Have you been checking my other site this week?  I’ve been giving away some awesome online classes.  Today’s prize is your choice of any of three of Willowing’s classes on dvd.  Go check it out and come back the next couple of days, too for a chance to win classes from Kelly Kilmer and Juliana Coles!!  http://creativityclasses.com

I have been doing hardly any art except for art journaling this summer.  I got a big box of gently used supplies from my friend Kristina, and it included some stencils and some inks.  Since then I have gone mad with stenciling.  If you’d like to see some of my playing, I have them on Photobucket here Because I actually write a lot on my pages, and it’s very personal and emotional, I blurred out the writing on some pages, so it sort of distorts the image, sorry.

One thing I’ve been doing a lot is making borders on my journal pages, or putting a strip on the top or bottom of the page.  I started by cutting strips out of magazines, but then I printed out some old journal pages and cut strips from them.  I like this a lot, so I made a couple of pages of “collage sheets” of these strips of mine.  If you click the images below you will taken to a large, hi res image that you can download and cut up to use in your journal.

Update on my freind quest:  Today I found a scrapbook store in a town about 30 mins away and met two wonderful women!!  I’m going to go hang out with them and create.  Maybe this weekend!!!  You should check out their site. She has things I’ve never seen before.  Yummy goodies!!!

My “Find Your Personal Symbology” class begins June 22.  It is one of those classes that really engages everyone.  It’s not a technique class.  It’s a class where you learn to look at your own life and find the symbols that have messages for you.  It’s only 4 weeks long, so doesn’t require a huge time commitment and it’s only $25.  Please go here to read more details about the class and to sign up.  I hope you’ll join me!!!

You might be surprised to know how many times I come to my blog, open up the editor and begin to write a post, only to give up in frustration.  Not because I don’t want to write.  But because I want to write so much.  It is difficult to know how much is okay to share in a blog.  Trying to select the most interesting, timely or entertaining things out of all I want to share becomes too daunting so I give up.

I read a lot of other blogs and I long for the ability to say the right thing and choose the right pictures to have an interesting and helpful blog.  I feel that my hit and miss ramblings are useless to anyone but me.  The solution to this eludes me, but I am going to try to just blog whatever I want to when the mood strikes.  I’ll see how that feels and try to quit over thinking it.

I want to know how people do those collages or mosaics of small pictures in their blog posts.  I usually see them on blogger blogs, so I suspect that might be a feature of blogger.

For my latest journal I wanted to work on loose pages, rather than a bound book.  I cut 9 1/2 x 14 in. watercolor paper in half to use for the pages, but it’s really too small for me.  I’ve done enough pages to bind into a book.  I like working on loose pages, but I need to use the full size sheets rather than the half size.  Here are a few of the pages I did on the small size.

I’ve been playing with different styles and ideas.  I’m layering paint and paper more than usual.  I just got a new dip pen and some new ink.  I’m loving playing with them.  I am mostly liking romantic, cream and pink, victorian looking pages.  So I want to use the dip pen and ink to write on them.  It seems fitting that a page with antique lace or paper that looks like Victorian wall paper, should have old fashioned ink to write the words.

I am still working on the new website, but as you know if you’ve ever built a site, nothing ever goes as planned and dates must be flexible to deal with problems.  So, while I wanted to launch the site this week, it isn’t happening.  But I promise it will be worth waiting for!

I haven’t posted in a while and I’ve been up to quite a bit lately.  I’d like to share several things with you.

I discovered journals with sewn paper and fabric.  I fell in love with the way they look, so I tried my hand at them.  I am not much of a seamstress so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed sewing.

This is the cover.  I don’t like it very much.  And, I’ll warn you that I didn’t cut all the threads before I took the pictures, so it looks pretty scraggly.  The cover was difficult because I wasn’t sewing the fabric on to a back. Just trying to form the rectangle shape of the cover by sewing pieces together.

Here are a few of the pages.  I planned them with lots of paper on each page because I write a LOT in my journals.

A while back I showed you a chair and a stool that I got from our neighbor who is moving and getting rid of stuff. Wellllll, the other day they were loading the moving truck and I guess they didn’t have enough room because they put an antique desk out in the alley!!!!  I nabbed it so fast it would make your head spin.  It’s so unique.

(It is sitting in our laundry room, where I sometimes do art, so excuse the mess in the pictures.)

When you first see it, it looks like a hall table.

But when you pull up the knobs, it reveals a little desk!  The board you can see with the indentions, actually slides out to create a larger work space.  See the little cubby holes?  Isn’t it great?

Today Mister and I went fishing.  It was wonderful to be in the sunshine.  And I saw some nice nature.  These are some pictures I took.

This is the shore near where we were fishing.

The colors of the sunset were reflected on the ripples in the water.  And there’s a Big Bird cloud, too!

And another shot of the shoreline and the sky.

This was so cool!!  I saw this cloud that looked like a fish.

I looked at the water to see what the reflection of this fish looked like.  How cool is this?

So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately.  Oh!  Except for a secret.      Kristina and I are creating a website that you are going to LOVE, if you are involved in the online art community.  It’s really awesome.  We’re hoping to launch it in a week or so, so stay tuned for that.

When I do art journal pages, my main purpose is to write.  I love doing art to create a page to write on, but I don’t create a piece of art in my journal. I create a page that allows me to write because writing is the way I document my life. I write about my experiences, my gratitude and I write about problems and issues I’m dealing with.

What I want to share through Creative Clown is both the art I do on pages and the writing process.  I want to share this because it truly has made my life much, much richer and has helped me move forward and have a much better life.  The problem I’ve encountered in being able to share this with you, is this: my writing process is intuitive so it’s been difficult for me to know how to share this process.  But this morning as I was writing in my journal, right in the middle of writing about an issue, I could see the process I was using.  I was able to break in down into explainable steps. I’m excited that I can finally share it with you.

Here is the basic idea, but you need to keep in mind, that it is a process, so as you are going through the steps, things will arise that will affect the flow, so go with what comes up for you.  You may get off on another thought or have other things you need to write.  This is a guide only.  Below the guide you will see where I have shown an example of how I used the guide.

1.  Write out the problem in a few words.

2.  Who does it affect?

3.  Who is responsible for finding a solution?

4.  Who might help me find a solution?

Before you go on to step 5, go back to step 2 and under each person you listed, answer “How?”
Go to step 3 and under each person you listed, answer, “Why?”
Go to step 4 and under each person you listed, answer, “How?”

5.  Possible solutions.

By the time you get here, you probably have thought of some solutions.  Write each one out, but leave space under each one.
After you’ve written each possible solution, go back and  under each one answer “Is this a good solution?” and answer it yes, no or maybe.
On the ones you write maybe or no, answer the question “Why not”.

Again, I want to stress that this isn’t nearly as linear as it appears in an outline.  It’s an intuitive process and if you can just follow the guidelines, while allowing yourself to go where it takes you, you will find solutions. That is why it’s important to write the first four steps, before you go back and answer the questions under each area.  By the time you’ve written those first four things, you will already be getting answers, but it’s not really a question and answer type process.  Just write out the problem and who it affects, etc without stopping so that you will already be naturally seeking solutions.

Here is my example of how I used the process with a particular problem:

PROBLEM:
I can’t find my style in art – I like too many different styles to settle on one.

WHO DOES IT AFFECT?
Me
How?  I spend more time worrying about it then painting.
It keeps me from selling art.
It takes away my confidence.
I am not making money.

Randy
How?  He doesn’t have me as a happy partner when I’m worrying about this.
I’m not selling art and bringing in money.

WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT TO FIND A SOLUTION?
Me
Why?  It’s a personal thing. No one can tell me what my style is.

WHO MIGHT COULD HELP FIND A SOLUTION?
Artists I admire
How?  I could look at their anrt and see how they incorporate different looks, colors and media into one style.
I could write them and ask for guidance.
Randy
How?  Tell him what I’m struggling with so I’m not dealing with it alone.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
View the work of artists I admire.
Is this a good solution?  yes

Write artists I admire and ask for guidance.
Is this a good solution?  Maybe
Why?  I feel silly and intimidated.

Talk to Randy.
Is this a good solution? yes

Spend more time painting.
Is this a good solution?  yes

Put art up for sale whether I have a style or not.
Is this a good solution?  yes.

If you use the process I’d love to hear from you.  I’m happy to discuss it with you if you get stuck or need help with it.

Lastly, I”m going to show you an image of a journal page where I’ve worked out a problem.  You’ll see that I don’t use an outline, I just write in a natuaral way that takes me through the steps.

Click to see larger image

One of my readers left a comment saying she has trouble finding pens that will write on backgrounds done with acrylic paint in her journal.  I have heard this question often, so I’ll answer it here.

My favorite pens for journal writing are the UniBall 207 by Signo.  I have never had any trouble with them writing on acrylic backgrounds.  They come in several colors and are available at office supply stores and discount stores.  I also like Jelly Roll pens (link below).  They come in all sorts and lots of colors including neon and metallic.  I especially like them for writing on dark backgrounds.  They are very smooth and write fine on acrylic.  For a white pen, I like the Sakura white pen (link below).  They seem to run out of ink quickly, but they are smooth and write well on acrylic.  For a larger tip, I also use the Sharpie paint pens in white.  I have also used white out pens if they have a small tip.

I use other pens but sometimes they do clog up with paint and take some babying.  One tip I can give you is when writing, try to sort of glide the pen tip over the page, rather than digging into the paint.  It’s hard to describe.  It’s like pulling the ink along the surface.  Hopefully you can play around and figure it out.

Here is a link to a very extensive article by Kelly Killer on pens she uses in art journaling.  The links I referenced above are in her article.  It’s much more comprehensive than mine, so I’m sure you’ll find some pens to try there.

I spoke yesterday about the style of journal pages I create.  I received some responses asking how deep writing and art can be combined on a page.  The answer depends on what you want your page to look like.  If you want it to be a work of art suitable for framing, maybe it isn’t possible.  But my aim is to create a visually pleasant, or expressive page that allows me room to write as much as I need to write.  I might add that I write 8 to 10 pages every day.  Obvisoulsy, if took time to create wonderful art on every page, I’d have time for nothing but journaling.

I will share some scans of some of my recent journal pages to give you an idea of  they type of pages I create in my journal.

1.  I painted the sun on the left page with liquid acrylic paint and a thin liner brush.  I used a paper plate to create the half circle on the right page, then painted the area outside the circle.

2. I painted both pages with pink for the background.  I glued a magazine picture of lady’s face on the right page, covered her with gesso, then filled it in with watercolor pencils.  With white liquid acrylic (or gesso, not sure which) I painted the wings.  Then I used bubble wrap and acrylic paint to “stamp” the circles on the background.

3.  I painted the background with a goldish yellow, I think it was yellow ochre.  The image on the upper left was an inkjet print printed on t-shirt transfer paper and glued on with mod podge.  I made the vertical red stripes with watercolor crayons.  I used a rubber stamp to make the checker design.

4. I painted the background a pale pink.  The images were cut from an old journal where I had been playing with geometric designs in graphite pencil and watercolor pencil.   The jan is rub on letters.  I didn’t have numbers so I had to write in the date.

5.  Painted the background brown.  Cut the rough shape of a dress from a dictionary page and glued it in.  Made the angel head and wings with a white Sharpie paint pen.  The checkerboard was made with a rubberstamp and white liquid acrylic.

6.  I love this sort of seafoam green color so I used it on the background and wanted to see how it would look with red.  I saw the border technique that Teesha Moore uses and just grabbed a magazine and cut out anything that was in the red group.  I cut small strips of these images and glued them around the edge.

Alphabet of Gratitude

I believe that graitude is a necessary part of living an emotionally and spiritually healthy life.  It isn’t always easy, though, to recognize what we are grateful for especially when things aren’t going well in our lives.  Sometimes we need little tricks to help us find things that we are truly grateful for.  The reason these tricks are necessary is because when we find the gratitude, we find the gifts, blessings and even choices in our lives, and that leads to peace and joy.

When I was in junior high school, my best friend, Erin, taught me a trick to use the alphabet when trying to remember someone’s name.  She told me to go through the alphabet as I tried to think of the name, and when I got to the correct letter, I’d remember the name.  And I’ve used that little tool ever since.  When I am having trouble falling asleep,  I chose a category such as food, cars or furniture, then I go through the alphabet and name one item for each of the 26 letters.  So, that led me to the alphabet of gratitude.  If I’m having trouble being grateful for anything, like the days when all I can see is what’s wrong in my life, I can choose a letter and start naming things I’m grateful for that start with that letter.

Today, let’s start with “A”.  Do a journal page, or a blog post listing all the things you’re thankful for that start with “A”.  If you want, you can expound on each one by writing a little bit about why you’re grateful for each item on your list.  If you’re creatively inclined, you might want to add some drawings or collage about some of your items.  Spending a little time, even a few minutes, will help set this gratitude in your mind for the day.  You might even find that as the day goes on, you’ll think of even more words to add to your list.

Update on Easy Transfer

Yesterday I shared a tip about using t-shirt transfer paper for transfers on collage.  I told you that I heated it with an iron to remove the backing.  Last night I discovered that it doesn’t have to be heated.  Just let it dry well after printing and you can peel the paper right off!  I’m in love with this technique.  I like the transparent look of transfered images, but used to dislike all the time and mess of making a gel medium transfer.  But this method is quick and not messy at all.

Photo A Day

Today my photo is of one of the Christmas gifts Mister gave me.  It is a carousel stand to hold paint.  It hold so many bottles and is easy to get to because it spins around.  It is helping me keep my table neater because it’s so easy to put the paint away when I’m done.

I wrote on the last page of  my current journal last night.  The cover on it is one of my favorite’s.  Writing in my journal is such an effective way for me to sort out reality from the crazy thoughts in my head.  As thoughts circle around my mind, thinking only sucks me into the whirlpool. But writing helps me get it out so I can organize them.  Once they are organized I can determine what is important, what is just crap and what needs attention.  Journal writing has kept me sane for a long time.

I am starting a new journal today, in anticipation of the “Oh My Word” Mission for 2010.  If you don’t know about it, you can read it here.  My word for next year is Acceptance.  I chose that word because I want to learn to accept myself just as I am today.  All of me.  But since choosing the word, I’m finding out that it is also about my accepting others.  Just as you can’t love others if you dont’ love yourself, you can’t accept others if you don’t accept yourself.  It is going to be an interesting year to discover all I don’t know about acceptance.

If you are participating in the Oh My Word mission with me, be sure you have a blank book of some sort to write in, OR a blog.  As I offer ways to focus on your word, you will need a place to record your reactions and thoughts.  I know several of you have posted your word, but if you dont’ have a word yet, just remain open.  Spend some quiet time listening.  I know that seems impossible right now with the holiday activities, but it only takes a few mins to listen.  While you’re driving, or brushing your teeth, just focus on being open and ready to hear your word.

I am on a Mission next year and would love for you to join me.  Here’s a little background.

For many years I have selected a word  in January that I want to focus on throughout the year.  These words were things I wanted to bring into my life.  I’m not talking about words like Cadillac or husband, but more like love, harmony, awareness.  By selecting a specific word, it gave me something to focus on in order to bring my life closer to what I wanted it to be.  Having a word allowed me to look for opportunities to practice the thing I want.

I have outlined a lot of activities that we can do together to keep us focused on our word throughout 2010.  I have seen this work in my life for many years and I would like to share this exciting experience with all of you.  This is something we will share and do together. It won’t require much time and the activities are fun.  I will post a monthly focus activity.  We will do these activities in our blogs or journals or just alone with no one else.  We can share if we want, encourage each other and celebrate what we’re doing.

If you want to join me, let me know here by leaving a comment on this post.  If you aren’t already subscribed to my updates, please click the link at the top of the right column.  That will keep you updated when I post our activities throught next year.  If you use Facebook, you can join the Oh My Word! page there.  And if you use Twitter, my updates will include the hashtag #onmyword.

All you need to do for now is select the word you will focus on in 2010.  In order to do this, just be open.  Spend a few moments being still and quiet and listen.  It might not come to you immediately.  Be patient and wait.  If you don’t feel this method is working after a few days, look through books or magazines.  Pay special attention to any words that you are attracted to.  Don’t analyze it.  Just be willing to be drawn into any particular word.  If it speaks to you, then that might be your word.

My word for 2010 is acceptance.  The word I have used for several years in a row was harmony.  It took several years to bring that into my life because when I chose it I was living in anything but harmony.  It took lots of patience and time, but I did it.  I have a life of complete harmony now!!  So, I think it’s time for some serious self-acceptance.  But just as you can’t give love away unless you have it for yourself, you also can’t give acceptance to others unless you accept yourself.  That’s my mission for next year.  I want to completely accept everything about myself.  I’ve worked on change for most of my adult life.  That’s a worthy goal but after years of focusing on what’s “wrong” I’m ready to just BE!