I love to make stuff - currently in love with crocheting. This is my corner of the virtual world where I share my journey in living a creative life and where you can find free patterns and coloring pages for you to try.
I have been a long time fan of the quote, "good things come to those who wait" and supported it using my life as an example. I must say it was a long wait and nothing particular amazing seem to happen; in fact, things seem to head to the extreme wrong direction of where I wanted to go...and my dream of making a living from being a creative person seem to drift further and further away from me.
Years after - I finally met someone whose life brought an interesting insight to this quote - that it's not about sitting and waiting for something good to happen to you (although, I will confess this seemed like the case for some people) - its being prepared in every way you can be prepared - so that when an opportunity presents itself you are ready to jump on it and take it for a wild ride.
Unfortunately he eventually got lost in his mind and wrapped up in little things....but that's another story.
The key difference is that you have to work for your dreams to make it happen - preparation, or practice is still work. It must be done before you can reach a level where you CAN make a living from it without spending all day to do it. More you practice, more realistic the dream becomes and the dream doesn't seem like a dream anymore but a very realistic goal.
And you get pumped and excited at the possibilities of achieving what you thought was, impossible.
Not having time to do it - is an excuse -reflection of fear- maybe because it may seem like a waste of precious time on fruitless endeavor.
Maybe it's true.
But you won't know until you try...and in retrospect you can only blame yourself for never trying.
TIME is something you control; believe me, you will ALWAYS find time for whatever you want to do.
I had forgotten about this bit - until now as I was starting to get caught up in life and not finding time to make even the smallest thing (like those mini pieces?) and go weeks without creating a single thing ; well, besides create a lot of stress for myself - and thought this was a good reminder specially because I KNOW it will happen again...just gotta keep on truckin'.
OH BTW.
IS THIS NOT SUCH AN AWESOME COPIC MARKER PAINTING OF PRINCESS LEAH?!
just sayin'.
I remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when I was barely tall enough to reach the dining table, we did a project in class where you were allowed to what whatever colour wherever you wanted to on a piece of paper. Then you coloured the whole thing black ; then, when you drew on top with a pointed object, all these BURSTS of colours happened like MAGIC! I forget what the lesson of that exercise was....
It was probably the messiest project I ever made but it was the most fun and I was so sad when I ran out of space to draw more on but it was just too much work to make another page....
Anyhow.
This little spread reminds me of that project and is essentially the same idea. Its definitely not my idea - it's been circulating around the web and I thought what fun would it be to make a spread of that for a quote I try to live by!? THAT WOULD BEAWESOME .
So, without fail I found time somewhere and went scavenge hunting at the 4 dollar store near my home and came home with these: two cling alphabet stamps , one with sentiments ( I need to stop buying alphabet anything), a pack of 4 sheets of foam alphabet stickers, a 10 sheet pack of letter labels and a 20 year date stamp - all for under $2 each. I didn't understand why people dated anything but I realized now - especially with anything that requires practice - it's good to date them so that you can look back and see how you've improved. You can write them ,but sometimes you forget and sometimes there is just not the appropriate place to write it in. Date stamp - the ink will reflect and show - and it was $2, I wasn't crying if I forget to use it or lose it.
Anyway. This is how it's done.
You cover a page with some colour - it could even be,a beautiful picture from a magazine stuck on to a page. In my case, I used a page in my planner(where I try out everything , plan , doodle -its really my "everything" book) that I had tried out some Crayola watercolour pencils I had around and it wasn't bad....but I never knew what to do with that page. This was going to work out perfectly; and I painstakingly stickered my mantra/motto/ of a quote. This took 8 sheets of labels, if it had taken 8 sheets of stickers (what I was originally going to get) which can ring up $2+ per sheet, I may have cried.
Once you're all stickered up, you cover cover up with either a dark or light colour.
I found that a dark cover up works best if your picture /background is pale and visa versa.
Any paint will do, but I found that acrylic or oil paint does the best job in coverage as it is denser. Even a dollar store acrylic will do better than watercolours or craft paint (to my surprise) as used here. I tried here water color then craft paint on one page then covered the whole bit in acrylic paint.
Once the paint is dry...the fun of peeeeeling the stickers off to reveal the colour underneath begins.
Ta da ~
ISN'T THIS AWESOME?!
And awesome point about date stamp - I couldn't see the ink from stamp all that well so I stamped on a piece of post it note and stuck it on in the corner and it fits in with everything PERFECTLY.
I was so happy about how easy this was, less messy it was and turned into a lingering issue at the back of my head into an instant favourite spread. So I had to try it again in my journal.
This time I used a page that I had covered with some left over paint - incredibly bright orange paint from the dollar store that I love, but rarely had use for and was glad to be out of it but still couldn't waste.
You think your eye hurts now? Just you wait.
I covered this spread with the foam stickers. I learned couple of things from this exercise.
1. If you have a darker tone and a lighter colour over it (like I have ) its a good idea to go over that dark area with another bright colour gesso, especially if you plan to use black or dark over colour.
2. Foam stickers are not ideal for this project as leaves residue and stretches out of shape :(
3. Don't use contrasting colors of stickers, it will give you a headache.
Cover in color. I ran out of black paint at some point.
So I just used whatever other dark tones I had - browns, blues...whatever. Then peeel.
ta da~~~~
I love the contrast in this piece. It's so in your face, just like the message.
Remember that lesson about the foam stickers leaving residue?
Here you are. These suckers are tricky to peel because it IS made of a thin, stretchy piece of foam and it does not want to come off. Even just to reposition the stickers it lost a lot of shape which was not great but not horrible.
As well, because it is soft in material it also allowed for a lot of paint to seep through which was definitely a minus but it gave the letters some character so I guess it's okay.
When trying to peel these suckers off, I found that it's somewhat but not really easier - to take a heat gun or blow dryer to warm up the adhesive before attempting to peel.
I wasn't sure if this was a good idea but I really had to try it out and foam stickers were the only ones that came in the size I thought I wanted (which turned out tad to big in the end) but hey, I had to try it right? I am so glad I did.
The pressure one puts on oneself is second to none.
I don't know why we grow up to expect so much of ourselves? Then we beat ourselves for it when really nobody else but ourselves set us up for fail, and the impossible goal.
I spent so much of my life planning out every bit of my life.
I remember having short term, interim and long term goals and I had a clear vision of the things I was going to have achieved by the time I reached a certain age and when that didn't pan out I was devastated. But because I am bull-headed and stubborn, I tried again and again only to fall flat on my face and reach the lowest of the lows. Being from a family of overachievers , this was really a hard pill to swallow.
Recently, chatting with a friend over glasses of wine and smokes - listening to her wallow and remembering my own bitter sweet memories...I realized if we didn't set such high goals and expectations of ourselves, we may not only be happier but more successful.
Its a common storyline -people who became a great success, they really were not thinking of becoming successful in their chosen, they just wanted to do what they loved and be happy in their lives.
Not saying that we need to be all laid back and flow with the wind- but we need to loosen up on the expectations a little bit....maybe it will lessen the heartbreak.
This spread was created in the natural light and dark (I had power outage on Friday the 13th - in the slideshow you can see one photo by candle light which was quite nice).
I covered the page with paper napkins... painted it brown with some splatters of white.
While that was drying, I drew the girl and heart on the glued pages of my 1st art journal (which didn't pan out- but I love the thick pages in them and use them) painted them with dollar store acrylic paint. In the case of the girl I did some prisma colour penciling as well...The tear is in Sharpie believe it or not!
I then tore the heart apart and stuck'em with some dollar store white glue.
Stenciled some words with dollarbin stamps from Michael's (I'm such a dollar girl lol).
Here is a picture of the final:
I have never felt so technically challenged....maybe that is the wrong word.
I have been trying to create a journal flip of my Copic catalog book - which turned out to be much more challenging then I thought. First, my camera had some feature on it that shuts it off if it deems nothing worth filming was happening (like really, who the heck is it to judge THAT!? just film dammit). Then when I watched it , it was not only super long but totally not what I wanted to share. After trying out many vices and many...tapings, I just got so FRUSTRATED that I gave up on it entirely for weeks (or what seems like weeks). After lots of ice cream and smoothies, I calmed down and realized I still wanted to share what I'd done because I am so darn proud of it and happy with the outcome, I resolved to the slideshows.
Hopefully, soon I will have all this sorted and have a proper video for the part 2 section.
I have to extend a great big thank you to 2 very special people who's Youtube channel I watch with my lids peeled for new videos and when I have the chance to, read their blog post; Jennibellie and Vicky P.
I have NO idea when I came across Jennibellie- it's been a couple of years now -what I do remember is watching all 40 of her tutorial videos in one sitting. It was so nice to know that someone else also thought that art can be created using what you have lying around and who firmly believed in repurposing and had a larger stash of STUFF that she was going to use to MAKE STUFF.
I must confess I made a couple of albums and bound some books during that time of tutorial binging, although I haven't a clue what to do with them- or where they are right now.
ANYWAY.
There was a time and a place for everything and , I guess that just wasn't my time to start being artsy; but, it was a great thing to have binged on tutorials because, when I was ready, I knew exactly where to go to for an awesome tutorial on making journals with boxes and such. She really makes EVERYTHING she possibly could, which is fabulous resource for me, because I like to make everything if I can :D
But, I wasn't really convinced that I could do what they did - they being, these incredible people who just seem to poop out an idea LIVE on camera without any hesitation and with all sorts of supplies I didn't know existed. I wanted to make pretty spreads and stuff but I didn't have all the fancy tools to die-cut or blend or emboss; quite frankly, I wasn't sure if I was ready to make that kind of investment and buy these things yet.
However, I guess because it was my time to finally be artsy, I did make a couple of spreads before I was completely stuck. I am very happy with them - they incorporated the beautiful illustrations people did with Copic Markers into my journal and I was happy with the outcome, even if the camera kept failing to record.
But I really was just not sure if I can squeeze out an idea for a spread every time; then I bumped into this video , recommended by Youtube, of Vicky making her Life video. She seems to have so much fun and it was one which used the least amount of tools, and I seemed to have some of them and I wanted to see if I can indeed, make a similar spread using only what I have. And I did! obviously, hers look so much better but, I'm surprised at how mine came out.
Shortly after, I made another spread which was based on I don't know who - I have NO idea where I saw it but I felt like the spread to do that day (And I really just wanted to keep the momentum going), and really wanted to see if I can get in the habit of doing this, or enjoy doing this...and honestly, it was pretty fun trying to figure out how I can make what I see without having to buy anything, but just with what I have... :) I made this one from this example I took a picture of with my then super outdated slider phone :P
I guess that is when I more or less became sold on the idea that I CAN make spreads without a ton of supplies- with a little imagination you can use whatever you have on hand and make your very own masterpiece....what every one of these people have been saying, is really true :D
Here is a slideshow proving that (hopefully I will figure out how to get fancy on these soon, or try recording again). Hope you enjoy,
There are times I find myself sounding like Shi-fu from Kung-Fu Panda constantly repeating, Ommmmmm...innner peeaaace... innnner, inner peeeeeeeeeeeeeeace...!
which inevitably gets me more irritated as I can't seem to get my mind clear , focused and regain that cool, calm stillness that was CLEARLY there not too long ago and now cannot be found.
I find myself in this circumstance most often when I am doing to duties of a good friend/coworker/new friend at a party/bar role and lending my sympathetic ear only to find that the person talking to me is happy to simply WALLOW and really doesn't care to fix the problem, or have a conversation even. They just want someone standing there to talk at so that they don't feel/seem all that insane talking to themselves. And because they are wallowing over a magnified nothing, they can't find anything to be grateful for even if they were one of the luckiest people I've come across.
Truly, I enjoy being there for my friends and lending an ear or two , or three to help vent out some steam over some sort of beverage because we all need that sometimes. I'm even willing to wallow with you and cry it out and throw things together if need be; but don't bring back the horse from the dead just so that you can beat at it a little more and don't lose reason altogether?
This piece was inspired by an acquaintance/friend I've only been hanging out with for a few months. She was super lonely and was having a lot of confidence problems because guys were just not that interested and she had too much pride to let them go and accept that he may have not been the one. Months of "how dare he"s and plotting schemes to make the guys feel horrible and regain their interests so she can reject them.
Never you mind that you're working a minimum wage job but can afford to live in a condo and party daily because your devote family would not let the youngest on the street or go without something she wants, including your rich and protective brother. First world problems, let me tell you!
Either way, she was invading my mind and I couldn't get a string of productivity out even if the world depended on it. So I decided to play in my art journal and let my emotions rule over the pages.
I glued on some bright red tissue paper left over from I don't know what, using...regular dollar store white glue to get some folds to add texture. The I took some paint out (again, from the dollar store) and just painted the thing black. Then brown. The I splattered them using the brush - which turned out to be super therapeutic and there were layers and layers of that until i was done.
As I was starting to feel better, I wanted to do make something on this paper. I am really thrilled about this page because it finally allowed me to use a magazine cut out I've been holding on to for EVER. it's a beautiful vector art and I thought she was fitting to demonstrate inner peace.
I Outlined her with this "PUFFY PAINT" (guess where I got it? the Dollar store) to outline her and accentuate her and smudged Glitter Glue all over her body (that's right, from the dollar store -trend?).
I cut a piece of paper and painted it bright yellow - regular printer paper - and painted the quote on.
It's such a great quote. Truth be told I am sure I drove a few of my friends insane with my wallowing and disturbed their inner peace; but, what can you do but be a friend? Its tricky to learn to be sympathetic but not get so emotionally invested that you lose your balance and ability to do what YOU need to do.
There will also be the cases when behaviours of people you don't care to acquaint yourself with disturbs your inner peace...because it affects you in some way.
Conclusion: art is so much more therapeutic and effective than meditation (for me anyway).
