Category Archives: Creativity

8-Layer Journaling – Session 1!

Good morning!

I am so happy to share a new mini-series of art journal how to videos with you! I am calling this series

8-Layer Journaling

Back in February of 2015, Shannon Green put out a YouTube video series, called Journaling by 5s. It took the fear and guesswork out of art journaling. I would highly recommend you go check that process and her work out…Shannon is truly inspirational!!!

To quickly paraphrase her process is that you create 20 art journaling pages in 5 – 15 minute sessions, by layering 2 pre-determined media types per session.

Shannon’s Session are as follows:

  1. Background – Paint, Ink
  2. Texture – Collage, Recycle
  3. Pattern – Stamps, Stencils
  4. Focal Point – Words, Images
  5. Details – Pen, Pencils

Although, I really do love this process, I modified it pretty early on, because I was nowhere near able to get my sessions completed within the allotted time, which drove me BANANAS! I felt like I would do better if I limited myself to one medium per session, and to limit my use of mediums to only 5 options. For example, for the paint layer, I limit myself to only 5 tubes/bottles/jars/etc of color, to cut down on my need to overthink the process. Doing this allowed me to finally get all 20 pages done within the allotted 15 minutes. SUCCESS!!

I have used this process for creating my Soul Sister Cards,

and for something I like to call Doodling books that I find super fun to play on while I am on an airplane or waiting someplace!! Every time I have done this process the pages end up looking so different from each other, and I am always so amazed at how cool they turn out!!!

So my modified version, which I am calling 8-Layer Journaling is:

  1. Paint
  2. Paper
  3. Washi
  4. Stamps
  5. Stencil
  6. Focal Image
  7. Words
  8. Pen Work

So, with all of the logistics out of the way…let’s get started!

I took 5 sheets of 9″ x 12″ Canson watercolor paper, and I cut them in half both directions so that I ended up with 20 sheets of paper sized 4 1/2″ x 6″.

Now let’s get on to Layer #1

 

Paint!

  1. I selected 5 colors of Dina Wakley’s Heavy Body Acrylic Paint: Tangerine, Magenta, Lime, Lemon, Turquoise. (I didn’t select any inks or sprays because I don’t have any in my art studio, at the moment.)
  2. I grabbed 2 paint brushes, 1 for the warm colors (tangerine, Magenta, Lemon), and 1 for the cool colors (Lime, Turquoise, Lemon)
  3. Set my timer
  4. and got to playing!!

If you do decide to do this 8-Layer Journaling process with me, I want to highly encourage you to not purchase anything new…use whatever you have in your stash. (This is probably something we could all hear a little bit more of!)

I hope that this is something that you might be inspired to try, and if you do, please share on Instagram #8layerjournaling I would LOVE to see your creations!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments section! I am always happy to be of help!!

Now it is your turn to get creating!

Here is to having some fun!

 

Soul Book #5 – Word of the Year!

Good evening!

Tonight’s Soul Book video is me sharing my Word of the Year Soul Book spread.

I really struggled with coming up with a word of the year, I mean there are just so many words that could fit so well, with everything going on in my life. Adventure, brave, journey, transformation, I can go on and on and on.

The word I finally settled on was the word

Embrace

I chose the word embrace because I feel like what I need more than anything right now is to embrace all of the changes and new opportunities coming my way, embrace the authentic me that I am allowing to come out and shine through the facade of “what is expected”, embrace my uniquenesses, my body, this skin that I am in. Embrace embodies what my focus needs to be this year!!!

If you could choose 1 word for this year, what would that word be? Why? I would love you to tell me in the comment section! 🙂

Materials Used:

  • Gesso
  • Acrylic paints
  • Various stencils
  • Baby wipes
  • Decorative craft papers
  • Decorative stickers
  • Black pen
  • I printed my word of the year and the definitions (found by Googling “Define Embrace”) off of my computer onto regular printer paper
  • Black Staz-On inkpad
  • Various stamps
  • Gold Signo ink pen
  • Tag
  • Medium sized project life card
  • Hole punch
  • Corner rounder
  • Scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Black ink pen
  • Blue Stabilo All pencil

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments section! I am always happy to be of help!!

Now it is your turn to get creating in your Soul Book!

Here is to having some fun!

Soul Book #4 – Making Space for Book Notes!

Good evening!

One of my favorite ways to use my Soul Book is to use a dedicated spread to take notes out of a really good self-help or inspirational book. The book I am reading right now is called, The 5 Second Rule, and is written by Mel Robbins, and it definitely falls under this category! There are so many juicy nuggets in here, that I know I will want to be able to call upon again! So, before I actually take notes into my Soul Book, I like to make sure that I have a spread decorated for just the purpose of documenting my notes. This will help me locate them again, and it is also a fun way to motivate myself to actually take the notes.

Materials Used:

  • Gesso
  • Palette knife
  • Prima watercolors
  • 2 Intense watercolor pencils
  • Decorative craft paper
  • Black pen
  • I also created and printed a book title on regular printer paper, and I printed a copy of the book cover, that I found doing a google search.

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments section! I am always happy to be of help!!

Now it is your turn to get creating in your Soul Book!

Here is to having some fun!

Soul Book #3 – Where I am Now vs Where I Want to Be!

Good evening!

Today’s video is about the journal prompts, Where I am now, and where I want to Be!

I found these two journal prompts in my paper stash and as soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted them in my Soul Book. I was sure that they would be a great way to do some self reflection so that I could make some decisions on where to go next!

Before dealing with my journal prompts, I had fun decorating my spread’s background with various mixed-media techniques.

Materials Used:

  • Dina Wakley heavy body paints
  • Chevron stamp
  • Staz-On ink pad
  • Various arrow stamps
  • 2 different Tim Holtz Distress ink pads
  • 4 different wash tapes
  • Black Stabilo Marks all pencil
  • Black ink pen

The thought at the bottom of my page was from my You Are A Badass, page-a-day calendar:

If you’re not where you want to be in life, keep going. Treat yourself like you’re the closest friend you’ve got. Celebrate the magnificent creature you are. Don’t let anyone mess with you and your dreams, least of all yourself.

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments section! I am always happy to be of help!!

Now it is your turn to get creating in your Soul Book!

Here is to having some fun!

Soul Book 2018 #2 – Soul Book Landing Page!

Good evening!

Today’s Soul Book video is about 3 things, decorating the Soul Book opening landing page, writing a letter to your future self, and creating a vision board translation tip in from last week’s vision board exercise.

The landing page is the very first page you see when you open your Soul Book. This is the area I like to put positive images, thoughts, and things that make me happy, so I can see them as soon as I open my Soul book! I also like to include an envelope on this landing page. In this envelope I put a letter written to my future self, to be opening the first day of next year. This letter is me telling my future self what an awesome year 2018 turned out to be. I love doing this practice, because then when the first day of the next year comes along, I get to open and read the letter and see just how much of my past thoughts actually came to fruition, and what I still need to be working on!

The last thing that I did for this spread was I went back to last week’s vision board, and asked myself a few questions about the type of woman that would lead a life that the photos and words that I selected embodied (AKA me, hopefully)! 🙂 I took the answers to these prompts and created a tip-in that is attached to my Soul Book’s landing page. I chose to do a tip-in because I wanted to be able to see my translation whenever I work on any of my future Soul Book pages, and having this mini page able to be tipped-in or out, will let me do just that!

Materials used:

  • A sketch book to use as my Soul Book (Here is the link to the one I get every year)
  • Magazines (I used mostly O magazines, because they are filled with positivity)
  • Images printed from Pinterest
  • Tombo permanent adhesive tape strip
  • Uhu glue stick (my fave)
  • Stickers
  • Washi tape
  • Watercolor paper
  • Decorative craft paper
  • Scissors, or course
  • Envelope with a blank decorative card
  • Various pens (completely optional, but excellent if you decide to do any doodling around any of your images)

The prompts I used were:

My Soul Book

for

healing, dealing, documenting,

creating, imagining, planning,

doodling, writing, meditating,

brainstorming, organizing, learning,

& anything else my creative little heart desires!

My Personal Vision

In her alone time, she…

With her sweetie, she…

With her soul sisters, she…

In her home, she…

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments section! I am always happy to be of help!!

Now it is your turn to get creating in your Soul Book!

Here is to having some fun!

Soul Book 2018 #1 – Vision Board

Good morning!

I know I am a bit late in getting this post published – a few weeks late to be exact, but my goal here is to be of service, and I realize that it might be very helpful to those of you who watch my YouTube videos to have a place where you can go to find which supplies I may have used on any of my Soul Book 2018 spreads. I also want to make sure that any prompts that I use are also available for you to use in your own Soul Books as well. Please note, that I do a lot of work to create these ideas, prompts and Soul Book spreads, so I would ask that if you do use any of these, that you please use them for your own personal use only. Thank you!

I decided to start my 2018 Soul Book creating my yearly vision board. I thought this would be a good place to start because I had been in a bit of a creativity rut, and cutting images and words out of magazines seemed like a really easy way to start to get some creative mojo back again.

Materials used:

  • A sketch book to use as my Soul Book (Here is the link to the one I get every year)
  • Magazines (I used mostly O magazines, because they are filled with positivity)
  • Uhu glue stick (my fave)
  • Scissors, or course
  • A black pen (completely optional, but excellent if you decide to do any doodling around your vision board images)
  • A good classic movie (I always create my vision board while having a great movie playing in the background!)

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know in the comments section! I am always happy to be of help!!

Now it is your turn to get creating in your Soul Book!

Here is to having some fun!

Starting Anew!

Good morning, Beautiful Creatives!

I have decided that I may be the world’s worst blogger. I never seem to get around to updating my blog, so, instead of dwelling on that, I’ve decided that this morning I will start anew!

I have been asking myself, “how can I improve myself?” This question is something that seems to be following me everywhere I go. I am not sure why, but last night I had a bit of an ah-ha moment when, out of the blue, I reheard something that I have known for a long looooong time! You can improve yourself by taking baby steps every single day to do something – anything – better than you did the day before!

So, that is what I am doing, starting this morning!!

I woke to go pee – now come on, I am pretty dang sure that is the first thing you do every day too!! 😉

The difference for me this morning, is that I told myself I could not play on my phone until I had done two things, brushed my teeth, and did my face skincare routine (which is I guess technically has to be done on a regular basis to be considered a routine!)

I am not sure if this is true for you, but my phone can seriously be a major time-suck in my life!! I great avoidance measure for getting anything of actual great importance done in my day!!

Anyway, I have decided today is the day to change all of that!

So, this morning, so far,

I have…

  1. brushed my hair (working from home, this is not always a requirement, since no-one by my sweetie usually ever sees me)
  2. Brushed my teeth
  3. Flossed
  4. Tongue scraped
  5. Mouthwashed
  6. Washed my face (with more than just water)
  7. Used facial toner (I am not sure I have done that in years!!!) Oh, and this is where I should probably tell you that I have recently gotten new skin care products, because EWWWWWW-GROSS to something I might have used years ago!!!)
  8. Moisturized, down to my neck – yes, something that doesn’t happen too often either, so I am feel rather proud of myself!
  9. Let my sweetie and the girls sleep in a little bit, we all are a little sleep deprived, and anything I can do to help us all stay grump-mode-free is always a good thing!
  10. and now I am blogging!

Did I mention that I have done all of this before 5:30 AM this morning?

Well, yeah, I did! 😉

I am trying to figure out how I want to track my progress, do I want to carry a mini notebook, something that could fit in my pocket, or do I want to track my baby steps electronically? I do not yet know, but I will keep you posted!

I am hoping that I can take just a few moments every morning to journal/blog! I figure I can kill two birds with one stone (man, I really hate that phrase!) and maybe I might be able to share some helpful ideas, insights, or maybe even just give people a reason to smile every morning!

Alright, so there you have it, short and sweet!!

Here is to a BEAUTIFULLY CREATIVE day!

 

 

If you want a beautiful creative life, you have to take beautiful creative actions!

Soul Book Club #5!

Good morning, and OH MY!!

I have been doing such a bad job of keeping my blog in sync with my YouTube channel, so I thought I would take a few minutes over the next day or so to get myself caught up!

This week’s video is utilizing a technique that is one of my favorites. It consists of a stencil, some of your favorite acrylic paint colors, and a baby wipe! Super easy, but the end result looks a little bit magical – if I may say so myself!!

This week I show you how to easily get words down on your pages; the technique I am most proud of sharing is the homemade carbon paper transfer technique! Go check that out!

For this week’s thought, “She did it anyway.” Is something that is very near and dear to my heart! Being someone who lives with, what at times can be very severe anxiety issues, this is a sentiment that I should probably have tattooed to myself so that I never forget and am always reminded. Just because she felt *fill in the blank*, she did it anyway! I get so much more done in my life when I remember this truth for myself!

Here is to a She Did It Anyway kind of Day!!

 

Soul Book Club #4!

Good morning!

I hope you are enjoying my weekly Soul Book Club series! This week, I am happy to announce that week 4 is ready for your enjoyment!

I a really having a lot of fun recording these sessions, I think it is getting a little bit easier. I have been doing this process for a few years, but I am experimenting with how to go about teaching others how to play in your Soul Book, as well as how use your Soul Book as a tool to help you get from where you are to where you want to be, and to ultimately live an authentically creative life, in your own manner!

This week’s Soul Book journaling prompts:

  1. I feel happy when…
  2. I feel sad when…
  3. I feel peaceful when…
  4. I feel most myself when…
  5. My favorite childhood memory…
  6. My favorite memory as a teenager…
  7. My favorite memory as an adult…
  8. What is one area of my life needing attention?
  9. What is one area of my life that is doing amazingly? How did you make it amazing? Can you translate that to other areas of your life?
  10. If there is something that you have putting off, but you know you really should do it, what is that thing? What can you do within the next 10 minutes to take action on that thing?

Please feel free to copy and paste into Word or Pages, and then you will then have the ability to change the fonts style, colors, size, etc. I give you permission to use this list however you would like, including removing prompts, adding prompts, or even just wiping the entire list out and starting over!

I really do hope you are getting some goodness out of my weekly Soul Book Club videos!!

Thanks so much for watching!

Soul Book Club #2!

Good evening!

I am very happy to announce that I have finally kicked off my Soul Book Club over on YouTube!

YEAH!!! 😉

I wanted to make sure that I was able to easily get you the list of journaling prompts that I am using this week. Please feel free to copy and paste into Word or Pages, and then you will then have the ability to change the fonts style, colors, size, etc. I give you permission to use this list however you would like, including removing prompts, adding prompts, or even just wiping the entire list out and starting over!

I am very happy to be able to share this with you!

Here are those journaling prompts:

  • What are my strengths?
  • What are my short-term goals?
  • What are my long-term goals?
  • Who matters most to me?
  • Who are my support people?
  • What am I ashamed of?
  • How can I turn these moments/decisions into life lessons?
  • What do I like to do for fun?
  • What new activities am I interested in or willing to try?
  • What am I worried about?
  • What is my favorite house chore?
  • What is my least favorite house chore?
  • Describe your home in as much detail as possible?
  • What are my values?
  • What do I believe in?
  • If I could have one wish, it would be…
  • Where do I feel safest?
  • What or who gives me comfort?
  • If I wasn’t afraid, I would…
  • What is my proudest accomplishment?
  • What is my biggest failure?
  • Am I a night owl or an early bird?
  • How can I arrange my life to better suit this part of my nature?
  • What do I like about my job? What do I dislike?
  • What does my inner critic tell me?
  • What do I do to show myself self-compassion and self-care?
  • What am I passionate about?
  • What is my happiest memory?
  • Write out the details of a dream you’ve dream this year. Be as vivid as possible.
  • What am I listening to?
  • What I watching on the tele?
  • What am I reading?
  • What movie did I watch last?
  • What movie did you last watch in the theatre?
  • What am I grateful for?
  • What songs are on my favorite playlist?
  • When I’m feeling down I like to…
  • I know I’m stressed when I…
  • Describe yourself as a child.

As always, if you have any questions about any of the techniques that I’ve used, please do not hesitate to reach out to me! I would be VERY happy to be of service! 😉

 

If you want to have a different life, live differently!