STUDIO SATURDAY: THE NEW PASSION VORTEX

I've been sucked into an art journaling vortex, with so many options swirling around me that I don't know where to begin! There are classes to take, magazines and art supplies to buy, blogs to read, tutorials to watch -- I want it all! Of course, this is not a novel experience for me. I went through pretty much the same thing when I learned how to sew; to quilt; to garden; when I took up garden design, container gardening, and patioscaping; took up visual merchandising; started writing, and then discovered blogging. (What can I say? Ever so often you gotta try somethin' new, to keep those creative juices flowing!) It's never been quite so bad as this but then, thanks to the internet and social networking, I've never had access to quite this much information. It's mind boggling! Anyhoo, here's what I've been doing this week:

Finally got to do my first "whimsey grid" in my Letter Lovin' class, but first I had to make a Letter Love practice journal out of a simple composition book and duct tape. Who knew "duck tape" came in such cool patterns and colors, or that composition books came in anything other than black?

Practice, practice, practice!

Then I added at least half a dozen new art blogs to my bookmark bar. One of my faves is Julie of Balzer Designs. She does this cool series called Art Journal Every Day, and I just stumbled upon an old post of hers called No More Blank Pages. Apparently I'm not the only one who sometimes freezes up when faced with a brand new journal full of pristine white pages. You just hate to take a chance on screwing them up! This article helped me get past that, and gave me several ideas for super simple backgrounds that I can come back and add more to later. If they are already good and messy, you can let go of that whole perfection thing and just have your way with them!

I used acrylic craft paints on this one.

I finished up my Color Love class, but the facebook group that grew out of it just hated to disband (you can get a bit addicted to sharing your work, tips and ideas with other like-minded people). Some of the more experienced artists in the group have volunteered to take turns posting projects for us to try each week -- to hold us over until our instructor Joanne opens up her next class. I guess I'm gonna have to take a short break from Letter Lovin' each week to go back to Color Lovin' and try some of these "extra" lessons, because the stuff I've seen posted so far just looks way too fun to pass up!

Brought to you from the
Wee Little Studio