For the Love of Creative Energy

Last week was a week full of creative energy. It started out with a long weekend for the Easter holiday. We had Monday off as our holiday day and I took Thursday off as a vacation day since school is out this week. Working only 2 1/2 days really helped amp up the creative energy! I think having a loose schedule probably benefits most creative types.

One of the Documented Life Project (DLP) challenges was to create white-space on a pocket card (PAC). Rae Missigman had a quick little tutorial on how she used shaving cream and alcohol ink to get a bit of swirly color on her background, so I thought I would give her method a try. My results did not end up with many swirls since I tried using a small Styrofoam tray with large sheets of paper. But the background on my card didn't turn out too bad.

Last week my sister and I started a Facebook group for those who love to use vintage items in their home decor and/or art. It's a place to share resources like the new vintage section of my Etsy shop, the adventures of vintage hunting my sister and I go on, vintage shops we find online and in the Ohio/Michigan area, ideas for using and repurposing vintage items in the home and in art, etc. You can check it out here and join the conversation and adventure!

On Thursday we met in Ann Arbor and spent the day hunting vintage finds. We also visited a shop we had found online. Tamara has a Facebook group for her shop and vintage findings as well as a new website. Despite the fact that it was pouring down rain, we had a great time meeting Tamara and exploring her sweet little shabby shack shop. We picked up a metal sign I had ordered online.

We then spent the rest of the day exploring thrift shops, antique stores and simply enjoying being together. Some of my vintage finds are below. They will appear soon in my Etsy shop in one form or another!

Saturday I had a finance team meeting at church and then poked around a few thrift and vintage shops in my area. A few of the vintage finds from Saturday:

Through this wonderful vintage brick alley in downtown Maumee you find a nice store full of antiques and repurposed vintage furniture. Encore Furniture 306. Saturday was my first visit to this shop.

On Sunday we had a full breakfast room at church. Having lots of kids around always fills my heart!

After church a few of the boys went with me to watch birds at the park.

One of the ongoing art projects my sister and I have is our altered Rolodex file art journals. We love sharing this project so I am always on the look out for more Rolodex card holders and boxes. This week I came across three! They will be listed in my shop in the next few days. I made some art journal cards to display in them and will include them as a bonus with each holder.

Left side: Anne's. Right side: mine.

A week full of creative energy was good for me in so many ways! Enjoy the week ahead. :)

Bits and Pieces for a Friday

In the news today: Coldplay released their seventh album, A Head Full of Dreams today! 

Why, you may ask, is that news on my blog? In all honesty, I didn't know who Coldplay was until last spring when I received an email from a guy named Phil Harvey. He happens to be the manager for the British band Coldplay. I was floored when he told me he had stumbled on a piece of my art journaling online. This one:

I was in shock when he asked me if I would consider submitting a piece of art for consideration in collaborating on their new album cover art. My first response: I called my daughter to find out who they were. My second response: I Googled Phil to make sure he was who he said he was. Well, over the summer months we communicated a few times and I submitted a piece of art. My art was not selected and I am so fine with that. It was such an incredible honor to be asked and a very cool experience. We tend to forget that when we put our art out there online just about anyone can see it! This has been how I have gotten involved in some cool experiences over the past few years. Things like being published in Somerset's Art Journaling magazine twice and joining the foundation team for the His Kingdom Come community. I have found that I don't need to seek these things out, but just enjoy making art and taking the risk of putting my art online in the many communities I am involved in, and the opportunities come my way occasionally. It's been a lot of fun!

Today is the 6th day of Advent. A devotion is up on the His Kingdom Come site. Here is my Advent Rolodex art card for today:

I'm so proud of my sis! She has been committed to making time for creativity. Here is here latest Rolodex art card:

We are both enjoying working on a small scale.

30 Day Blogging Challenge Day 18.

Rolodex Art Journals

(Lyrics by Irving Berlin for the movie White Christmas)

During my visit with my sister last weekend we decided to do a joint art project together. My sister wanted to do something on small pages that she could put positive quotes on and display to see at those times of stress when she needs a diversion. As we were talking about different ways she could do this the idea of using an old Rolodex for an art journal came up. We both have a slight obsession with office products and equipment and the thought of combining this with art journaling pumped our creative juices! We went online and she found one she liked at an Etsy shop. Her find looked like this one:

She plans to collage and paint backgrounds and then add quotes and sayings to them. The circular stand makes it easy to display and leaf through the mini art journal cards. Today I found a different style of vintage Rolodex for my art journal cards in a local antique market.

The cards measure 3" x 5" and I thought I would do art journal cards of things that I enjoy such as birds, quotes, songs, etc. and do them alphabetically. Working on a small scale is fun and makes for quick projects. I'll share the progress of our sisters art project over time as we add to our Rolodex art journals. Tonight I made my first card. Birds, of course.

30 Day Blogging Challenge day 6.