Transfer it!

How many calendars do you live by? Not how many calendars do you own. But how many different yearly segments do you recognize?

There's our regular, standard, January 1 to December 31 calendar.

There's the Chinese calendar, the lunar calendar, the solar calendar, ancient Egyptian calendar, the Roman calendar, the Mayan calendar, the Federal budget calendar, the State budget calendar, the public school calendar, the college calendar...and on and on. You get the idea?

What do we do when the date rolls back around to the 1st of a new month? We pay bills, pay balance, transfer money, transfer birthdays, transfer holidays... Everything shifts over to the new set of days.

(Where the heck is she going with this mumbo-jumbo?)

It means...I want you to transfer an image from a magazine (glossy, quality mags work best) into your art journal. Here's a great tutorial from Darlene Olivia McElroy (The famous Collage Goddess!):

I want you to use one of many tutorials and methods out on the interwebs (ANY - just describe or share a link) to achieve an image transfer. It doesn't have to be the gel medium method shown here, but please don't cheat and just print on, or glue down an image. You want to grow as an artist, right? Then journal about the schedule, calendar type or other circadian rhythm that marks your days on earth. Is it a struggle? Is it comfortable? Does it excite you and get you out of bed each day?

Do you have enough spoons to match your calendar? LOL Who ever does! What - not read the spoon theory?? Here - check it out at But You Don't Look Sick...and a big thankful shout out to Christina Miserandino for writing this awesome message that so many of us have rallied around. We've started a Spoon-olution on Twitter, and would love to have you join us if it strikes a chord with you! Just tweet with the hashtag, #spoonie .

So go spend some time watching yourself and your calendar. Figure out where you are and compare it to where you want to be. Even be so bold as to chart a plan for the future! We're playing, this week, for a new Fiskar's bypass cutter, and some custom cut paper rosettes (Tim Holtz new die!). Oh...and a CUSTOM made skinny composition journal!! How fabby is that?

I'm excited to announce Rita Cobbs was our winner from last week's Inchies challenge! Woot! Rita, get me your address so I can send out your Copic markers!!

Big warm fuzzy bunny hugs to everyone out there in Cyber land! Have fun!

~ky

Little Big Things

Congratulations to Sheri!! Her wonderful page about the movie "Across the Universe" was delightful, innovative and captured the time period of the movie perfectly. Way to go Sheri!!  Send me your mailing info, and I'll get a prize out to you! scrapacat at yahoo dot com.

I really appreciate all the noise each of you kicked up about this blog over the past week. You make me so happy with your positive thoughts about the challenges and your willingness to bring in new people! Thank you all!!

This weekend, I am struggling with wheat issues, so I'm going to go easy on you with the challenge. Are you familiar with inchies? No? Inchies are tiny little 'canvases' for miniature artwork. They are, appropriately, one inch (2.54 centimeters) on all sides - one square inch.

Your assignment this week is to make a page using a minimum of 3 inchies. The inchies can be exactly alike, or all different. Additionally, I want you to use this quote for inspiration: "Enjoy the little things, for one day, you may look back and realize they were BIG." ~Robert Brault. It doesn't have to be written on your page, but it should be apparent by your page design or subject (don't get scared - remember, this is FUN).

You'll have until Saturday, September 25th, 11:59 p.m. Central time (US) to post your entry. This week's prize will be 3 Copic Ciao markers!!

Enjoy! ~ky

Bring a Friend!

Do you know about the Art Journaling Ning website? A lot of people mention that's the first place they met some of these fabulous artists and connect on a personal level with people walking a similar journey. Less Herger and crew work hard to make this Ning a great place to "grow" this form of art.

They have wonderful videos, paid and free tutorials and classes, positive encouragement, a great photo library of creations, and a listing of many Ustream artists' scheduled programs. It really is wonderful! The best thing? Membership is free!!

Recently, the people there created a big sekrit projikt (LOLspeak for those unfamiliar, it means secret project). It's a beautiful electronic magazine (an e-zine) with stories, art, tips, and links from your favorite artists all for only $5 USD. Are you kidding me?? WOW! Best of all? The profits from the e-zine (aptly named, It's All Good) are supporting a particular project each release. This release, the beneficiary is the Oasis Studio - a new studio being built in a small community that appreciates art!

I tell you that to tell you this - I just thought you needed to know that! Seriously - this week we have a two part challenge. First find a friend who's just starting, or whom you think would be interested, and invite them to play this challenge, join Art Journaling Ning, or otherwise get involved. Have them mention you when they visit/join/follow/tweet/stalk/etc. from wherever you encourage them to play.

Edited to add: please don't be afraid of this part. The point is to spread the word about art journaling, the Ning site, and my blog. Do your best to share the word, and if your friends respond or at least come check things out, just let it be known you sent them. I'm not gonna disqualify anyone, but I would love for you to spread the word about our Art. This is about fun, not a technicality so - Play on!

Second create your project using this challenge. Select your all-time favorite movie as your inspiration (use it's color, mood, image, anything). Use that as the theme for your page. PLUS, use a hidden element or pocket - something interactive where you can journal about why this movie is your favorite!

We're making art journals - I want you to put some effort into the journal part of the art, too, ok? Here's my sample page to give you an idea.

There's another page to this, but it's not finished. I didn't want to hold anyone up on getting started, so I'll finish it and post it here when I'm done.

Last week, you all really knocked my socks off with all the web mining goodness you shared. I learned some new tricks, and you may see these techniques coming in a future challenge! Please understand that the winner is selected at random, so it is in no way a reflection of the quality of your work. Everyone has produced amazing work!

I'm thrilled to tell you that our winner this week is Melissa - God's Mixed Media Girl! Congrats Melissa! Send me your mailing info and I'll get your prize out to you!

Happy creating!! ~ky

Share the Love; Grow the Learning

Wow. The last set of entries blew me away (sorry, you knew I had to say it!). Fab-U-lous. As I read about your projects, I felt your concerns, memories, laughter, sorrow, past and future. You lifted me out of my world and brought me to the window of yours. I love that. Absolutely LOVE that. We connected. I helped you learn, you helped me see.

I want that to continue. I want connectivity that's more than an electron wide and a megapixel long. So, this is my challenge for you. Go forth, discover, create, return and share. That's it. That simple!

GO FORTH: Find a blog, a Ustream or YouTube broadcast, a social website (Nings, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, just to name a few).


Blade - the Artistic Biker's Flickr Photo

DISCOVER: Find something there that makes your creative Muse sit up and take notice!

Bud and Miller, the Famous Beer Twins

CREATE: An art journal page about what your Muse saw, thought, felt!

RETURN: to this blog, and,

SHARE: Show us your journal page. Tell us where you found your inspiration so others might learn from you and your source!

A few shout outs for this week

Artjournaling.ning.com and Willowing.ning.com are great social artist sites full of inspiration, techniques and ideas. Artjournaling also has a tab (at the upper right) called Ustream that lists what artists have shows, and when. Most of the past shows have been recorded so you can watch them at your leisure. Artjournaling also has an electronic magazine for a mere $5 with articles by several art journaling artists!

The Artistic Biker is working on opening Oasis Studio in Chickasha, OK as a learning center. He's aiming for October 1, and would love financial contributions and artwork to share in his gallery for the grand opening. Consider how you might participate if you would like. The Biker will open his studio to artists of all abilities and interests to come and teach or learn - more information as it becomes available.

YouTube has free subscriptions to many wonderful and diverse artists. Simply go to YouTube.com and type art journaling or other similar terms into the search box to get you started. Or, find some people like Diana Trout, ikerrilove, samanthakira, journalgirl, or journalartista and see who they subscribe to as a starting point. You can do the same thing at Ustream.com.

Keep in mind that most sites you visit also provide links to blogs and other opportunities to find more resources. Enjoy your surfing!

What's that you're saying? I'm not done yet?? I need to...what?? I can't hear you...what?? OOOOH THAT! How silly of me... The winner of last week's challenge by random drawing is: Jamie Lynn! Woohoo!! Send me an email to scrapacat at yahoo dot com with your mailing info so I can get your prize in the mail!

Creatively yours, ~ky