Nudge 22, Inspired by Children

Here is my page from last weeks' I Spy nudge. I collected a bunch of red things and then, well, then I made a red painting of me. I challenged myself to just use red, brown, black and some quinacridone gold (acrylic paints). I challenged myself to take about a half hour. 

Nudge 21, I Spy Red

Cassie gave a great idea last week in the comments. She is inspired to use her child's artwork in a collage. I love this. Children's artwork is so fresh, playful and natural. Wouldn't it be great to go back? Well, let's do it!

Nudge 22: Inspired by Children

One of the challenges here will be to try to work intuitively and organically. Kids are fearless. They don't wonder if they can draw a tree or a butterfly, they simply draw it. Can you free yourself up to do this? There is much symbolic drawing with kids. A house is a rectangle with rectangular windows and a door. The ground is on the bottom of the picture and the sky is at the top. Simple, right?

Here is a link to the Global Children's Art Gallery. You may get inspired there. Or maybe inspiration is right underfoot? If you have a little one around, get out the crayons and draw together right in your journal. My kids used to love to do this. Scattered throughout my old sketchbooks and journals are priceless bits of drawings made by my kids. My son loved drawing penguins.

This is gonna be a good one!

Nudge 19, Tabs

tickets, stiff paper, fabric tape, paper tape, old necklace

We are 122 strong over on the Flickr group now. I know that many of you are not on the Flickr group and that is fine. You won't get any pressure from me. I hope, though, that you are looking at the pictures and reading the responses. There is a lot of inspiration and information there.

I've been thinking alot lately about slow art. Taking time, letting artworks evolve organically. Letting it whisper to you and being quiet in your mind and open in your heart to hear it. This brings us to Nudge 19: Tabs, Indexes or Other Bits that poke out of the side of your journal to mark pages. As much as this Nudge is about the sheer fun or it, it's also about handling your journal as an object: to love your book as a whole.

If there is something that is more fun than tabs on journal pages, let me know. I love 'em. And so many items can be used to create tabs. 

Spend your five minutes collecting some items to use as tabs. Anything stiff could be used: playing cards, cereal boxes, cut up plastic milk cartons (you can use sharpie to write a word or draw a picture. Attach your indexes with double stick tape, a brad, a staple, a stitch, a paperclip. Stitch a piece of fabric to the edge of the page. Heck, you can even use file indexes. Sometimes I forget the obvious, ha!

Then take more time. Slow time with your book and look through it. Mark some pages with the indexes.

I found these in a $1 bin and am using them on my Sketchbook Challenge journal.

So yes, fondle your journal this week. Delight in it's 3D-ness. Yum.
Leave index ideas in the comments and on the Flickr Group. Share and Inspire.

Happy Year of the Rabbit. Be gentle with yourself this year and listen for the whisper.

Nudge 11: Weave

Fun with Paper Weaving! This nudge might take a bit longer than five minutes so break it down or - what the heck - take 10 or 15 minutes! 

Cut a strip of paper, try to keep it even, about a 1/2 inch. 

Cut a bunch of slits down the length of the journal page that you want to weave. The orientation of the book is different in this next photo (sorry). Can you see the slits?

Now just weave the paper strip in and out through the slits.

I just dabbed a bit of glue stick down and stuck the end of the paper strip down. It probably won't go anywhere though.

I turned the top of the strip down as well. Just fun to leave a bit sticking up at the top of the page for a tab. Love the index-y tabby thing.

As you can see from the facing journal page, you can weave an entire journal page! Woohoo !  It's a great thing to do with pages of writing, a 5 minute collage page or other pages where you may have a background but not much else. Go forth and WEAVE!

Nudge #9, The Creative Revolutionaries

Taste something new.

The nudge this week isn't journal-related. It's all about our tastebuds. When you head to the grocery or produce store this week, look for something you never ate or rarely eat. In my case, it is beets: fresh beets with their tops attached. See here for beet dyed fabric and here for Beet Soup.

At Ina Garten's personal suggestion (ahem), I peeled the beets, cut them into chunks, tossed them with olive oil and roasted them in the oven. Yeah, diggin' the beets. This could be a good time to browse your  recipes or make something crazy, play with your food. S'mores, anyone?

Yes, this nudge is more than 5 minutes but cooking is good, right?

If you can't bear the idea of cooking, go to a new restaurant. Desserts absolutely qualify. It's all about taste.

I'll be simmering my beet trimmings in some water to make beet ink. Yeah, diggin' the beets.

Journal as desired.

The Creative Revolution has begun

OK, here we go! I've chosen the name The Creative Revolutionaries. Here is the Flickr group: up and ready for your input! So let's get this thing rolling! {excitement}

I think the name give us all ownership, don't you? Also, The Creative Revolution was already taken. I hope that you'll get involved, you don't have to post pictures. I'm hoping that lots of folks will just to keep the group fresh and enticing. Just realize, please!, this is a process group. The pictures are proof of process and nothing more.