A Little External Motivation Never Hurts, Part One

Yes, well, all my good intentions for being a consistent blogger have pretty much gone out the window!  Or have they?  I have been helping a friend with her blog, and it's got me thinking I need to give my own a little TLC.  So I'll show you what external motivation has been doing for me lately.  Here's Part One.

iHanna is an angel.  She gets me making art at least twice a year!  For this year's fall Swap I used some spray inks, stencils, Silks Acrylic Glazes, and colored my own artwork with my creamy Prismacolor pencils.  I felt like I wanted to send a little gift with the postcards, so I made small vellum bags, attached them to the cards and filled them with my handmade ephemera.  It was absolute bliss creating them, and now I'm inspired to use some of these materials in our holiday cards this year.  I've participated in iHanna's swap for about three years now, and can't wait for the next one.  My past creations can be seen here,  here, and here.

The quote says:  Generosity is the most natural outward expression

of an inner attitude of compassion and loving kindness.

~Dalai Lama XIV

Never Too Late for More Link Love

This has been such a fun adventure so far!  I have found so many blogs that I love through the link love shared by the others on this mission.  Tammy at daisyyellow is extending the mission, so, should you choose to accept it, get more information here.

I am inspired by many of the craft ideas at A Fanciful Twist.  Especially this paper chandelier!

I just drool over the artwork of Jen Stark.  She is a young, inspired and very humble artist whose muse is colored paper!  A woman after my own heart!  It is worth viewing this video where she explains how she came to use colored paper as her medium.

Elsie and Rachel of Red Velvet Shop, are art journaling mentors of mine.  The way they break down their approach makes it seem so easy and effortless to complete a journal page, and sometimes, I just need it to be easy.

I really admire the artwork and journaling of Juliana Coles.  I love her art journal pages in 1000 Artist Journal Pages and Artist's Journals and Sketchbooks.  I wish I could sketch so effortlessly, but I am taking her online workshop, Field Notes: Mixed Media Sketching, which promises to teach me this, and so far it has been very cool.  I am learning that I need to set aside my expectations of needing to be good at it right out of the box....Like it's some talent you have or don't have?  It's an openness to being unskilled that I need...and lots of practice, practice, practice!

I love the art journaling style of L. K. Ludwig.  I have her book,  Creative Wildfire:  An Introduction to Art Journaling--Basics and Beyond.  This is one of the first art journaling books I purchased, and I continue to go back to it, and to her blog, for more inspiration.

Gel Print Problem

Well, I don't know if it really is a "problem" per se...but my gel printing activity has been taking me away from other more mundane things like laundry, that I "should" be doing.  But once in a while I feel it's appropriate to just forget about the "shoulds" and enjoy yourself doing something you like to do or want to do, instead.  It's not like the laundry won't get done eventually!

I made a video to share what I've been doing.  Please let me know what you think!

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

more link love

Well, I'm a bit behind...as usual!  But I do have some more blog love to share!!!  I'm on a MISSION!
Tammy at daisyyellow has a brilliant campaign going!  You should get in on it if you can...there are a couple weeks left!  Check it out:  Share the Link Love.  I'm sure you can still get in on the love-two weeks left!

http://sarahearn.blogspot.com/
I love her ice cream colors! The way she blends primary colors, white and pale shades with accents of scribbles and folk art accents really gets my juices flowing!

Henna Patterns
My doodles tend to be henna inspired, and here's where I can go and learn more about making them.

http://karenbenke.com/
Rip the Page!  I have been inspired by Karen Benke in my pursuit of the child within.  Her work has been so helpful to me in the "writing" part of my art journaling.  I have used her prompts and writing lessons in my art camps for girls and the response has been so positive.  We used a five senses exercise to do a color wheel art journal page.  Here's mine ;)

http://journalfodderjunkies.com/
I love the work of Dave and Eric.  This is where I initially learned of Dan Eldon's visual journals and his sad story.  I have both of their books, filled with their signature step by step, analytical approach to journaling. I have yet to fully incorporate their influence into my own journals, but it is on the to-do list.

http://www.matirose.com/blog/
Lot's of inspiration here!  I have Daring Adventures in Paint, which has inspired some of my art journal backgrounds, if not full-on paintings.  I will get a canvas next!  The photographs by Leslie Sophia Lindell are brilliant.

Thanks for checking my links!
See you in a week (or so) :)
Sarah

Old School Link Love

I am a link lover just like the next blog crawler.  I posted a nice 'little' list here on my blog when I set it up...how long ago...?  Has it already been 2.5 years?!  It seems like maybe Pinterest took over a bit in this area...it's so easy to link your followers there to everything you love.  So, now, actually posting a blog about the links you love goes above and beyond?  Maybe.  It's like anything "old school", I guess.  Doing things the old way often requires more effort, attention and personalization.  Like writing an actual letter instead of emailing, or making a "mix tape" (now CD) instead of sharing on Spotify (which I am listening to as I write this, by the way!).

So this is about really loving some links!  I have to give Tammy at daisyyellow the credit for getting me involved and, as a result, making me write this post.  I've been wanting to blog more, and she gave me a really good idea for a post.  I realize that quite a few other participants in Share the Link Love will likely list some of the same links.  I'm just posting what I love.

I follow artist bloggers like Tammy pretty regularly, checking their blogs daily to see what's new.   I love Tammy's colorful and whimsical style, and her work ethic is sublime!  I took her workshop El Parquesisto Creativo, managing to do about half the lessons, but really got inspired by her simple techniques and articulate (detailed!) approach.  Here are some of my rainbows from the workshop:

I have also purchased a couple of her Daisy Yellow Zines which are fun to look at (and drool over!) but also packed with useful information to inspire art journaling and creativity.

I love iHanna's blog.  In fact, she's the first art journaler/blogger I began to follow.  I love all of the colors she uses and her compositions are lovely.  Her talents are diverse!  She definitely has the blogosphere handled!  She hosts an annual postcard swap with more than 2000 postcards crossing the globe each spring! I recently participated and am still receiving beautiful art mail on a daily basis!  Here are some of the cards that I've sent:

I also follow Natalie Malik's blog, awkward&beautiful.  I LOVE her style of art journaling!  I am trying to master image transfers to do a few pages a la Natty.  I'll let you know how they turn out!

I am fascinated by the art work of Eric Zener, so I'm checking his site pretty regularly to see if there is a show of his work near me where I can see the real thing.  I mean, seriously, check this out!

The beautiful Elsie and Emma of ABeautifulMess are bloggers at the professional level!  I am inspired by their style as well as by the businesslike quality of their blog.  I've found quite a few sources for fabric, fashion and photography technique by visiting them.

And I cannot finish this post without a huge endorsement of my dear friend Lori's blog, LilyGirlFriends.  Lori is a talented jewelry designer and artist with a flair for photography and an eye for all things beautiful.  Her latest post is a gem!  I keep visiting it just to look at the photos again!

Spring is in the Air

Well, I don't know about you, but when this time of year comes around, I start to get antsy for the summer.  In college, spring trimester was always the toughest for me.  I'd take my studying to the beach...yes, the beach!  Picture brilliant blue sky, calm waves over blue-green Pacific Ocean, seagulls, a few dolphins swimming by, whitish (we are in San Diego, after all) sand, and a brisk breeze (all you locals can just picture Torrey Pines Beach).  I would be cold, except that I'm prone, half-asleep on my oversized towel, and positioned to catch even rays according to the location of the sun (in other words, I'm probably not facing the water).  I mean, it is cold...still spring...not even full-on spring...so I'd be freezing if I tried to get any color in my beach chair! (I did read for about a half hour, but it was distracted reading as you can imagine!)

Nowadays, my priorities are different.  (Ya think!?!)  My friends will say:  "Sun bathing?!  My doctor told me not too, and I'm already getting laser treatments for sun damage!" I say:  "Sun bathing!?  Who has time for that SH*#!  I have to make sure my kids don't drown when they try to surf "outside" with the board they just got for their birthday...yesterday!  Plus, it's FU*&ing freezing down there at this time of year!

Which brings me back to the yearning for summer that comes to me at this time of year.  And last summer I didn't spend as much time at the beach as I spent driving kids to and from camps so I could work for a living.  So when I got the chance to visit my friend Lori in Little Italy for the Mercato one Saturday, I took my camera and took it all in.  Here's what's making me think of summer right now:

Here we are, (left to right) Divine Sisters:  Leah, me, and Lori...photo shoot!!!

Lori, next to her delicious display of hand-dyed silk ribbons.

LilyGirl Jewelry, creatively (what do you expect!) displayed.

Katy Helen, doin' her stuff!  It's amazing!!!

My Blinglets offered for sale with LilyGirl Jewelry!

They said Juicy...

More Juicy-ness!

I could use some of these for my Vitamix right now!

This one speaks for itself, right!?

Juicy peaches!

Summer yum!

Send me the sun, ASAP!

Open Heart

I am trying to not try as hard.  Does this make any sense?!  As usual, I will probably try too hard not to try too hard!  If I just let go, open my heart, receive a bit more without feeling the need to always be the one making so much effort in order to be loved, perhaps things will just flow and fall into place where they should be.  That's where everything ends up anyway.  So, on this Valentine's Day I will love myself a little bit, too!

Mail Art - I'm Slow, So it Suits Me

I carefully staged and edited these photos months (as in 6!) ago!  Life moves fast!  Snail mail is a way of slowing it down, and Mail Art is a fun way to surprise someone you know, especially when you mostly communicate with them via FaceBook!  During the summer Girls' Artisan Camp I hosted last August, the girls spent a day making Mail Art.  Inspired by Good Mail Day, we made our own stamps and used rubber stamps to decorate our sewn manilla folders.  With with the leftovers (manilla folder ends, stamps, diluted paint in spray bottles, and stencils), I created some Mail Art for them as a thank you for attending the camp.  Inside they found a note from me and some little goodies to use in their art journals at home.  It was really fun for me to make all of these, and a good excuse not to put the art supplies away right after camp ended on Friday.  I know I would like to receive something like this in the mail.  How 'bout you?

Thanks for visiting!  Comments are welcomed and appreciated if you are inclined ;)