spring

Welcome to Creative Spring

 

Hello there and welcome to Creative Spring! 

This is one of my favorite classes because springtime is such an beautiful time of year, full of fresh foods, flowers, and plants growing in the garden after a long winter.

I appreciate springtime even more now that I live in Berlin since winter is so dark here, and the arrival of spring means that the days get longer and there is much more light.

This session, we'll be celebrating our daily lives in simple, yet beautiful ways with creative projects, recipes, and working in our art journals - and we'll take special notice of our surroundings by taking outdoor walks together.

I love getting little glimpses into everyone's outdoor surroundings in our very international group. You are most welcome to join and share as well in our private Creative Seasons Facebook group.

We have a lovely Creative Spring group Pinterest board for added inspiration too! If you'd like to pin to our board, just let me know and I'll be happy to send you an invite.

 

 

I can't wait to see and share our springtime celebrations, recipes, and images from all over the world this spring. Your collaboration and feedback is what makes this course so special, and I thank you for being here.

Tomorrow I'll be giving you a sneak preview about what's coming up in Creative Spring, including a few of the creative projects, recipes, and other fun things we'll be making together over the next 3 weeks.

I look forward to this Creative Spring, and tomorrow morning I'll be posting our first Monday video and our first guest interview of the season, yoohoo!

Sending you glowing springtime hugs from Berlin,

xoxo

Stephanie

 

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim 

Check out this 40 second time lapse video made by Norwegian photographer Eirik Solheim documenting the changing of the seasons in one spot of the forest over the course of a year. This truly makes me appreciate the colorful show that nature puts on every season.

 

Handmade Portraits: DRKENNEDYJONES from Etsy 

I also love this video that Etsy made of collage artist Hollie Chastain, who is from Tennessee - like me :) I adore Hollie's artwork, and I interview Hollie in 30 Days of Collage. Her vintage inspired materials and process are unique and inspiring.

Enjoy + more tomorrow! xo 

  

Creative Spring: Monday Video #1

Creative Spring Video #1

 Welcome to Creative Spring!

To watch our video, please enter (or copy/paste) the password: creativespring

Hello there and thank you for joining us for Creative Spring!

To me, this course always feels like a gathering with an international circle of friends. I very much prefer this to a large anonymous group, don't you? Welcome to everyone and I'm very happy that you are here today.

I'm excited about our new session, and I have many fresh seasonal recipes, art journaling projects, DIY projects, photo walks, and 10 guest interviews to share with you this spring.

To get started, please watch or listen to my video today and get more details about our upcoming course. 

 

During the past months, I've been working on my 100 Days of Collage project. Some of you participated in our challenge too, and I enjoyed seeing your collages very much! You can see several examples of our work on Instagram under the hashtag #100daysofcollage.

For me, it was an interesting, new experience to work continually in the same medium with a definite goal of how many works I wanted to produce.

Now I feel ready to begin my next 100 days project, and I'd be delighted if you'd like to join me.

This time I'd prefer to do a walking + photography project, especially since I'd like to spend more time outside this spring.

I mentioned this idea in our Facebook group, and I'd love to hear more from you!

Would you be interested in 100 Days of Photo Walks? If so, what kinds of photo themes would interest you? 

Last year, we enjoyed weekly group photo walks with themes ranging from colors to typography to clouds and so on. 

Perhaps you have some ideas for photo walk themes that you'd like to share with us. It's so much fun to see your photo walks from all corners of the globe!

Also, I'd like to hear more about your springtime favorites today.

For instance, you could tell us about your springtime favorite quotes, colors, flowers, books, films, foods, memories, holidays, and/or crafty projects.

Your ideas will help us generate more projects for our seasonal art journals, and we'll have a new tutorial on Wednesday.

My own spring favorites include seeing the colorful flowers start to bloom, the birds returning, and Easter has become a fun time for me in Germany with many special recipes and artsy/crafty projects - which I'll be sharing with you later :)

Sharing and collaboration are the key to making this class interesting for us all, and I look forward to your comments + ideas.

You are welcome to share your spring favorites, your photo walk ideas, and other comments below - or join us for a lively discussion in our Creative Seasons Facebook group.

Thanks for your feedback + participation!

Sending springtime hugs to you from Berlin,

xo

Stephanie

Coming up today: our first guest interview with lovely Scottish paper artist Rachel Hazell!

p.s. - If you'd like to receive daily emails of our course material, please enter your email address in the little box up on the right hand side of this page - even if you participated in last year's session of Creative Spring - thanks so much!

 

Creative Spring Guest Interview : Rachel Hazell

I'm happy to begin our series of guest interviews today with Rachel Hazell from Edinburgh, Scotland. Rachel is a paper + book artist and she leads workshops around the world in amazing locations - including palazzos in Venice to lighthouses in Shetland to exploring Paris! She also makes gorgeous, unique paper sculptures and you can see her commissions gallery here.

Rachel is also creator of the unique PaperLove e-course - starting on March 23rd!

Hi there Rachel and welcome to Creative Spring! Please tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and how you got started with your creative work.

Hello Stephanie, Thank you for reaching out and linking up! Books were the start of it…reading in bed, under the covers after lights out, being read to, visiting the library…I was torn between art college and university. In the end I did both, studying literature at Edinburgh which has been home for twenty-five years. Being drawn to words, repetition, precision and narrative makes me a natural bookbinder.

In 2014 you began offering a beautiful new e-course called PaperLove. Please share more about your lovely e-course.

Teaching is my passion. I am driven to inspire people to develop their own creativity through paper because it is such an accessible medium. And books make such safe, beautiful containers for our stories. In 2012 I taught a different workshop every month all round the world, from Napa Valley to Paris (aka The Travelling Bookbinder.) It was brilliant but exhausting. Realising that there is a limit to the number of people I can teach face-to-face forced me to seek a better way.

Amazing digital entrepreneur Beth Kempton invited me to teach at her Do What You Love retreat…and as stationery is one of her indulgences (we vie with our washi-tape collections) this led to collaborating on PaperLove. This online course enables anyone to join in, you don’t need specialist materials, and it’s packed with projects, links, interviews and ideas. If we’d met before I’d written it Stephanie, you would be included! For me, the best thing about PaperLove is seeing the private facebook group develop and strengthen, initiating new projects and supporting each other long after the class has ended – an International community of PaperLovers!

You lead creative retreats around the world that sound incredible! Please tell us more about some of your favorite places to lead workshops and how we can take part.

Travelling and learning is a powerful combination. New skills and techniques enable you to document your unique journey. Bookart gives a great focus for collecting discoveries, writing mementoes, collaging found papers and really engaging with a place. Responding to extraordinary surroundings – drawing the shells collected from the beach below the lighthouse, finding vintage labels in the flea market, selecting marbled papers from a Venetian artisan all contribute to creating a truly memorable trip. Precious one-to-one time and very limited numbers allow me to craft bespoke itineraries.

Venice and Paris are my top favourites: Every course builds on the last. Know where to get the best gelato as well as the best ink…  Visiting local artisans, special collections, boutiques, paper shops. Each year the retreat grows and changes according to its participants. Ask questions and book in at http://www.rachelhazell.com/product-category/workshops

I think it's fascinating how you work with paper as a sculptural material, and you've made large scale commissioned work. Could you please explain more about your work process and why you choose to create with paper? Also - any tips on how to get commissions as an artist?

The many qualities of paper continue to amaze me! Fold, rip, pleat, pierce, roll it. Cover with ink, write spiky lines with graphite, paint delicate watercolour petals, melt wax. The Masters course in Bookart at Camberwell enabled me to experiment with form, mostly small scale, books to fit in boxes. Soon after, I was commissioned by Helen Storey to make a two-metre high book. This was an incredible opportunity to explore scale.

A few years later, in Antarctica on an art residency, the towering ice installations looked like paper (The edges of an ice library, a crevasse field of shadowy runes on a page etc.) which I dream of progressing further, bigger… When the Owl and Lion bindery in Edinburgh had a gallery, I exhibited work titled “The Walk-In Iceberg and Other Stories” which had a floor to ceiling pleated paper ice cliff. For the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s 21^st birthday, I was commissioned to make an interactive sculpture where people left messages and drew about their love of books.

How to get commissions? The same as how you get any work: Smiling, positive persistence! Don’t dwell on knock-backs (ha – remind me of that next time I get rejected.) It’s the same with any job application; statistically you’re not going to get all of them. Keep submitting – it’s all useful learning. Filling in forms and updating your CV reminds us what we have done. Getting better at expressing our higher/deeper purpose is what’s important.

How you feel that your blog, website, Facebook, Instagram and other social media have contributed to your success as an artist?

Social media makes the world smaller. Without it, I would find keeping in touch with Antarctic buddies and other far flung friends harder. It is a great way to make new connections – we were introduced through Facebook weren’t we Stephanie?! (Though I dearly hope we’ll meet and swap tales and rip up colours for collage one day.)

Social media stimulates and makes it easier to share links. Similarly the PaperLove e-course sends you down rabbit holes which I may not have found without a daily renewal of announcements. I’ve mentioned the physical impossibility of teaching enough in-person workshops – I want to fire up more people to create with paper and tell their stories through bookart.

Instagram is full of beauty – that’s my regular gallery fix. I love framing a moment, posting the image out onto the web and starting conversations. Swing by @paperhazell and join in!

I'm excited about the coming of spring, aren't you? I'd love to hear about a few of your favorite springtime things - and anything that is particular to spring where you live.

The best thing about spring is light! I’m delighted that the days are getting longer. Everyone seems to smile more and unfurl. Light most of the Scottish population I am Vitamin D deficient. On the Island of Iona, where I live for part of the year, the skylarks are singing and fluttering high in the sky – pure joy.

Do you celebrate any festivals or special days during spring - Easter, spring equinox, St. Patrick's Day, Passover, etc.? If so, please tell us more about your festive traditions.

Danny P, a good chum, initiated a new Easter tradition at his house. Instead of decorating an egg and rolling it down a hill, we had to construct a paper boat that would carry the egg across a loch. I made an origami vessel which remained water-tight but didn’t win the race…. 




You seem so productive! How do you balance your personal/family life with your creative and professional work?

Hhmm not sure how qualified I am to talk about work/life balance! Being so excited and driven by what I do makes it hard to switch off. My whole life revolves around books, paper, writing, reading, learning and teaching. Self-employment is a double-edged choice.

Although I don’t have a telly, films are brilliant for total immersion in elsewhere. Edinburgh has a fabulous independent cinema http://www.dominioncinemas.net, with comfy sofas and waiter service. I hearby vow to you to go to the cinema more!

Lucky to have a partner who is unconventional too www.ionahostel.co.uk – our days on Iona have a different rhythm, involving a beach walk morning and evening.

Do you have a "typical" workday? We'd love to hear more about how you organize your daily schedule.

Rise early, stretch, meditate, look at the things-to-do list. Decide, with varying degrees of success, what’s important. Lose an hour checking e-mails, catching up on Facebook and what I’ve missed overnight on Instagram. Then, ideally, make, make, make! With the radio on – BBC Radio 4, taking photographs of the process, stopping for little-sit-downs with tea, to read an article or make notes.

Stockbridge, Edinburgh is a neighbourhood of cafes, charity shops and a gem of a book shop The Golden Hare. I never tire of walking along Georgian streets on the way to the Post Office! The Botanical Gardens are close – a real oasis with the best beech hedge.

If I’m writing, there’s a habit from student days – noting down when I start and when I stop, sometimes in fifteen minute bursts. This keeps me focussed. The app Freedom, which blocks internet access, is very helpful when willpower is not quite enough…

Iona Man is very good at keeping ‘work’ hours, and knocking off for a six o’clock drink.

Do artists have ‘typical’ work days?!

Is there anything special you do to nurture and inspire yourself, stay creative, to take care of your body and soul, and prevent burnout?

Timber House on Skye is where I go on retreat, to regroup and pretend that living in a minimal house is ‘normal’! http://www.rachelhazell.com/books/at-timber-house-the-isle-of-skye

I’m currently really into the wonderful Nutribullet for whizzing up power-packed green smoothies every morning.

Every year I try to take time out for a course or two. This year started with a Tutor Development Course at Arvon. Last summer in Sweden, at Leksand, Cristina D’Aramengo Balbiano taught a hard-core precision sampler workshop which was brilliant! And Monica Dengo has completely changed my perception of calligraphy with her gestural mark-making courses in Arezzo and Venice.

Burnout is a touchy subject, as this last year has been marred by illness – undiagnosed shoulder pain and fatigue. Thankfully on the up now, it has been a cautionary lesson in priorities, acceptance and compassion.

Do you have any favorite books, magazines, websites, or other inspirational resources that you'd like to recommend for us?

The Journal of Dora Damage by Belinda Starling, and The Floating Book by Michelle Lovric are two of the best ‘books about books’ that I adore.

Flow magazine – on paper and online

Uppercase 

Instagram (see who I’m following and see if you fancy keeping in touch with them too @paperhazell)

Brain Pickings and Colossal for thoughtful philosophy and mind-blowing possibilities.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone who would like to follow her personal creative dreams but is feeling scared, what would it be?

Be creative in small, manageable, deliberate ways: Notice things. Collect and gather what you love, whether words in a notebook or coloured bottle tops or ink drawings of grasses…. There are so many ways to live creatively, unconventionally. Don’t be swayed by other people’s shouting. Share your dreams with a friend, and encourage them to develop their hopes too. DO keep making. Join communities! Sign up for Stephanie’s e-courses!

- And Rachel's e-course too of course! ;)

Rachel, what are your own personal top 5 creative dreams for the future?

• Teaching at Squam.
• Producing a ‘proper’ book…. “Notes from The Travelling Bookbinder” is the working title.
• Collaborating with Flow magazine on a bookart and mindfulness workshop in Amsterdam.
• Creating a BookLove e-course.
• Being commissioned to produce an exhibition of enormous paper sculptures. 

Thank you for asking such interesting questions – I have enjoyed reflecting on the answers! Best and bookiest, Rachel

Thank YOU Rachel for taking the time to share more about your work, classes, retreats, and many interesting creative projects! I hope I'll be able to join you for a workshop in a beautiful location one day myself :) xo

Don't miss this: PaperLove starts March 23^rd! www.rachelhazell.com/ecourse

See Rachel's beautiful new website, blog + portfolio here: http://www.rachelhazell.com

Connect with Rachel on:

Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Vimeo (nice videos of Rachel here + listen to that gorgeous Scottish accent she has!)

 

Spring Photo Walk #1 : Natural Spring Beaty + Close Ups

 

 

Hello there + today it's time for our first photo walk of the spring season!

Our photo walks are something I truly love about this online class, mostly because I truly enjoy seeing the photos you share of where you live all over the world.

I hope that our weekly themed photo walks will give you some inspiration to go outside, notice the little things in your environment, then make and share some of your photos with our group.

Of course you can go on outdoor walks without your camera or phone, but the positive side of taking a photo walk is that you see things that you might otherwise have missed.

The seasonal photo walks we took last year really made me appreciate the changing of the seasons, and the spectacular display nature puts on every year. I found myself especially noticing nature more, and feeling inspired by the beauty around me each day - and hopefully our weekly photo walks will do the same for you!

****

This morning I got up very, very early to take photos in my Berlin neighborhood - only using my smartphone.

The light coming up behind the trees was beautiful

 

and although many flowers aren't blooming yet, I did find a few when I started looking...

Close up shots are great for flowers and vegetation, and help me see each petal and leaf.

 

I also discovered the wild forms, almost like sculptures, of many plants and buds.

Even the tiny, sprouting leaves of bushes and trees can be beautiful if you take the time to look closely.

Most of the trees in Berlin aren't blooming yet, but I did find this one.

 

On my way home, the sun had some up and was already casting shadows on one of my favorite funky buildings in Berlin.

I hope you've enjoyed our first photo walk today + I look forward to seeing your photos too!

Please share your photos and/or blog links in our Creative Seasons Facebook group.

Spring greetings from Berlin,

xo

Stephanie

p.s. - Want a flashback from 2014? Check out last year's Spring Photo Walk here.

 

Creative Spring Guest Interview : Amanda Blake

Today I'm happy to welcome Amanda Blake, a painter of atmospheric portraits, who studied art in Oregon, watercolor in Siena, Italy, and oil painting and print making in New York. Amanda's lovely work has a strong narrative element, and her titles hint at unusual stories behind the figures that populate her paintings and prints.

Amanda is inspired by folklore, superstitions, wildflowers, cloudy landscapes, the colors in faded polaroids, and other people's family snapshots. I've been a huge fan of Amanda's magical artwork since discovering her online in 2008, and I'm delighted that she's a contributor to Creative Spring.

Welcome to Creative Spring Amanda, I'm glad that you can join us today! Please tell us about yourself, your background, and how you got started with your creative work.

My name is Amanda Blake. I’m an oil painter living in Morgantown, West Virginia. My parents are artists so I grew up in crafts fairs and always knew that I would be an artist when I grew up just didn’t know what path it would be. In college I tried oil painting and that was it, I have been working as a full time artist since 2000.

I've been a big fan of your beautiful paintings for a long time. You work with oil paints, and I love the magical atmosphere you create in your paintings. Could you tell us more about your painting process, and why you choose to work in oil?

I learned to paint with oil, so it’s really just what I’m most comfortable with - when I have a vision of a painting in my head I see it in oil. My conceptual process varies from painting to painting - sometimes I begin with the title, sometimes I have a color or pattern or other hint of an idea I want to explore, and sometimes I just start drawing and see where it goes. The physical process of painting is always the same - I draw on the panel with pencil first and then paint in layers, working on quite a few paintings at a time since they have to dry between layers.

You've created a universe of "imaginary portraits" and the titles of your paintings often hint at a story and add a narrative element. How do you come up with the ideas and stories that inspire your artwork?

My work is about the connection people make with art and the desire people have to make stories in their mind about what they see. I use the idea of narrative and symbolism to create these worlds that invite the viewer to search out meaning in them - people are going to look for a story and a purpose no matter what I paint so by including symbolism and titles that hint at stories people are able to really engage with that search for a meaning that they are naturally inclined to do.

By having a specific thing I’m trying to achieve with my work it gives me some parameters to work with and makes coming up with ideas really easy for me. I’m always looking and listening for anything that can work within the themes I work in and I find that in all places - music, nature, radio, books, tv... anything really can spark an idea.

You recently moved from Portland, Oregon to Madison, Wisconsin, and you studied art in Siena, Italy and New York. How have the different places you've lived and studied influenced your artwork through the years?

I’ve actually moved again, I’m now in Morgantown, West Virginia - one of the benefits of my career is I can live anywhere so have spent the last couple years moving for my husbands career which is how we ended up leaving Portland for Madison and now for Morgantown. I grew up and went to college in Eugene, Oregon and spent extended time in London, Dublin, and France as well as some travels in Spain, Greece, Malta and Thailand. Everywhere I go I pick up things that I add to the landscape of my paintings - everything from olive trees in Greece, factories in Malta, bougainvillea in Greece, endless snow in Madison, everything about Venice.... it all shows up eventually.

How you feel that your blog, website, Facebook, Instagram and other social media have contributed to your success as an artist in recent years?

They’ve been essential, I feel so lucky to be an artist now. When I started most of my income came from art festivals and while I loved them in ways it’s a lot of work and risk to travel to sell your work and really hard with children. With the internet I’ve been able to work almost entirely from home and sell to people all over the world, it’s amazing.

I'm excited about the coming of spring, aren't you? I'd love to hear about a few of your favorite springtime things - and anything that is particular to spring where you live.

Always excited for flowering trees - few things are prettier than a pink tree. I’m so happy to see birds again and saw my first flower peeking out of the ground today - it’s been a really cold winter here so it’s really nice to see some signs that it will be warm again someday. This is my first Spring in West Virginia so it’s all new to me, looking forward to see what it’s like.

Do you have special recipes or creative projects that you make during the spring season?

Dying eggs is about it for my Spring traditions - my one new trick is dying raw eggs instead of hard boiled, I like to bake and using pretty eggs for it is nice but hard boiled eggs I just end up wasting.

Do you celebrate any festivals or special days during spring - Easter, spring equinox, St. Patrick's Day, Passover, etc.? If so, please tell us more about your festive traditions.

We celebrate Easter - baskets of candy, Easter eggs, ham for dinner, and more candy. A fairly simple kid centered holiday with an excuse to eat lots of cheap chocolate, I have a weakness for candy. 

Is there anything you don't like about springtime? Is there a different season that you prefer and why?

Now that I live in colder climates I miss the snow when Spring comes - growing up in Oregon with the constant rain gives me a real appreciation for the snow. It’s about the prettiest thing there is and so much nicer than day after day of grey skies and rain.

You are such a prolific painter! How do you balance your personal/family life with your creative and professional work?

I would say I don’t balance - I juggle. Balancing sounds so much easier than the reality of trying to maintain a career and raise three kids. My biggest secret to my productivity is flexibility - learning to work in little tiny bits of time when the kids are all actually busy, learning to work while holding a baby, learning to work while playing board games... I love my job and so I just find ways to do it.

Do you have a "typical" workday? We'd love to hear more about how you organize your daily schedule.

Not at all. I try to make schedules but it seems there’s always something that comes up to keep me from following any specific time frame. The one piece of organization that I’m able to maintain is making sure that every morning I update my studio chalkboard with any orders that need to be taken care of or other tasks with super strict deadlines. As long as I know I’m not forgetting the things I absolutely have to do I can relax about any expectations I might have about what I’d like to do and get work done without it being stressful.

Is there anything special you do to nurture and inspire yourself, stay creative, to take care of your body and soul, and prevent burnout?

Painting is what I do. Sometimes I feel like I should find other hobbies but it’s really my favorite activity and I never find myself without ideas or burnt out on it, definitely lucky with that. I do travel when I can, short road trips these days more than big trips, but any new place is exciting to me and provides a bit of a break from the day to day which everyone needs now and then.

Do you have any favorite books, magazines, websites, or other inspirational resources that you'd like to recommend for us?

My top inspirational resources are vintage reference books and encyclopedias I pick up at estate sales, vintage photos I buy off of ebay, instagram and podcasts - I’ve listened to every This American Life at least once and love Radiolab and Ted talks.

 

If you could give one piece of advice to someone who would like to follow her personal creative dreams but is feeling scared, what would it be?

I think if you figure out what it is that you do that no one else can do, what part of your vision is uniquely yours and commit to it one hundred percent, it’s not scary, which I know is easier said then done.

I know when I’m not sure of a business decision I make or don’t feel like a painting is what I want it to be, I’m not excited to share it with the world, but when I know I’m doing what is the right thing for me and I’m painting what I see in my head, I’m thrilled to share it with everyone and the only way to achieve my goals is to put stuff out there.

What are your own personal top 5 creative dreams for the future?

Someday I plan to design some fabric, write and illustrate a children’s book, and just keep painting - not five but enough to keep me busy for the rest of my life.

Thank you dear Amanda for sharing your beautiful artwork and thoughts with us today. I know you are extremely busy with 3 children + being a full-time painter, so I appreciate very much your taking the time to contribute an interview. It is refreshing to hear from an artist who is so centered in her work, and you exude a confidence about what you are doing which is very inspiring! xo

See more of Amanda's work on her website: http://www.amandablakeart.com

Lovely giclee prints + originals of Amanda's paintings are available in her online shop: (notice her delightful narrative titles here too) https://www.etsy.com/shop/thisisalliknow 

and at the Sebastian Foster Gallery

Connect with Amanda here:

facebook

instagram

twitter

flickr

Coming up later today: a new art journal tutorial!

Also - if you are interested in watching a short, poetic video about a couple who built a house structure out of salvaged windows in West Virginia - click here. (Amanda's recent move to West Virginia reminded me of this video :)

Creative Spring Art Journal #1 : Collage Brainstorm

 

For today's art journal tutorial, I wanted to explain a creative method I developed while working on my 100 Days of Collage project. 

During the past weeks, I started making something like "mood boards" for the collages in my journal. For each collage, I simply collected papers and other collage elements with colors and patterns that I thought I might like to include in my collage, and I put them all together in a free form composition.

This was a fun process, and it helped me gather lots of new ideas for my collages and pushed me to include things I might not have considered otherwise. 

I photographed several of these collage "mood boards" and posted them on my Instagram account, and they were quite popular. I think people always enjoy a "behind the scenes" peek. But really, I first created these for myself as a new way to approach collage in my art journal.

I would also suggest that you try out this "brainstorming" process before you make a collage in your art journal. Collect paper scraps, yarn, stamps, fabrics, washi tape - or whatever catches your eye - and make an experimental collage on your worktable. It is really like a brainstorming activity for collage - and since you won't be gluing anything down, you are completely free to make things three-dimensional, or large enough to cover your worktable - or however you'd like.

After I'm finished with my collage brainstorming, I start playing around with how I want to arrange the different elements in my journal.

In 100 Days of Collage, I included a quote in each composition. At first I used typed quotes, then I started writing them out by hand with a permanent ink pen on semi-transparent paper.

You could add a quote, and image transfer, a photograph, or a drawing - or whatever you like!

In the next step, I get more concrete about the elements and composition.

Then I glue down key elements using glue sticks and thick liquid glue for heavier papers.

Slowly I build up layers

until I'm satisfied with my final collage.

I'm dedicating this collage to my daughter Lucy today, who loves making her own collages, and who is unfortunately quite ill right now with the flu - or something that causes very high fever, sore throat, and coughing - the doctors aren't quite sure what it is :(

I chose happy colors that I think she will like, and the quote is fitting too, don't you think?

I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with in your art journals this week too.

Collage is a wonderful way to make an art journal because it is such a free process, and anyone can do it.

I hope you'll have fun with your journaling, and of course I'd love to hear about your favorite methods and see your photos in our Creative Seasons group too!

Greetings from Berlin,

xo

Stephanie