Mail Art & Dictionary Inspiration

I’ve been working on a collection of summer themed art cards for another one of Christine’s mail art exchanges:

I used some sturdy 4 x 6ish cards then cut & paste some paper bits to create suns, as well as added some distressed stain, ink, acrylic paint, sheet music scraps, ink, and of course, one of my collage loves: dictionary page pieces.

Sunshine, sunlight, sunrise, sunbeam, summer….

It always delights me that whatever words I am looking for (depending on the theme, emotion, need) can still be found in my tattered  dictionary dedicated to this art making purpose.  So many of the pages are torn out, missing, previously used- but the right words always seem to be there waiting for me.

This Creative Dictionary Paper Techniques tutorial and video inspired me to experiment some more with not just word bits & pieces from my dictionary, but with the sheets I’ve torn out.  I had fun playing with some Dr. Martin’s concentrated watercolor, which added a nice touch of color to the pages.  Once I get some more gel medium, I’m going to experiment more with its effect as seen in the Joggle‘s video!

Keeping with the dictionary inspiration, I also worked on art for this month’s Creative Pay It Forward recipient: collaging dictionary pages on a large file card with some handstiching around the edges:

Are there fun ways you’ve been inspired to incorporate dictionary pages into your art-making?

Creative Goodness Continues: Link Love Round Up #4

On this last Monday in April, I have 5 more creative blogs for Daisy Yellow’s Link Love Mission…It’s been lots of fun being a part of this effort this month!  It’s also nice to see the Mission is going to continue in May too if you’re interested in joining.

Check out more creative inspiration I would like to pass on for others to check out & discover:

• realizing your creative life:  This past week I’ve enjoyed reading Jocelyn Paige Kelly’s blog posts and interviews focusing on wellness, self-care, and meditation’s role in our well being & creativity.

• katarina thorsen art blog: There’s always something amazing going on in the creative world of Kat and her work with Post Street, Drawn Together, Sock Monkey Therapy, and more! Check out Kat’s visioning made visible with right brain business planning and mindmapping… I love the Enid inspiration!

• seth snap: I started following Seth’s blog post links on Twitter this year after being super impressed by his photography- especially photos of light.  Last week Seth’s post, Your Story: Morning Sun and his invitation to write a story about a sunrise he had taken on the way to work really inspired me as a way to further develop the connection & narrative behind the photos of light I’ve been taking or what I’ve been witnessing from others sharing their light seeking ways.

• drawing the self out: Lizzie Bellotto’s blog shared this link love from Petrea Hansen Adamidis and I loved it so much, I had to give it another shout out here!  Read more about Petrea’s musings on vulnerability, creativity, and Brene’s Brown’s daring greatly wisdom here.

• hannah klaus hunter arts: I learned a new term from Hannah: Blogsence and the importance of “taking time to catch up” with ourselves, our work, relationships, and life…. sans blogging…

It’s been great fun blogging about the creative people and spots in the blogosphere where I receive good energy, inspiration, and creative goodness from….and there are many more! Hopefully in May, I’ll be able to share a little more link love!

Here’s a recap of April’s round up:

April 8 | April 15 | April 22

My Top 10 Favorite Things to Glue: Glue It Tuesday

A few weeks ago, Aimee over at Artsyville introduced Glue It Tuesday- and for a collage making, gluebooking geek like me it’s like a special holiday that happens every week! Thank you Aimee!  I also love that this cut & paste celebration connects other #glueittuesday enthusiasts together on Instagram and Twitter, as well as on the Artsyville site so you can check out what other gluebookers are doing with their sticky fingertips and be inspired!

Take a peek at what’s happening for today, Week 3 here.

Today’s Glue It Tuesday got me thinking about all the things I like to glue in my collage work, 365 project, gluebook, and art journals.

In honor of today’s Glue It Tuesday, I decided to make a top 10 list of the stuff I love to glue and add it to my smashbook:

1. Magazine photo images:  My favorite mag to use includes Cloth Paper Scissors (!);

2. Exchanged paper stash goodness:  It’s always so much fun and another layer of connection to use the wonderful paper bits & pieces I’ve received from others in paper stash swaps/mail;

3. Dictionary pages:  I’m addicted to ripping up dictionaries for words and definitions to add to my collages;

4. Quotes: I’ve noticed for my 365 project, I’ve been searching for and printing out quotes to sometimes use as part of that day’s intention or on the flipside as additional meaning to describe the image;

5. Hearts: There’s something I really enjoy about the act of cutting a heart out of paper & adding it to my art;

6. Hands:  I often find the image of a single hand as a very sacred addition to what I am working on;

7. Fragments:  Gluing these plastic pieces on top of paper backgrounds, words, and images helps create protection and containment in many of my collage pieces;

8. Numbers:  Totally inspired by my 365 project, I’ve discovered the joy of gluing and adding numbers to my work from sources such as bingo cards and old calendars;

9. Smash Stuff:  I’m a big fan of using Smash Stickies, Labels, & Pads for gluing down in my art journaling and smashbooking;

10. Handmade Paper:  I love the texture that adding handmade paper creates to my work.

What would be on your Top 10 list of favorite things to glue?

Drawn Together Community Journal Project

[Added to] December 2002 Page from Kat & Roar’s Journal

When I received my beautiful copy of Drawn Together by Katarina Thorsen and her father Roar earlier this month, the mailing also included some of their original journal pages. What a wonderful addition! Much of Drawn Together’s content is told through the narrative of Kat and Roar’s journaling and art-making.

In Chapter Three of their book, Kat describes that she and her father often worked in many, many journals back and forth with one another from 2002-2005.  The intention of this shared experience was to help strengthen their connection, as well as manage and try to make sense of difficult events happening in their lives during that time.

The journal pages sent to readers is an opportunity for these expressions to be shared and have others in the community also become part of their process through the invitation to add to them.  To hold some of Kat and Roar’s pages in one hand and their touching story in the other, I felt such gratitude and privilege to be included in their art-making connection.

[Added to detail] Another December 2002 Journal Page

Pages that have been added to and returned back to Kat for the Community Journal Project will then be exhibited at a Drawn Together event!  What a great idea to celebrate the power of art, community, and connection!

If you’re interested in also contributing you can learn more through this link.

Good Vibes Here: The Pocket Change Artist Trading Card Collection

Reblogged from 6 Degrees of Creativity:

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As posted last month, all the Artist Trading Cards created for the Pocket Change Exchange were received, swapped out and mailed to their new homes!  This post features some of the individual collections posted by some Pocket Changers when getting their new ATCs in the mail:

@ ArtHealsAustin: "It really is exciting to create, and share, and receive handmade art.

Read more… 225 more words

Some of the individual ATC collections shared by Pocket Changers... and lots of creative goodness from the Pocket Change ATC collection... :)

Spring Forward Art Making

There’s been lots of art-making happenings right about now with the anticipation & energy of spring starting to grow!  It’s almost time to “spring forward” with the beginning of Daylight Saving Time this week-end and to begin breaking out of winter hibernation.

Earlier this week, I sent off March’s Creative Pay It Forward goodies to Erin, a paper stash of colorful and printed papers for her to play and create with! I also recently joined in on a Spring It Forward Mail Art Exchange organized by Art Therapist Christine Scott Hudson, focusing on the theme of spring to “flower power” our mailboxes this month.  A dozen participants signed up for us to make art for and in return, we’ll receive art back.

I decided to use a collection of old library book cards I received in a paper stash last fall (thank you Amy!) for the foundation of mixed media art I created with distress ink, stain, and magazine photo collage (including some from Lani’s Creative It Forward uppercase magazine art seeds I received last month- TY!).

Creating these cards for this exchange was very fun- I experimented with using my bottles of distressed ink as a media for stenciling the circles around the cards.  I also used my SMASH stamp to currently date each piece, just like the various cancelled inked dates already stamped on the card.  I hope each one arrives safely to their new home in California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, and Colorado.

There’s a couple of more artsy projects in the works for the rest of this month as winter continues to slowly thaw out.  I also have one more opening left for anyone who would like to participate in the 2013 Creative Pay It Forward fun we’ve been having!  Check out the link to claim your spot! Spring It Forward with some creative goodness!

Legacy Making: Drawn Together

I’ve been sooo anticipating the arrival of Drawn Together: Maintaining Connections and Navigating Life’s Challenges with Art, a book co-written by Roar & Katarina (Kat) Thorsen…and my copy arrived yesterday!

Drawn Together: Maintaining Connection and Navigating Life’s Challenges through Art

Drawn Together is Kat and Roar’s touching story about their relationship as daughter and father and how the power of art and the creative process can provide meaning, affirmation, and connection in the face of life changing illness and loss.

I’ve  followed Kat’s journey with her father’s stroke, cancer reoccurance, caregiving, and his art making moments through her blog, Instagram photos, and status updates on social media with much admiration.   Before her father’s death,  it was very moving to see Kat be so open and expressive about managing her father’s declining health and to embed the creative process throughout their journey to help Roar continue connection, create a legacy, and celebrate life & their relationship as father and daughter.  Drawing, filmmaking, journaling, photo documentation, and the collaboration for creating their book were all creative ways memories, experiences, and emotions were embraced and continue to live on in the here and now.

Yesterday as I opened the pages of Drawn Together and held their journal pages, I could feel Roar and Katarina’s love in my hands, as well as the essential role and life line art served in their relationship and journey.  A very beautiful legacy…. on so many levels.

As quoted by Kat, “Drawn Together is a call to action to collect stories and to create a legacy.  Don’t wait for the ultimate moment, for that moment is here NOW and it is fleeting“.  Agreed.  Thanks to Roar & Kat for sharing their story with us.

You can learn more about Drawn Together, here.

Surrounded by Creative Goodness

I’ve spent the last week exchanging and just yesterday started to mail out artist trading cards for the Pocket Change swap-Fun!

Some of the Pocket Change ATCs received on my end for exchanging

 Read more about my reflections and a collection of some of the blogging inspired by this project via 6 Degrees of Creativity’s blog.

Pocket Change ATCs received by Kristin, Janie, Eliza, & Lisa

It was a sincere pleasure and an honor to be surrounded by, hold in my hands, and pass on these mini works of art infused with creative goodness, hopefulness, and positive energy created by a third of the Pocket Changers participating. Gratitude!

Surrounded by creative goodness

It’s exciting that the next step of receiving starts to unfold in this process, as exchanged ATCs go out from not only here in Ohio, but another third in Georgia with Beth and in California with Hannah.  Thank you to everyone who contributed! I’m also curious and super eager to learn more about Pocket Change reflections and stories.  They will be shared through an eZine publication along with the ATCs received for the project so we can share and spread the good vibes and inspiration with everyone!  Yes!!

Creative Pay It Forward’s Paper Stash Surprise

I responded to Lani‘s Creative Pay It Forward request last month and as part of this fun mail art activity, I just received an inspiring paper stash surprise from her with these instructions on the package:

1. Spill Contents

2. Play with Glue and Scissors

3. Have Fun!

I did very well at accomplishing directive #1 which also already started to put accomplishing directive #3 in motion.  I sat with much wonder and excitement as I started to look through the spilled contents.  Some of what was included:  images of natural and neon light, calm landscape scenery, earthy & sacred objects,  modern & retro-esque print sheets, and… lots of  butterflies…which made me smile inside and out (lots!) when thinking about the future idea of using them in my collage work.

The contents of this Creative Pay It Forward delivery are all wonderful ingredients for more 2013 revo’lution making!  Many, many thanks Lani… So many possibilities here!

On to directive #2 and more of #3:  Time to play with scissors and glue!  I also need to start working on my second Create It Forward goodie to send out this month to someone on my list.

Pocket Change Power & The Art of Kindness

Today’s the mailing deadline for Pocket Change!  Below are my artist trading card contributions for this swap, inspired by the important intention Kindness is a Choice.  I used some of my assorted ATC stock, as well as a couple of playing cards for the cards’ foundations…then collage bits & pieces, words from an old dictionary, some distressed ink and stain, and a gold paint pen for edging:

Kindness is a Choice

As a summary from my previous post about this project, this ATC swap aims to create good vibes in the spirit of transformation & giving through making small pieces of art for one another, as well as an invitation to keep spreading acts of creative kindness to others in our lives and community.

Just think about the awesome power & positive Pocket Change energy coming in from around the world and its potential impact…Here are some thoughts by Wayne Dyer:

Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed toward another improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient of the kindness and the person extending the kindness. Even more amazing is that persons observing the act of kindness have similar beneficial results. Imagine this! Kindness extended, received, or observed beneficially impacts the physical health and feelings of everyone involved! 

Wonderful results!

Now that Pocket Changers have collectively made & extended their acts of kindness in the form of hundreds of ATCs, stayed tuned for more on the receiving and observing benefits as Hannah, Beth, and I begin to exchange and post the affirming mini works of art and stories sent in for this project… Lots of creative goodness to be shared and to be continued soon…