Cool Journals for practically nothing

I posted a journal making blog over at http://womansworldmagazine.blogspot.com/

The link to the post is http://womansworldmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/07/cool-journals-for-practically-nothing_10.html

Getting your creative energy rolling

I don’t have periods of what some may call “artist’s block”. For one thing I never call it that, I call those “moments of reflection or absorption” where I am digesting all I have learned in the past day, week, month, or year of creative materialization. A lot of times the block can come from the label itself. If I upload a bunch of stuff... I have to give it a moment to be found. It is the same in my head. After intense manifestation, I give it a chance to settle in.

Another thing is, I also just know that creativity is there, I don’t even give it another choice.
After a period of intense physical manifestation it can seem like I am “blocked” if I am not outputting “stuff”, but as an artist I can be creating and manifesting in the mental level all of the time. I also take note of these brain “sticky notes” and validate them by acknowledging them.

If I do have periods of not knowing where to go next, I refer to a journal of ideas. One way to start your creative journal is to make time or a date with yourself to create something.

I have to create and make things, I have done this so long that it is mostly second nature to me. It is how I roll, as my kids say.

It is what I have to do or die if I don't.

You might be the same, which is why you may be feeling frustrated , crazy, or bad about doing everyday stuff and putting it before creating. That everyday stuff has to be done too and it is balance that makes us feel good! It is in the balance that we are most healthy as human beings, body and soul. And everyday stuff can be creative too. Do it with your heart, and head!

Once you get the hang of this, you may have to schedule your everyday stuff. But be in the moment where ever you are at the time, feel it, notice the colors, hear the sounds and search for the feeling inside, stop listing everything over and over in your head.
Everyone has a different way, but in order to get you going, why not take 2 hours out of every week to sit down and do something, schedule it, make it a date with yourself or destiny!! We all have two hours somewhere, turn off the TV. Then through out the week before the date, think about it. Write it down in a "Me Journal" (a spiral notebook is great for this, and you can call it whatever you want) what you are going to do in your two hours. You have to do the two hours whether you have something planned or not, so you might as well embrace this to get you going. Part of the process is gathering the supplies, planning the card, the painting, or what ever you are going to make or create, making drawings of the idea, and write the feelings.

Make a day to do the two hours on. Every Thursday afternoon at 3:00PM, or AM if you are a vampire ;-) for instance, and commit to this, it is a date with you, for you, and your mental health. As Nike says "just do it".

This also gets you in the habit of taking time out to create, instead of piling life up in front of you all of the time. During the week before your date, you will have flashes of ideas or insights. Write those in a different section of your “me journal”, the idea section. If you have a dream about a design, you write it down and describe it all the way, notes about what it is and how to make it and how you will feel, and what you need to do it. Even during your two hour date, things will come to you. Write them down, they come in handy for the next "two hour date".

Even if it seems stupid, write it down. This is your book to use and share, so no one even has to see it. Hide it if it makes you feel better and safer, just write it down.

I have also found that this is a great thing to have, this journal, when in intense periods of making things or working for money. Which for me had the same effect on me as being in a desert period. At that time I was making lots of the same thing over and over again and it seemed that my creativity was starving for something new, fresh, and another color even. After doing this, lets say for the Christmas season, I, in January could not talk or even help my kids do anything. I just wanted to lay on the couch and sleep. This is why I say balance is healthy.

Battery was low, dangerously low.

It is good for unloading in too, keep track of, and stimulating the creative being that you are, because you are a creative being. Collect pictures, sayings, and anything that makes you feel and put in there.
We come from a long line of ancestor women that picked up mud and made things, it is genetic and feeding it makes you whole in oh so many ways!
I have found that I have more ideas than I can use and I am good problem solver, if I breathe! I don't understand some of what I write down later, but if my brain is uncluttered and in my journal, it is free to create and invent much more. I also find that I can not make enough time to create anymore, that is all I want to do and if I don't feel like creating anything at sometime, I am OK because I know more will come, always, and I have so many ideas in my journal there are no worries anyway.
Oh my goodness does the house suffer for this, now.

Gold/Silver Mixes

Here are the first of the gold and silver mixes and the results of those combo's.
I really like the gold/turquoise mix. But the Lemon/silver is pretty cool too!
The color is listed on the right, the first column of colors is the result of a 1 part to 1 part (1:1) mix of gold and the color listed.
The second column of chips is a 1 part to (1:1) part of silver Cernit to color.
I use a 1/2" round cutter to cut out a color rolled out on the thickest setting in the pasta machine. And then I cut out a round disk of gold or silver and mix the color and the gold or silver disk together to get the result, which I then roll out on the thickest setting and bake and then glue in to my journal to document the result of the color mix.
I use this journal to keep my color mixes and the recipes. This give me a general idea of where the color goes and how it looks after I bake it.
The part or 1/2" round disk can then be converted to other size parts, i.e, 1 disk= 1/4 block, or 1 disk= 1 full block, 2 ounces, or 1 disk= 1 large pound block. You will get the same results from all the sizes as parts listed.
You also bake these on a cardboard that has the color written on it and then the gold and silver colors at the top. My baking cardboard looks similar to the journal page.
I am always surprised with what I get from gold and silver.