which I like more because I’m not a fan of loose rings. Besides the fact that I like bookbinding anyway, I like to have the solid structure where pages stay together nicely.

The size of the mini is perfect as well. Not only for adults, but I think it would be attractive for kids to flip through…I cannot gush enough about my discovery of tissue paper roll minis. Where have I been, right?!

The binding just has scrap cloth tied around. It’s nice decoration, but also strengthens the binding and keeps each of the pages separated a bit too. Overall, it was a fun process with a pretty result. Time to share with peeps… 🙂 Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my mini. I will definitely be making more with the tissue paper rolls I’ve been saving! Check out my post about crazy for mini’s competition as well…

Creative Workspace and Happenings

by Linda | May 13, 2010 | my creative journal

Happy Thursday to everyone! Besides the rain-on, rain-off weather we’ve been having lately, things are pretty lovely here in the Tuscan hills. I’m happy to hear the birds chirping, see the wildflowers popping up and feel the warmth of the sun getting stronger by the day. Although I was thoroughly annoyed taking photos today, given the sun kept disappearing – or I guess it’s the clouds blocking the way – I had a productive studio day and feeling completely satisfied and happy. Yay!

I’m also looking forward to the summertime because I signed up for a class with Claudine Hellmuth. Super exciting! Thank goodness for online classes, because I live in the boonies and wouldn’t have exposure to workshops otherwise. You should check it out at Big Picture Scrapbooking and also visit Claudine’s website to learn more about her. I love Claudine’s illustration style and collage work, so super happy to join her for the summer 🙂 I’m certain it’ll be fun times crafting along with her and other folks in the class.

To update on my creative workspace, let me share a bunch of photos…things I’ve been working on…mainly bookbinding! I had to clean up my desk a bit first, or at least shove stuff around because it was full of random bits and bobs. I also got snail mail today and my copy of Somerset Studio finally arrived. I was a bit sad that the corner had water damage from it’s long voyage – darn the rain! But of course I’m anxious to dig into the magazine tonight when I snuggle up in bed. I also got my prize from winning the Italy on Sunday challenge and I must say this is the fastest mail shipment I’ve ever received. Probably helps that they are in Italy as well, instead of mail from across the ocean! Grazie grazie! I got a lovely handmade notebook and a booklet of rub ons. Will be playing with those for sure!

This week I made a journal as a gift for friend…which led to making another one because I was on a roll and had all the materials lying around already.

So this afternoon, I just decided to continue with the bookmaking momentum and created three more with more signatures and thicker paper. I decided on three to experiment with binding techniques. I certainly don’t need these journals, but it’s just fun to make them. Also because I have leather lying around and this is how I use it up sans sewing machine. The first brown journal has the signatures tied into the cover, easy peasy! I’m not sure if there’s an official name for this kind of binding because it’s kindergarten simple.

I have to say thank goodness for bone folders, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to fold all the paper without wearing myself out! This first simple journal has a classic look, with the linen string showing in the binding. I should probably say thank goodness for my awl as well to pre-punch all the holes. Even though I’m starting to wonder if I should get a drill for the purpose, will be better for my hand I’m sure!

The second journal I made has a slightly lighter-weight leather, so I decided to sew all the signatures in, while wrapping around the cover spine. It gives it a more decorative look and makes the journal very flexible. I followed along Karin’s bookbinding tutorial – thanks! I should note this is where an injury must be noted…poked my poor finger with the giant tapestry needle – ouch!

For the third one, I wanted to follow Teesha Moore’s directions on how to make a journal because it has such a pretty binding with the option of beads and dangly things! However, I had to go back and fold more paper to make 6 total signatures and redo my little hole punching template. As you can see, I confused myself several times…eek!

This last journal took a lot more effort, not because it’s hard to understand the method, but just tougher to work with the super thick leather I had and also adding the beading while making sure the string was tight got tricky. In the end, I was super happy to finish the binding and admire my handmade effort! I will have to add embellishments to all three journals to finish up as well as think about the closure…but I’m satisfied. It’s great how creating something just makes you feel good at the end of the day.

Thanks for checking out my creative space today and following along my random ramblings.