Intentional Lettering

Since starting a Bullet Journal (which I will write about and show you in a future blog post),

 I have been trying to improve and explore my lettering skills.  

Whether it's for headings and titles or just the plain old handwriting I'm using, 

I want it to be pretty and I want it to be an endeavor of creative intent.

I am thinking a lot lately about living with intent, versus being on autopilot.  

It's a mindfulness practice.  It is helping me slow down a little, stay in the moment, 

appreciate the process, as well as work toward the goal of improving a skill.

I started my Letter Love Inspiration Journal for this purpose, based on Joanne Sharpe's book,

The Art of Whimsical Lettering.  

I thought it would be fun to share, and maybe 

inspire someone else to start one, too.

It was fun altering the cover of this Decomposition Book.  Joanne gave me the idea to use some of my washi tape stash, finally! I used a few of my own handmade art papers, scrapbook papers, security envelope scraps, book text and random stuff from my collection of collage papers.  

Collage is another mindfulness practice that is calming and rewarding!

Inside front cover

Inside back cover

Back cover

Thank you for visiting!  

I hope you might be inspired to start the mindful practice of artful lettering, too!

XO

Sarah

Can I Just Doodle for Days?

For this Spring's iHanna DIY Postcard Swap,

I was inspired by the art journaling e-course I recently took from 

Roxanne Coble.  I have pinned a lot of her art journal spreads to my Pinterest board 

"Visual Journals and Sketchbooks", because I love her work and could stare at it for hours.  It is so interesting and beautiful.  In her class, "Creatures", she taught her process.  She's a wonderful teacher and it was a great class.  In this process, there is a lot of layering and loads of doodling,
(which I love to do!).

I really enjoyed making these cards, and I love the way they turned out.  I even sent one to Roxanne!

I started off with two sheets of 14x17 Bristol paper, knowing I would cut them up into the cards once they were covered with art.  I dashed out some black acrylic onto the blank sheets, just to get things going, then played around with my carefully curated collage pieces.

By the time I was ready to glue, not all the pieces ended up in the collage.  Then I added some muted/neutral colors of paint.

 

(Yes, that's a gin and tonic in the left bottom corner photo!)

Next, "pattern pieces" of collage and translucent liquid acrylics for some good color pops.  And black and white paint for contrast and interest, along with some paint doodles.

Then, I went to town doodling (for days) adding some other color pops of paint, and some liquid gold leaf doodles as well.  And was so excited to see how the cards came out, I didn't take a picture of the completed 14x17's.  I got 18 cards out of the two Bristol sheets.  Here they are:

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I am looking forward to seeing what I get in the mail!

XOXO

Sarah

iCandy Collage

I decided I might create more art if I enrolled in an online class.

And it worked!  I've been loving all the inspiration in 21 Secrets Fall 2015!

I am familiar with a few of the teachers from following them on Facebook or their blogs.

Of course, one of my favorites is Hanna Andersson, 

whose international DIY Postcard Swap I participate in twice a year.

I have never collaged an actual collage into any of my art journals, focusing more on creating pages or spreads that say something, or only include collage.

I probably put too much pressure on myself to create something meaningful.

It was truly freeing to just focus on creating a collage of "pretty papers" a la Hanna Andersson!

I started selecting my papers by picking out a couple papers I had just made.  

Some months back, had done some flower doodling on top of a gelli print I made on sheet music.  

And recently, I doodled little one-of-a-kind arrows all over a piece of writing paper.

I used the colors in these papers to influence my choice of all the other papers in the collage. 

It was quite meditative and fun to browse through all of the collage and art papers, magazine clippings and ephemera that I had been collecting for ages!  I even took the opportunity to organize some of them so that I could make another iHanna collage in my journal later!

Thank you 21 Secrets for a super fun class...and thank you Hanna for inspiring me, once again!

Thank you for visiting.  

I love reading your comments, so if you have the time, let me know you were here:)

XO,

Sarah

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!