A Year of Color...

http://kari-ayearofcolor2.blogspot.com
I love this blog, I told several of my friends about it and they imediately joined, so I thought I would share it with you too. It is not free like most blogs but is very low cost. It is $1 a month paid for all at one time through Paypal.If you join you get all the prior entries for the year so you don't miss anyting joining late. It is just filled with great photos, tutorials from top designers, project swaps and my favorite: a monthly atc swap! Many of the entries remind me of on-line classes I have taken, stressing composition, color theory, design elements and technique. This month the theme is stripes and our guest designer is Cassondra Walters, she is a found object assemblage artist.Her 3-D collages are amazing. I am always pleased with each segment of A Year of Color and usually return to it several times a day for inspiration and just to enjoy the beautiful imagery. If you are interested please contact Kari at the above blogspot.

Journaling and The One Minute Muse!

This site offers some fun, quick ideas for getting started with Art Journaling. It seems to be the current rage. Everyone is making art journals but many, like me are coming up short on what to fill the pages with once the journal is complete. My journal is a 20" by 14" leger my friend Beth gave me. Not to be outdone, it has a mere 340 pages, however, I have only completed a mere 10 pages. Those of you who know me, know I like to work small, very small like in inchie and atc sized art so this is quite a strech for me. I am actually finding the large size gives me permission to be less percise and more free in my entries. Now my daughter's are asking if they can do a page in my "Big Book" journal...I don't know, I am still thinking about it!

Scrapbook Stores and Kindred Spirits

I lived in Fremont for close to 15 years before I met another artist. I met plenty of mom's with children the same age as mine, mom's at soccer, baseball, gymnastics, the list goes on and on. Then one day I walked into a small scrapbook store, one of the few remaining at this particular time in history. I signed up for a journal making class with a teacher named Traci Bautista, then a little known local artist. Wow,I couldn't believe it, a class full of women painting, drawing, stamping and coloring paper. I was home! From then on I took more classes and met more people, some crafters, some scrapbookers and some artists. Many became friends, some created art groups, some taught but most importantly, all loved to create!
And now as I reflect on the closing of another local scrapbook store. I am saddened by the closing of the store but mostly by the loss of yet another place where the creative gather to inspire, laugh and yes, create. Fortunatly for me I have a rather large collection of names, numbers and emails that I can call to propose an artist's gatering, get a list of upcoming workshops, borrow paint or paper and most importantly: be inspired! Although I was never much of a scrapbooker in the literal sense, I started this inchie, atc, Moo card, book altering, vintage collecting journey... in a scrapbook store. I will always be grateful to the store owners who made this possible. Special thanks to Monica, Sherri, Laurie and Suzy for being the source of such inspiration and the meeting place of so many kindred spirits!