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Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

An Unsual Approach To Art And Visual Journals

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

My parents gave me my first journal (for writing in) for Christmas just after I turned 8. Below on the left is my first entry. Feel free to click on the photo, then hit “All Sizes” so you can enjoy the random thoughts of an 8-year-old Noell. The second one is the first entry of my 9th journal, just before turning 15, at a time when I prefaced most adjectives with the word, “like.”

My Childhood Journals

I continued exploring my thoughts in journals through college. I have something like 25 separate books. Now I scrapbook and enjoy a more flexible and artistic approach to recording my thoughts and experiences.

Last year, I took a class from Dina Wakley on Visual Journals. I’ve said before that I never learned anything in any of the scrapbooking classes I’ve taken. Dina’s class isn’t a scrapbooking class. It’s more like an art-experimentation class, and I did learn from her. She gave me some great inspiration to expand on my scrapbooking and explore something more artistic in nature. It is because of her that I started my art and visual journals.

What are Art Journals and Visual Journals?

They’re whatever you want them to be.

The Show

Personally, I see my spiral art books as my “art journals.” They are my place to play with artistic methods–drawing, painting, collaging, etc. I think of my visual journal pages as any visual piece I complete (that is different from a standard scrapbook page) that expresses something I think about. If I made something in one of my art journals that is self-expressive, or that can be used on a self-expressive page, I tear/cut it out to put into my visual journal, or to add it to a visual journaling page. I also add some of my art journal pieces to scrapbooking pages.

Mushrooms

Above is a piece in my art journal. Because there is something personal behind the two mushrooms, there is a possibility that, once I finish it, I may choose to put it in my visual journal. If I don’t go in that more personal direction, I will either keep it in my art journal, or put it with a series of artistic pieces about mushrooms.

I like to use a variety of bases for my visual journal pages. Sometimes they come from my small art journal, like the piece above called, The Show. Other times they come from a piece in my larger art journal, like this one I showed in this week’s video tutorial:

You Learn

After experimenting with some Glimmer Mist and some mesh as a mask on a couple pages of my larger art journal, I decided to use this one as the foundation for an introspective piece with lyrics from Alanis Morissette’s song, You Learn. This song has always thrilled me because it so expresses my view of life.

As opposed to playing the artist, there are times that I just want to capture my thoughts or feelings with a photo and my words. Here is one I did the day I pulled my bicycle out of the garage for the first time after a hot summer:

Dear Bicycle

Obviously, this didn’t come from my art journal. I could turn it into a scrapbook page. But for now, I think I might want to leave it as is as and include it with my other visual journal pieces.

Sometimes I just want to do some art, and then partway through I find myself personalizing it. Here’s another example of that…

Modern Dance

While making this piece, I was aware of how even photographs of modern dance thrill me beyond almost anything else. I decided to pull it out of my large art journal and make it into something about my love for the dance.

At some point I will bind these journal pages together into a home-made book, which makes my approach to visual journaling a little different. I like the flexibility of that idea.

Meet Dina Live

Are you interested in learning more about Art and Visual Journals? Join me on Tuesday at 6:30pm PST for Paperclipping Live because Dina Wakley will be my guest–not a call-in guest, but a real live guest with me in my scraproom. She’ll share some of her journals, tell how she got started doing it herself, and how it has influenced her scrapbooking. She’ll also tell you about the online class she will be teaching later in the month.

I am so glad I took her class. I love being able to explore my psyche and my art all at the same time, with no obligation to make something perfect. Plus, it’s an exercise that reminds us that storytelling doesn’t only happen through words.

Posted in Altered Projects, Art, Books, Creativity, Journaling, Scrapbooking | Comments

Paperclipping 58 – Glimmer Mist

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Paperclipping 58 - Glimmer Mist

Have you tried Glimmer Mist? It’s gorgeous, fun, artistic, and easy to use. In this episode I show you a number of examples of masking techniques with Glimmer Mist.

Show notes for this episode are also available.

Below are the projects you from the video…

To see enlarged images, click on each image, and then click the All Sizes button at the top of the photo.

Posted in Art, Craft, Design, Instructions, Lesson, Podcast, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, Tutorial, Vidcast, Video Podcast, Vlog, Vodcast | Comments

3 Ways To Scrap Your Daily Life

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Are some of you still struggling with the idea of scrapbooking about yourself? If so, I have an easy topic to start you off: make an account of your day. Here are three very different versions of this concept…

1) Record Your Activities For The Day

Over-Inflated
12×12

I took my camera around with me one day and snapped just a few pictures. I also recorded all of my activities and their times.

A grid-type layout is a simple solution for this type of page, but if you’re feeling artsy, consider a free-style approach. I gave a step-by-step tutorial on how to make this background to the Premium Subscribers.

Main journaling reads: I must have an over-inflated sense of how much I can accomplish in 24 hours. My to-do list is always too long and I never come close to checking all the items off, even though I really pack it all in as tight as I can.

Journaling in the cloud-like spots: (a schedule of everything I did one day–same day as the pictures).

***A note on acidity: I am pretty sure tissue paper is highly acidic. I would never use it on a layout with old photos, or any I can’t reprint. On the other hand, I have no problem using modern photos, such as the ones on this layout. Since there are so many pictures of myself and my children that are on safer papers, and since I back up my digital photos, I won’t mind if photos like these reach an early demise.

2) Summarize A Typical Day

5am To 5pm
12×12

Whether you work full time or stay at home, some of us have a typical schedule. This was my regular Monday schedule last year. Instead of listing the schedule with words and times, I placed pictures (and a few words) onto the clock according to the time I did them.

The day starts at 5am and circles all the way around and ends at 5pm.

Note: I elevated some of the circles with foam dots and some with a double layer of foam dots. This is great for dimension.

3) Take A Photo An Hour

Semi-Transparent Acrylic Mini-book
2-28-08

Some of you may remember when I took the challenge from Illustrating Stories to take a photo every hour for one day. I decided to turn this project into a minibook. Each hour and it’s picture gets their own page. The tabs tell what time it was when I snapped the photo. I will share the entire minibook soon. This is a sneak peek.

There are so many ways to document an average or typical (or even an atypical) day: lots of words, lots of photos, on a layout or in a mini-book. If you struggle to get comfortable scrapbooking about yourself, this concept is an easy non-threatening one. What are you waiting for?

Posted in Album Covers, Art, Journaling, Minibooks, Photography, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking | Comments

Paperclipping 57 – Tissue Paper Background

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Paperclipping 57 - Tissue Paper Background

A few weeks ago we had a digital, Photoshop-based tutorial. So for this week’s tutorial for the Premium Subscribers, I thought it was time to do something artsy and carefree. I hope you enjoy this step-by-step tutorial with items from your home.

You can learn more about the Premium Subscription, and how to get access to videos like this one, by visiting the Membership Information Page.

Posted in Art, Craft, Creativity, Instructions, Lesson, Podcast, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, Tutorial, Vidcast, Video Podcast, Vlog, Vodcast | Comments

Is The Schoolwork Flooding In?

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

My latest Schoolwork Scrapbook–photos of the inside pages still to come.

Many of you have the Schoolwork Scrapbook Tutorial and have already used it to make your children a book that displays some of their work and art. Others of you are planning to make your first books at the end of this school year. But do you know what to do with all that stuff your child is bringing home now?

The Problem

Originally, I had a high-quality file folder for each of my children to keep their work in while the year is progressing. I found that not only did everything not fit into my folders, but they were too much trouble to deal with when I was in a hurry cleaning up, and instead of putting stuff in them, I ended up stacking all three of my kids’ work together in the cabinet on top of the fie folders. This was much easier for me, throughout the year. But when the school year was over there was a little confusion sometimes as to whose work was whose.

The Solution

At the end of the summer I held a live event for those who own the tutorial, and one of the geniuses in the audience shared a wonderful idea. (Terri, was that you???). She suggested using those giant zip-lock bags that many scrapbooking kits come in.

I started doing it this year and it’s working out perfectly for me. They’re easy to open, easy to label, and a great size. If you’re swimming in school and art work already, you might want to try this.

What Is The Schoolwork Scrapbook?

For those who are unfamiliar with my Schoolwork Scrapbook and the special edition tutorial that gives you step-by-step instructions, you can find out about it and see detailed pictures by following this link.

Posted in Album Covers, Altered Projects, Art, Instructions, Minibooks, School, Scrapbooking | Comments

This Week At Paperclipping

Monday, September 15th, 2008

This Week’s Video Tutorial

We have a free episode that is almost ready to post and it will be up soon!

Back-To-School

Is there anyone else that still hasn’t started or finished their back-to-school layouts? We’ll end the series this week after a few more posts. I hope this series has helped you identify how to make pages repeating events more meaningful and more enjoyable.

New series: Reclaim Yourself

I am someone who loves, adores–thrives on–having lots of time alone. Yes, I am very social, but I have also always needed to have a lot of time to myself and my attention-demanding thoughts.

When I was younger I could shut away the world and go to my room for hours at a time. When I got my first car I loved to take long rides down winding Kansas roads and fed off the eerie feeling of being totally isolated with a horizon that seemed to stretch to eternity.

Then I had kids.

Almost eleven years later, all three of my children are in full-day school, and I am once again enjoying long stretches of quiet, wonderful, alone time. Last week I took advantage of the chance to tell some of my own stories and explore my more artistic side. And that will be the focus of the next series.

Toward the end of the week, we will begin a “Reclaim Yourself” series. Not only will we scrapbooking layouts about ourselves, but we’ll dig into some art, as well. I am so excited for this and I have enough content that we could take it way into October, so I’ll probably have to save some of it for a different focus-on-the-self week.

Are you ready to pay attention to you?

Paperclipping Live

Even though we are technically still in the Back-To-School series, we’re going to kick off the Reclaim Yourself series on Tuesday night for Paperclipping Live. I will lead you through the beginning of a layout about YOU. To participate with me, you need to identify a story about yourself that you want to scrap. Be ready with a picture or a set of pictures. The photo(s) does not necessarily have to have you in it.

If you don’t already have any photos to work with, you might want to try one of the following:

1. Take a picture of yourself in your bathroom mirror.
2. Take a picture of your {insert modest body part here}.
3. Crop yourself out of a group photo.
4. If your story is about something you typically do or enjoy, take a picture of an object with which you do that activity.
5. Set your camera up with the timer and take a picture of yourself in action. This involves some trial and error, but it’s fun.

Here is an example of each of those (in the same order)…

For our live event, you do not need to choose paper ahead of time because choosing will be part of our process during the show. Just have your papers and products easily accessible, if possible. You will probably also need scratch paper and a pencil or pen to make notes.

We will not take a layout to completion. The point of this Paperclipping Live is to get you to go inside yourself and analyze what colors, patterns, or other visuals, will help you create the feeling you have about your story or layout theme. We’ll be focusing on the process of preparing the layout, but won’t necessarily finish it during the show.

We’ll also be depending a lot on chat-participation, so please register and be ready to share! The show starts at 6:30 pm, PST, on Tuesday night. Click here at that time to participate.

The Paperclipping Challenge

Don’t forget that we now have monthly challenges to help you use the principles and techniques we discussed the month before. Some of you have uploaded your layouts and projects to our Flickr gallery. Others of you are still working. If you haven’t started anything, there is still time. You must post your layout by the end of the day on September 23. That’s a whole week away.

I will choose one person who I think most exemplified their chosen topic and highlight them on the Paperclipping blog. Maybe that will be you? =)

You can read the details of the challenge by clicking here.

Posted in Art, Live Show, Live Streaming, Photography, Scrapbooking, Updates | Comments

How To Make A Vacation Scrapbook: Steps 2 & 3

Friday, August 15th, 2008

This week and next we are turning photos and memories of one of our trips into a visual memoir using my step-by-step process to keep it meaningful and prevent overwhelm. If you missed Step 1, be sure to go back and read that first.

Step 2: Get Your Photos Out Onto The Table

This step is not about organizing. It is about connecting and catching the vision.
Take this time to go through each photo so you can put yourself back into the vacation frame of mind. What did it feel like to be there?

Your photos are probably already in the chronological order of the trip and grouped by smaller events and activities. As you do go through the photos to lay them on your table, proceed with these steps:

1. Keep groups of photos together in loose piles so you can still see at least a part of each photo.

2. Lay piles close together so that you have a choice of seeing them in their various groupings or seeing them as a part of a whole.

Doing it this way allows you to keep the artistic, story-connecting part of your brain working, as opposed to the linear, organizing part. By seeing all the pictures together, you will be able to identify stories that go beyond the events.

For example, seeing pictures of my sister with her family and different points in the trip led me to the idea of telling the story of being at Disneyland with my big sister and little brother again. Had I kept my photos in a linear and organized manner, I might never have thought of that angle, which is part of the most important aspect of this trip for me.

Step 3: Organize the stories with their supporting photos and separate them into piles.

1. While looking at your photos scattered all over the table, identify the stories that pop into your head and begin writing the dominant idea of each story onto a note card. My note cards say things like, “Family & Faces–who we were with,” “Enjoying the scenery–just as enjoyable as the rides,” “Mom & Me,” “Splash Mountain-The big people and tiny little Sidney.”

Make sure you jot down a note for all the stories that come to mind, even if you have no photos to support them.

2. Match stories to photos. Sometimes this means pulling photos out of their event grouping to use it for a different subject.

At this point, we are only partially turning ourselves over to the organizational parts of our brains. There is no need to put these into a fixed order yet. You can still leave the piles in a haphazard manner on the table, allowing your mind to stay within it’s artistic play area of the brain. Or if you need to put them away, you can stack them in any order with your story note cards in between each stack of supporting photos.

What Is The Story?

You’ve now written down the individual stories. You’ve connected with your memories and made connections between photos you might have separated before. Is there an overall story or theme that is starting to creep out?

If there are any words or ideas running through your mind, begin writing them down. You can brainstorm or make a word map. However you do it, have a place to collect these thoughts so you don’t lose them. If you’re able to solidify a theme at this point, that is great! If you’re still trying to work it out, that’s okay, too. The next step might help you out…

Stay tuned for Step 4 as we proceed to turn our memories into memoirs.

* * *

Your assignment for today is to complete the two bolded instructions under each of the steps above.

Tags: vacations
Posted in Art, Creativity, Holidays, Instructions, Journaling, Lesson, Organization, Scrapbooking, Tutorial | Comments

Share Your Scraps With Your Children

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

No matter how good we are at using our scraps, if we do a lot of layouts, we’ll still end up with too many of them. Periodic purging is a good thing. One way to purge is to collect a pile to share with our children or grandchildren.

For The Artistically Inclined Child

My plan last week was to find some coloring book pages and teach my kids how to do mosaic art, using a coloring book drawing as the template. Since I was running low on time, I gave Trinity a bag of scraps and said, “You can have these. Why don’t you go do some art with them?”

No direction whatsoever.

Trinity came back a while later with the lovely picture above. How creative is that? I had no idea she’d make something so wonderful. This give-and-let-go method is perfect for artistic children who can get creative with almost anything. If your child is not so inclined, you may need to offer a little more guidance, like my mosaic idea.

For The Child Who Needs Direction

For the mosaic, have the child tear the scraps into small pieces. You may want to do it with him or her if that task seems tedious. Draw or choose a lined picture, and then fill in the empty spaces with the torn patterned pieces. Provide the child with some glue and a paint brush for adhering.

For Those With No Kids

You can still share your scraps with children, even if there aren’t any shorties in your own life. Offer your scraps to an elementary or preschool teacher. My son’s preschool artwork last year was often made with scraps of paper.

Yesterday I commented on all those wonderful forgotten patterns we find while looking through our scraps. Aren’t there also other patterns in there that turn you off? Negative vibes during creative time are not a good thing.

If you find yourself cringing at certain scraps in your stash, turn them over to a little person who may have something really cool to do with them. If your pile is so big that it’s hard to look through, share the abundance with your child or grandchild and watch their imagination go to work.

Posted in Art, Creativity, Scrapbooking | Comments

Paperclipping Live Announcements

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

Last Week

It was a fun change of pace to have Liz and Jackie as call-in guests on Paperclipping Live last week. I know it was hard for you to see their projects in that little tiny corner window, but fortunately, they posted them on their own website, IllustratingStories.com and you can see them here.

Both techniques came from the book, Lifelines. They look really cool and really fun, so I’m excited to try them some time.

This Week

This coming Tuesday night I’ll be working on an acrylic album. The album will feature all those pictures I took when Liz and Jackie challenged their readers to take a photo an hour for a whole day.

If you’re interested in making a similar album, read about the challenge here so you can have your photos ready to work on during the show. I’m using a semi-clear album by Maya Road and I printed my photos in wallet-size.

Don’t forget: Paperclipping Live is Tuesday night at 6:30pm, PST.

If you’re unsure of the time zone difference, look for your city on this website and then compare it to my city, which is Phoenix.

Remember to register for Skype (it’s free) if you’d like to call into the show to ask a question or share something cool.

Posted in Art, Books, Craft, Live Show, Live Streaming, Scrapbooking | Comments

Technique Time: Distress Embossing Powder, Up Close

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

As a follow-up from yesterday’s video tutorial, we’re going to look at some more examples using Tim Holtz’s Distress Embossing Powder with products that need a color adjustment or new life.

Felt

First let’s start with a closeup of the felt you saw in the video yesterday.

In the photo above you can see both the original felt piece, along with the altered piece. Click on the photo, then “all sizes” to get a good look at the color variation.

Coasters

I have these coasters that I bought a few years ago; you can see them on the left of the picture below. If we can alter unloved books and bare albums, we can alter a scrapbook coaster, right?

To do this you need:
coaster
paper bag
PVA glue
Sandpaper
a smaller circular design (I used a Maya Road rub-on)
letters (I used Heidi Swapp’s Rub-on letters)
Tim Holt’s Distress Embossing Powder
Versamark Ink
Heat Tool

1) Brush the coaster with PVA. 2) Adhere a piece of the paperbag to coaster and let dry. 3) Cut away excess paper bag and sand edges. 3) Press edges into Versamark Ink and dip into Distress Embossing Powder. 4) Heat with heat tool and then rub with your finger. The powder contains release crystals that will aid in the distressing look. You don’t need to do this on the felt. 5) Add rub-ons after embossing (or you’ll burn away your rub-on’s).

Wings

This is a fun technique where we get to combine the Distress Embossing Powder with another of our favorite products, Stickles, for a magical look.

I had a scrap of paper from My Mind’s Eye with these wings chopped off of a dragon fly. I cut it out, added a dark brown shade of Distress Embossing Powder around the edges for some three-dimensionality. Then added a sparse amount of Diamond Stickles for an iridescent-look you often see in real insect wings.

What can you do with some of your leftover scrapbook pieces? Unless you’ve only just begun scrapbooking, there are probably all kinds of things you can do with your stash to meet all your needs.

Posted in Album Covers, Altered Projects, Art, Lesson, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, Tutorial, Vidcast, Video Podcast, Vlog, Vodcast, color | Comments

2 Tips for Quick Layouts

Friday, May 9th, 2008

A layout doesn’t have to look like you did it quickly in order for it to actually be a quick one. Below are a couple strategies for interesting layouts that aren’t actually as involved as you’d think.

Choose paper that designs for you.

The one piece of paper I used for the layout above has pattern (the visual texture in the background color and the repetition of stems) and embellishments (flowers) built in for you.

The white space above the flowers is the obvious place to put your photos and journaling. The manufacturer has already made most of the decisions for you and it’s up to you how much more detail you want to add.

Enhance With Stickles

Is it obvious that Stickles by Ranger are on my current favorites list? After two different podcast episodes I still can’t stop telling you the numerous virtues of Stickles. Below are two more I haven’t mentioned yet.

1. Stickles add a lot of pizzaz with little effort.
The glitter glue is so easy to apply that you can zip around the layout, quickly covering all the areas you want. The real trick is telling yourself when it’s time to stop.

It’s also very forgivable if you go out of the lines which means you don’t have to be slow and cautious.

2. Stickles requires no clean up!
That’s my favorite part, since I’m horrible when it comes to cleaning up after using paint, stamps, loose glitter, or embossing. You get the amazing look and pleasure of something you’d expect to be messy without doing any more than to replace the cap.

When there’s no time for labor-intensive layouts, don’t feel you have to sacrifice intricacy for speed. Scrapbook designers can do much of your work for you, while Stickles glitter glue will make a flashy impact with little effort.

Posted in Art, Design, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking | Comments

Paperclipping 42 – More On Stickles

Monday, May 5th, 2008

One final gift from National Scrapbook Day…a second free episode in a row. Next week will be a Member’s Only one.

You can watch the video here.

We also have show notes.

Posted in Altered Projects, Art, Lesson, Podcast, Scrapbooking, Tutorial, Uncategorized, Vidcast, Video Podcast, Vlog, Vodcast | Comments

Challenge Yourself For National Scrapbook Day

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Below are seven different challenges for National Scrapbook Day. You do not have to do all of them. I wanted to offer a variety of options so you can choose the ones that best suit you. The more you do, the better your chances of winning. You may repeat the same challenge.

You do not have to be present at the live event to participate in the challenges. I will give out some prizes during the live event to those who are present in the chat. I will award other prizes on the blog on Sunday based on the challenges below.

For each layout or project you upload to flickr, which you must base on one of the following challenges, you will be entered in a drawing for prizes. You have until the end of Saturday to upload your layouts. In the description, please tell us which challenge you used. I will choose randomly from these layouts for the final drawings.

Please do not enter layouts you completed before reading this entry. It’s okay to finish a layout or project you already started as long as you implement one of these challenges.

Challenges:

1. Create a layout or other project using a principle from any one of the Paperclipping Video Tutorials (links are at the right). Upload your layout to flickr. In the description, please share which video you used and how.

2. Recycle an item from your life by incorporating it into the design of your layout. Upload your layout to flickr and tell us what the item is in your description.

3. Begin a mini-book. Choose the photos and a theme. Gather papers, then embellishments, that reflect the theme. Put it all in a pile and photograph it. Upload your photo to flickr and in the description tell us how the products reflect the theme of the mini-book you will be putting together.

4. Words aren’t the only way to tell a story. Make a layout that uses something visual to help tell your story on a layout. Upload your layout to flickr and share with us what visual element you used on your page to communicate an idea or emotion.

5. Use your wonderful scraps. Make a layout that uses at least 3 different scraps of patterned paper. Upload the layout to flickr.

6. Design a layout in this order:
a. Choose the photos.
b. Write journaling on some scrap paper or make notes of the emotion or tone.
c. If you have more than one photo, choose a focal point photo (unless it’s a collage where all photos are equal).
d. Decide approximate photo placement. (Don’t freak out here…you’re free to change your mind at any time).
e. Based on where you think you’ll place your photo, choose paper size and pick your background paper.
f. Choose other papers with colors and/or patterns that remind you of the tone of your layout’s story.
g. Design your layout with the photos, papers, journaling, title. Tape everything down.
h. Add your embellishments last.

7. Design a layout where you cluster at least three embellishments around a title, a photo, or a line.

I will come back tomorrow with a link to the new Paperclipping Flickr Group. You can see the schedule for the three different live events here.

Posted in Altered Projects, Art, Craft, Creativity, Design, Holidays, Journaling, Live Show, Live Streaming, Minibooks, Scrapbook-Layout, Scrapbooking, color | Comments

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