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.