In 2009, I wrote a post about becoming a more eco-friendly artist and shared the links to some of my favorite sites who are liked minded in my desire to be more environmentally friendly. Instead of doing a rehash of the previous post, because I still like the companies I shared, I decided to do one for children.

All of my children enjoy making crafts, drawing and doing art. In my search for amazing products, I came across a few I absolutely love:

Glob Natural Paints – My middle child LOVES to paint. Honestly, the girl paints more than I do and we never seem to have enough of it in our home. I was excited to find a collection of botanically crafted eco-art supplies. They have natural bamboo brushes, painting kits, collage kits and even plantable collage kits. I also like that everything is reasonably priced.

ClementineArt – The packaging alone thrills me. I love a simple clean design that shows off the product. ClementineArt supplies are available for purchase from Whole Foods and they pride themselves on making “open-ended materials that encourage children to create real art (from their website)”. I like the modeling clay, crayon rocks and the natural paint, of course.

eco-kids – This company has a wonderful supply of non-toxic supplies made from natural ingredients. Favorites I found here are the eco-crayons (they look like rocks), the rolling pins (seriously, you can’t do clay work without one of these) and and the eco-finger paint.

Colored Smencils – I already love their #2 pencils and seeing colored pencils makes me happy. These pencils are made from newspaper, shaped, dried, then dunked in their liquid scents. Sounds and smells lovely.

This is just a small list, but at least it will get you started in finding some great art supplies for your kids and helping to preserve our environment.

October is starting off to be a great month for me and it all started when I made up in my mind that I was going to start each day in a great frame of mind. I was going to expect great things to happen and I was going to choose happiness. Now, it has not been easy to live like this. It seems when you decide to focus on positive things that is when junk and hot mess comes your way at top speed. Even still, I am trying my best to find something good to focus on instead of giving any power to the negative.

Speaking of focusing on good things, I have opened registration for the second session of Life is the Art Workshop and I would love to have you participate. The first session has been a blast and I have learned so much about creating a great class and from my students. Something interesting I want to share is that this workshop is a great family project. At least half of the participants from the first session had their children viewing the videos and creating their own art in their journals. This thrilled me more than you can image, because children’s hearts are so pure and so is their art. The next class begins October 17 and you can follow this link for details and to sign up. I hope you join in the fun.

**************************

Registration is open  for the art journal workshop, Life is the Art. I am so excited to kick this off October 17. We will be cultivating a daily art practice and I am going to share some of my favorite techniques and journaling concepts with the class. Won’t you join us? It is going to be a wonderful adventure.

As my life continues to go through changes, I have discovered I love and expect to meet new people every single week. In fact, this is what becoming in the absorbed in the local salsa community has done for me. I make it my business to meet at least ten new people a week. You can never say you are alone and bored if you are actively pursuing living  your life. If you find yourself complaining, instead of blaming someone else or your circumstances, what could you be doing differently to live the life of your dreams?

I am taking a huge leap of faith starting these art classes, but I believe so strongly in art being a part of my daily life and I know it can be life changing for others. I do hope you will sign up for the class and join me in actively participating and changing your life into what you want.

The easiest way to add your own word art to your page is by cutting out words and creating meaningful phrases you can use in your journals. I have a small journal devoted to pages just like the one above. My original purpose in creating it was I wanted something portable I could carry with me with positive affirmations.

I would love to see what you create in your journals, so make sure you share what you are working on.

One of my favorite things about art journaling is the collage process. Collage is an easy way to add dimension and color to your journal quickly. The image above is a collection of scrapbooking papers, overlays, rub-ons and ink. The covers of my journals have always taken a beating, so it brings me great pleasure to distress them well before the pages are full.

Adding collage to your journals is easy. Here is how you start:

1. Add a base of gesso to your journal pages. Gesso strengths the pages in your journal and gives you a nice base for painting on the page. You don’t have to purchase expensive gesso paint. Any cheap kind will do for collage work.
2. Add images to your pages. I have a huge morgue of images, paper scraps and various ephemera to add to my journals. Collage is not about being perfect. Instead, it is about personalizing the page and creating a base for your writing. You can find images for your collage work in magazines, books and even your own personal photo collection. Everything is fair game for a journal page.
3. Arrange the items on your page. When I collage, I don’t think about what the end result will look like. Instead of moving things around, I glue it all down immediately. I work in lots of layers and if something looks off, paint is the perfect cover up. The choice is yours arrange and glue your items down or glue as you go. Either way, your pages will look great.
4. Finish up with paint or stamping. The one thing about collage is sometimes you end up with a page where the items do not seem to go together. You can remedy this situation by adding paint to your page or stamping. I love to add paint to the edge of my pages with either a brush or sponge. If your page has a theme, stamp the theme word somewhere on the page. I also like to add journal writing to my page with metallic pens or fine brush work.

If you have not used collage in your journals before, I hope this helps you to get started. You can not possibly get collage wrong. The process and experimenting is what is most important. Have fun and please share your work with me. I would love to see it.

As of late, most of my writing has been offline. I have gone back to doing a lot of drawing, painting and creating in my journals. There is something about the slower pace of stepping away from online life that appeals to me more and more as each day goes by. Instead of being caught up in what people think of me or their opinions of what I should be doing, I am following my intuition and allowing life to live me for a change. I have no complains. Life has been very good.

I posted about creating a morgue file a while ago and felt it was time to revisit the purpose and how to start one. But, this time, I’m suggesting you do it digitally. Morgue files are essential to the creative process. There are going to be days where you struggle with how to approach the blank page or computer screen. Here are some of my favorite ways to catalog what inspires me and keep my creative fire alive:

• Flickr. If you do not have a Flickr account, start one today. It is a great place to share your photography, videos and art with a lively community of creatives. You can join and start groups (I maintain two, one for self-portraits and one for slammin’ art), “favorite” images that inspire you and interact with the people on the site. Visiting Flickr never fails to inspire me.
• Pinterest. Their site says it is a place to catalog things you love. I enjoy having a place to add images, words and phrases I come across while surfing. Also, the great thing is being able to see what other people are pinning to their boards and adding them to yours. You can create boards for just about anything (I currently have I Love My Natural Hair, …and the Words Have It, Which Door Will You Choose, etc.). This is an ideal place to store things for future inspiration.
• Tumblr.  By definition, Tumblr is short-form blogging. I have used it in the past to curate the web for photography and design inspiration. Besides being able to maintain a tumblelog, you can also explore other blogs either by category or tags. I appreciate when a person takes the time to tag their blogs and images. It makes looking for inspiration so much easier.

Maintaining a creativity morgue should be a fun process, not work. Now that you can do it digitally, there is all the more reason to set yourself up for creative success and explore what you love. Enjoy.

• Photowalk. Document your life with pictures. I am never without a camera. Be it my phone, DSLR or my point and shoot, I always have one of them with me. I shoot whatever strikes my fancy and makes me laugh or smile. If I am with friends, I enjoy capturing the moments with them. I have a greater appreciation for the simple happenings in my life when I document them.
• Spend the afternoon exploring a new part of town. A friend invited me to a gallery opening a few weeks ago and it was in a part of town I only go to about three times a year. As I was looking for a park, I took the time to look around at all the quaint little shops and eateries. I decided when the weather improved, I would make it a point to come back and explore. You never know what little discoveries you may come across unless you make the effort to look for them.
• Explore art that evokes emotion. To add to exploring something new, I like going to art galleries or museums and allowing the art to draw me in. Go to work that sets you on fire and take notes about what it is that moved you and why. This is great for future explorations.
• Meditate. I used to think that meditation was about emptying the mind. I have since learned it has nothing to do with depleting the mind of thoughts, but rather it is a practice of mindful thinking. I am still learning to sit quietly and focus on a singular thought. While not always easy, I have learned to embrace a certain amount of peace int he midst of a busy mind. I have also found meditation is a calming and healthy way to nurture the soul and open a window for creativity.

**If you don’t mind, I would love it if you would fill out this short survey and help me improve the quality of content I share in this space. I would greatly appreciate it.

I’ve been creating vision boards for a few years as a way to help me focus on dreams and goals I have for specific areas of my life. Typically, vision boards are created on poster board. I prefer to create mine journal style. The key to a successful vision board is to place it where you will to see it every day. You do not need artistic ability to create a vision board and  how creative you are with your board is your only limited by your imagination.

To get started, you are going to need a few materials:

• A wide variety of magazines (include these staples: Oprah, Money, Real Simple, Conde Nast, Martha Stewart, Dwell, Yoga Journal and some gardening/nature magazines to name a few)
• Scissors
• Glue (Rubber cement is best to keep the paper from wrinkling or a tape runner)
• Markers
• Poster board, fomecor or a journal

Before you start, think about the purpose of your vision board. What is it you want to achieve? What are your dreams and goals? Is there something you want to come into your life? I like to put on some jazz and allow my mind to wander. The mind works through pictures and words, so make your board as visual as you can. Once you have a clear idea of what you want your board to be about, it is time to gather images.

Go through the magazines and tear out images and words that resonate with you. You want to include pictures that evoke positive emotions. Don’t overthink what the images mean or why you are selecting them. Instead, focus on collecting a large stack of images to choose from.

Sort through your stack and place your favorites on your board. Remove the ones that no longer fit your vision. You can assign themes to the corners or freestyle and allow the images to go where they may. When you look at your board, it should inspire you. Feel free to write, paint or add personal touches to your board.

Place your board somewhere you will see it everyday. For your vision board to be most effective, it has to be somewhere you will constantly see it. For some, this is the office. I have even heard of people putting them on the ceiling of their bedroom so it is the first thing they see when they wake up.

Revisit and refresh your vision board periodically. Your vision board should always inspire you. If your board starts to have less of an impact on you, it is time to revisit and update with new images that get you excited about your original vision.

Vision boards can be successful tools in bringing you closer to your goals. Don’t be surprised if the original theme of your board shifts as you are making it. Go with the flow and allow your mind to guide you closer to what you desire. You will not be disappointed.

For the month of September, I am the featured PenScrapper and had the honor of designing a digital kit. I love art journals and could not think of anything more appropriate than a digital art journal kit. Head over to the site, download and enter the contest for the month. My challenge is to create a page about yourself that inspires and encourages you to be your most authentic self.

My live chat has been rescheduled for today at 10pm EST. I am kicking off the month long celebration at reneepearson.com and a new Pen Scrapper every week  for the rest of the month. Make sure you stop by and help me crush the record for the most attendees at one of Renee’s live chats. It is sure to be a good time and I hope to give you some insight into how I use my Wacom tablet for my journaling.

I am humbled anytime someone contacts me to do an interview.  You can read my latest at the Empty Easel. It is always a blessing and my pleasure to share my love of words and art.

So, suggest away. I am completely open to just about anything.