I had gotten a Rolodex while I was working at a hospital a few years ago, and I had no idea what to do with it after our bosses gave us the a-okay to toss them out. I decided there had to be a way to get arty with them, and so I had saved them up (a few of my co-workers gave me theirs), and they have been in my art stash waiting for something to be done with them! Well, last Summer, I finally got out my Rolodex goodies out of the mothballs and I finally started to play with them! Well, for the most part I primarily got jiggy with creating some fun and colorful backgrounds! Something I have had a little bit of practice at.
Today was the day that I finally pulled them out again and decided to take a handful of Rolodex cards out and see them come to completion!
I had an entire mess of my art stash out and at the ready for playing with! I will see if I can list all of the supplies that I actually had used:
UHU Glue Stick
Stabilo Marksall Pencils: green, blue, orange, and brown
A bunch of small pics – most of which were either printed by FreePrints.com or I printed them myself using my Selfie Printer.
Scissors
Fiskars paper cutter
Aleene’s Quick Grab Tacky Glue
Words printed out on regular printer paper, using my home printer
Signo Broad Ink pen; White, and Black
Die cuts
Tim Holtz People cut outs
Washi tape
Hole punch
Mini paper doily
I hope I did not miss anything!
I seriously had such a fun time making these cards. I am seriously considering making this a more frequent visitor in my weekly video catalog!!
I hope that this video has inspired you to go find your own Rolodex (they can be easily found in most thrift stores), and get to playing on your own Creative Rolodex Truth Cards!
As always, if you have any questions, please let me know down in the comments section, I am always happy to be of help! Also, please let me know if you do decide to do a spread like this, what song would you choose to use?
I am very happy to announce that my Weekly Art Journal #11 video has posted out on YouTube!
The supplies I used on this week’s layout is as follows:
#2 pencil
A couple of different kinds of erasers
Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Tissue Paper – Postale
Uhu Glue Stick
DecoArt Acrylic Craft Paint: Tropical Blue (DCA102)
Premier Prismacolor Pencils: Sepia (948), Burnt Ochre (943), Dark Brown (946), Peach (939), Beige (997), Yellow Ochre (942), White (938), Greyed Lavender (1026), Blush Pink (928), Lavender (934), Process Red (994)
Black Fude Ball 1.5
Black Uniball Signo 207 pen
Ranger Distress Stains: Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, Black Soot
A scrap of map paper
Faber Castell Gelato: Dark Green
Black Ranger Archival Ink Pad
Recollections Chevron Wood Mounted Stamp
Plastic doily stencil
Ranger Texture Paste
Palette Knife
Sentiment printed out on regular printer paper
Brown Stabilo All Pencil
Water Brush
Unlike most of my weekly journal pages, I started out with an idea on how I wanted this week’s spread to appear. I knew that I wanted to draw one of my cute long neck girls, I wanted to use the Ranger Postale tissue paper, I wanted to use my favorite Tropical Blue craft paint, and I knew that I wanted to use my new Ranger texture paste!
So the hard part was just going to be drawing my long neck girl, in it’s entirety, in front of the camera, so I challenged myself to see if I could keep the camera going the entire time, and not cut away, like I had done the last time I drew one of my girls for Art Journal Thursday. And you know what??? I TOTALLY DID IT!!! WHOOT! WHOOT!!! 😉
I was extremely proud of myself that I didn’t chicken out and cutaway, but because I didn’t, it made for a very, very, VERY LOOONG video!! EEK!! So although I thought that the drawing of my long neck girl would be the hardest part, the hardest part actually turned out to be editing my video down to less than 15 minutes! WHEW!! 😉
That combined with doing the voiceover, which you may know I am extremely new to, this was probably my hardest video to date, but I must confess I really LOVE the way this spread turned out! 🙂
During filming, I did have some issues while drawing my long neck girl! Eyes are always rather tricky for me, and this week I see that her left eye is too far left for my liking, so I will have to keep working on that! I also had some trouble getting her lips to look just right! I have recently changed how I draw lips, and I think it is not working for me. I had better keep looking for a whimsical lip shape that makes me happy! 🙂
Practice! Practice! Practice!
As for the background, I really LOVE this one! 🙂 The tissue paper, the messy chevron stamping, and the texture paste used throughout the round doily stencil all came together better than I could have hoped for!!! I am just LOVING all of the yummy patterns and textures!! 🙂
I also love that I snuck the word “Courage” onto my long neck girl’s neck! Courage is something that I am consciously working on using more of, so this will be a gentle reminder to myself!! 😉
As for this week’s sentiment, as I have said in past posts, I usually have a tendency to do my art journal pages in silence so I can hear any messages my soul might be trying to tell me. This week was no different. I have some hard choices to make in the next few weeks as it pertains to work, and I realized, during this week’s art journal time, that I have a distinct vision in my head about what I want to see in my life. Where I am living, what I am doing for a vocation, etc, and I realize that I am the only one who can take the necessary steps to make that vision come to fruition!
Life is not about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself, and not only that, but it is up to me to get out there and start creating it!! No one is going to do it for me!! So this sentiment summed that up for me, perfectly!! 🙂
So, what do you think? I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this week’s art journal!
Also, if you have any ideas, or techniques that you might like to see me try in one of my future layouts, please let me know in the comment section and I will see what I can do to be accommodating! Also, I really do LOVE answering any questions you may have about art journaling, mixed-media, or anything you might have seen me do here! Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, and I will try and get back to you in a timely manner!!
Until next time!
Here is to a BEAUTIFULLY CREATIVE week! 😉
If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!
“A day at a time, a walk at a time, even a simple step at a time, my sad and tangled life began to sort itself. I say sort itself because all I did was “walk through it.” I have been walking ever since.”
~Julia Cameron
This quote has really resonated with me this week. You see, I have always been a bit of a walker – that is until the last 6 months. I am not sure why, but I just kind of stopped. No real reason…just stopped. now don’t get me wrong, I still walk a lot, to get to meetings, go to lunch, to find my car, but it is not the same as walking on purpose – with a purpose. For me that means to walk with no other intention but to get out into the fresh air, while enjoying nature and raising your heartbeat so you can listen to your inner voice. That is what I had given up! It was one way that I listened to my soul, and what it was trying to tell me.
Well, this past week, I have taken up walking again. On purpose. With no other intention but just to get my booty out of the house and spend some time with my inner thoughts while out in nature! Simple. Simple, yet oh so gratifying!! 😉
The benefits I have discovered for walking:
Walking clears my head, especially if I am suffering from artist’s block! New ideas seem to just find me while I am walking.
Walking alleviates anger and frustration! Things that are stressing me out just doesn’t seem as important after a long walk.
Walking gives me the chance to change my perspective! I have a tendency to get channeled the finite details of things, and sometimes I really need to step back and see the big picture – walking does that for me!
Walking really energizes me! If I take a 30 minute walk, I find I have way more energy then when I first started out!
Walking helps me get a good nights sleep! If I take a long walk, like 45 minutes or more, I sleep like a log!! That is a GREAT feeling especially to someone like me, who has a tendency to be an insomniac!
Walking really makes your legs look good, and if you take large enough strides, your booty gets a nice toning too! ALWAYS DESIRABLE!!! 😉
Walking is a peacekeeper! If my sweetie and I are arguing or disagreeing about something, we can just take a walk together, and the energy we expend walking helps deflate the sales of whatever it is we are arguing about. Again – maybe this one fits under the changing of perspective benefit!
Walking is a problem solver! When I am struggling with a decision, especially when I have more than one option at my disposal, walking helps me get focused and come up with my solution AKA make that decision!
I am sure that I have many many more positives to say about walking, but this is what I am able to come up with at the moment!!
My Take Action Challenge for you this week:
Get outside, into nature and start walking!! 10 to 15 minutes if that is all you can muster, but I highly recommend 30 minutes or more every day, ON PURPOSE!! Take note of how this one simple step changes things in your life this week! You just might be pleasantly surprised, and might even want to make this one of your life habits!!!
Here is to a FABULOUSLY ARTSY evening! 😉
If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!
I am so excited to let you know that tonight I am doing my very first monthly giveaway! However, before I get to that I wanted to share tonight’s inspiration thought! 🙂
“Why should we all use our creative power…? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.”
I am so very excited that this is my first ever blog hop!! YEAH!!! 😉
Are you an artist, or an artist at heart? Would you like to have a way to share your art with the world??? Me too, and that is why I am starting Artsy Blog Hop Thursdays!! Join me and other artists every Thursday evening as we paint, photograph, collage, crochet, write, draw, sketch, doodle, bead, knit, sculpt, cross-stitch, make fancy mud pies, or whatever your chosen artsy medium is to your heart’s content! You can make your art as personalized as you wish.
With every weekly Artsy Blog Hop Thursday Post I’ll suggest a topic for the following Thursday, and each weekly post will have a linky widget so we can visits each others masterpieces with ease.
Sounds like fun?
Give it a try, you know you want to!!!
If you have any questions please let me know and I will do my best to get you an answer. Please remember we are learning this together! If you would like to leave a topic of the week suggestion, please feel free to do that too, in the comment section of this post!!
Happy Arting!!
Since this is our first week, and you are getting almost no notice, the topic for this week is…well… you can pick the topic for yourself!! 😉
Good morning! I did my weigh in this morning and am up .2 pounds from yesterday, which is frustrating because the weight was falling off so quickly before, and now it seems to be inching up a little every day. UGH! I am not really sure what adjustments to make – I am counting every calorie, exercising more, stress level is down, and I am making sleep more of a priority – I am not sure what else to do. I pray for wisdom in this area, because I am a little stumped! I just don’t want to have weight loss surgery! I want to know that I did this without such invasive medical intervention!
Anyway, I am loving taking the time to tap into my creativity every day! It has really taken the edge off of my sometimes stressful life.
Also, I have started, along with my partner at work, Chris, walking through the Willamette University campus for about 45 minutes every day. Willamette University has such an electric and creative feeling atmosphere – that feeling is VERY CONTAGIOUS! When I was in both Junior and Senior high schools, I had always dreamed about going to Willamette. It has always been so prestigious and the grounds are both stunning and architecturally MAGNIFICENT! I just wanted, and maybe still do, to be a part of that school’s history! Well, for now, I will just have to be satisfied with my daily walks!
Can I confide in you? I am having a health issue and normally I would let it go, but this issues has really become a problem. The thing is, is that I am menstruating seemingly all the time, which can really make it difficult to feel normal, not to mention clean and absolutely un-GROSS! My mom had a total hysterectomy at 32, I think, and here I am at 35. My doctor suggests getting a DNC done, which she warns will be very painful! I have ALWAYS been a BIG BABY when it comes to pain! A DNC is basically where they go in and scrape out the lining of your uterus! SHUDDER!! That sounds HORRIBLE!!! I think my hesitation, besides the pain, is that I hear that it can make it more difficult to get pregnant; like we need ANYMORE issues in that area of our lives! My husband and I have been together for 16 years and we have NEVER even gotten pregnant. That is REALLY rough because I have always known that I was born to become a mom, and Jason would make a FABULOUS daddy!! It is really hard to not be constantly jealous of my friends and family who have kids; ESPECIALLY those people who you come across in life who either ignore, or take their children completely for granted – that has been REALLY ROUGH! Anyway, one way or the other, I am going to have to get myself to my physician and get this issue taken care of, OR I will have no other choice but to invest in Kotex – since I may be SINGLE HANDEDLY keeping that company in business!!! LOL! 😉
Has anyone else ever had a DNC done? I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject in the comments above! Is it really as painful as I am thinking it is? Were you able to have children after having one done? Anything to help fill me in on the details would be EXTREMELY appreciated – thanks!!! 🙂
ON A SIDE NOTE: I hear that is supposed to be some kind of AMAZING show of shooting stars this evening! If the weather cooperates I will have to check it out!
