Today’s podcast is a short 5 minute audio that I recorded to discuss why we journal, and the idea of journaling as a legacy. I hope you enjoy it.

To download the audio file and listen elsewhere, right click this link and choose Save As or Save Target As.

http://creativeclown.com/podcasts/whyjournal.mp3

[audio:http://creativeclown.com/podcasts/whyjournal.mp3]

Do you know what your unique gifts are?  Do you want to follow your dreams but have too much resistance going on in your mind?  This workbook is a colorful and fun way to find encouragement to be where you want to be in life.

It’s in pdf format so you can print it out and write in it when and where you are comfortable.  It also comes with an audio file that goes along with the workbook to explain the concept and encourage you.

Check it out here.

Also check out the sweet things Terri wrote about me at Bone Sigh Arts.

Affirmations are phrases that help us think in a positive way. They are used to help us change a behavior, adopt a new attitude or bring new things into our lives. By seeing the affirmation (the ideal we want) we focus on it and that helps us manifest what we want to see.

Making affirmation cards is fun and easy. You can use ATC blanks or if you want smaller ones that you carry with you, you can use the perforated business cards sheets for printers.

Any medium can be used to create the cards. You can use collage or paint. I like using colored pencils. To create a design you could doodle with markers, the metallic ones are so cool!! Because I’m too lazy to scan anything, I made the ones shown here in Photoshop. You could make digital ones, too, and print them out.

To find the affirmations you want to write on your cards, think about what you want in your life. Do you want more money for the work you do? You might write something like “I am good at my work and the pay I receive meets all my needs and wants”.

In the Creative Clown shop there is an e-book that has 75 affirmations for artists. If you need some inspiration, you might check that out here.

The cool thing about affirmations is that they can be anything you want them to be. The only guideline is that they be stated in the present tense and in a positive way. Our mind doesn’t know about time. If we create the affirmation to say “Someday I will have a new car”., the mind just holds the thought of it happening some day. If we write “I have a beautiful, black BMW”. the mind believes it’s true, and helps you believe it more strongly. That, in turn, helps you have more faith in your dream, thus manifesting it.

Another way to create affirmations, is to make an affirmation book from a child’s board book. A size 4 x 4 in is small enough to carry with you. Sand the slick pages first and gesso them. Create the designs with paint or collage or whatever appeals to you. Write the affirmation with pens or markers. Or use alphabet rubber stamps or you can cut letters out of magazines.

Most importantly, have FUN making your affirmations!

One of the people that attended the Dreamboard chat a couple of weeks ago in our chat room, just sent me a picture of the board she created.   Carol Moore created this with her country home and garden in mind.

I am thinking of creating a new dreamboard with images of healthier choices in my life.  I’d like to drink more water, for example.  I can imagine that seeing images of water falls, healthy hydrated skin and nice moist lips would help me want to drink more water.  And having the dreamboard in front of me will keep that in mind.

What other things can you think of to manifest through the use of a dreamboard.

Today’s podcast is an interview with Chris Cade from Spiritual Short Stories.com

I think you will enjoy this interview with Chris who is a person with a unique perspective and an inspiring attitude. My life has been enhanced by getting to know Chris, and I hope yours will be, too.

Check out the site for his upcoming e-book for some great free gifts!

[audio:http://creativeclown.com/podcasts/chriscade-interview.lite.mp3]

When I was little we didn’t have much money.   I would use the Sears catalog to make my own paper dolls.  I cut out the women models.   I would then lay the cut out lady on a piece of paper and trace around her.  Then I would draw clothes to fit the tracing.   I had such fun designing clothes and accessories and coloring them with crayons or colored pencils!

I still love paper dolls and I use them in my art journal.  It’s a great way to represent myself emotionally, or in various situations.  I even use them to play with clothing styles.   I have this generic paper doll pattern that I use, and I am sharing with you.   Put your mouse on the image below that is the size you want,  and click your right mouse button, then choose Save Image as.  If you need a male doll, just trim her hair shorter.

You can trace her and make clothes for her.  You can draw her face to express your emotions.  She can be you as a little kid or as a version of you now.    Sometimes I just use her as is and write all over her.  You can glue newpaper, dictionary or text pages on her.   Her clothes can be made of fabric and glued over her.

I’d love to hear other ideas of using paper dolls on journal pages. Please leave your ideas on the comment page.

There isn’t much of anyone nowadays who doesn’t need a good picture of themselves. With all the social sites on the web, you are bound to want a picture, or avatar to upload.

The avatar to the left is one I created on a site, that I’m sorry to say I don’t remember the url for anymore. But if you google “create avatar” I’m sure you’ll find plenty of them. If it’s a sort of generic look you are going for.

If you want an actual picture of yourself, that’s not difficult to do if you have, or can borrow, a digital camera. Here is the key: take LOTS of pictures. Just pose and snap. Check out the angle, the lighting and distance. Change what you don’t like and snap some more. You probably aren’t going to get one you like within the first 25 snaps. Keep going!

This is a picture I took of myself to use for more serious applications – when I want to look professional.

For some reason I find that my hair looks flatter in pictures than it actually is. So, I usually have to go fluff it up and put hair spray on it to get the right look in the picture. Or you might have to open a window to get some natural light in. Play with the flash on your camera, too. Try no flash, automatic flash and the custom settings. Just keep playing til everything comes together and you get a picture you want.

Most social sites allow only a small image to be uploaded. So try to get the shot of yourself as close up as possible. If you shoot it far away and then it gets resized to a small photo, your face will hardly be recognizable. So start out with a head shot that’s clear.

This is another I took that I use for more fun places.

If you don’t want your face to be recognizalbe but still want a photo to upload, think of symbols or other images that might represent you.  A piece of your artwork scanned can make a nice avatar.  A part of your body that isn’t recognizable as you might be nice.  Or a shot of your face that doesn’t completely make you recognizable can be nice.

This image was taken by Denise Mihalik and I tweaked it in Photoshop. I use it at times when I dont’ want to show my face.

I’m working on some Photoshop videos that will help you learn how to remove backgrounds from photos as well as using different features to spruce up your pics! So stay tuned.

You probably see this icon when you visit people’s blogs.  It’s usually on the page in a side menu that says something like “Subscribe to my feed”.  It is also sometimes in the address bar of your browser.  Look up now to your address bar and you’ll see the tiny orange icon to the right of http://creativeclown …etc.

When you click on these icons you can have all posts on that person’s blog sent to a central place for you to read.  All the blogs you subscribe to will show their new posts in a list so you can read them in one program or on one web page.

The most popular page of this type (they are called Feed Readers) is Google Reader. You can go there and set up an account.  Then come back to my page and click on the orange icon.  You will then be taken to a new page that will ask you if you want to add my feed to Google Reader.

Once you’ve added all the blogs you’d like to keep up on, you just go to Google Reader any time you’d like and read all new posts that have been added to the blogs you subscribe to.

I need to journal so bad today.  But I don’t have time.  I am going fishing!  How fun is THAT?  So, I have to get ready to go and can’t process in my journal all that is going on in my head.

I have interviewed three amazing people in the past two days and so many things they said touched me in a really profound way.  It has my mind going and I really want to follow these thoughts.

My “fishing buddy” says he sees it as a loose thread and he doesn’t know where it leads. That’s an apt description of how processing things is for me.  I have all these loose threads in my mind and I need to journal to find out where they are going.

One of the things on my mind is how I talk.  I was raised in west Texas so of course everyone thinks I have an accent.  I don’t see it as an accent, but I realize not many speak the way I do who live outside that area.  lol    But I never minded it.  I felt that some people judged me for it, and they assumed I was ignorant or stupid, but I prided myself in fooling them.   But, since I’ve been doing podcasts and making videos with narration the past couple of weeks, I’ve had to listen to myself a LOT while editing.  And ewwwww I hate the way I sound!

I don’t mind the accent – like how I say “nahs” for “nice”, or that i make two syllable words out of one syllable ones.  But I realize that I say “em” for them, and I say “ha’nt” for both hasn’t and hadn’t.  Ugh!

My friend Tom, speaks perfectly and I love hearing him talk.  I spoke with him last night about my accent and he encouraged me to work on it if it’s bothering me.  There is a part of me that does want to work on improving my pronunciation.  And there is a part of me that feels like that is not authentic.  I’ve talked this way for 58 years.  People understand what I’m saying to them, and isn’t that the point of communication?  The question seems to be is this improvement, as in bettering myself?  Or is it trying to be something I’m not?

I am so pleased to post this podcast. Terri St Cloud is an amazing person and I am happy that you all get to learn a little about her. I think you will be inspired by her abounding love and energy.

Please take a moment to go to Terri’s site and read some of her bone sighs.  They will reach to your core!

She is now publishing books of her bone sighs, and you can find those here.

After you hear this interview, I know you’re going to want  more, so check out her blog.