Smash Journal for The Woman Unleashed Retreat

I found a link to The Woman Unleashed - an online retreat on Linda's blog so I followed it and decided to participate.   The first activity is to make a smashed journal in which to record your insights as you participate in the different parts of the retreat. So this evening I decided to create my journal.  One of the most significant comments on the video was that creating this journal was more about the process - what was speaking to you - rather than creating art.  So it is about YOU - what is calling you, what do you like, how do you feel and taking the time to really connect with your inner self so you can bring about the transformation that you intend.
I remembered having a blank book years ago and went on the hunt to find it amid the boxes in my studio!!  After a few, I started praying for guidance because there are a LOT boxes in my studio and instead of finding the book I was looking for I found a stack of kraft pages that at one point had been bound but were no longer.  I took it as a sign and decided to make covers for this stack of pages.

I have LOTS of different papers in my studio and could have used any of them to cover the cardstock covers I had created but I felt called to use the paper from this flour sack instead.  It speaks to me of health and making good choices for wellness. So I cut open the bag and smashed the paper over and over again until it was nicely wrinkled and had lots of texture.  I trimmed two pieces the right size to cover my covers which I cut pretty much the same size as my pages and glued the brown paper to my bright yellow covers.  I really like the bright yellow and the cardstock is a reminder to me of the beginning of my journey into art.


I used an old gift card and glue from my little pot of glue stick leftovers to adhere my paper to my covers.  I trimming the corners and the edges to leave an even margin on the inside.

Here you can see my two finished covers and the stack of pages.  I used the stack to make holes in the covers using my awl. The covers fit really well on my stack of pages.  I decided to use elastics to bind my journal because they will allow my journal to lay flat by stretching the bit that is require for that action to take place.  I used my awl to enlarge the holes sufficiently to allow the elastics to slide right through.  I tied the short pieces using square knots on the spine.

We are encouraged to set an intention for the retreat so I decided to journal about my intention on the front of my journal.  Using a fine tipped Sharpie I started writing and just joined all of my words and sentences into multiple lines of writing until I had filled the whole cover leaving a bit of a margin all the way around.  Next, I decided that I would doodle a border in that space.  After my doodling I was still feeling inspired to journal my intention so I flipped my journal and continued to write going across the writing I had already put on the front.  That felt better and I like the wonderful texture that it gives my front cover.  

As I finished up the last of my journaling on the cover I felt I needed to refine what I intended into a short phrase.  In the end, I decided on two which when I had finished adding them to my cover worked together quite well.  I found the letters for "voice" and "prayer" in my letters stash - a little plastic container in which I put all the letters which are leftover from any of my creative projects.  Once I had them arranged the way I liked them I adhered them with white glue.  I like that they are sort of random and not perfect.  It was great that they were colourful as well.  I found my creative writing book and added the rest of the words using the fine tip Sharpie I used for journaling and a bullet tipped one I had in my stash.  It was fun to use different letter styles for each word.  The border was calling out for colour so I started with gel pens and it was not quite the look I was wanting so I dug out my watercolours and painted it in with them!!  Watercolours are my favorite!!  We were encouraged in the video to gild the edges of our pages so I did mine in purple!!

We were also encouraged to smash all of our pages - just crunch them up!!  After crunching you can see that my journal has become a little thicker!!  I am really happy with how my journal turned out but it still needs ribbon and some scent which I will add later once it is dry.  I am looking forward to the next activity on this retreat!!
I hope you will consider joining the retreat and taking the challenge to unleash what you want into your life!!  Remember you create in your life using your thoughts, your words and your actions!!  Choose wisely!!

Therese

Journal page - Solace

I joined a Journal Page swap on one of my groups.  The theme for the year is Nature's Blessings and Solace is the theme for January!!  Solace is different for everyone but it does serves us well to know what comforts us because it allows us to go there first instead of spending time numbing or distracting ourselves when in fact we need to be loved and nurtured to feel better.  This subject was covered in the Brene Brown course - The Gifts of Imperfection - so I just went back through my notes and knew exactly what I should include in my journal page - a walk in nature, a cup of tea with a book and a good soak in the tub.  Works every time.
So I went looking for images to use on my page.  I found most of them on CLKER.  The book page I found on Morgue Files.  I imported them into Corel Draw and sized them to fit on an 8.5" x 5.5" page.  I printed the book page, tea cup and bathtub on one half and the road and road sign on the other half of the letter sized sheet of white cardstock. The half with the tea cup became the base of my journal page and I fussy cut the road and the road sign from the other half.

I started by adding blue watercolour at the top for the sky and then added green blending it gently into the tea cup area to start my collaged landscape.  I added a layer of blue paper napkin to simulate mountains.
I slit the edge of my tea cup with an exacto knife to allow the road to slip in behind and then glued it into place.  I glued a torn strip of green scrapbook paper over the end of the road to simulate the tree line and added a couple of other pieces on each side to fill in the gaps.  I added watercolour to the green paper to help it look more like a trees. I added some little bits of green paper napkin to either side of the road to add texture and colour and also added watercolour to the tea cup so it looked like you could see the road through the transparent tea cup and added the tea as well.  I love transparent tea cups!!!!
Next, I watercoloured some striped wall paper behind the tub, added brown watercolour to simulate the floor and watercoloured the water in the tub.  It was coming together very nicely.  I added a towel to the right of the tub - a strip of white fabric draped over a wire which I attached to the page using two silver mini brads.  I coloured my road sign and added it to the left of the tea cup using 3D foam tape.
Very happy with how it worked out. I added a piece of watercoloured cardstock to the back where I added my journaling and my credits!!
This is my first journal page!! It will be off to my partner early next week.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Cultivating meaningful work

The course is over but we have a few weeks to finish up our work so I am working on my Gifts of Imperfection E course by Brene Brown this weekend.  Week Four's lesson is about identifying our "Superpower" so we can apply it/them to doing meaningful work.  Meaningful work feeds our spirit and makes a difference in the world - we are very fortunate if it also pays the bills.  If not, then it is beneficial for us to find a way - volunteering, a side business or a part time job that will do it for us.  Our Kryptonite is how this same quality can become a detriment if we abuse it.

I started both of these pages with watercolour crayons - the SU Bold and Bright & Regals sets!!
These are wonderful crayons that are rich and creamy and are very versatile because they can be used in so many ways.  I scribbled all around the pages with the crayons and then just ran a wet brush over them - they melt into a puddle of colour which you can distribute as you wish.  To add texture I applied several colours of  watercolour to a back ground stamp by just rubbing the crayons over the rubber surface, spritzing it with water and stamping it onto my page!! I love the way it came out.   I added my hand lettering and the borders with a fine tipped Sharpie once the pages were dry!!
One more lesson to go!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Healing of calm and stillness

 Another couple of pages for my Ecourse  by Brene Brown called the Gifts of Imperfection.
We were tasked with discover what made us feel calm and then finding a photo or photos of those things so this page in our journal would always be a reminder of what we need to do to when we are out of control, exhausted or anxious.  For me, nature does it every time, so I found this green forest photo on line and printed it along with the shadowed words.  I added my other items in the green space.

This page is about the process of creating calm for ourselves.  We could either create a map or use a real one and add our process.  I have a stash of maps and found this one had lots of room for writing which was perfect for adding my path to calm.

It is always good when you can identify a process which you can use to deal with the hectic days and bring yourself back to being calm.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Rest and Play

Another few pages for my Ecourse with Brene Brown called the Gift of Imperfection.  In this lesson, we worked on recognizing that being exhausted is not a badge of honour and productivity is not equivalent to our self worth.   Rest and play are both basic needs of every person!!  When we do not honour ourselves we lose!!
Here I hand lettered "PLAY" (Thanks, Yogi, for examplar) using a fine tip Sharpie marker and added my numbers and a doodle.  I added watercolour afterwards.  Love those Kersal letters!!

 For this page I watercoloured the page first and then added my lettering.  I used my Creative Lettering book by Jenny Doh to add some interest to my title. I love the book - lots of great lettering inspiration!!

For this page, I hand lettered block letters and filled them in with glittery gel pens!!  They needed a bit of something so I added the dots with the marker and a bit of shadowing using a black pencil crayon.

I hope you all can find some time for rest and play in your life.  It will create joy and meaning for you  All so crucial for balance.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Cultivating Creativity

I am playing serious catch up with my online Ecourse by Brene Brown called the Gifts of Imperfection.  I managed to get these pages created before my last meeting but am just uploading them today.
This is the beginning of Part 2 and the lesson for the first week as Cultivating Creativity.  This lesson was not difficult for me as I recognize that I am a creative being and am often engaged in creative activities.  For my page I decided to use a piece of paper I created when I was working on  this Bee Attitudes book project.

I created block letters and doodled inside them except for the word creative which I hand lettered cursively. I added a funky border and I like the way it goes with the watercolour resist paper.
For my second page I needed to record my art scars.  I had to look pretty hard to find any.  I expect it was because art was not offered in junior or high school - those years where we are most susceptible to scarring  - so I was spared the judgement of art teachers or my peers.

This page was a self portrait.  I have to admit that I did not follow the rules - we were supposed to use only crayons.  I did a basic pencil sketch before adding colour with my crayons.  One of the girls with whom I am doing the course followed the rules and did a much more effective job of her self portrait.  I need to work on being free and be willing to fail and begin again.

I am really appreciating the lessons of this course!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - last journal prompts

I am just finishing up the last of the journal prompts that Brene provided us to work on as in interim activity between Part 1 and Part 2 of her Ecourse - The Gifts of Imperfection which is being offered by Oprah on her website.  It has been fun to create arty pages on which to work the substance of the journaling for the prompts.
I hand lettered the titles on these pages using a fine tip Sharpie and added colour afterwards.  This time around I decided to use my new set of watercolour crayons by Stampin UP!!  The regal collection!

I had only seen these demonstrated before but when they were on clearance I decided to give them a try. They are solid watercolour crayons and therefore a very cost effective source of watercolour.  They are very creamy, vibrant and are easily watered down without getting too runny.  They are a little more opaque than my current palette of watercolour - a kid's set I bought years ago.  I really love all the colours in this set and will use them a lot.
On the first page I just rubbed the pencils onto the page and brushed on water with a foam brush.

Not my favorite way of using these crayons.  I found the strokes were too visible for my liking.  I used a watercolour paint brush to fill in around the letters of my title and I liked that much better.  I just wet my brush, wiped it across the end of the crayon and applied to my cardstock.  For page two I just used my brush to flick paint from the end of the crayon - a little trick I discovered as I was applying paint to my brush for the first page.  I used several colours of green to fill my FAITH word.  I used the leftover paint in my brush from the first title to colour the title on this page.  As you can see, the watercolour is easily watered down and still gives a nice depth of colour.  On my third page, I started by adding colour to my title and then remembered reading about a transfer technique using Sheer Heaven on the Whatever . . . Whenever blog.  I do not have any Sheer Heaven but I did have a few small pieces of vellum on my desk so I used that.  I just scribbled or drew on the vellum and applied the coloured side of the vellum to my damp cardstock. It transfers nicely.  The wetter the paper the more your transfer has a watercolour look. Too wet and it just makes a blob of colour, on drier paper you get more definition. Your paper does require to be dampened to get a transfer of colour of any kind.
So, Part 2 of the course starts next week and I am looking forward to getting back to the material from the book.  I am sharing with my Book Club friends from out east using Skype which has been lots of fun!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - happiness, joy & intuition

 Another couple of pages in my journal for my Gifts of Imperfection online course with Brene Brown on Oprah.  I am still working on the journal prompts Brene provided us to work on until the beginning of Part 2 which starts on April 3rd.  For this one we are encouraged to consider the difference between happiness and joy!!
I hand lettered the title, filled in the open parts of the letters with colourful gel pens and added a watercolour background.  I am still using my Creative Lettering book by Jenny Doh for inspiration.  Below I added some flowers stamped in blue using a foam die cut (Tattered Flowers by TH).  I used the Generational stamping technique - you stamp 2-3 times before reinking your stamp which gives you several intensities of colour which adds depth to your background.

For this page we needed to draw or in some way convey our image of our intuition.
I used the same technique for this page as I did for the previous one though I did change up the hand lettering and the colours I used.  The hand lettering inspiration for INTUITION came from a Cardmaker magazine I took out of the library last week.  I drew my hearts and coloured them with colour pencils.
We have three more prompts to finish up before the beginning of Part 2!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - journal pages

Continuing on my journey with Brene Brown's Gifts of Imperfection course, I am working on the journal prompts she provided for us to work on until the second part of the course begins at the end of March.   Check it out on Oprah!  I created these pages before I did my journaling.  I started by hand lettering the titles, the separations and graphics using a black fine tip Sharpie. For the textured background I embossed a piece of fun foam in a swirl embossing folder (TH) and used it like a stamp.  For the first two I used my Kaleidacolour pad

- Royal Satin and for the last one I used Distress Ink - Weathered Wood.  I mounted the fun foam to an acrylic mount, rubbed the pad onto the surface, spritzed it with a bit of water and stamped it on the cardstock page.  I spritzed and stamped it several times without reinking which provided graduated colours and some nice watercolour backgrounds. For the last one I used the back side of the fun foam stamp which gave a more solid version of a pattern. I also watercoloured my titles on the last one.  I used colour pencils on the titles of the first two.

Truly, the more we know ourselves the better we can live our lives and love those around us. Creativity and art can be a vehicle for that process!! So be creative every day!!  There are so many venues - art, decorating, cooking, gardening, dancing, etc!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - prompts & my Daytimer

After checking my daytimer today I realized that I had some work to do before my Book Club meeting tomorrow.  Brene has given the students of her course follow up work - Stay Awake Journal Prompts - to do until the second half of the book is presented in Part Two of the online course starting in March.  Number one was about finding ways to be supportive of yourself when you are tempted to "suck it up" or "keep on, keeping on".  I went looking back for my comforting activities and put those on my DIG DEEP BUTTON.

I hand lettered the title, the words and illustrated my button using a fine tip Sharpie marker.  After I was finished I added watercolour to the titles.  I will probably go back later and add colour to my illustrations as well.  It will be one of those activities I can choose when I need some down time.  It will be creative yet undemanding.  I did the same for my other pages - lots of lettering and then a bit of watercolour.

Number two concerns connection and being proactive in thanking those who stand for us, with us and provide balance in our lives.  
Number three concerns being aware of ways in which we attach judgement to receiving from others. We cannot freely give to others if we hold judgement about receiving.  If we are attaching judgement to our actions and/or those of others only awareness will bring us to a new way of thinking.

Number four concerns our feelings of being worthy! We need to change our thinking from "I will be worth when......................." to "I am worthy now - not perfect, but worthy because I was born to this time and place".  I arrived worthy and nothing can change that, but I do have a choice to think as I wish. I need to change my mind!!
Number five concerns our definition of LOVE!!  We need to find some action words that define this word for us.


I have filled in my pages and they are ready for my meeting tomorrow!!  I am so grateful for my daytimer - it's a place I can keep track my life and it keeps me ahead of the curve. I keep track of swaps, projects, household responsibilities, my to do list, long range goals, etc.  I am currently using a table in Word Perfect with four columns - date, today's to do list, events and my master list.   I cut and paste items from column to column as needed.  I leave everything that gets done in a day in my second column next to the date and usually include any noteworthy events such as arrivals of swap items, etc.  It is really handy for tracking swaps - finding when I mailed it and who I sent it to.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Mantra and word for 2014

These are my last two pages for this session of the Gifts of Imperfection with Brene Brown.  I had finished the work but not yet created the pages before Christmas so today I decided to get them done!!
"Be not afraid" is my mantra for the for this year!! There are simply too many things that hinder the forward progress in my life that stem from inside my own head!!
I hand lettered the words using a fine tip Sharpie marker, added the bright spots and coloured them in with my favorite colours - green, pink, blue and yellow using colour pencils.  I used a handwritten word on a page in my Creative Lettering book as inspiration for the lettering though mine does looks a lot different but that is the beauty of inspiration!!  Great book!!

It has become popular to pick a word for the year and after reading Andrea's perspective on the process I decided it would be beneficial for me to have a touchstone word to support my mantra for this year so I choose "courage - the ability to do something that frightens you".
So I cut my letters from a variety of red cardstock because that is the colour for courage using an alphabet die set (SU) which I had yet to use!!  I layered the letters on black, added 2014 using a white gel marker and glued it to my page.  I added a a selfie I took this morning and embellished it with my fine tip Sharpie.  I added some little leaves to symbolize the new growth which I will be taking on this year.  As I accomplish my goals I will be adding my achievements besides the leaves!!  You can see on my mantra page that there is also a little leaf that is a symbol for growth.
I am ready for a new year!!  Looking forward to letting go of my old ways of thinking and taking a new approach to how I see things and what I say and do!!  For our lives to change we must be willing to think, say and do differently!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Gratitude

I am a bit behind in my Brene Brown course - The Gifts of Imperfection!!  Here is my double page spread on gratitude!!  We had to take pictures of everyday things that brought us joy!!  It is should a good way to remind us of the joy there is in every single day!!  I simply printed my photos and wrote on my page the joy I received!!
We did learn that gratitude brings us joy so it is vital to practice gratitude every day to keep ourselves in the joyful flow of life.  Our acknowledgement of our blessings keeps them coming!
Brene referred to her little moments of joy as twinkling lights and I just loved that analogy!!
As Christmas draws near there are so many more twinkling lights in our world - let them remind you of your everyday moments of joy!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - choosing comfort

Working on my art journaling for my Brene Brown ECourse - The Gifts of Imperfection!!  I have used a fine tip black sharpie to create my letters - both using negative space and positive space.  I watercoloured the title with orange - not a "go to" colour for me. It has been super fun to see what I can create and not feeling that it has be perfect.  In this exercise we need to discover what drives us to numbing - taking the edge off the pain!!!
For this title I used a large marker and just wrote the letters free hand!!  Too easy!! I stamped over it in blue ink using a stamp I created using leftover rubber from trimming some stamp sets. I cut the scraps into small pieces and glued them to a small block of wood.   I love the randomness of this stamp!!  Needless to say, it is beneficial for all of us to know what our "go to"s are when we feel pain or stress - food, drugs, gambling, acting out, rage, shopping, etc, etc, etc.

For this title, I created the letters using a pencil, traced them with my fine tip sharpie and filled them in!!  I love the way they turned out.  I have been using my Creative Lettering book by Jenny Doh as inspiration for all of these hand lettered titles.  Comfort Wisdom is about learning what calms and comforts you and choosing that instead of numbing.  It is about consciously choosing your thoughts, words and deeds in order to create the life you want to live.
You can check out my previous pages here, here, here, here, here and here.
You should give hand lettering a try!  There are so many techniques out there that can be executed with a minimal amount of supplies - pen and paper in most cases!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Authenticity

I have finally found the time to search for a photo for my week two exercise!!  I was not sure how many photos I had of myself as a child but I knew I had an envelope that Mom had given me of old photos which were left over from her scrapbook.  This morning I went looking - we have moved since I last remember where it was located - and was fortunate to find it fairly quickly though not were I expected!! I had more photos that I expected!!  The assignment was to pick one - but I chose three!!  The largest one is a photo of my twin and I over thirty years ago!!  Love it!  We often take fun photos of ourselves when we are together.  The top right photo is of me pregnant with my son - days before I delivered  - with my oldest daughter.  I so loved being a Mom and so loved her cuteness!!  The black and white is of me when I was 5 years old.  We (my twin and I) had been ice fishing with Dad & Pepere (a huge privilege) and had each caught a little fish that we were showing off.  It was really special to me to have the opportunity to spend time with my family in the great outdoors!!
For the layout I cropped the photos and arranged them over a scan of some fabric paper I made and added the word "Authenticity" in a font I like!!  I have colour printed it and will journal over it in white gel pen!! Going back and looking at photos of my life has been so fun and encouraging.  So often we remember so little of the richness of our experiences and photos help us to remember more!!
So dig through your photos and see how much more you can see in them!!!  For me, it has been a life expanding experience in that I have been able to add to my remembrance of events - enrich my memories of the past.  It is also a reminder to take photos often to keep building that resource for myself and future generations.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - permission slips

Here is my next journal page - permission slips!! Brene emphasized that we sometimes need to give ourselves permission to do those things that we fear or have come to accept as being unacceptable!!  I have a long list on the front and the back of this page!!
I hand lettered the words "Permission Slips" and added a grid to write in.  I stamped "I may" in each rectangle and then just added with my fine tip Sharpie the things I wanted to give myself permission to think, say and do!!  I added a second page so I have all sorts of room to add more as I become aware of them!!  I added the watercolour wash afterwards with a wide brush - one that had never seen water or colour before this day!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Day 1 - Intention

Day One - I am excited to get started on this new adventure called - The gifts of Imperfection - an ecourse offered by Brene Brown on Oprah.  We are being encouraged to set an intention for ourselves.  It is always best to start any project (day, trip, etc) with an intention as it helps us to stay on track.  Brene mentions that it provides her with clarity, meaning and purpose.
I am easily distracted and over the course of the last few years I have realized that I have spent my life in little bits - an hour here, a few days there, without too much focus and framework around what I chose to participate it.  I have spent time emotionally distracted as well - upset because "this" happened and "why me"!!  So I am looking forward to being more focused and conscious!!

They provided a beautiful graphic to be used for our intention but I decided to make my own with a little heart of my own making.   This is a photo my own hands!!  I love that the lentils make a heart!!!  I discovered this while playing with my grandchildren at the park.  We would pick up a handful of little stones and take our turns putting them into a container, dump them out and start again. As I was waiting for my turn, I noticed that the stones made a heart in my hands.  Hearts are my thing!!  I had to stretch my comfort zone to get this shot.  Because DH is not available to set up the timer on the camera I found the manual and the tripod and experimented until I got a shot I was happy with. I colour printed it on my white cardstock, hand lettered my intention with a black fine tip Sharpie, added the frame and then watercoloured a bit of purple all the way round inside the frame.
I am excited to combine inspiration and learning with my art!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Brene Brown - cover

Last week I registered for Brene Brown's Ecourse,
The Gifts of Imperfection on Oprah and it started today!!  My book club friends are signed up too and we are going to share our experiences as we follow the course.  One of the reasons I joined was that Brene is encouraging participants to create an art journal as they go along, something I have been wanting to do for a while.  Her supply list includes a copy of her book, The Gifts of Imperfection,  a journal/sktech book, water colours & brushes, double sided tape and markers.  Supplies I have!!!!  Generally unwilling to follow the rules (OR maybe my desire for control), I have decided to do my art journaling on half sheets of white cardstock (8.5" x 5.5") which I will bind into a book when they are done.  Here is my title page.  As you can see I immediately had the opportunity to embrace imperfection when, after I am more than half way finished my page, I see that I have misspelled Imperfection!!  I loved what I had already created and had no desire to start again so I just added the missing letters and kept going.  I hand lettered the title with a black fine tip Sharpie, added the frame and then the surrounding spaces.  Watercoloured the whole thing!!  I am very happy with the way it turned out!!
If you are interested in participating you can follow the above link for get more information.  We all deserve to love ourselves and live authentically!!  It is NEVER too late!!

Therese

My Art - September journal page

A layout for a journal swap I am involved in! Her theme was vintage children and she is doing a calendar as well. I had fun choosing images to put on this page and creating the background to look like a writing practice booklet. I used an outline alphabet to stamp white on the black board and the header. I used the same stamps to create "September" on the bottom of the page with black Memories ink and then watercoloured it. The set of stamps is used and was missing the "s" so I made one today from fun foam and it has worked reasonably well in this layout! I used a white gel pen to hand write the saying on the black board. I have been using my eyelets!! Worked out quite well on the blackboard!! It was a fun challenge!!

Therese