Art Slam

Next week, Slammers, you are all in for a treat. Suzi Blu will be our first guest contributor to the Art Slam. If you are not familiar with her work, she produces videos as part of her art vlog and shares art journaling inspiration. Suzi has a wonderful outlook on creating and being free with your journals. I think you guys are going to be in for a real treat.

On to this week’s challenge…
Pick a good quote, an anthem kind of quote. Find a picture of yourself in all your confident glory and combine the two. The image above is one of my self-portraits I manipulated in photoshop, added some pink edging and the quote. Simple, quick and easy. I have been a quote collector for a while, so when I need to get a journal page or a scrapbook page done quickly, this is how I do it.

Remember, have fun, experiment and no bitchin’ about how you suck. You don’t. The world worships the original!

There has been a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on with me lately. Because I am not stupid, I know not to put certain things out there in the internet world. The quote below rings true for my current situation and life in general. Plus, it made me laugh a little!

The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by
hatching the egg, not by smashing it. - Arnold H. Glasgow

Lots of thunder stealers in my life lately. I can honestly say, I have done a good job of not letting them bring me down. Bastards! Life is too short to be miserable and not have fun. Too short.

What a concept. Won’t you do it, too?

As much as I love scrapbooking and paper arts, I would give it up if it helped to keep our world a little greener. I don’t want to give it up, but I would…ok, I would use recycled stuff. Then I would not have to give it up completely.

I love it when I find profound quotes or sayings. Here are two I am loving right now:

 When caught sleeping at work…slowly raise your head and say, "…in Jesus name, Amen."

"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his
greatest surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he
couldn’t." – Henry Ford

I love it when I find new art journal blogs and creative spirits. Check out Suzi’s videos on art journaling. They are so funny and inspiring.

I do scrapbook from time to time! It is not always easy being creative when you have other stuff on your mind. Here are a few pages with some of the new Hambly stuff that is available now.

Pick a color.
Any color.
You can use black and white to alter the color.
Create an interesting background.
Use stamps for texture.
Newspaper for texture.
Leaves as stamps for texture.

Then…

See if you can stick with that one color as much as possible on your journal page.

Remember, have fun, experiment, no stress.

How smart is this? I was reading a magazine at lunch today and came across some podcasts. I have always wanted to learn to speak another language well and I want to do it before I am 40. I know I can.

I heard a little bit of Randy Pausch speaking today about life. He is a 46 year old professor who has months to live. He gave a speech about living your life to the fullest. We don’t realize sometimes what a privilege it is to have life. That sweating the small stuff is so pointless. I was really moved by his lecture, because he did not talk about dying. He talked about living. You can see his full speech here. I plan on bookmarking this so I can come back to it from time to time.

I have been thinking a lot lately about some of the things I believe and how they influence the way I think about just about everything. It will be interesting to look back on these in about a year and see if I still think the same way.

10 Truths (as of September 18, 2007)

1. Martha Stewart is a marketing goddess. Seriously, I am constantly amazed at the power behind her brand. She was able to market basic household things to the housewife and make these women feel powerful. That is awesome.
2. Black pantyhose and white shoes together are just plain ugly. For the love of God, women, stop it. Just stop it.
3. If your child drives you batty, it’s karma. Yes, you are getting exactly what you gave to your parents. Now break the cycle and spare your child this same karma.
4. Wendy’s salads have gone downhill. I am so disappointed when I get a salad full of water. I understand washing the lettuce, but damn it! Can you let it drain? And, stop putting those nasty little tomatoes on the salad. Most of them are rotten and just plain nasty.
5. You should always take your full lunch hour if you work. I do not understand how people can sit on their butts for nine hours and not get any fresh, dirty city air. Does the body not deserve a few moments of physical exercise? Get up, leave the desk, escape for a moment.
6. A cup of restaurant soup should not cost over $1.50. This $3.50 a cup is highway robbery.
7. Burgundy or cobalt blue hair is not cute. Period.
8. You can’t buy happiness. If you could, it would be on grocery shelves with cans of Whoop Ass.
9. Oprah is one bad woman. I know she has a lot of haters. I am not one of them. I think she is a real inspiration…with a pretty nice shoe collection.
10. The reason North Americans are overweight is we sit on our asses at 40 hour a week jobs. We should have nap time and recess in addition to mandatory full hour lunches if we have to work that long outside the home.

I forgot to post a challenge Friday. Honestly, I was dog sick, had lost my voice and all I wanted to do was sleep.
So, this week, freestyle it.
No prompt.
Use what you have learned about yourself and your craft to just create without any direction. See what you come up with.