Creative Workspace – From cleaning to creating…

by Linda | Jun 17, 2010 | my creative journal

Happy Thursday to everyone! Just wanted to give you a peek at my creative workspace today…

I’ve been trying to clean up my room, but as I go through stuff I get ideas and start creating. I also seem to create a mess, so in the end there really hasn’t been a lot of clean-up either way. Oh well! Blame it on the ice coffees I can’t seem to stop myself from having. Maybe that’s where the “high” comes from 🙂

I have been making little journals to send to friends and even though I still can’t cut straight for the life of me, they are so darn cute anyway. Something about the smaller size perhaps?  These babies are around 11 cm square sized, itty bitty but still enough space to work on.

Since I’ve rediscovered my leather stash, I’m really into making journals right this moment and experimenting with different ways to create a closure…that’s always the most challenging part for me.

Otherwise, I really need to finish up another tissue paper roll minibook I created, house shaped this time! I’m going to put pictures of my family with a funny quote attached. You can see the roof of the houses lift up to reveal the tag portion. It’s going to be hilarious because my grandma-in-law says the funniest things…

I also saw a great video profile of artist Jonas Gerard today and since I’ve been prepping a tiny booklet with gesso – seemingly forever – stalling I suppose – I feel it’s time to start with my mini abstracts. It’s going to be a bit of creative play painting time with extremely loud music…but in miniature form for cuteness…LOL!

The Diary Project

by Linda | Jun 16, 2010 | my creative journal

Have you heard of The Diary Project? It’s a project getting a bunch of artists together to create a dated diary with their artwork. I think it’s a great opportunity to get your artwork out there in front of people’s eyes, so I signed up to design a page. Since it’s all black and white I decided to do a line drawing, here’s my test print out…

I happen to draw little elf-like girls a lot, they are very similar but I never really think of them as the same one. No character development here! Just a cutie to make you smile and be happy. I love the idea of having an illustrated diary where each page is filled by a different artist. Talk about inspiration galore as you go through each day…pretty cool idea and just wanted to share with you all. Maybe you’ll want to sign up for a page as well?!

Art Journal With Me – Gloomy to Sunny and Update on my zine…

by Linda | Jun 15, 2010 | my creative journal

This morning started as a rainy, gloomy day so my art journal page began with a little girl under the clouds. She wasn’t so happy about it all. The weather so drastically affects my mood, it has a bit too much control over me I think! However, as lunchtime rolled around the skies cleared and it was full-on summer sunshine. So I had to change her to a happy girl because the sun was arriving. The sun is actually one of the printable graphics I posted previously. The spread started as a bunch of square papers pasted into my journal. I added paint in various colors and rubbed them all over, then drew my little illustration, adding white paint and outlining the drawing again. Pretty simple, but it creates a nice blocky texture in the background.

So an update on the zine idea I wrote about on last week’s art journaling post…I was so inspired after reading and learning about the creative process of ihanna’s Mettazine! I’ve always been in love with zines like Craft Leftovers and even online mags like ArtTrader – there are so many great ones out there. With the encouragement of my lovely readers I jumped on the idea of creating one myself. I like the idea of sharing my point of view on a topic, like discussing with friends about something I’m passionate about. I also love the idea of creating a fun little booklet to mail out. With handmade touches and sort of underground feel to it – like the days of handing out revolutionary ideas on the down low 🙂 LOL! I started typing my ideas out and before I knew it, I had written a full 6 pages of text! Here’s a peek at my stream of consciousness…

I’ve never thought of myself as a writer, but I suppose I do become a chatterbox when I get comfortable. No longer the little meek girl you might suppose me to be. Maybe I’ve gone a bit overboard though because it looks like a lot to read. However, I’ll be spicing it up with some interactivity and doodles. Exciting stuff and I can’t wait to keep working on it and really put it together. I want to find a way to bind it as a little book since I love bookbinding as well. Those are just a few of the ideas running in my mind…weee!!!

Inspiration from Crayola colors…

by Linda | Jun 14, 2010 | my creative journal

I just discovered this lovely song and music video, “Crayola Doesn’t Make A Color For Your Eyes” by Kristin Andreassen and totally loving it. A great inspirational start for my Monday morning!

I really love the kids in the video – happy times, grooving to the beat and doodling with crayons. What could be more fun? But if you listen to the lyrics, it’s also such a sweet love song. Aweee…super cute lovey-dovey, the sentiment she is expressing! I was inspired to play a bit with drawing eyes and coloring them. Fun fun…

Corrugated Cardboard Book in progress

by Linda | Jun 11, 2010 | my creative journal

In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed more and more often the use of corrugated cardboard in scrapbook layouts and crafting in general. I’m sure it’s always been there, but I saw Marion from A Piece of Craft in a video using it for a layout and also cutting out flowers with it…combining the rough look with really glitzy pretty stuff as well. Then I saw episode 144 of Paperclipping that totally encouraged mixing styles, including an example of corrugated cardboard use – thus adding it into my creative vocabulary. When I saw a cardboard box that had a thicker double layer structure I was literally pushed into starting a new project – immediately!

I used some inspiration from many of the fabulous bookmakers out there and added some leather strips to my cardboard book covers, sewing up the book quickly and roughly. You can tell it’s a bit roughly done – I didn’t measure anything because I was just entranced in making what was in my mind – a real thing.

I’m really surprised how nicely it came together with little planning and have realized that over time I am liking the grungy look more and more. I suppose it comes a bit naturally if you start to use more recycled materials. For example, I never buy chipboard or bookboard…I just use cardboard, food boxes, backing of notepads, etc. My task now is to embellishment this eclectic book in a fashion that contrasts with the rough and tough look it currently has. Pretty bright flowers perhaps? White lace? One thing I noticed was the ripping of the cardboard to expose the inner textured part results in a lot of linting…I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if I have to spray fixative on it. If anyone has tips, please let me know!