Tag Archives: journal

Creative Refueling

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mixed media art background

Yay! I got made some time this last week to do some creating! It felt sooo good… well… once I got back into a groove… I had a couple of brain freezes because I’m so out of practice/routine. I haven’t done much creating in the last several months… I’ve been a little busy… right? That’s what I thought… and yes, I have been very busy packing, moving, unpacking, settling, getting snowed in and trying to keep kids busy and entertained, and on and on. BUT… I wasn’t making time to be creative… I didn’t think I had time and honestly I didn’t really have the desire. It’s been a hard few months… really hard, I’m not gonna lie… I’ve been exhausted and stressed… I’ve questioned things and wondered and worried and been anxious… even though I know we are where we’re supposed to be/meant to be and I am glad to be back, but it’s still been hard and creative time just hasn’t seemed like a priority and I’ve just been too emotionally wiped out to even want to try to be creative.

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However, I forced myself last weekend to get into my space and do… something… anything. Thankfully it was spurred on by a friend asking me to help her make some stuff for her daughter’s birthday party and a few days later my Mom asking me to help her make a canvas and so I decided to work on one with her… we didn’t get very far but it made me realize how I’d missed being creative and how much of a refreshment & happiness builder it can be for me. I’ve always felt that when I make time to be creative I’m refueled to take on the challenges of life… but in the busy-ness of life, I’d kinda forgotten and lost sight of my neediness of it.

mixed media scripture art journal I’m definitely going to start making more time for it, the benefits far outweigh the struggle of finding the time! And, as a reminder… I think I’m going to print out this free Create Every Day printable from Kim over at Everything Etsy, you should check it out too!

Have you made time for creativity lately? Is it something you find hard to make time for right now or is it coming easily? What kind of creative work makes you happiest and most fulfilled or refueled?

Drawing Lab Date Night #1

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Is it funny that I’m calling drawing together with my husband a date night? Ok, good… I didn’t think so either. ;)

So, if you remember in this post I mentioned this book that I got for Christmas & that Rodney & I were going to try and do the exercises together? Well, we had our first drawing date last Thursday and I thought I’d share the results with you!

Here was the basic directions of Lab 1: Draw Cats in Bed.

Gather your materials & get into bed (either sitting or laying), think about what cats look like & then spend 10 minutes or so drawing as many cats in as many different positions as you can think of.

And here are our results:

Mine…

 and my hubby’s…

 Not too bad huh? We had fun looking at each others and picking out our favorites (on mine we liked the one that looks like he’s looking to the side down towards the bottom & on his we liked the one in the lower left corner, the short squatty one) and then of course we had fun laughing at some of them too… like my very first one on the top left with the great big smile & devilish pointed ears! It was a lot of fun & we can’t wait to see what this week’s lab brings! :)

 

Welcome 2012!

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Just wanted to take a minute to wish you all a Happy New Year! We had a calm, quiet, relaxing one. Noelle got a new game called Zingo for Christmas so we busted it out and played about 5 rounds! Both kids loved it, Parker won the first two rounds, so his confidence was boosted quite a bit… being the little brother, he often has the disadvantage, but he rocked the Zingo!

I’m definitely (beyond) ready to get back into the swing of life… we’ve become quite the lazy birds over here, it’s been fabulous having 2 weeks off, all four of us home and spending quality time together, but I think we are all anxious for the routines to get going again. Hubby goes back to work tomorrow, Noelle back to school on Thursday! I’m hoping to start getting some work done and getting this house back in order this week! :)

So, last year we took this fun new year pic…

 I put this photo on the title page of my Project Life album and plan to do another one this year, would have done it today, but the little guy is fighting a virus and has a little break out on his face, so we decided to wait until he’s all cleared up. Anyway, if you’ve seen any printables like this one with 2012 on it, let me know as I haven’t been able to find one and I can’t remember where I got this one last year. If I don’t find one I’m just going to use a little chalkboard we have to write 2012 on and let the kids hold it. I also had the idea of pulling up a 2012 photo (I’ve seen them all over online) onto our iPad and let the kids hold that, we’ll see… but I’ll be sure to share the final one once it’s taken.

I also, thought I’d share a printable that I filled out with the kids yesterday… a little year end quiz. These would be fun to do with your kids or even for yourself to document the here and now, favorites and such from 2011. Even though 2011 is over, I think it’s still ok to document something like this from 2011… after all, it was just a couple of days ago! ;)

{Click on the picture and it will give directions for downloading}

A few other fun quizzes you could do…

  There are also some cool free printable 2012 calendars out there…

  This one is very cool… 40+ different images to choose your own owls for each month!

This is really neat too, a fun easy way to do some quick-jotting-down-notes for documenting for 2012!

Fun stuff!!! I’m definitely going to print some of these out too! ;) Hope you all had a happy new year and that it’s off to a great start!!!

I’ll be back Wednesday to share with you a little new year treat I got for myself! ;)

See you then!

Crafting with Kids: This is Me Journal

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We had a great time at the lake last weekend. It was in the upper 90′s here, so really, when it’s that hot, there’s no better place to stay entertained then near a body of water be it lake, pool, ocean, whatever! But, if you just want to stay inside out of the sun, then crafting in the a/c is the place to be and I’ve got a great, no mess craft that is sure to keep your kids busy for the rest of the Summer!

My daughter happened to see the journal that I started for my husband and I back when we were dating that we still write in from time to time and she made the comment that there weren’t any pictures in it and then we started talking about making one of her own. So, last night when the boys went out for their father/son date, we girls had a little date of our own! A crafty date! :)

First we started with about 10 sheets of card stock; she chose green and blue. We cut them into fourths with my handy dandy paper trimmer. If you don’t have any card stock on hand, you could use printer paper,  notebook paper, just about any kind of paper you can find and any size will work. We ended up with around 40 6×6 pages, since we used 12×12 card stock. She wanted to make a pattern (green, blue, green, blue, etc.) and so for the most part we had an every other color thing going on with the exception of some extra greens we added to the front and back.

Once we had that done, we punched some holes with my crop-a-dile, an ordinary hole punch works too and then put binder rings (found at any office supply store) through the holes and voila! Her very own journal! If you don’t have binder rings or don’t want to purchase any then you could also use ribbon, string, yarn, anything you have on hand really can work for this project… it’s totally customizable to what you have on hand!

Noelle, had fun writing down some of the things she’s going to do in Kindergarten and then she drew a cute little picture to go with it. I just love this and can’t wait to see what else she comes up with for the rest of her pages and it will become a great keepsake too! :)

{As you can see she’s working on getting those “S’s” just right!}

This is such a versatile project that could be used for all sorts of things for kids! They can draw and write in it, collect stickers, stamp and paint in it like an art journal, put photos in it to make a scrapbook, the list goes on and on! I hope you’ll take some time this Summer to make one of these quick & easy, no mess journals with the crafty kid(s) in your life! If you do, please share it with us!