Welcome to The Creative Spirit

WELCOME.....to The Creative Spirit....my own little creative nook, filled with simple little projects, grand ideas, and anything suggested by my Creative Muse........

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Floral Inspiration

Our class will start soon. In the meantime...get inspired by looking at beautiful pictures of flowers and gardens.
 
 
359405wtbcooen5j.jpg Pink Flowers picture by gschenck

This lovely dark and light pink appeals to me. And also the bright colors of these Gerber Daisies. I love the fresh crisp colors and the smooth lines of the Daisies....they just say FUN to me. happy-birthday-bouquet.jpg Geber Daisy picture by gschenck

 But nothing is as beautiful as a whole bed full of wonderful colors mingling together and glistening in the sunlight.

. fal2007_flower_garden-1.jpg picture by gschenck

So browse the internet, get out those seed catalogues, or look at your gardening books. It's time to let our eyes feast on the beautiful colors of flowers! Let's plan to bring some of those colors into our own personal art journals.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Tips and Ideas for Garden Art Journal

Dates: It is wonderful to document your work by adding the date that each page was created somewhere on the page. You can do this in a unique and individual way each time or you can come up with a certain element that you include on each page and add the date to that element. For example you can use precut tags or labels that you create ahead of time and then just add the date to one and attach it to the page as you complete it. Other things to consider using include those teeny tiny file folders, buttons, or flower shapes punched in different colors to match individual page colors. Using the same type of item gives all the pages something in common and allows you to premake at least one item for the pages!

Title Page: You may make the title page prior to the start of the class or you may just leave the first page blank and create it at the end of the class. Think about a dedication, poem, or other items to include on the title page.

Album Box: Gathering supplies for this class and putting them together in an album box, drawer, or basket will help you create stress free when the time arrives. Right now...go through all your "stuff". Sort stickers, paper, embellishments, and other items. Place the ones you think you might use into your storage container. Think about the colors you associate with the garden. Look for unusual items you might use in your creations!

Photos: If you have garden photos that you might want to use, sort them, print them, and put them in your box. You can use past photos for this project but if you don't have any don't despair...you will have opportunities to snap them as we create the journal. Or you can create the pages leaving space for photos of this year's garden. Remember some people create their art journals without a single photo...using sketches, water colors, chalk and other materials.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Garden Art Journal Class

Here at CS from April 14th thru June 30th we will be creating a Garden Art Journal. Each week will contain three prompts or ideas for pages that week. So the goal is to complete either three single pages or three two page layouts per week or a combination of one and two page layouts but something for each of the three prompts. Your art journal will end up with 36 pages if you do the one page layout approach at the rate of three per week. Goals of the Class
  • Discover more about yourself and your gardening style.
  • Gather ideas about gardens/flower beds
  • Express yourself creatively
  • Experiment with some creative techniques
  • Create an artistic representation of your garden (photos or sketches)
Materials for the Class:
  • A scrapbook/art journal. you can find them at Walmart, Michaels, and just about any craft store. You can use them with or withour page protectors. You can use spiral bound, binder style, or any type. You can use any size you want. Immediately following the this list I will include some links so you can see a few kinds.
  • Some kind(s) of adhesive. You might want several kinds...glue dots, tape runner, craft glue.
  • Paper...you decide on colors and pick them out ahead of time or just use your stash as we go along. But you will want to have an assortment of bright, beautiful colors.
  • Embellishments: Can include traditional items like stickers, ribbon, brads, buttons etc. Or non traditional items like magazine pictures, seed packets, plant information stakes, jewelry, etc
  • Photos of your garden...past or in process this year, pictures of plants, newly emerging beds, and in full bloom! Or you may use sketches, water colors, and other materials to create representations of your flowers and beds.
Links to examples of art journals: Three ring 12 x 12 album 8.5 x 8.5 post bound album All sizes of Spiral Bound Examples of 12 x 6 and 6 x 12 Albums These links are for looking at examples ONLY...most sizes can be purchased locally even at Walmart or Target. MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CLASS WILL BE POSTED IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS!! Please check out the forum at MHH where we will be discussing our class as we create together. Garden Art Journal Class Forum.
FrangipaniFlowers.jpg Flowers picture by gschenck

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Interesting Blog

For anyone interested in more fully exploring art journals I would suggest a visit to ArtyEm's blog: The Creative Art Journal I have been spending some time over there looking at her many wonderful pages. Some honestly, I can't envision myself being "daring" enough to try. But at the same time I love the artistic spirit of her work....and it inspired me to try some new things. First of all chalking some pages in my journal and second of all doing...A LOT of writing on one of my pages. It was fun! So hop over and visit...the pages above are just an example of her creative work.