I received my art journal pages i sent over a year ago to Stampington for possible inclusion in Art Journaling Magazine.  They were my very favourite pages and to be without them for over a year was like farming out my children to a distant land .  Ha!  Funnily enough my favourite pages were not selected for the magazines two page spread. 

Here are a few of the pages i had sent in – you may recognize some of them. 

This is the Magazine my pages appeared in. It was pretty exciting to be featured in the same magazine as one of my favourite Art Journalers of all time – Teesha Moore!

You may recall that i was visited by a woman from the Netherlands last summer – Karla and her husband Rolf who had been inspired by my work – you can read about the visit here. Karla was inspired by my small papier mache ladder which you can see in the above link.  Karla was participating in a year long workshop/creative/coaching program.  I believe that the final large project was to create something meaningful in 3-D – this is what Karla came up with!  Isn’t it incredibly amazing? She may donate this sculpture to a children’s school or hospital.

It really warms my heart to know that someone living so far away can be so positively affected by my work and then go on to create a unique piece of art that comes from their heart and soul.  The internet truly makes us all indelibly connected!

I’m off to teach a Junk Journal Workshop at the Surrey School Districts Pro D day. Should be a fun time!

Have a great weekend!

Love, Violette xo

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I was reading Pema Chodrun’s book When Things Fall Apart when i came upon a parable about Buddha that really spoke to me.  Buddha was sitting under a tree before he became enlightened when he was attacked by Mara (the evil demon – the personification of obstacles that prevent us from understanding our true nature).  The attack is seen as arrows and Buddha who remains unmoved turns the arrows into flowers.

I created this art journal page to illustrate the story.  To make a long story short my great hopes of flying off to San Francisco to create a workshop with my new friend did not manifest.  Even though we did flesh out the course and spent 4 days planning, brainstorming, mindmapping and setting up the shape of the online workshop we have decided not to proceed together. 

Issues such as big learning curves, time and energy required as well as a sizeable outlay of money caused my friend to back out.  When i look at all of the things involved i certainly understand her reticence to proceed.  Needless to say I was disappointed initially and quite bummed out. 

As usual I always believe there is a reason for everything.  I was reading Pema Chodrun’s book when the story of Buddha under the Bodhi tree hit me.  Even though this project didn’t work out I realized that I have all that I need, I know where i need to ask for help and that I should honour all of the talents and gifts that I have developed over time.  The arrows have become realizations (flowers).

I am a nervous flyer and had to take two planes to get to my destination – one was a propeller plane. Even though i was freaked right out i still went which tells me that I am very passionate about this project and should still find a way to manifest it.

My friend and her husband were super hosts – they knew i was vegetarian gluten free so they bought special foods to accommodate my health concerns – AND they bought wine too which is always appreciated! They were very gracious and accommodating – they had a virtual stranger sleeping in their living room for 5 days! 

Here I am working on the agenda/calendar for the 4 days we were creating and planning.

I tend to travel super light and don’t bring a lot of supplies with me so i was very grateful that my friend had an awesome supply of felt pens in every variety you can imagine!  It made planning so much fun.  How wonderful is this organizer?  It comes from a place called Organize More. It’s such a fabulous idea to store pens in this fashion.  I’m either going to order one (shipping to Canada would probably be pretty high) or get Mr. G to make me his own version of it.

Another fun treat were the wild turkeys which would come around close to dinner time making funny noises and fanning their tale feathers.  I enjoyed watching their antics! 

All in all it was a big learning experience.  I am still processing everything that has happened and am turning arrows into flowers!

How about you? Have you experienced any challenges or obstacles that you can turn into flowers?  I’ll bet you can!

Love, Violette xo

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Yesterday I went into my local Chapters bookstore and began to peruse the magazine section.  What did i spy but the latest Art Journaling magazine!  I had been waiting for my copy to arrive since I’m one of the contributors but had not received it yet.  So i was happily surprised to see the issue had come out already!  I quickly snapped this photo of the magazine spread while in the magazine section.

Stampington and Co. featured 3 of my art journal pages as well as a little write up!  Thank you so much to the folks at Art Journaling Magazine – the issue looks wonderful – full of juicy art journaling inspiration.  Thanks for letting me be a part of it!

Happy Easter Everyone!

We’ll be celebrating Easter with family, having an Easter egg hunt for the little ones and enjoying a brunch!  Should be a fun time!

What are you doing to celebrate Easter?

See you next week!

Love, Violette xo

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I’ve been sick for the past few days but was happy to be coherent enough to be able to think and speak for this fun Video Interview with Martiel Beatty over at Things Crafty Link.

Video Interview  I am having problems embedding the video here so hope you click on the link to watch it – it’s over one hour long but kind of fun and chatty – you can watch it while having tea – pretend we are having tea together . I spoke about art journaling and how it saved me, my book Journal Bliss – and how i got the book deal and much much more!

I’ve created a “Violette TV” Pinterest Board that you might like to check out! I’m not sure if i should put all of my videos on there or just my favourites!

I’ll be briefly blogging on Friday – I know it’s Good Friday but some of you might be popping over here.  Guess what?  In a couple of days it will be the 4th anniversary of my book Journal Bliss being published – so I’ll be having a contest giveaway next week – stay tuned! 

Love, Violette xo

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It’s that time of month again……..time for an art journal jam!

Come and join me tomorrow at the Good Day Sunshine Cafe in Surrey at 3:30 pm for a free Art Journal Jam!  Bring your favourite journal book or loose pages on a clipboard, your pencil crayons and have a bit of fun creating together! 

Yesterday i had such a lovely afternoon taking a Soul Collage workshop from Margaret Grocke (all the way from Ontario) at the Portal in Ladner. Here are the cards i created – i might still work on a few.  They truly speak to me on such a deep level.  Some of the images repelled me like the airplane that had crashed but strangely i was drawn to it.  In Soul Collage you are supposed to intuitively choose images that you are drawn to – not necessarily pick images that are pretty. Soul Collage was invented by Seena  Frost.  I have her book called Soul Collage and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf for a number of years.  I quickly looked through it but never did anything with it until now. I’m hooked – this is an amazing process. I urge you to look into it if you want to heighten your intuition and be able to answer many of life’s questions.

Here is my friend Vivienne keeper of the Portal, magician, Goddess and all around magical fairy having fun creating.  We had such fun and were giggling and laughing our heads off while clipping images to our hearts content! 

Yours truly, Instructor Margaret Grocke and healer Janey Davey Walsh – Margaret was gently guiding us and answering our questions. Let me tell you it was such a treat to be a participant rather than a teacher for a change. It was interesting to watch my mind though, the critical mind telling me i was doing it wrong or that it didn’t look pretty enough.  Vivienne had to help me “reframe” some of my negative comments .  Thanks Viv! 

See you on Wednesday!

Love, Violette xo

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The Teen’s Art journaling workshop went very well……..

What a lovely group of teens!  They had such fun creating colourful pages full of inspirational words that described how incredibly special and unique they were!

Note to self: bring some aprons for the girls to wear as the acrylic paint is permanent and not all teen girls are into having painty clothes . 

Here’s a blurry picture of yours truly, Steve Dotto and Susi Vasseur (teen coach) at the ProTECHtivity Seminar yesterday.  Steve Dotto some of you may remember had a popular TV show in Canada about computers called “Dotto’s Cafe”.  Steve created a productivity Seminar – task management, social media, how to handle e-mails, the latest and greatest apps to make your life easier and more.  It was an information rich event – i took tons of notes. 

A few years ago I would never have attended such a seminar. I would have run screaming in the opposite direction with my hands waving madly in the air.  But because I am so overwhelmed with e-mails, social media and managing my life and needing to find things more quickly I thought this would be a good seminar to attend. It was! The presenters were all very engaging and funny . Much of the presentation seemed magical to me as i was introduced to apps and tools i never knew existed or were possible! Wow!  Many thanks to Steve and the workshop presenters and especially Deborah Kriger for letting me know about the upcoming Seminar where i discovered my inner geek .

On Tuesday March 19th I’ll be hosting another Free Art Journal Jam at the Good Day Sunshine Cafe from 3:30 to 5 pm.  I hope to see you there!  E-mail me for more information!

Happy weekend everyone!

Love, Violette xo

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