the "dreaded" blank page + how I get inspired

This morning I woke up to a tweet/instagram post by the lovely @karenhammons, containing a photo of her new art journal. Apparently there are some rad people trying this stuff out!!!! :] This morning there's been quite a buzz on twitter about a new blog post, so I figured I'd hash it out, complete with a few (or a lot) of photos for you guys! I've been working diligently on some crafty loveliness, but I'll be featuring those on here in the next few days! Good things come to those who wait! :P

Among the chatter on twitter, the dreaded blank page topic popped up. I get questions a lot about how to avoid it and what I do when I'm faced with one. My art journal is a "refurbished" spiral notebook with a hard cover. {Do you want to see how I make it? Leave a comment!} The spiral has about 200 pages in it. I'm using it over the whole year, so it's not necessarily one page every day. STILL, that's 200 BLANK pages!

So... how do I get over the "oh my gosh what do I do?" or the "I'm gonna mess it up and then hate it"... or  "I don't know where to start..." issue? I get inspired. There's a few fail-safes I have for inspiration. 

1. Pinterest. If you don't know what pinterest is, you're missing out!!! Search Pinterest for "art journals" and feast your eyes on creative endeavors from the journalers of the world. It's really amazing for ideas!!
2. Play copycat. Take someone's journal page--this includes mine!-- and copy it. Obviously it doesn't have to be the same, but use it as inspiration. I'm a big fan of using TAZO tea bag wrappers. Maybe incorporate them in your next page somehow?
3. Get outside! Sit on your front steps/porch. Write down or make a mental note of five things you see. Incorporate those in some way in your page. It could be the orange of fall leaves, the smoke from a truck's exhaust, the garbage can that fell over in a windstorm once.... How would the sound of a car's engine look if you drew it on paper?
4. Raid your junk drawer. Everyone has one. Go find five things and use them in your page. The first five you see! Don't worry about whether or not they make sense. Art journaling is about silencing your inner critic. You don't have to care what is pretty, what goes together, what makes sense to OTHER people-- art journaling is for YOU. Do what YOU like, what YOU feel, what YOU want!

These are my main go-tos for some inspiration! I'll be delivering an art journal prompt this week, as usual, via my newsletter-- if you'd like to participate, please sign up on the left hand side of this page, where it says "follow by email, too!". :] There's a little space for you to enter your email address, and then you'll get some FUN prompts from me each week!

And without further ado, my pages from this week! If you'd like to see any of them in more depth, leave a comment and I'll post an in-depth of the pages you'd like to see!

{inspired by the Lifehouse quote "This is your life; are you who you want to be?"}

{media: acrylic, Crayola Slick Stick in Green, Sharpie, Pen} 

{This page is inspired by a really hard letter I had to write to family. I printed ONE copy of it and ended up using it in my journal. I pasted it, then painted over it and finally wrote on top of the paint. Talk about therapeutic!}

Media: Paper, acrylic, crayola slick sticks in blue, green and yellow, Sharpie.

This is a sneak peek of something that's not quite finished yet. Something I love doing is playing with mixing paint right on the page. This started as blue, white and red... and developed into this gorgeous plum color. I used tissue on top and a card on top of that. Love.

Media: Cardstock, tissue paper, acrylic, tape.

Another shot of the page!

You might recognize this vintage seashell graphic from another page I did. I loved it so much, I got another one and put it in my big journal! Adore.

Media: acrylic, paper, sharpie, Gelly Roll med White Pen

The companion side to the page above. 

Media: acrylic, book scraps, cardstock, sharpie, pen.

I was busy painting a mural and had some paint left over. Guess where it went? :D 

I love seeing these colors together. I happened to have some junk mail from Anthro, so I threw that card on the page as well. It is the PERFECT color to match, don't you think?! :]

Media: acrylic, junk mail, Gelly Roll med White pen!

I hope you guys are having fun creating! Let me know via email or twitter if you're using these tips, and I'll respond! :] Can't wait to see what you come up with!

And don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter if you want to receive my prompts!

Happy Creating!

xoxo,

C

what did picasso imagine + an art journal peek

"Everything you can imagine is real." -- Pablo Picasso

I've worked though this page for a long time. Maybe more than any other page so far in my big journal. I love it. Inspired by Picasso's quote, I chose to make these pages raw. The right side features a quote by the lovely Virginia Woolf. Her quote is, "You cannot find peace by avoiding life."

Picasso is known around the world for his funky, revolutionary art. Everyone knows who he is even if they can't name any of his paintings. Have you ever heard anyone say "Picasso who...?" 

Picasso dreamed. He imagined. He created. 

The world is a different place because he left his impression (quite literally) for us to devour. I wonder what life would be like if we all dreamed and imagined and created big enough to make a difference. Maybe not for the whole world... but what about one person? Imagine the fort you make with your son is a spaceship. Imagine you are a fairy at your daughter's tea party. Dream amazing things for your best friend -- and TELL them! Inspire someone to do something amazing because you have dreamed it! Isn't that what Picasso did? Isn't that what John Mayer, Carrie Underwood... Tim Tebow, Steven Tyler, Wayne Gretsky, Abraham Lincoln and Jack Johnson do? Any person who uses their art, passion, talent, life, dreams, imagination or vision to help someone else become inspired.... Those people are like Picasso. Inspiring.

Everything you imagine is real.

What's your world look like from inside your head?

And what would it look like if you put it on paper?

dreaming with paint covered hands,

c.

a spot on the forest floor + tea time inspiration

I love tea. Really, I do. Most days I have a cup or two at work. My favorite tea of all time is the one pictured above in my journal. This is my smaller journal; my personal one used for ... well, more personal things than my big one. I usually do more prompts and quotes in my larger one. 

The other night I was drinking Refresh tea (aren't the bags so pretty?!) and decided they reminded me of leaves. Of course I got my paints out and started smearing brown and white everywhere with my old starbucks card. A good forest-y floor, I think. 

I imagined I was under a huge willow tree in the middle of a field of grass. The place where I could see the world from a distance. Where I could observe with both eyes, consciously. I wonder if I operated out of that space (mentally, physically and emotionally) how much better days would be. If I remembered that I'm just here to observe and notice and be present... not necessarily worry so much about things. So far it's working out pretty well. :D

I tried to do a good job of posting the photos so you can see most of the page's elements. The last one shows the full spread, with the words blurred. Can't have you all knowing what's going on in my head, now can I? :P

media: acrylic, sharpie, sharpie pen, refresh tea packaging sleeves and tags with string.

Isn't it funny how little things like packaging take me to a whole different place?

They've always said I'm a dreamer... :D

xo,

c

word of the year {peek inside my journal}

For those of you new around here, my twitter or my instagram feed, you might not know I'm a big journaler. In fact I've always kept notebooks. Recently my notebook/writing journal habits have progressed into what's now called a "smashbook" (get the theme here?) or an art journal. In doing my art journal daily (I do try to create every single day) I sometimes look around the internet for inspiration or ideas. The world is my oyster, right? I thought I'd share today's pages with you all. Maybe one of you is looking for inspiration just like I was. :]

For today's "prompt"/impetus/muse I decided I'd think of a word for the year. I got this idea from One Year Art Journal, a site I'm LOVING! Go check them out! Just a single word. I chose the word Bella. Now now all you Twilight buffs, don't get excited. I chose it because it means "beautiful" in Italian. I'm Italian and I just frankly like the word "Bella" better than "beautiful". It's pretty. I journaled thoughts about the upcoming year, the goals I have for myself and how I'm going to achieve them.  I'll show you what it looks like first! Then, I'll tell you how I did it. :]

I started by painting the page. I used red and orange and white and painted it with an old starbucks card. I do this technique for backgrounds a lot. Just put a dime sized drop (or smaller) of each color on the page. Then, using the long side of a credit card (or a starbucks card / store loyalty card... etc) smear the paint around! It's SO FUN!

On top of the paint, I added some ephemera. Ephemera just means media, basically. I added pages from an old book that I'd ripped up. I am finding that "clean" lines make me antsy. Hahaha. No cutting for me-- ripping things does the job just fine! I also added some legal paperwork with my grandfather's handwriting on it. I love the way he writes. I think handwriting is somewhat of a lost art these days. My grandparents grew up with classes on penmanship in grade school. I love the way it looks.

Starbursts are my favorite candy. I was chomping some orange ones as I made this page.. set the wrappers down and decided I'd put them on the page too. Hahaha. It's funny how that happens. I'll feature another page here soon that has to do with what I drank during creation. :]

Add some doodles and some hand lettering as well as words, and I was good to go!

media used: acrylics, Crayola Slick Sticks (red/yellow/orange), book pages, starburst wrappers, legal paper, sharpie, GellyRoll white Med pen, movie tickets, a Starbucks receipt... :]

I'd love to see what you create! Tweet me pictures at @smashbook! :]

xo,

C

Etsy Shop FLASH SALE

HEY GUYS!
I'm doing a flash sale in my etsy shop, getting rid of the kawaii charms I used to make! 

They're all inexpensive, but because this is a FLASH SALE, these are gonna go quick!

If you use the code "RUFFLE" at checkout, you get 15% off your ENTIRE order. 

Go look HERE!

xo!

C