When you look at this video, YOU NEED TO HAVE PAPERS AND PEN WITH YOU and WRITE IT DOWN.
This is where your idea collecting starts.
Also, as you watch this video, write down the impulses you get and answer the questions. This is a video, it's OK to pause it for the time it takes you to hunt your ideas.
Also, this will take quite a lot of time, so start watching this when you have time!
What is mind mapping? How to brainstorm? How do people actually collect ideas? What is a bullet list? Would it work for me? Would it work for me in some other project, like in a planner? What is ephemera? How could I get my hands on more ephemera? Where do I get tickets like that? What could I use them for? Do I really want them? What would I want in stead? Why? What could I do with that?
This is an exercise in idea collecting and brainstorming, nothing more. You are not to realize any of the ideas, or pursue them further, you are just to get trained to see everything around you as potential resource and getting used to record your ideas. It's important!
14:48 First mention, I think
She is talking about "Project Life" things that fit in a standard binder and how the PL things can be used in the Idea Book.
You can jump straight to 55:40
"What I wanted to do this year... ...is an idea collecting project."
"I'm going to give you ways and means to collect ideas... ...art ideas, techniques, references, colors and color combinations, supplies (resources)... ...notes, sketches, magazine scraps... ...themes, mind mapping..."
There are two things that are very important here:
1) The idea with the Idea Book is to USE IT. So do what you KNOW you need to do to ensure you will use it!
2) It is going to be tailored just for you. Personalized, customized, to your preferences and needs. What ever Dede says is just suggestions, that YOU NEED TO ADJUST TO YOUR PERSONAL PREFERENCES AND NEEDS - so that you will use it!
It is an IDEA binder. Not a place to storage things like pretty papers
or ephemera. IDEAS. Inspiring pictures. Scribbles, sketches, notes.
"This is going to be for your ideas, not for your projects, it's not going to be an art journal, it's not going to be a collage journal, it's not going to be a sketchbook, it's not going to be anything like where you finish something - use your sketchbooks, your art journals, your canvases for your finished projects, for things that are "more done"; it's not going to be a place where you develop your sketches"
Now, at 1:26 she starts talking about the ATCs - artists' trading cards, so if you are after the idea book stuff, you can move on to the next video.
Things you need for the Idea Book
You will need a binder.
The size and other requirements are up to you.
Dede is using a standard 3 ring binder, 2" wide, with D rings, but if you KNOW you are more comfortable with a small binder, use that. If you love filofax binders, use them. There's all kinds of things for that. If you like composition notebooks, use them. Moleskines. What ever rocks your boat.But Dede uses the big binder, so everything she talks about is based on that. You need to adjust your idea book to your needs and preferences.
You will need pages.
Dede uses prepunched printer paper, just because it's relatively cheap and readily available, and if you have 500 pages, you won't be stingy with them :-D
But use what makes you happy to use it, use what you know you will use. If you prefer pale pastel colors for your pages, choose that. The colored printer paper isn't that much more expensive than the white, and if you are more bound to use it, the cost is justifyiable. :-D As said -and it will be repeated often - you need to USE it, so ANYTHING THAT MAKES IT EASIER FOR YOU TO USE IT IS GOOD.
You will need dividers and tabs
There will be main tabs, but also sub tabs, if you want to.
You can use page protectors as dividers, as the page protectors are wider than the papers in the binder, and hide the dividers.
You can print tabs on post-it-notes and just stuck them on the page protectors.
You can also use Project Life tabs and just cut them to fit the ordinary binder.
Here, again, Dede will talk about tabs she is going to use, but you need to adjust the tabs to your needs. She said: "I'm going to give you ways and means to collect ideas... ...art ideas,
techniques, references, colors and color combinations, supplies
(resources)... ...notes, sketches, magazine scraps... ...themes, mind
mapping..." Most of those categories are going to need their own tab, and you will need a table of contents to remind you where to find what, as it's not very useful to write long things on the tabs. Numbers or symbols are usually good.
(materials, resources, inventory
If you don't do collages, don't have a tab for collages.
Have a tab for "your art and crafts")
You need to create a system that will work for you, so you will need to keep an eye on things/tabs you use, and what you don't use, so that you can remove what you won't use and add what you need.
There is really no need for you to have tabs in your idea journal you know you are never going to use, to take space from things you are going to use.
So when Dede says "your art", it doesn't mean that you MUST have only one main tab for every art and crafts form you do and then have subtabs - you can have a main tab for each and every one, and then have subtabs there - like "Colored Pencils" - sub:animals, sub; abstract, sub;realism, sub; special techniques
You will need page protectors and card sleeves etc.
These are for storage of smaller bits of paper and "stuffs".
There's a lot of different "sleeves". Just google "storage pocket refill sleeve photo archival". :-D
You'll find plastic see-through pocket inserts (like page protectors) divided for many different uses. Dede speaks about the collectible card storage sleeves, but there are sleeves for business cards, photos of all sizes, mounted slides and negatives (still - some people are still using analogue cameras and film), the sleeves for photos come in different sizes, some has wider pockets for photos and narrower pockets for journaling, and that is wonderful, I think.
There are sleeves for storing stamps, coins and bills for the philatelists and numismatics.
There's postcard sleeves.
Here in Sweden the binder rings are standard, so every
punched page and pocket and sleeve fits ANY standard binder - the big
ones, the small ones... so you can use the page protectors for the SMALL
binders in a BIG binder, especially if you use them to store smaller
pieces, not A4 papers.
You can also take a page made for ANY KIND OF BINDER; cover the punched edge with sturdy tape or self-adhesive film, or glue pretty paper or cardstock to cover the holes, and repunch it to fit your binder.
You can also do this with folders to create pockets.
You will need some clear plastic bags for storing smaller
pieces. You can get small postcard size bags quite cheaply, and also use
collectible card protectors. (Which is what I do, because I play Magic
the Gathering and have the card sleeves and pages ;-))
You will need a couple of folders for extra project ideas, clip art, articles and scraps you don't want to store in the page protectors. Especially if you have cut your page protectors to not cover the tabs, and want to store the extra pages unfolded.
You will need a notepad.
Dede has the "Big Ideas Notepad" in the pocket of the cover of the binder and a hairband to keep it in neatly in place.
The Big Ideas Notepad: 100 Brainstorming, Mind-mapping & Awesome Idea-generating Sheets
by Mary Kate McDevitt
ISBN-13: 978-1452114149
It's good to have ring hole reinforcer stickers, because the printer paper holes will tear. Even when you are really gentle with your binder, which you shouldn't need to be, because the more you need to think about things like that, the less likely it is that you use it. You shouldn't need to think your binder at all. You should be able to store it wherever, grab it at any time and scribble in it what ever you want.
Which means that you need to store at least one good pen with the binder all the time. Preferably more than one, in different colors. I need my mechanical pencil, and extra lead and erasers.
This was written by Clare at "Less Grafting More Crafting" - on May 16th 2014, but the site seems to be dead now, so I decided to repost some parts of the tutorial here:
"This tutorial combines a mix of making your own inserts from scratch and
customising pre-printed inserts – the beauty of this project is that
you can keep working on it throughout the year and you don’t need to
finish it in one go! This also means that you can really make it work
for you, so don’t be afraid to try out ideas and then scrap them if they
don’t work."
"To make this insert, measure the size of your pages and cut out a
rectangle without a divider tab. Use the holes of the divider as a guide
to punch out the holes in your new page."
"You can make simple storage pockets using pieces of card or scrapbooking paper"
"You could make a divider page before each month using scrapbook paper – I
used some little stickers for the month on the front of each one. I
haven’t put divider tabs on these, but you could if you want to."
"To make divider tabs, just use your old divider inserts and draw around the
tab."
"When it comes to the actual diary pages, there are so many
possibilities! You could customise bought inserts, or print out your
own."
"When it comes to the pre-printed inserts, you can also use washi tape and stickers to decorate. "
Clare has written a new version of this to her current blog (I think), where she talks more about this and shows more photos, and also shows how to make the tab dividers.
Now, if you do anything with this, go and share your creation at Clare's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hellohoorayblog . She would really like to see how she inspires people. :-)
