Day 2 Halloween Art Journal: Nevermore

Last year I had to stretch my creativity on "non activity days" of October. There's a lot of special events and activities that we do during October and those days are usually easy to create and journal...I have to stretch my imagination on the other days. For day two I focused on using a sort of "icon" The Raven...nevermore! I found a print online where someone had created a raven with awesome words inside it...from the story and descriptions etc...I used that for the center piece of the page and then added a few touches. The bird in the cage is one of the cheap, cheap, cheap sticker packs I picked up after Halloween last year. You can't tell but it's three dimensional.

I've actually skipped around a bit because of our Haunted Alton trip (page 5 is done) but pages 3-4 aren't finished yet and it's just easier to go in order....so I'll be sharing those a bit later.

Halloween Art Journal: October 1st

Since I'm only posting on Tuesdays here at the Creative Spirit this month. I will try to get photos up in my weekly post of the Halloween Art Journal. It's easy today...as it's the first one!! Several years back a group of family and friends decided to take up ghost hunting as a hobby. We have been on several different ones at different locations. However time seems to be a difficult thing to find lately so we haven't been on one for a while. This page reminds me of past hunts and sets up an October goal of going on one this month!

Divider Page: Halloween Art Journal 2013

Since the little binders/albums I bought to use this year included three chipboard dividers I decided to start out the Halloween Art Journal with a cover/title page.

This is the page I created. I used black craft paint to paint the divider. I used some subway art I printed online to highlight the page. Then I used some random materials that I had in my stash (from all those after Halloween clearance goodies last year, what a bargain!!) The green October are from a set of glittery chipboard alphabet pieces and look even cuter in real life!  That spider is two piece...a web sticker and then a three dimensional spider sticker on top of it!

I hope you are getting geared up to CREATE during October, I'd love to see your creations!

Halloween and Christmas Art Journals 2013

Soooo......I said I wasn't going to do a 31 page Halloween art journal....but now I am!!  Here's the cover of the 6 x 8 Your Life in a SNAP Journal I bought for Halloween. Originally they were 14.99 but Michael's had them on clearance for 5.99.  Love it!!

 

This is the first year I've tried the binder style so we will see how it goes. I doubt it will be as messy-artsy as last years was but I think it can still turn out super cute and document my favorite month of the year!

 

 

Here's what I did with the one for Christmas. I was going to leave the covers for last but you know me...I can never wait patiently!!  I'm hoping to keep the artsy quality by doing all types of pages...some page protector ones with photos....painted pages, and other manner of embellishments. And this year I swear I'll journal more....about what I am doing each of the days!

 

Your Life in a Snap

So I've been trying to decide what type of art journal to use this year for Christmas. The last two years I have used (first index card dividers then board book pages) an artsy loose pages bound with rings approach. This year I wanted to try something different. I still want it to be artsy....not scrap book-y (if that make sense) but I also wanted to "pull it together" a bit.

I dropped by Michaels today just to see what they had. First off I was looking for chipboard books (found some cute ones too and even bought a couple) but then I happened upon these Your Life in a Snap binders. I think they are 6 x 8. Not too bog and not too small.  They have two rings inside and also come with some pages (card stock thickness) and some page protectors with different sized slots. Also three heavy chip board dividers are included. They immediately drew my attention. I thought the shelf sign said 14.99 but at the check out they rang up as 5.99. If I knew they were so cheap I may have been tempted to buy more!  As it is....I bought an orange one for Halloween and the red one for Christmas. Now I can't wait to start some base pages!!  So excited!!

Base pages with lined paper, graph paper and sort of like a page out of a ledger. You can also see the heavy dividers...they will be cute for decorating!

This photo shows the little page protectors that can house cards, photos and other items.

I figured these were a take off of Project Life.  Like a more generic copy cat product....but not sure. It sort of reminds me of a cross between a Smash Book and Project Life.  There was a huge section of Project Life stuff but I tried to stay away from it. I want to do "smaller" projects right now because even though I love the Project Live idea...I know myself....I suck at long term projects.

Embossed on the back cover toward the bottom...it says....Simple Stories....I like that so  much that when I decorate the binder I am going to make sure I leave that showing!

Halloween Art Journal

Last year I created a Halloween art journal. I started with a set of prompts and vowed to journal 31 pages.

I journaled pages like the one above that documented some of the many fun things I did during the month of October.

I also created some pages that just had to do with fun "Halloween type" topics. 

This year I'm itching to try some more October journaling. I'm not going to stick to the idea of a page a day for 31 days. I might turn out to be that many or it might not. I do want to use it as a combination "art" journal and writing journal that documents my month.

I'm not particularly artistic but I do enjoy the process.

Creative Party Planning Fun

For a friend's fiftieth birthday we headed to Boogie Nights (At Hollywood Casino) for Madonna Mania. Boogies Nights features music from the 70s, 80, and 90s but they also have special nights that feature certain artists or have a theme.

I decided to find and make some printables to celebrate. Here's what I came up with....

After a night at the club it's always handy to have some of these for the trip home. The small print says...."Old Folk Remedy. Saving old folks for over a 100 years."

 

This is a printable I found on line. It's available in different colors. There are also two different versions at Snippets of Design.

And then I made up party favors about friends. These are for sale in an etsy shop called Posh Designs or you can use the idea to create some of your own subway art!

We had a great time and the little "extras" made it even more fun!  Celebrate life...you only live each day one time....so make it count!

Top Three Killers of Creativity

                                  (Card from 52 Little Questions project)

Thinking about creativity today and thought I'd share some thoughts about what seems to be the top runners for creativity killers!

3.  Time:  This is what most people use as their number one excuse for not being creative. I've done it myself quite a few times.  Time is certainly a factor in getting creative. Sometimes you need more "down time", sometimes you need more time alone to really "brew" something creative, or sometimes you just need time to actually sit down and DO something creative.  (Just since starting to write this I have had to stop, feed the dogs and get my grandson a yogurt)

2. Perfectionism: This can be a biggie. Let me say there are certainly creative things we want to look really good. Certain crafts that we are gifting might be one such item. Remember, however, there is more to creativity than crafty things. Don't get me wrong I love crafts and do them but they are NOT the "heart" of creativity. Getting messy, playing around, trying something totally different, making "mistakes" and just getting lost in making something is the true soul of creativity. People miss that when they want perfection. I've posted plenty of things that aren't "top notch". Well, let's face it some are down right BAD. I post them because they were fun not perfect. Sometimes I visit other blogs and I am overwhelmed by their totally awesome stuff. I feel inferior. Sometimes I learn from it and sometimes it stops me in my tracks.

1. Clutter:  I don't care what people say about creative clutter. It's a BIG killer of creativity. I'm not talking about a simple messy desk or table....I'm talking about heaps of stuff piled in disarray every where. I know some people say they work best that way. However when I start a project and can't find something I KNOW I have it kills creativity. I use something else and regret it or I simply stop altogether. When I think about starting a project and don't have a clear space to work in, it kills creativity. Do I get lost in clearing the mess or just find something else to do? When I have a few minutes to create, perhaps while listening to TV and the items I want are scattered everywhere, its just to easy to flop down in the chair and forget about what I was going to create.

These are my top three creativity killers. I'm sure there are others or perhaps yours are slightly different. Regardless, if you haven't been creating lately, it's time to start thinking about why. You'll be glad if you remove the roadblocks and jump back in.

52 Little Questions #7

So question 7 is:  "What song describes you?"  Not what is your favorite song or what song talks about a situation in your life. BUT what song actually describes you. Not as easy as it sounds so I had to go back to an old standby song that I always said was like me....

Emotional Girl

Overall the cards over all are going well. I had covered a few cards with background paper so it takes less time to do them
but now I am thinking of trying something different. I want to try some collage backgrounds to make the cards a bit more artsy and also so that all the cards aren't alike in any way. I'll still do some background papers at times like I've been doing but off to experiment with another method.  See you soon with the next card....and What song describes you???

52 Little Questions #6

Question 6: What is your favorite candy?

 

Simple questions .....require.....simple answers!

Make It Monday: Valentine's Box

 

 

It's Make It Monday,.....and the feature for today is Evan's Valentine Box....

Here is the finished product....but how did it get to this point?  Wrapping papper from Dollar Tree and diecuts and pom pom garland from Michaels were the basic supplies. The foundation is a shoe box...with an opening cut and wrapped in the shiney red paper.

Tape, a glue stick and a hot glue gun were also needed supplies. Along with a empty wrapping paper roll.  The team worked hard to turn the box into Lightening McQueen.  You can see the side of the box here and the tires!

Evan's pretty happy with the end result. As usual frugal finds can be used in fun and colorful ways!  I'd love to see any Vanetine's Day posts you are posting, so please comment and provide a link!

14 Things I Love Tags

Here's Make It Monday's project. It's not finished yet but it is getting there and I wanted to share it with you in case you wanted to make one up for Valentine's Day. You could change it to 14 Things I Love about You...and give it as a Valentine.

The tags were purchased at Michael's dollar spot and I used two patterns. They came in packs of 12 so I needed to use two designs since I didn't have two packs of the same pattern.  The front of the tags are decorated with 14 things I love and on the back there will be some journaling about each thing.

You can see from this pic that I will need to add the journaling. Perhaps I will do that during the Super Bowl game....you'll be reading this tomorrow...and excaliming about how I might have taken my eyes off the TV for a even a few seconds to journal. HA

I created a little title tag using tags punched from the bigger tags, one pattern on each side. One side says 14 Things and the other side says..I Love. 

Although there's not a lot of room on the tags, I did enjoy this project. Perhaps simple and quick flows easier and the tiny space keeps one from getting "crazy" about the embellishments. I have some tweaking to do on a few more tags...artistic wise...BUT all and all I like the little book. It can hang from a small hook, lay on the little desk with the Valentine's Day display or perhaps I'll find a tiny tin to keep it in. I thought I had one that I bought a long time ago at Targets dollar spot but it is a tiny bit too small....so I will continue keeping my eye out!

52 Little Questions : #5

So Question Five is What is the last book you read?   Seems an easy enough one...

I feel like I need to be getting a little more creative...artsy with these cards....so Watch Out next week....I'm going to get a little crazy. The trouble I had this week....is exactly how do you get artsy with a simple answer...?  The book is Executuve Privilege and I attempted to get artsy by tearing out a small picture of a big city. The WHO is my attempt to convey that the book is a mystery...Who did it?

Make It Monday: Button Heart

 

It's Make It Monday....so I thought I'd try something for Valentine's Day. Well while browsing in the craft department I came across some packages of buttons and since I have been seeing button art everywhere I thought I might give it a try. Let's just say I was surprised that it was a little more difficult than you would think!

First I drew a light outline of a heart on my wooden plaque (which I had painted white)  Then I attempted to glue some buttons to make the outline.

 

 

 

Here's what it looked like after a little effort. It was hard to get the buttons to fill the center of the heart without too big of gaps.  I am wondering if I should have painted the heart red on the plaque so that the spaces wouldn't be quite as obvious. IDK.

 

Then I decided the heart on the plain white looked a little "unfinished" so I used a sponge to add a little pink.

 

I'm still not totally satisfied with it but I will definitely try something with buttons again...they are fun to work with. Have you seen the Christmas Trees created out of buttons? I'm thinking a jack o lantern might be fun to try with orange and black buttons. Well, my heart is nothing fancy but I put in on display in the little desk.



52 Little Questions #4

Question #4  Where would you like to travel/visit?

I love the simple card format. I'm glad I decided to use it for the 52 Little Questions project. I am also find this project easier to do because it is one a week....rather than the one a day index card challenge from last year!

52 Little Questions: #3

Week Three.....How can I be kinder to myself?

Sounds a little hokey....right? But think about it!  Aren't we always beating ourselves up over something?  Isn't it time to be kinder to a very important person...yourself!

52 Little Questions #2

This question was harder than one would think....mostly because there are so many things I could answer...so I just summed it up like this.....

52 Little Questions 2013: Question 1

 

I found this idea while browsing the internet. Do something creative with 52 questions during the year.  As some of you may know...I tried the index card a day project last year....and made it through three months without falling on my face, the next three months were iffy in accomplishing the project and the last six months of the year...nada!

 

I still like the index card a day project, I'm just not very good at long range projects. In fact I plan to finish up the June and July ones that are missing, lingering etc AND then for the second half of this year I will do Index Card a Day (phase two) and finish up August through December,  However I was looking for a NEW kind of creative endeavor for 2013 and stumbled upon the 52 questions idea at Life is Art.  I'm going to use my own set of questions although some might overlap. I hope to do better with one a week rather than one a day!

 

Above you see the question for Week One: What word will you live in 2013?

 

I'm using a deck of cards, a small canvess but I think workable. The question on one side and the answer on the back. You don't have to do art to complete this. You could journal the answers in your journal or some other formatt.  Below is the answer to the question: