It was a fun, creative time!

My friend Michelle and I went over to a scrapbooking store in Vista to take two classes taught by Stephanie Ackerman. I follow Stephanie's blog, Homegrown Hospitality, and was thrilled when I saw she was teaching two classes at the Pink Pineapple Scrapbook Store.

Her first class was DOODLING. Okay, I love doodling; I'm a born doodler. And I love seeing the writing that Stephanie does on her blog, so I was excited to learn her "expertise" in the matter! Here's a sample of my first doodling, a tag with my name on it:

Michelle decided to doodle a word that (I think) pretty much sums up how she is all the time:

We even got to doodle my word for this year:


This picture was taken during my creation of my doodled create. I'll have to take a picture of the final product and show you how it turned out.



And finally, here's a picture of me with Stephanie:

So fun to meet her in person!

Her second class was a mini book, made from Kraft paper bags. She let us use lots of her ribbon and embellishments, and we were left to create at will. Michelle and I left before finishing, but we're both going to finish them (soon) and compare what our final products turned out to be. Michelle does a super job with mini books, so I feel the pressure to try to be extra creative. : )


All in all, it was a fun Friday night with an awesome friend, and a chance to meet someone in the paper/scrapbooking industry who is willing to share her creativity with others.

Corks and Canvas

After visiting so many art galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dave and I became inspired to come home and do some of our own artwork!!



Dave got his hundreds. . . .no, THOUSANDS. . . .of corks down from the rafters in the garage. He has been saving them for YEARS! He said that "someday" he wanted to do a "project." He wasn't sure what he was going to do with them, but he kept saving them. It got to the point where the boys and I suggested he build a boat with them, since he had SO many of them!

So he has spent days (literally) just sorting the corks into various categories: wine corks with names of wineries on them, plain corks, champagne corks, "old wine corks," etc. He got out a piece of wood to try to create something. . . .but still isn't sure what. But at least he's in a creative frame of mind!

I got a blank canvas out of the garage, that I've had for about 8 months now, to finally create a project I've had on my mind for that long. I really was inspired by all the different types of mediums that the artists used in Santa Fe. . . .they used all sorts of materials to create different textures and different colors and different types of artwork! So, I'm geared up to finally get a dose of creativity going, especially since I don't have to be working on Master's papers anymore! Yeah!! Inspiration and time ---- a creative person's dream! : )

As soon as one (or both) of us finish our projects, I'll post pictures. And, if you have any suggestions about what to do with thousands of corks, send them my way!!

Books

I really, really enjoyed reading Life Artist by Ali Edwards! Her book is full of ideas about how to "just scrapbook". . . .leaving all your hang-ups aside, embracing life, embracing imperfection, and just getting your story told. She truly is an inspiration to living a creative life!!

I'm still enjoying the wonderful words of Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love. I've been eating with her through Italy and praying with her at the Ashram in India, and now that we're in Indonesia, I'm guessing we'll be doing some loving! Again, she is a wonderful author and I love all her metaphors. . . . ones that make me say, "Oh yeah, that's exactly what it's like!" even though I would never have thought of it in that way before reading her words. Great book!


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And now I'm thinking of the new books I want to read. Here are two on my list:

I have like 10,000 pictures. And I am not exaggerating! My 'boys' are 22 and 20. I have pictures of indoor soccer games, outdoor soccer games, t-ball, games, minor-A games, minor-B games, majors, pony league, pop-warner football, volleyball, high-school football games, broken arms, stitches, Halloween pictures, Christmas pictures, birthdays. . . . . .well, you get the picture. (Pun intended). So I've been reading about Stacy Julian's new book, Photo Freedom, which is supposed to be a treasure trove of how to deal with all the pictures without being overwhelmed. And even though I'm making a dent in the thousands of pictures I have, I still feel like I need help. The book can be pre-ordered on line (through Creating Keepsakes) but I want to spend the money locally if I can (yes, I'm one of those types of people) so I asked Gena at Cool Scrapbook Stuff to call me when they got their order into the store. I'm hoping this new book will help me get my act together when it comes to my stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of pictures!

Another book I read about on various blogs of my favorite creative people was this book, 52 Random Acts of Everyday Creativity. First of all, since my word for this year is create, this book seems like a natural way to kick-start some creative juices in me. As their site states: "52 Projects is an exploration of your creativity -- from the culinary to the literary to the artistic". I like that it stretches you in many different areas of creativity. I'll let you know how it is!

Happy Reading! : )

Happy Creativity!

I'm still taking my "picture a day" --- are you? Even though I am busy trying to write a paper for my Master's class, I am trying to get in my creative fix every day. : ) This picture is from my craft room, aka Mike's bedroom.

Go Chargers!