Category Archives: Creativity

My First Ever Weekly Art Journal Video!

Good morning!

As promised yesterday, here is some close up pics and details about my first ever weekly art journal video!

That video can be found here.

As with all of my art journal pages, I always go into the project with no real idea on what it is I want to create. I sometimes have a vague idea about maybe what colors I want to use, or maybe an inspirational thought, but for this spread, I was essentially going in with no expectations of any kind.

I was having a hard time getting quiet, or spending time in any kind of quiet, which meant I had been constantly surrounding myself with random noise; the television, music, the background noise at a coffee shop, etc, etc. I also am a firm believer in signs from my Truth teller, and I kept seeing the message,

“Get quiet so you can hear what I am trying to tell you!”

Well, in all honesty, I had been blatantly ignoring it. You see, I was afraid that if I were to get quiet I would make the realization that I had completely ruined my life by walking away from my career a few months ago, and that by spending my time doing everything and anything that I wanted to do, maybe somehow I was being absolutely and completely selfish – HOW DARE I???

So, I had started this journal page, with my camera set to record, not knowing what my page was going to turn out looking like, but knowing that it was going to be my very first video to post on YouTube. I had NO IDEA how to do that! I have had no experience recording videos, editing them, how to upload them, or anything! I was pretty scared. However, I wanted to make sure that when I recorded that there wasn’t any background noises that I would have to fight with. (I didn’t know that I could mute all of those out!) So this forced me to spend a few hours in absolute silence, just focusing on arting.

Well, the message of getting quiet so I can hear my voice kept popping up again, over and over. I wasn’t sure why, but by the time I got to the part of my journal page where I needed to wrap it up with a thought – I KNEW that was the thought that I had to get down on to paper!

“Don’t be afraid of silence,

for that is where you will find your voice.”

When I had finished this page, I was so happy with it! It really made me happy, and it said something to me that I knew, from the bottom of my soul, was a truth that I needed to hear right now!

Now getting it ready for uploading was another story all together! I had no idea how I was going to edit it, get music behind it, upload it, or anything. So, I started Googling for help like a crazy person!! 🙂 Little did I know I had everything I needed to do this already in my possession!!

It took me longer than I had expected – about three days longer, to be exact, but I did it!! I did a great big ol’ happy dance, and told all of my peeps to go check it out!!! WHEW!!! 😉

Anyway, I look at this page now, almost a week and half after actually creating it and I realize that it is the exact perfect message that I needed to hear in that moment. Silence is something to anticipate and to fully be present to yourself and your Truth teller whenever you have the opportunity to embrace the silence!!

I hope you like this spread, and if you have any questions or comments, please let me know in the comments section! I would love to hear your thoughts!!

Much love to you!! Here is to a FABULOUS day! 😉

~Chrissie

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

Weekly Art Journal Page Video Series!

Good afternoon!

I have been “retired” since the 4th of July of this year. These past 3 1/2 months have practically flown by.

I have been spending my time taking care of myself, catching up on some much needed sleep, getting back in touch with friends that I hadn’t had time to spend time with before, watching copious amounts of artist’s videos on YouTube, arting with friends in town, and playing up in my art studio. Yes, I know I am a very VERY lucky girl!!!

Those of you who have been reading my blog might know that I really love arting, but in the past 3 /2 months I have discovered that all things mixed media and art journaling have become quite essential to my sense of happiness. That really shouldn’t be surprising to me, but it really has been! Because of my newfound love affair, (hee! hee!) I have been trying all sorts of new products, mixed media techniques, and all sorts of new art ideas and projects to help me explore this new creative outlet!

Although I wouldn’t change a thing about the past 3 1/2 months, I think that it is time that I stop frittering away my time, and put all of this arty goodness to use, at least in some small way! So, as my first act of artsy bravery, I have decided to start sharing my artwork with the world…er…well, at least anyone in the world who might be interesting in seeing it! 🙂 To do this, I thought it would be fun to start my very own YouTube channel!!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4Of6Y-cX-foVyd-upZKbQ

I am so excited to also announce that I have started a weekly Art Journal Page video series, and I am very happy to share that I have already uploaded my first two videos! Last week’s video took such a long learning curve, that I couldn’t seem to muster the strength to have a blog post accompany that video, however I will get it together enough to post today’s video details now! and, I will work on getting last week’s video info up tomorrow!

Here is this week’s Art Journal Video info!

I went into this spread with no idea on what was going to come out on the pages. I just picked a few colors I thought might look good together and went for it! The background stamp that I chose is one of my favorite stamps! I find that I use it often in my journaling projects!

I also thought some drips would be nice, I have seen a lot of my favorite artists do this and thought it would be easy to do, which I am sure it really should have been, but as you might’ve seen…it was a little trickier, and messier than I had expected!! At least I didn’t get any of the red paint on my beige carpet!! WHEW!!! Can I also mention how much I love my new fineline bottles??? I just love how easy they are to use. I have one bottle for my white paint, and one for black! I highly recommend them!

The green that I added to this page was purely a gut reaction to wanting to go in the absolute opposite direction from where the page had gone at the get go. After putting the red drips down the page, it just looked like the scene of a bloody massacre!! LOL! I think the green turned out rather well, and felt the need to make sure to spread the green all throughout the design.

By the time that this spread was completed, I was a very happy girl!!

Not only because I was able to salvage this design and turn it into something that looks like I had planned it that way on purpose, but because I got some much needed guidance on some questions that I had been mulling over.

While I am arting, I do so in silence. I do that so I can hear my soul tell me what I need to hear, or teach my what I need to be taught. This page caused me to reflect on how amazing this past 3 1/2 months has been. It has been amazing, but it has also been a dream that is not maintainable…at least not yet. Even though my sweetie has given me a free and clear to continue on like this for as long as I want, I want more. I want to be earning my keep, making a living.

Living a life that is bigger than just me.

I really don’t know what all of that will look like, but I know right now, this first step of sharing my art with you is my first start! I keep hearing, “You don’t have to see all of the steps in the staircase, just see the first step, and all subsequent steps will appear at the exact right time!” That is what this is. My first step!! I can’t wait to see how my staircase unfolds!! 🙂

As for my YouTube channel and videos, I would LOVE it if you would watch, thumbs up, subscribe, and share any comments or feedback you might have! That would be EXCELLENT!!

So here is to putting on my big girl panties and taking that first step!! 🙂

~Chrissie B.

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

Turning Something Old Into Something New!

Good evening!

Now that I have been not working for the past few weeks, I have been looking at my art supplies in a new way. You see in the past, whenever I wanted any new fancy-schmancy arts or crafts do-dad, I would just run over to whichever art store I wanted and picked it up! It would then proceed to be taken up to the art studio, put it in its new proper location, and then nothing. That’s it! Nothing! I wouldn’t do anything with it.

Now that I see that money is not coming in, like it had been, I realized that I have to start being more economical with my art supplies, and that got me to thinking about all of the miscellaneous stuff that has been lying around. What could I recycle into my art play???

Soooo…this morning, I spent some time taking an old box and turning it into two different art journals!!

I think they turned out rather cute, and they were so easy to create!

I was so excited by how they turned out that I decided I would look around and see what other household things I could turn into some interesting art journaling backgrounds.

This was a napkin that I happened to have in my copious amounts of supplies. Note to those who use napkins in your work: if you use a two-ply napkin, you will have an easier time using it if you carefully peel the two layers apart, and just use the layer with the pattern on it! I discovered that the hard way!! 🙂

This background was created using a bunch of old checks that I was waiting to take down to the shredder! I tore them up myself and then randomly glued them down to my page using gel medium. Using three colors of acrylic paint and a palette knife, this technique turned out looking a bit like dyed leather. I rather like it!

I am not sure what I am going to do next on these backgrounds, but using unexpected materials in new ways is something that I am going to have to try more in my future projects!

What kinds of recycled materials do you like to use in your art journaling/mixed media art projects???

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!!! 🙂

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

Living Your Life NOW!

Good morning!

I just finished reading Danielle Laporte‘s awesome book called, “The Fire Starter Sessions“, which I have thoroughly enjoyed, and highly encourage anyone who feels like their is more to life than the life that they are currently living, to pick it up and give it a read. You will not be disappointed!! 🙂

There is an excellent message on the very last page, which made me tear up, with positivity, when reading it, and just new that I needed to share this message with you. I now, in my soul, that there is someone out there who needs to hear this as much as I did! 🙂

So without further ado, here is the message called Now Works by Danielle Laporte:

Now Works

You’re here for a reason.

And that reason is yours to define.

Make it something amazing and really full of love and things that feel hot.

Be unreasonable.

Be scared if you need be.

Just keep moving.

Feeling.

Asking.

Don’t take any shit, and for the love of God, please don’t settle.

Just keep choosing.

Make lots and lots and lots of choices.

You are writing the movie script of your life.

Desires. Lights. Action! (Some tears.)

You’re a hero on an adventure.

This is it. This is the adventure.

Creativity. Change. Livelihood. Art. People. Leadership. Legacy.

Score. Money. Gain. Failure. Pride. Industry. Simple. Love.

LOVE.

Oh, love.

It’s all about love in the end.

And in the beginning.

So start now, today, here.

Let it be simple, easy, electric.

Be surprised, be new, be true be you.

Now.

Here is to living NOW!! 🙂

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

She Did It Anyway!

Good evening!

Some days, this little mantra, from Melody Ross, “She did it anyway”, keeps me moving forward! This morning, I had made the decision to get back into my art studio and after doing a little bit of cleaning, and organizing, I would finally actually do a little bit of rating too!

Well, before I got going full swing, something hit me mid-stride, and I ended up back in bed, with my doggies, having nestled back down under my covers, ready to spend my entire day hanging out in bed, enjoying some time on the new tele my sweetie has recently installed, and having all of my meals delivered to me in bed.

That is when Melody’s voice started repeating in my head. Yes, melody and I do have that kind of relationship, although I am sure she is not aware of it! 😉 I kept hearing her say, “She did it anyway”.

My inner critic came up with every kind of comeback that I was sure would give my subconscious, a non-guilt inducing confirmation that my day-in-bed plan was a good idea!

Here is the how the imaginary conversation kind of went…

Me: “I don’t feel like arting!”
My imaginary bestie AKA Melody Ross: “She did it anyway.”
Me: “I am too tired!”
Melody: “She did it anyway.”
Me: “I’m too sad to art!”
Melody: “She did it anyway.”
Me: “Who would even know or care if I didn’t art today?”
Melody: “She did it anyway.”
Me: “The mood has left the building.”
Melody: “She did it anyway.”
Me: “I am already snuggled in, and have my day planned to watch this movie.” (SIDE NOTE: you should, know that this was the point I really started whining!)
Melody: “She did it anyway.”
Me: “Dangit! I really don’t wanna!” (yes, I know, I know, insert highest mature self here!)
Melody: “She did it anyway.”

You must know that Melody kept her graceful cool the entire debate, I must say I was quite impressed!! 😉

Well, I knew when I was beat!! I put on my, figurative, big girl panties, drug my bootie out of the bed, much to the chagrin of my four-legged girls, and made my way directly to my art studio. Before I realized what was happening the momentum of what I was doing anyways had, not only gotten my organizing/cleaning finished, I really was in the mood for arting!

I decided to do some art journaling. I had a few new art techniques that I had been mulling over the past week, and thought that giving them a try in one of my smaller practice journals would be the way to go, since I had no idea if they were going to be successful or if they would turn out into a muddy mess (yes, I am speaking from experience!!!)

When all was said and done, I could honestly say that I really LOVED the way this finished spread turned out! I was also really happy that I was able to use some new techniques that, not only the ones I found on YouTube, but a couple that I had made up, worked out really, REALLY well. The overall spread turned out much better than I could have anticipated when I had first made the decision to spend some time arting this morning!

I decided to use Melody’s message of “She did it anyway” as this spread’s main message so that, in the future, maybe it won’t take me quite so much whining, moping, and complaining to remember to just get out there and do what I know I should/want to be doing!!! Just think, if Melody’s inspirational message hadn’t been running around in my head nothing would have gotten done today!!

Thank you, Melody!! Call me, bestie…we’ll do lunch!! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUS evening! 😉

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

A New Toy!

Good evening!

It is really late as I write this post this evening! My sweetie encouraged me to do something insanely out of character today, and I have to tell you I AM SOOOO EXCITED about it!!! I bought a Mac Book Pro!!! YES!! ME!!! A self-professed PC girl!!! My sweetie, after many years of pestering, he has finally convinced me that getting a Mac would be an investment in my creative future! Don’t you just love that???? I do!!

It has literally taken me something like 8 hours to figure out how to get this far, but so far so good!!

Well, that is all I have to say tonight! I have so much to learn, and I know GREAT things will be being produced and shared from my neck of the woods!! I will keep you posted on my progress!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening 🙂

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

Adventures in Photography!

Good afternoon!

This past Saturday, it was such a beautiful day that my sweetie and I packed up my new camera, remote control, and tripod, and headed out for a few hours to practice taking photos with my new camera! I had had my heart set out on going to the Union Street Railroad Bridge, which is an old river-crossing train trestle that was converted to a nice pedestrian bridge just a few years ago!

We knew that this was an old bridge, but were surprised to see that it was originally built in 1912. We were literally walking across history! 🙂

This is my lovely assistant, AKA my sweetie! He was happy to just people watch and soak up the sun on this absolutely GORGEOUS day!! 🙂

There were actually a lot of people out enjoying this morning, but we got lucky and I almost got a free and clear shot of the walking bridge without pedestrians! 🙂

The outside of the trestle.

I just love the way the metal crisscrosses and all of the details of the rivets! Industrial chic?? 🙂

This is the old wooden foundation. You can tell that there have been many recent repairs, but it is just so cool to look at!

The Willamette River.

I am soooo in love with the curve here!

Thanks to my new remote control and tripod – I now actually have the ability to show up in some of my own pictures!! 🙂 Jason has a way of just keeping me laughing!! 🙂

I really do love this man!! 🙂

I know that I still have a loooooong way to go on learning how to use all of my settings on a my new camera, but I am determined to figure them all out!! ISO, white balance, timing, flash vs no flash, etc, etc! In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed these pictures and hopefully, over the next year or so, I can keep growing and learning as a photographer and continue to share my progress pics with you! 🙂

Here is to a FABULOUS day! 🙂

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

Artsist Spotlight: Heather Hansen!

Good afternoon!

I was struggling with what to share today, and while I was perusing the internet, I stumbled upon this amazing artist, and just had to share her with you! Her name is Heather Hansen, and I am SOOOOO in love with not only her art, but the way she goes about creating her art! SO peaceful, and creative!! I just love her!!

See for yourself:

I need more of this feeling of peace in my life!

Here is to a PEACEFULLY CREATIVE day!! 🙂

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

Girls’ Night In – Getting Arty!

Good afternoon!

I wanted to share with you how my arting night with my girl friend, Mary, went last night!!

Let’s just start out by saying, it really is SOOOOOO MUCH MORE FUN when you art with someone than when you always art by yourself!!

Well, as you may remember from yesterday’s post, I met a very lovely girl on Saturday. Her name is Mary! Well, Mary came over last night so we could get our art on!!!

YEAH!!

We met up at my place of work, (on a side note, we have agreed that we are both SERIOUSLY directionally challenged, so she was pretty proud of herself that she found me, and I have to admit I was pretty impressed too!! ;-)) and we made the trek across town to my place!!

I was kind of worried, because you know like most people, there are things about my place that I find rather embarrassing, but like Melody Ross says, ” She felt (blank), but she did it anyway!” So, in we went! I gave her a quick tour, introduced her to our doggies, Faye and Sophie, and headed straight to my art studio to get to playing!!

We didn’t really have a plan for what we were going to do, but I had a fall back plan of creating our own life/dream/smash books, which is what we ended up deciding to do!!

Paper, pens, paint, scissors, Mary even brought over her Cricut machine (SO COOL!!), some happy music in the background, and stories back and forth mixed in with a bunch of giggling, add some funkily cut pizza (BTW pizza should NEVER EVER come in squares!!), and you end up with a night that was OH SO FUN!!!

My sweetie got home, and ended up being our chauffeur to drive Mary home, which in and of itself ended up contributing to the fun of the evening! You see, I am currently rocking the Frozen soundtrack in my car at the moment, which my sweetie just loves!! Well, we both have a few favorite songs, so as Mary and I are continuing to chat it up in the back of the car, Jason is blasting this Disney music, swaying to the beat of the music, and singing!! TOO HILARIOUS!!! I hadn’t realized that we were going to be entertained by a cute floor show during our travels across town!! LOL!! Thanks for that Love!!! 🙂

Anyway, I am calling last night a HUGE SUCCESS, and I am hoping we get the chance to do it again real soon!! If anything, I can’t wait to see what kind of progress she makes on her life/dream/smash book!! Yeah, we really do have to decide what we are going to actually call those things!! Well, whatever they are called, we really did have a GREAT TIME!!

Friends are good!

Art is fun!

and I am feeling UBER BLESSED!! 🙂

Here is to another day filled with HAPPINESS & CREATIVITY!! 🙂

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

A Peek In My Sketchbook!

Good afternoon!

I have been doing a lot of daydreaming about my dream reality lately, and in doing so it is causing me to start taking baby steps of action towards making those dreams my reality. Most specifically is the dream that I want to be an artist. A real-live-creating-for-the-hell-of-it-inspirational-artist! The baby step that I have been slowly but surely taking action on is learning to draw –

EEK!!

WHAAAA?

No you are NOT!!!

Yes, YES I AM!!! 🙂

Drawing is something that has always scared the heebie-geebies out of me!! It just seems like it is something that only “talented” people can do, so I have always kind of either avoided it, or done all my drawing in secret and then quickly throw it away before anyone could happen upon it and make fun of me for my lack of natural skill!!

The fact that I want to be an actual-true-real-live-artist has finally won over this fear, and I have been learning to take baby steps into the foray that is drawing! For me, that means I have started with doodling!

DOODLING??? That is NOT drawing!!!

Ah-Hah!! Oh contraire!!

Doodling IS a precursor to drawing, because you have to get both your brain and your hands used to the motions, the movements of creating a swirl, a dash, a dart, an upside down heart or arrow, a swoop, a curl, a box, a zig, and even a zag! You have to be comfortable with those motions before you can move on to more difficult (well, at least what I perceive to be more difficult) things such as actually drawing something that is recognizable to the human eye!

I thought in honor of my taking new baby steps, such as doodling, I would share with you some of my progress, and give you a peek into my sketchbook! This is not a fancy smanzy sketchbook, but rather an inexpensive, spiral-bound, pad of paper that I am trying to take with me wherever I go, so that I can sketch whenever I get a free minute!! I am working on keeping my creativity muscles firing!! 🙂

I hope you enjoy!! 🙂

Here is to a very DOODLY kind of day!! 🙂

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

Beautiful Creatives

Empowering your juicy life!

Category Archives: Creativity

My First Ever Weekly Art Journal Video!

“Get quiet so you can hear what I am trying to tell you!”

“Don’t be afraid of silence,

for that is where you will find your voice.”

~Chrissie

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

Weekly Art Journal Page Video Series!

Here is this week’s Art Journal Video info!

Living a life that is bigger than just me.

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

Turning Something Old Into Something New!

Living Your Life NOW!

She Did It Anyway!

A New Toy!

Adventures in Photography!

Artsist Spotlight: Heather Hansen!

Girls’ Night In – Getting Arty!

A Peek In My Sketchbook!