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I am feeling like a boring little blogger these days. I need to create a short video tutorial – at least try and shoot some video with my new video camera – it’s quite a bit different than my old one so I’m still at the “poking it with a stick” stage. It takes me a while to get over my fear of “new things” 
. Isn’t it great? The world is full of new and interesting things that we can be fearful of isn’t it? And isn’t it great that we ALWAYS have a choice whether or not to embrace that very fear which holds us back or not? I’d rather say that i embraced the fear and moved closer to my dreams than NOT. I wish i had learned this lesson earlier on in life. Better late than never right?
The above photo is evidence of my attempt to “get organized” with my workshop materials. Whenever i facilitate a workshop it takes me close to an hour to set up and then less than 1/2 hour to tear it down – there’s a mad scramble to clean up the room (which is usually being used right afterwards for another meeting). Things get thrown into the wrong boxes, stuff sticks together with paint (no time to wash it off) on it. So the next time i facilitate a workshop it takes me at least an hour to find all of my material and in the case of the last workshop i had spent over an hour creating another demo piece because i couldn’t find samples from the previous classes. So i decided to buy some large Ziploc baggies to organize all of the components – sample journal pages, painted backgrounds, stencils, mark making tools, small stencils, workshop handouts etc. I might bull clip them all together so they don’t get lost.
If i keep this up I won’t get into a mad panic like i usually do just before a workshop .
Wishing you all a very creative and joy-filled weekend!
I created a series of “pieces” of an art journal page for my Teen Workshop Yesterday.
As you can see i simplified things quite a bit – backgrounds, borders, lettering (words) and main image. I showed the pieces separately and then pinned them to the background to demonstrate how everything can be put together.
Here is another sample with a more jazzed up background and an “L” shaped border. The border was created with torn bits of painted papers, book pages and a tiny doodle lady in the corner.
Yesterday there were 19 girls in the Art Journaling workshop – at the top of the hour there were only 4 and i began to panic – within 10 minutes an additional 15 girls poured in which really gave me only 50 minutes to demonstrate, talk, do tutorials and then let the girls go to it to create funky painted backgrounds and learn how to stencil. Let’s just say paper, paint, glitter and stencils were flying around the room. It kind of felt like “Speed Dating” only this was “Speed art Journaling” 
! The girls had a blast! Thanks for all of your wonderful energy girls! Thank you also to the White Rock Library for hosting this two part Art Journaling for Teens program. A big thanks to Jessica for organizing it and to Doreen for helping out! xo
When someone is new to Art Journaling it can be pretty overwhelming as to where to begin – that’s part of the reason why i wrote my book Journal Bliss to help people get over the fear of beginning and fear of the blank page. You certainly DON’T have to journal in this way – it’s just one way to begin. You’ve probably seen some of my completely drawn journal pages before – i don’t begin with a painted background at all. I just use pens and coloured pencils. These are fun pages to create as they can be done in one sitting – no waiting for paint to dry.
You have probably heard me talk about overwhelm on my blog quite a bit. It’s something i struggle with. Do you know how i often come up with solutions? I imagine that i am teaching someone how to do what I’m struggling with and i end up chunking down the problem. That’s how i came up with a recipe for art journaling. Often when i have to do something with so many bit and pieces – for example creating a Workshop DVD – i use my flipchart and reverse engineer the process. I start with the end in mind and work my way backwards to figure out the steps i would need to achieve my goal. Sometimes I’ll use images, sometimes words – often i start with a mind-map – i love MIND-MAPS!
The next time you are overwhelmed with a problem that seems just way to HUGE to tackle consider chunking it down. I’d love to know how things work out for you!
Here is a Journal page i worked on yesterday for the Teens Dream Journal Promo Sample. I still have to add some words in the top left-hand corner.
As you can see i glittered her lips 
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I only managed to get one piece done for my promo Sample yesterday because i ended up spending 2 1/2 hours in the Walk-in Clinic to see a doctor about my hearing problem (the flu/cold has affected my hearing). I was not prepared to wait so long otherwise i would have brought some drawing materials with me. As i turned out i had the magazine Art Journaling with me and that kept me entertained for a while.
I decided to make the girl in this page a bit ethnic looking – we have a big population of Asian and East Indian folks here. Many of the kids I’ll be teaching have rich ethnic backgrounds – how annoying it must be to see so many images of white girls. It’s not a proper reflection of the population. I’m aware that my imagery needs to reflect this. I remember a while ago my friend Rhonda who is black was angry about all of the “White imagery” around so i decided to make a Black fairy in her honour. She got a kick out of it.
Today I’ll be teaching another workshop at the Library for teens on Art Journaling. Since we only have one hour together we’ll be focusing on backgrounds and stencilling – even that’s quite a bit to cover in one hour isn’t it?
I’ve been enjoying Traci Bautista’s free Doodle’s Unleashed class from Strathmore. It’s always fun to watch other artists at work and to find out a little bit about their inspiration. I think you can still sign up for the class if you are interested. There are close to 3400 people registered for the class – isn’t that wild? That just blows my mind in a good way – so nice to see so many people interested in doodling in such a free manner!
Well that’s it for today – I’ll chat with you all tomorrow!
Today I’ll be creating a new Teens Dream Journal to use as a promo tool. Yesterday i was at a planning/proposal meeting with counsellors at a local school for teens and I was asked if i could leave my Teens Dream Journal with them to show the kids so they can get excited about the upcoming workshops. I’m sure i let out an audible GASP! It’s the only one i have and I’m afraid of losing it as i use it to show people what their finished book can look like. I’ll be using it tomorrow when i teach another class at the library. So today I’ll be creating a new one from scratch – should take me a couple of days at least to put it together.
I’ve ready that other artists spend quite a bit of time creating promotional art pieces (including journals) to leave at stores as samples for the sole purpose of having a physical representation of the project the customers can create. I’ve even noticed that Michael’s Craft stores have samples in various aisles right next to the supplies so their customers will have a visual of the piece they can create – it makes sense. Most folks are visual and visuals sell!
If you are interested in getting your art licensed you might want to be on the call tomorrow with Tara Reed and Maria Brophy – they are interviewing Kyle-Beth Hilfer.
Check out this great blogpost by Maria Brophy on making deals with Big Companies. While you are there you can check out the other articles Maria has written – very helpful – her tagline is “Helping creative people to design the career and lifestyle of their dreams”.
I hope you all have a great rest of the day!
Sorry i have no image of the birthday card i created – I was not on the ball this weekend and forgot to take a photo. I created a birthday card for my grandson Sam – a picture of the Count – you remember the Count from Sesame street? Well Sam really likes the count so i drew his head and glittered part of his nose – because – ya gotta have glitter somewhere right? Like i often do while watching TV i coloured in the Count with a variety of pencil crayons – this time Inktense pencils which are really saturated with gorgeous colour!
Just an update on the meeting with the DVD duplication place…..it went very well. As you probably already know the FEAR of something is often greater than the actual thing you fear. The folks were very nice and helpful and didn’t mind me saying “I don’t understand what you are saying – this is all new to me!”. They bent over backwards to show me the entire process, how they create from the design aspect right down to the printing/duplicating process. At one point i saw a designer drinking a cup of coffee. I thought “Gee, i sure wish i had a cup of coffee!” The next thing you know he’s asking me if i want a coffee. Either I’m a good telepathic sender or he’s just a great receiver 
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In any case it was all good and a very pleasant experience all around. I really encourage you to embrace your fears and dip your toes in the water – baby steps – that’s all it takes. Do one small thing to move yourself closer to your dreams!
This post will be brief as i have to go out in the snow and on the highways to visit with a DVD Duplication company. How many dreams have been stifled or were stillborn because of our fears of things which make us uncomfortable? I know MANY of mine never saw the light of day because of my fears of technology or fear of looking stupid or fear of asking for help. This Teens Dream Journal DVD workshop has taken forever to do because of some of these fears – yes i have created it and Yes i have given some away but was not happy with my homemade print job not could i envision myself sticking on hundreds of labels (my labels tend to be a bit askew).
To make a long story short I am doing something which makes me uncomfortable, driving in the snow, seeing a company that GOD forbid might ask me questions i don’t know the answer to and spending money on something i might end up not liking in the end – is it good enough? Am i good enough?
All i know is that this voice in my head won’t let me rest until i finally give birth in a rather BIG way to this dream of mine. 
What about you? Do you have any dreams you have let go of because of fears such as technology, fear of asking for help or money fears?
Have a lovely weekend my friends! xo
