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

Shout Out Of Creative Blog Love – Round Up #3

Here’s my 3rd installment of Link Love-  the mission I’ve accepted for the month of April inspired by Tammy at Daisy Yellow.  I am starting a new week of rounding up with a shout out of love to these blogs:

• cup of creativitea: Another one of my favorite light seekers, Jelena Mrkich’s blog shines with nurturing musings…including creative nudge fridays….

• 37 days: This “make art“, daily rock post from Patti Digh’s blog was a refreshing reminder to see pop up in my news feed on Friday

• lani puppetmaker: Last week, Lani Gerity announced the release of her new eBook, Elephant Training and the Happy Artist, 24 chapters dedicated to “developing a creative practice, or fine tuning it to make it more inspiring and joy filled.”  I’ve been following Lani’s blog posts featuring her beautiful images and inspiring writings about the art of elephant training and look forward to receiving this book… My order is in and on its way!

• kind over matter:  Word to Jo Anna Rothman’s “be the light” post.

• smash stories: For the smashbook geek in me, I was super excited to discover on the smash stories blog that K&Company has some new smash accessories: including the slimmest scissors in town and a mini SMASH paper cutter!  Yes!

One more round up left for next week on 4/29/13!  Want to catch up on my past Link Love recommendations?  Check them out here.

From My Smashbook: April Inspiration

Thanks to Artsyville’s Glue It Tuesday and the revival of a local Saturday art-making get together I enjoy attending, my smashbook has been filling up with lots of the things I love to stick, collage, and glue down during the month of April:

Here I’ve used magazine photo images sent by Lani in 2013′s Creative Pay It Forward, pages from a vintage Reader’s Digest book I discovered, dictionary pages, and other collage bits & pieces I’ve been collecting.  Looking for to this week’s Glue It Tuesday’s fun!

Book Spine Poetry Challenge: Reflections on Connection, Kindness, & Resiliency

In honor of National Poetry Month, Susanna (thank you!) shared a Book Spine Poetry Challenge posted by Making Books.  This challenge involves creating a poem with the spines of books stacked on top of one another.

As I looked at my books in my creative space last night, I was drawn to arranging my book spine poem as a comforting combination about connection, resiliency, as well as love & empathy for a world that can be scary and in pain:

In an Unspoken Voice: Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

This I Know.

What to Do When You’re Scared & Worried:

A Sky Full of Kindness

Walks in Life’s Sacred Garden.

Born for Love… Drawn Together

On the same day I discovered Susanna’s book spine poetry, it was a nice fit to read this blog post, Healing with Words, Rhythm and Voice published by the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children (TLC), also highlighting National Poetry Month and ways poetry can be used in therapy.

The books I used in the above poem can be found here:

• In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness, Peter A. Levine
• Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, Maya Angelou & Jean Michel Basquiat
• This I Know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart, Susan Conway
• What to Do When You’re Scared & Worried: A Guide For Kids, James J. Crist
• A Sky Full of Kindness, Rob Ryan
• Walks in Life’s Sacred Garden, Don Ionnone
• Born for Love- Why Empathy is Essential-and Endangered, Maia Szalavitz and Bruce D. Perry
• Drawn Together-Maintaining Connections and Life’s Challenges with Art, Roar and Katarina Thorsen

Inspiring, Artsy Link Love- Round Up #1

Not only did I discover Tammy’s awesome Link Love initiative last week, but that she also kindly included Creativity in Motion and my 365 Project on her list of five blogs in her recent post.  Thank you Tammy!   I want to contribute towards her search for fun this April and pay the shout out I received forward to other blogs I am inspired by… and you can too…. Read more about Tammy’s mission to share the link love here and how to get involved!

Every Monday for the rest of April (8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th), I’ll be posting five blogs to help spread some link love … Blogs that I hope inspire you as much as they inspire me!

Here’s my 5 for this week..Check them out:

Link Love for April 8

• {stargardener’s} right brain planner: I’m really drawn to Teresa Robinson’s creative mojo of art journaling, quotes, photo goodness and her doses of beautiful light… I smile when I see Teresa’s stuff pop up in my newsfeeds….

• art evolutions:  For more good vibes, I look forward to seeing posts from Lizzie Bellotto, whether this is her Inspiration Monday or Mid-Week Pondering updates.  I’ve also really enjoyed her recent work of mandalas!

• a big creative yes: I loooove Dan James’ inspirational writing and reflections… it’s one of the few blogs that I go back and re-read past posts from his archives.

• inner canvas: For the art therapist in me, reading Lisa Mitchell’s blog is super nuturing!

• positively creative:  Dale Anne Potter’s blog is a hopeful & lovely online space full of positivity, gratitude, and creativity.  Home of Positively Creative Journaling  and the weekly Gratitude Accordion Book.

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?

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!

Alcohol Inking Love

I’ve been using a lot of my alcohol ink stash lately for various projects, which inspired me to do a summary here of my most favorite ways to use this fun and easy material.

My first alcohol inking love is for making altered dominoes.  In my own creative practice I find the blending and mixing of colors on the domino’s smooth surface a relaxing and soothing process.  I often like to also add printed words or magazine photo collage to embellish the domino’s intention.  This past week, I just mailed out an altered art domino I was working on for Emery who is on my 2013 Creative Pay It Forward list.  In my art therapy work with women survivors of domestic violence and trauma, making altered dominoes can be an empowering way to create meaningful symbols of affirmation & strength for themselves or to give to one another.

Create It Forward Altered Domino for Emery

If you’re interested in learning how to get started with your own altered domino making with alcohol inks, download this how-to:

Making Altered Dominoes with Alcohol Inks

Other things I’ve discovered that feeds my alcohol ink addiction includes using it for altering glossy photographs, as well as to make artist trading cards that are coated with a glossy surface.  And just recently, I was super excited to experiment with my inks on plastic slide mount covers when working on a small accordion book.

Oh…Let me ink the many ways…

What are some of your favorite ways to use alcohol inks?

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.