Art Journals - Filling Your Creative Well - Blog Series

 

Art Journaling Adventures

Welcome to Day 1 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge that will be taking place for the month of July.  Over the next 31 days I am going to be sharing different ways to encourage yourself to be more creative and I will share the different ways being creative has encouraged and inspired me.  If you give them a try they may encourage and inspire you too!

Today we look at Art Journaling - which can come in a variety of forms and everyone has their own style.  Essentially art journaling is a great way to express your creative thoughts and emotions or just have a play with your art supplies. In your art journal you can add color, layers and find ways to represent how you feel on paper.

I love creating my own Art Journals and work in a variety of ways in them.  Sometimes I might not be able to articulate what is on my mind, so I start with color on the page and create a series of backgrounds.  I might also do some mark-making adding shapes and patterns, and will also use stamps and stencils.  Spending time on the activity helps relax me and enables me to process my thoughts.

In this video I share an example of art journals I created using recycled materials

Where do you start?

You are going to start from where you are.  Look at your supplies, and start there, and of course if you have a wide selection of supplies don’t try and use everything.  An example of some of the things you can use are paints, paper ephemera, magazines, markers, glue, or fabric scraps - whatever you feel like playing with. There are no rules. It is not about creating “beautiful” pages, but about making space for expression and experimentation.

Start by creating a background. You can use washes of color, collage pieces, or even scribbles. From there, follow your instinct. Perhaps a word or phrase comes to you. Maybe you draw a shape that reflects how you feel. You might choose to layer materials or textures that tell a silent story. You can also write a sentence on the page: “Today I feel…” Then start to build color, shape, or texture around that feeling. Layer over it if you want.

Art Journal Variety

Art journaling offers a daily creative check-in. Even ten minutes can help you reconnect. Your journal is a creative playground that you can tap into whenever the mood takes you.  Over time you might even get the urge to create your own journals.  Allow yourself to go with the flow and see what your needs are at the time.

Remember: your art journal is your well. You can use it to refill, restore and reflect 

Takeaway Nuggets:

1. Art journaling invites you to blend emotion, imagery, and reflection into your creative practice. 
2. There are no rules - go at your own pace!

Check out some of the free and paid resources below to enhance your creative journey

Course Platform - there are a variety of FREE courses and resources for you to use in your creative practice.

FREE Tier - Patreon - I have a Free Tier on Patreon that has a selection of early release posts and monthly Digital Download Papers for you to use in your creative projects - Learn More Here

YouTube - Weekly Videos to encourage your creative practice, Slow stitching, art journaling and Artists chats - Learn More Here

Check out Filling the Creative Well which helps you establish your creative practice. In the course Filling the Creative Well, your journal is also a place to answer questions, encourage and motivate you, some days you need a reminder and so filling it with encouraging words so that you can come back to it, especially in those days where you are in a valley is really important. .

Welcome October - Material Musings - Small Projects - A busy month!!

 

Well October is here, and it has brought with it a lot of creative projects that I hope you will be able to take part in some.  You can dip in and out as you choose with the main focus of doing something creative each and every day.  Check out the most recent Material Musings, we will be sharing a new one in the next few days, an update of the stitched project.

Fodder Challenge

Today also kicked off the start of the Fodder Challenge - With a lesson given by Tracey Wozniak, you can get all the information about joining Fodder School HERE

I had great fun creating the watercolor mushrooms and made quite a few varieties of mushrooms, will need to add them to my creative projects.  The techniques learnt were also fun.

I will be sharing as many projects that I can do for the month and I am also excited to share the project that I created which you will be able to catch next week.

Creative Gardener

As it is Tuesday my Creative Gardening post normally comes out and I recently did an update on my Aloe plants, that seem to be growing at an alarming rate.  You can check out the video below.

There has been a lot of other growth in the garden, and I will do a garden tour towards the end of the month.

Gratitude Junk Journal - Early Bird

We have an early bird rate on our Gratitude Junk Journal, which I am teaching in.  If you would like to get 20% off then enter the code AMORE24  at the checkout.

Learn More About Gratitude Journal HERE

Art Resource Hub

Every month in the Art Resource Hub I share a FREE digital Download, for your creative projects, here is the one for October:

Blog Challenge

Finally, I am part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, and so will be sharing with you about all the wonderful creative adventures I find myself on for the month of October (just what have I let myself in for I ask myself) We are going to be pushed to another creative level, I think.

100 Handmade Foam Stamps - WE DID IT!!!

I achieved the goal of creating 100 Handmade Foam Stamps as part of the #dothe100dayproject!!  This is my 100th Stamp...

What always amazes me is the different emotions that you feel along the way for any challenge.  At the start you have doubts and wonder if you can finish, midway you can sometimes feel fed up and not sure if you can go on.  At the finish line you can feel as if you could quite easily do another 100 days!

Looking back from this vantage point it feels as if the time has gone really quickly.  I look back to when I started a little over 3 months ago and start to wonder about all the other challenges I could get myself to do and all the things that I could achieve in that time.

I think one of the good things was knowing that others were doing the challenge too, all be it different projects, but you had others who knew what it was like to make that 100 day commitment and share their ups and downs as well.

Here are all the stamps that I shared over the 100 days

The stamps were all made from recycled foam or thin sheet of craft foam that had been layered.  I will be making some of the designs available on my Etsy store and Course Platform 

Let me know if you took the challenge and how you found it, are you going to do another, take a break, how do you feel now you have completed it?

Check out the new FREE Course below

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Mixed Media Art Courses to Check out

FREE Course

Have you wanted to create your own stamps and stencils, I share with you a variety of supplies you can use and create two mixed media art paintings.

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Paid Courses

Handmade Foam Stamps - Week 7, Challenges and More!

 

Here is the latest video which shows the most recent stamps created.  I am also now at the half way mark for the 100 Day Project, of 100 Handmade Foam Stamps.  

One of the reason I started to create my own stamps was the price of stamps and the lack of variety of the kind that I like, and having the stamp I needed for what ever project I was working on.  I kept seeing designs in my head and after practicing a few different techniques found a style that helped me create the stamps that I wanted to bring forth.

50 Stamps 

Here are the first 50 stamps, they have been organized, had a foamboard backing and image printed for easy identification.  I am on the home stretch with 50 more to go for the challenge.  I have probably sketched just a bit over 100 and there is inspiration all around when it comes to creating designs.

1-25

26 - 50

If you would like to see the stamps daily you can check out my Instagram HERE

You can check out the supplies used to create the paintings and foam stamps HERE

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I am also taking part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and you can check out the posts HERE

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Mixed Media Art Courses to Check out

SALE - Enjoy $10 OFF all courses until 30th April Click on the image to see the course.

Use the Code at the checkout - create2

Figures in Charcoal - 5 Minute Challenge.

Figures in Charcoal – 5 Minute Challenge

I spent two weeks investing 5 minutes creating with my supplies. I wanted to use charcoal and reintroduce myself to the supply - I have 4 different varieties from hard to soft and different brands. So the challenge a 5 minute sketch would achieve several things, get me creating daily and use the charcoal.    It took a few days to get into the swing of things but once I had done it I really enjoyed it. 

You can start a challenge at any time, think about things that you want to get done and give yourself a taster, you will not regret having spent the time in the activity. 

I think I might try and do these challenges every month, it can be as short or as long as you want.  I was thinking about what I wanted to do next with them and I would like to do something with stitching. 

You can see the full video on my Patreon - https://patreon.com/realityarts -  

Here are all the selection of shorter videos for you to see how they came together.

Blessings! 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Stepping Out Challenge - 31 Days - Reflections

Welcome to today's post.  Last month wrote about a challenge that I was taking part in over the month of October and looked at some of the challenges that I had taken part in over the years.  

It was great reconnecting with some of the challenges and reminding myself of what I had achieved.

It is important to have a proper time of reflection and very often you are so thankful that you made it to the end that you can find yourself stepping from challenge to challenge, with no time to really think about what you like and dislike about taking part.

I have a lot of other projects that took a back seat while I was doing the challenge and want to get back to working on them.  I really enjoyed doing it and as I mentioned yesterday I learnt a lot about working with podcasts, editing and found hidden gems in the challenges that I was sharing that I will be revisiting and working on.  All in all it has created a whole new set of activities in motion that I am looking forward in  working on.

If you missed some of the posts for the Stepping Out Challenge I have listed them below, they lead to the blog post and has a link to the podcast which has additional material within it.   Hope you have taken the step for making the rest of the year rewarding, by learning as much as you can, challenging yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone

Day 1 & 2 - Challenge Starts

Day 3 - Art Studio Essentials 1
Day 4 - Art Studio Essentials 2

Day 5 - Tropical Garden 1
Day 6 - Tropical Garden 2

Day 7 - 31 Art Journals 1
Day 8 - 31 Art Journals 2

Day 9 - A - Z of Dementia 1
Day 10 - A - Z of Dementia 2



Day 11 - Tips for Carers 1
Day 12 - Tips for Carers 2



Day 13 - Healthier Lifestyle 1
Day 14 - Healthier Lifestyle 2

Day 15 - 365 Days of Colour 1
Day 16 - 365 Days of Colour 2

Day 17 - Writing Challenge 1
Day 18 - Writing Challenge 2



Day 19 - Clearing the Clutter 1
Day 20 - Clearing the Clutter 2



Day 21 - 52 Weeks of Colour & Inspiration
Day 22 - 52 Weeks of Colour & Inspiration 2

Day 23 - Creating in Faith 1
Day 24 - Creating in Faith 2

Day 25 - Gratitude's 1
Day 26 - Gratitude's 2

Day 27 - I love you today because 1

Day 28 - Memories of Home 1
Day 29 - Memories of Home 2

Day 30 - Gratitude's and Celebrations 1
Day 31 - Gratitude's and Celebrations 2

I would love to know if you have started a challenge for yourself, or are you thinking of it? 

 Do you want to explore some ideas that you would like to start or have been mulling over in your mind and have some feedback, then join the mailing list and you can have an email feedback to help you on your way?

Check out some of the supplies/books at a discounted price, check out one of the links below:

Adorn it - http://bit.ly/AdorAT18

Dollar Tree - http://bit.ly/DolAT18

Blick - http://bit.ly/Blick18

Book Outlet - http://bit.ly/BOOKAT18

Stampington - http://bit.ly/STAAT18

C& T Publishing -  http://bit.ly/CNTPAT18

Dover - http://bit.ly/DOVPAT18

Craftsy Kits - http://bit.ly/CrafAT18

Amazon Store -  https://www.amazon.com/shop/realityarts

Stepping Out Challenge - Day 31 - Gratitude's and Celebrations Pt 2

Welcome to today's post, I am taking part in a 31 day blog challenge where I post everyday in October.  I love creating challenges for myself and joining ones by others.  My challenge for the rest of the month is to reflect on some of the series I created for myself and inspiration that I have taken away.

Listen to the Podcast

Thank you for joining me for another Gratitude's and Celebration Journal, today is day 31 and the end of the challenge.  I am very proud of myself for keeping it going and sticking to the schedule.  I did have a couple of days where getting myself to complete the post on the blog and then do one for the podcast, but I made it work, and I stuck with it for me, and for those beautiful people who visited the blog and listened to the podcast.

For the Gratitude’s and Celebrations journal I shared with you yesterday  I made the journal, and had a fabric cover which I decorated and was a piece of art in itself.  I showed up on that challenge every week to look at those things that I am grateful for, and celebrate the life that I have been given.  One of my last posts was about growth and the things that we learn through our growth which at times can be painful as well as exciting, scary and thrilling!  

Spending time in the journal each week was a good discipline, I made time for creativity, and learnt to have more patience in the work I wanted to do.   

Making it work for you

I created 86 weeks worth of insights, celebrations and paintings and made some lovely connections with those who visited the blog posts each week.  We are connected and our actions have an impact on someone somewhere around the world so we have to be mindful about what we say and do and treat each other with a bit more kindness.

I still continue to have an attitude of gratitude and celebrate the growth and the insights that I learn each and every day.

Adding and stitching and embellishments

I am still on a creative journey in my journal and like many work in a variety of journal depending on how I feel and what I want to work with, and as I said before each journal is still a lovely work in progress

That said I have also had an amazing journey completing the challenge for the past 31 days I learn to use some new technology, new skills, the value of showing up for me, and for those who find value in my work.  On the blog I will be sharing more art journal work, process videos, art book reviews and some of the art work that I have been getting up to so it will be great if you join me.

Podcast

I am very proud of completing all 31 additional posts for the Realityarts Podcast along with the weekly 2 posts I have been doing.  I hope that it has brought some enrichment to your lives.  I thank all the listeners for joining me over this past month, as I shared my work. 

I would love you to come over to the podcast and hear some podcasts that I have been creating and maybe think about joining me on my Patreon site where you will get some exclusive content and you will be helping to keep much of the content that I create free.

For November I will be continuing to post  on the podcast twice a week and have a bit of a breather, but will be working on midweek show where I will be looking at Arts and Health specifically, so you will be getting 3 episodes each week

If you missed some of the Blog posts you can find them below, click on the day to go to the post:

Day 1 & 2 - Challenge Starts

Day 3 - Art Studio Essentials 1
Day 4 - Art Studio Essentials 2

Day 5 - Tropical Garden 1
Day 6 - Tropical Garden 2

Day 7 - 31 Art Journals 1
Day 8 - 31 Art Journals 2

Day 9 - A - Z of Dementia 1
Day 10 - A - Z of Dementia 2

Day 11 - Tips for Carers 1
Day 12 - Tips for Carers 2

Day 13 - Healthier Lifestyle 1
Day 14 - Healthier Lifestyle 2

Day 15 - 365 Days of Colour 1
Day 16 - 365 Days of Colour 2

Day 17 - Writing Challenge 1
Day 18 - Writing Challenge 2

Day 19 - Clearing the Clutter 1
Day 20 - Clearing the Clutter 2

Day 21 - 52 Weeks of Colour & Inspiration
Day 22 - - 52 Weeks of Colour & Inspiration 2

Day 23 - Creating in Faith 1
Day 24 - Creating in Faith 2

Day 25 - Gratitude's 1
Day 26 - Gratitude's 2

Day 27 - I love you today because 1

Day 28 - Memories of Home 1
Day 29 - Memories of Home 2

Day 30 - Gratitude's and Celebrations 1
Day 31 - Gratitude's and Celebrations 2

Thank you once again for joining me and taking the time to read the blog and listen to the podcast, it has been much appreciated.  it is never too late to start working towards your dreams, the main thing is to take one step at a time and do something that you find interesting.

Stay blessed and be a blessing.