If All Else Fails, Wing It

Hello Creative Friends,

If all else fails, wing it.   That's pretty good advice when it comes to art journaling.

My friend and I talk about how different we are when it comes to making art.  She makes a plan first and tries to anticipate problems and solve them before she begins.  I just wade in and hope for the best.  We both manage to survive.  I can't speak for the art work.

For me, if I begin anticipating problems I will get locked up and never begin.

The blank page/canvas is a common issue.  I just took a class from Pauline Agnew and before we ever got started with the lesson she had us smear the page with random paint.  Not a bad idea if this is an issue for you.

I think winging it comes into play more often than not when it comes to being creative.  After all, most ideas are ethereal anyway.  I can use my imagination to "see" the outcome, but producing the end result as my mind would have it is another challenge all together.  To me, following where my heart and soul is being nudged is what makes for art that comes from, "The Universe of Great Ideas," and not from my critical monkey mind.

I hope you will try winging it in your art today.

Cheering you artfully on,

Diana

P.S.  This Winging it artwork was made by me for the lovely and talented Amara King who loves all things owl.

A Lesson in Letting Go

Hello Creative Friends,

This lesson instructed us to make an ink background.  Then draw a butterfly and Zentangle it.  We did some journaling of the things we want to let go in 2016 and then the sun is journaled with what we want to embrace in the new year.

I enjoyed this exercise so much that I dated it twice in the lower corner or maybe it was because I had my stamp upside down. 

It was a great idea for a mixed media piece and I will certainly file it into something I will try again.  This concept would work for a greeting card without the journaling.

Artfully cheering you on,

Diana

Blogging with Cats

Hello Creative Friends,

Yes, it's blogging with cats day.  One is asleep with his head across one side of the keyboard.  Another one, the jealous Gabby, has inched her way along my desk, put her paws on my chest and slid across my outstretched arms, promptly closing her eyes so she can't see the disapproval on my face.

And because cats come in threes at my house, the old grandma of the bunch, Schuester is on the desk beside me energetically grooming while knocking papers and pens to the floor so she can hurry and catch up with the team effort to DRIVE ME CRAZY.  Sigh.

Maybe I should just give up and crawl into a ball and take a nap too.  Seems like a good thing to do on a cold overcast winter afternoon.

Sleepily cheering you on,

Diana

Lifebook 2016 Week 1

Hello Creative Friends,

This is my first lesson called the Happy Traveler.  We did a meditation before hand and these are the animals that showed up to travel with me during the year.  Naturally, I couldn't go anywhere without a cat companion, even if he does bear a striking resemblance to an alien baby! 

Out in the country where I live are a flock of Cardinals.  My husband faithfully feeds them and they faithfully entertain us.  They are so cheerful to look at on a gray winters day.

It is a challenge to take this class since I haven't had a lot of instruction art-wise.  I am especially excited to learn more about painting faces since the few and secretive attempts I've made have been dismal at best. 

But in the spirit of a new year and my new thinking, I am willing to learn new things.  I hope you have a creative week.

Cheering you artfully on,

Diana

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Creative Friends,

I like New Years, don't you?  Even though it is actually just another day, it feels like it is the official day of the "do over".  I think of it as a time to begin again, to be reflective and to reconsider how things are going.  I'm not talking resolutions, just a small rethinking and maybe a recharge.

The new thing I am doing this year is I am participating in Lifebook 2016, an online art journaling class held by the lovely and talented Tamara LaPorte of www.willowing.org.   Besides Tam teaching classes, there are 25 other guest teachers who share mixed media and art journaling techniques.  

So I will be sharing some of the lessons as I progress along the Lifebook path.  At the end of the year, we will gather all the artwork and make it into a book, hence the name.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are ready for a New and Prosperous & Healthy New Year.

Hugs, Diana

Little Moment

Hello Creative Friends, 

Here is a gelli print I did on one of my first "play" with the plate.  Because I have nothing else to do here in the holiday season, with a new computer to break in and new Windows 10 to navigate, presents to finish,  I do what I do best: procrastinate.

I started out this morning with plans to go hunting.  Ahhhkkk, you say!  No, don't worry, Bambi and all living creatures are safe from me.  I am hunting the pesky start button on my Windows 10 OS.  Mine has only been here for a few days and has decided it isn't wild about the holidays either and has packed a bag and left town and my shiny new computer.  What a royal pain.

So in an effort to do anything, but what I am supposed to be doing, I decided to play on PicMonkey and make something and so I made the above.  It took more than a Little Moment to make, but I don't care.  I had fun and the start button can wait until another day.

I hope you will take time today to have your own Little Moment and appreciate how the little moments mount up to become our lives.

P.S. This is the original gelli print below before adding the extra images.

Cheering you artfully on,

Diana

Gelli Goodness Arrives

I belong to a Facebook Group of Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts who conducted an organized swap of gelli prints from members. My loot came in the mail from Lee Anne Mathena Tadlock, a very talented mono printing artist.

Here are just some of the prints she sent to make my day bright and full of gelli goodness.  Thank you Lee Anne for sending these lovely, luscious examples! 

My outdoor photo shoot was fraught with my poor photography skills, mosquitoes, (I thought they would have frozen by now) and Bailey the cat who insisted on helping.

I can’t wait to use these, Lee Anne.  I love them all and I am inspired to get to work on a new project!

By the way if you love gelli printing and want to hang out with other gelli addicts, uh, I mean enthusiasts, this Facebook Group is great.

Cheering You Artfully On, 

Diana

In Over My Head

Well Hello Creative Friends, 

I have had my head under a creative rock for a long time now, since I haven’t written much creative in the last 30 days.  As you can see from the last month I have been participating in a Gratitude Challenge.  I am pleased to say that I have felt increasingly grateful and I hope this will become a habit that I practice in my art journal.

Evidently, I don’t have enough challenging things in my life since I am also currently participating in a blog challenge to write thirty posts in thirty days.  Thankfully been it coincided with the Gratitude Challenge so that the two overlapped at least for half of it.  Anyway, you are going to be seeing more daily posts from me at least until December 17, if I can keep up.

I am going to be writing about the Creative Bill of Rights since I am hoping someday to compile all this stuff in my head into a book.

After the 17 th, I will be taking a holiday break.  That may be when I learn how tall I really am.

Cheering myself artfully on!

Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 30

Gratitude Challenge Day 30: I am grateful for the breath of life. I have breathing problems that stem from being around spray paint in my old job. When I got pneumonia and the flu two years ago, my recovery time was lengthy and slow. I will never take a good deep easy breath for granted again. This is the last day of the challenge and I want to thank you all for your likes and comments. : )

Gratitude Challenge: Day 29

Gratitude Challenge Day 29: I am grateful today to connect with a cousin I only knew in my childhood. She sent me a friend request on Facebook and later in the day we talked on the phone. I enjoyed our conversation so much and am glad we could get to know each other again. What a lovely gift.

Gratitude Challenge: Day 28

Gratitude Challenge Day 28: I am grateful for Rod Tanner, my favorite person of all time with whom I would still willingly spend the rest of my days on a deserted island.  I am grateful that we can always find something to laugh or talk about. He never fails to support my dreams and schemes and he thinks better of me than I do about myself. 

I chose Day 28 to express my gratitude and love for him cause we have our 28th anniversary in a few days and I still feel lucky to share my life with him. 

Gratitude Challenge: Day 27

Gratitude challenge Day 27: I am grateful that my little kitty, Bailey came home after being missing for two days. I am grateful for all the animals past and present who have given me companionship, devotion and love.

Gratitude Challenge: Day 26

I would like to express to you my readers how grateful I am to have to visit me and support Energize Your Creativity.  I appreciate your patience in the month of November while I complete this gratitude challenge.  I have felt called to pay attention to what I have instead of worrying about what I do not.

I want to thank you especially for hanging out here with me as I try this new venture in showcasing my art.  I hope to begin showing more of my art as I get the time to do it.  I absolutely love creative people who express who they are by what comes out of their hands.  I am looking for a tribe of like minded creators who want to share with me.

I hope you have a peaceful holiday. 

Cheering you Artfully on,

Hugs, Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 25

I am grateful for my furry pet companions.  They bring such joy to my life.  I also am grateful for the ones who are no longer with me (and there are many) and for whom I still grieve.  I have learned much from all of you.  I admit to being their human slave.

Simon

Schuester and Oblivious Harry

Schuester helping me with computer work.

Harry was always a lot of help.  I miss him.

Gabby

Bailey a little boy who I tamed and is such a sweetie.

Thank you for indulging me in showing photos of these friends of mine.

Hugs, Diana

Gratitiude Challenge: Day 24

Gratitude Challenge Day 24:   Today I am grateful to learn something new.  I learned that I can be talked into anything by my mother, evidently.  And you thought I was going to say that what I was grateful to learn how to can pumpkins.

Oh it wasn’t so bad. (Now that it’s over.)  Look at them.  Aren’t they beautiful?

Dorothea (not her real name) and I finished canning the Great Pumpkin and we got to go eat fajitas as a reward for a job well done.  We were all grateful for that.

Hugs, Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 23

I am grateful that we only had 9 pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving.  I realize that I am expressing my gratitude in the negative and I am sorry to sound ungrateful, but I have spent the good part of this day man-handling pumpkins with a very sharp knife.  Even though it’s called man-handling, trust me, these pumpkins were handled by no man.

Ms. Dorothea and I moved the pumpkins in from their decorative places, cut the pumpkins, cleaned out the stringy guts and seeds, baked the pumpkin hunks, and peeled the smoking hot pulp until we had great big piles of pumpkin. 

Now you know why I am exhausted but grateful this process is half-over.

This is the cake called Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is what started it all.  It is so good and you make it with fresh pumpkin if you have it.  If you are wise, you will forego all the pumpkin gyrations and buy a can at your local market.

Here is the recipe: (courtesyhttp://www.flourmewithlove.com/2014/11/pumpkin-earthquake-cake.html)
1 box of white cake mix (you DO NOT need the ingredients on the box)
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 15 oz can of pumpkin puree
1/2 C butter
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C powdered sugar
1 C butterscotch chips

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease a 9 x 13" pan.

Melt the butter in the microwave or on the stove top. Mix in the softened cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir in the butterscotch chips; set aside. 
Mix the cake mix, pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree together.  Pour into the prepared pan. 
Spoon dollops of the cream cheese mixture onto the batter.  Take a butter knife and swirl the cream cheese mixture into the batter.  Bake for 40-45 minutes.  Allow to cool. Slice, serve and enjoy!

Hugs,

Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 22

Gratitude Challenge Day 22: I am grateful for spending the day with good company having good times.

There is nothing more satisfying than hanging out with your friends.  Being where people accept you just as you are, never putting pressure on you to be anyone but yourself is balm for a weary soul.   I am so grateful that I have friends like that.  You know who you are and how much I care about you.

Hugs, Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 21

Gratitude Challenge Day 21:  I am grateful for my home and who I share it with.  My mom, my husband Rod, three inside cats, and an outside kitty that will only let you pet her while she is eating.  (She may be wild but she knows who puts the food in the bowl.)

It’s a good thing we live together because it takes all three of us accomplish something that we used to be able to do easily ourselves.  I am reminded of the old Aggie joke about how many Aggies it takes to screw in a light bulb?  Answer:  Three: One to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder.  That’s us.

Here is a mixed media piece I did where home is the theme.

Hugs, Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 20

Gratitude Challenge: Day 20:  Evidently today I need to be grateful for calendars because I obviously don’t know what day it is without one.  I just posted yesterday’s challenge which I thought was today’s. See what I mean.  I never have been good with dates.  I am in awe of those people who can remember what year it was when they moved into a certain house or went to work at a job.

At my age, (which I usually have to count backward to recall the exact number) I have to save my concentration and memory for less accessible things than dates on a calendar or numbers in a cell phone.  I am grateful I can at least find the calendar. 

Hugs,

Diana

Gratitude Challenge: Day 19

Gratitude Challenge Day 19:  I am grateful for the Internet.  Don’t laugh at my addiction.  I remember the first time I heard that screechy dial-up sound when my cousin’s computer connected to the Internet so my mom and I could send an email to Russia to my brother who was living over there.

It was very expensive to send mail to him and if you sent a care package, (even more expensive) you were almost guaranteed that he would not get it as you sent it.  So we tried email. Oh my!  I typed in my pre-written letter and a few days later he was able to get to a computer at the university where he was studying and send a reply. 

I was forever more hooked on the Internet.  And look at us now.  I know it has changed our lives in both positive and negative ways and I won’t bore you with my views but I will bore you with one more story.

When the movie, The Internship, came out my husband and I went because it was about two not-so-clever dudes getting an internship at Google.  Everything was going along fine until the scene where the not-so-clever dudes show up at the Googleplex in Mountain View California.  I have been to Mountain View, so I was looking for landmarks I might know until the Googleplex showed up and then out of nowhere, I burst into tears.  I couldn’t stop sobbing for the longest time.  My long-suffering sweet husband looked over at me in shock. 

What I was finally able to tell him, something I didn’t even know myself until that moment, was that I was distraught and sad because I realized that I would never work for Google - my time had passed.  I think about how I love technology even though it makes me want to pull my hair out, working for Google was the face ofwhat I thought might still be ahead of me and the tears were shed because I couldn't even believe my fantasy anymore.

Anyway, I guess I will have to remain satisfied to be a techie wanna-be.  I am still grateful for the Internet making the world smaller.  It is a wonderful and dangerous thing and I am so grateful that I was around when it was invented.

Hugs,

Diana