Inspiration deck

The first project this year will be making an inspiration deck for yourself.

You start by purchasing an ordinary, cheap deck of cards, and some white paint (any ordinary room paint will do, you won't need much, so get a small can. Not the sample cans, a little bit more), and then some way of getting the paint from can on the cards, like a small roller or small paint brush meant for details in furniture or so. That is, not fine art paint brush.
Then you spread the cards on a newspaper and paint them white. (Of course you can choose any color you like, like teal or turquoise :-D) Let them dry, and repeat the procedure on the other side.
You should end up with 52 white cards (some decks of cards have more than 52 cards - there are up to 4 jokers and a couple of ad cards in the decks - the more the merrier.)
You can also buy 2-3 or more decks and paint them all white at the same time.

The collectible card games come with wide selection of storage units, boxes made for the cards, plastic pockets for a binder etc. These are the perfect size for your cards.

So what are you supposed to be doing with these cards?
These are going to be your Mixed Media Inspiration Deck.
Of course you should go and buy that, and the boosters as well, but it doesn't hurt to have more than those 52 cards, and if you are like me, you'd rather use the pennies to buy more art material than inspiration decks, how ever great they are.

I have two Pinterest boards that are useful in this:
Book of Shadows, Book of Light
Surface treatment
I have collected different ideas, pictures of other people's work, free tutorials etc. on these two boards.
Now, the idea is to take one of these ideas, any one, and write it on one of the cards.
For example:

From this video you get the following techniques and ideas for your inspiration cards:
- use string, yarn or thread to add texture to your page
- use tissue paper
- use color spray; for example spray ink
- use salt
- add glitter, shimmer, sparkle
- add some metallic wax
- add letters
- embossing, enameling - you can either use embossing powder and embossing heat tool (hair dryer, heat gun) or clear nail polish, which is a polymer lacquer (one could say plastic resin) - which ever is easier and cheaper for you. A clear drying hard glue works too.

You can make all your cards to look the same, so that you won't even subconsciously pick your favorites, or make the cards an example of the technique or suggestion on it. :-) Because it really doesn't matter if you have favorites and use them often :-D The main thing is TO CREATE and if you want to explore one technique or a couple of materials over the others, that's all fine! I mean, just think about watercolorists. They don't experiment with a lot of different media and materials and techniques, they have what they are good with, what they prefer to use, and use that to express what ever they wish to express.

Another idea, instead of cards you can use tags and have a "tag book" - all the tags in a ring. Then, in stead of shuffling the cards, you shuffle the book and do what ever comes up.

Make your journal

I am going to assume that you are as poor as I am, and there's very little inspiration that is NOT associated with product marketing, or inspired by product marketing... I don't think I have seen a video where they make a nice art journal page without using the pricey stuffs. And I'm assuming you have very little if even that ;-)

So, you won't have money to buy these fancy notebooks and sketchbooks.

You could try taking an old book and gessoing the pages and use that as your art journal. One can get old books pretty cheap, depending on what book it is. Old dictionaries and lexicons they practically throw at you, and lexicons are usually quite big, and the modern ones (from 80's and on) have quite thick, coated pages and sewn binding, so it's easy to remove a couple of pages from each... er... what are they called... those bundles that are sewn together... signature?

You can also start small, and bind your own journal, and this is what I am going to do this year.
I am going to use free newspapers, which here in Sweden means the free advertisement papers that are printed on newspaper. They are totally free, they have home delivery, and these papers are as big as it gets. (Here in Sweden they have noticed that people prefer reading smaller papers, so I haven't seen a full sized newspaper for ages.)
I am going to use the "one page wonder" binding.

You are going to need a sheet of newspaper, as big as you can get and glue or "mod podge" or wallpaper paste.

This is a recipe for "homemade mod podge", which is equal amounts of "clag paste" and "white glue", and a little water.

"Clag paste" is wallpaper paste. You make it by cooking 1 part ordinary white wheat flour (all purpose, what ever it's called) and 2 parts of water. Let it bubble some 5-10 minutes and let it cool. That is a pretty good "glue" for decoupage and papier mache etc.

This mix will warp the paper, so you need to let your work dry under weight sandwiched between even layers of something to lead the moisture away. You can use newspapers or kitchen towels, but place a sheet of wax paper between the glued surface and newspapers, to stop the newspapers from smudging your work, and the glued surface from adhering to the newspapers. You need to have a kitchen towel or newspapers UNDER the pile, because wax paper will effectively prevent the glue from drying :-D And that's not purposeful.
You can also dig up your work from the pile every couple of hours to air, and change the newspapers/kitchen towels.

So, how to do this.
1) take a sheet of newspaper. As big a sheet you can get. The bigger the sheet, the bigger the book.
Fold it in half, the short edges to each other. Push down properly. Open the fold, and fold the edges to this midline. On this layer, all the folds should be to the same direction. (so... if you make a tube of it by putting the short ends together, it should look like a square from one end of the tube.)
Then open it up, and fold in half, the long edges to each other. This time you want an accordion folding, so you fold both sides in half again, the long edge to the middle.  (Looks like M or W looking from the short end of the "pile")
I know, I'm not very good at explaining...
What is important here is that you make precise, sharp folds, so that after you have cut it, the pages sort of fold themselves into right position.

 Fold lines

2) Then you cut up the newspaper. You should end up with a long sliver of paper, so you have to be careful not to cut up the lines to the end!

Cut lines - looks like M

You will cut the short folds over three folds - two from one direction, one from the opposite direction.
To get the book of this big M, you start folding it by the fold lines.

3) I don't know if this is any clear, but the blue lines are "valleys" and the green "mountains". If you folded the newspaper as I adviced, you won't need to turn the folds, but it's just... folding the book together.
4) Then you need to glue the pages together.

Here's a very nice explanation. You can jump over the exact measurements and all that. Of course, being exact gives a "better" result, but I kind of like the haphazardous nature of just folding and cutting. I think it's more "bohemian" ;-) Artistic, unique, individual. You, of course, do as you find best.

You will end up with a little booklet of newspaper, with 16 pages - or 8 openings, how ever you want to count.

When the booklet has dried, you want to gesso the pages. Gesso isn't expensive and you can buy it online, so you have access to it where ever you live. So, I would ignore the "make your own" tutorials, and just buy a bucket of the stuff. You will use it. A lot.

The purpose with gessoing the pages is to create a good ground for your future work with the book. Newspaper is VERY short fiber paper, which means it's soft and wears and tears and you will get problems if you don't prime the pages.
But - it's cheap - free, in fact - and all you need to make it is things like scissors, glue and gesso.

Now comes the problem - will you wait for your pages to dry, or will you buy a cheap hair dryer and dry the pages?

A COUPLE OF IMPORTANT NOTES!

1) I really recommend that you invest in an art journal or watercolor sketch book, because this newspaper journal will have a life of its own. Now, I'm OK with that, but you might not - the paper will react to moisture by buckling and curling and rippling, even after it's been gessoed, and the seam in the middle where the pages are glued together, is weak and rips very easily if it gets moist... which it will.
You could also do your pages on separate pieces of paper that you glue to the newspaper journal, but you need to fold the paper in the middle, if it's as big as an opening of the journal, BEFORE YOU PAINT IT. Otherwise this folding might destroy your work.
2) I really recommend that you invest in a hairdryer, because it's a blessing to have the pages dry as you sit there, and have a bit more control of the drying process, and not need to wait for the pages to dry... You could also work on several pages at the same time. When one needs to dry, you move on to the next one.

New year, new ideas...

I have been horribly neglecting my blog.
I have my excuses, but the truth is that if I want, I'll find the time etc., if I don't, I'll find excuses.

Enough about that.

I found several courses for this year that sound amazing, but - alas - I don't have the money. Yet.
And they say the best way to learn is to teach, so in stead of indulging myself in courses and learning and growing and all that, I'm going to indulge myself in all the free resources I can find online, and share them with you.

One thing I have learned is that I shouldn't promise anything.
I wanted to say "I commit myself to post every day of this year - 365 blog posts"
Then I thought about it and realized that so far I have managed to write blog posts once a day for a month. That's it. So 12 months, cold turkey, isn't realistic. It would be nice, but it isn't realistic.
So - what about once a week? 52 blog posts... I should be able to do that. It's just a little less than twice the posts in a month.
But - I won't promise anything, and I won't commit, because I don't know how to do that, so I'll do my best, try and see what happens.

So, enough about that as well :-D

I am going to make an effort to grab myself on the skin of my neck (I wonder if that's a Finnish idiom that doesn't work in any other language...) and make myself create something every day.
Yes, every day. Every day is a possibility to create, and even when I'm sick and tired, I can create.

So, this year, I'm going to focus on me and create a sort of Self Searching Journal, healing, creating, some expressive art journaling, learning to know me better and becoming more ME. Fully egocentric, egoistic, egotistic and all things EGO. I love Ego. Frankly, I believe we have been born to be an Ego as fully as we can. That's why we all have our own skins, personality, preferences etc. etc., we have our own friends, kinsfolk and tribe, we have our own dreams and wishes - we have all our own lives. If we were supposed to stop being ourselves, stop being Egos, we wouldn't be separate. We would still be part of the Great Whole without any separation. We do have the separation, and I cannot believe anything God given is bad.
But I have been brainwashed as the rest of the humanity, to believe that focusing on oneself, one's self, is egocentric, egoistic, selfish, very, very bad. Of course, a highly spiritual person may not even think anything is "bad". :-D The truth is that even people speaking themselves blue about ego and how to get rid of it, don't really know what they are talking about.

Nevertheless, I'm going to have a Year of Me, and I'm inviting you all to join me. Everything I do I share freely on this blog so that you can do the same.
And as I already said, the road I'm going to take is through an art journal.

An art journal is a visual journal or diary or log book about your days.

The least you need is some sort of paper (or cardboard or canvas or what ever it is you like to put your painting on)
and something to make a mark on that paper. Pencil, markers, paints, crayons, glue and magazine pages, what ever you like.

But - there's a big list, too... if you want to make sure you have it all ;-)

There are hundreds of different paper sorts, paperboard, cardboard etc. etc. ALL OF IT can be used in art journaling.
Don't forget:
tissue paper (silk paper)
vellum
glassine (pergamyn in German, rather popular hobby paper there, but they have this st.Marten's tradition of making paper lanterns, so... anyway, Finland was closer to Germany than USA when I was growing up, and had these hobbypacks with tissue paper in lots of colors, metal foil paper in lots of colors and this glassine paper in many colors... I loved it, and I think it's a pity that's no longer available, as everyone is "scrapbooking" in the US style products - it's all the same, and very boring. :-( - So I'm going to go to Germany to buy some paper.)
cellophan and the different foils, metal and plastic, like overhead film
Crepe paper, scrapbooking paper, magazines and newspapers, all the different commercial papers like butcher paper; household papers like pergament and wax paper; squared and lined papers, graph paper, ledger paper, wrapping paper, napkins (all layers are good, not just the printed layer), all the possible envelopes and file folders etc. etc.
Also, don't forget the tracing paper! I loved that stuff when I was little :-)

Pens, pencils, markers, crayons, pastels... anything like that, from the kids versions to high artistic quality stuff. Experiment, and choose what you like best. If you only can afford one, get a black one. Or one in your favorite color.

Most art journalists love the watersoluble crayons, colored pencils and markers.

Dry pastels are different from oil pastels, but which ever you choose, go for quality. Cheap pastels are totally different from the pricy ones, and if you have ever used the pricy ones, you won't ever be happy with cheap kids' crayons. The pricy ones are soft, have a lot of pigment and very little cheap fillers, so they will leave a good mark on paper without much job, and they will be easy to use, a pleasure to use.

The colored pencils are their own art form, and there's an ocean of information about them. But I don't like using them on art journals, because they are very special. I would recommend something like pastels in pencil form, inktense pencils, colored graphite/charcoal pencils that are water soluble. Those are as far as I know most usable in art journaling. See that you have a white colored pencil, of a very good quality, because that will be very useful for highlights etc.

One should have a good journaling pen, and some colored markers for detailing, etc. Most markers are translucent, but there are some opaque variations too, like acrylic markers and poster-paint and water-based paint markers.
Also, there's a world of variation when it comes to markers. So - experiment, test, find what you like.
I would like to say that even though Copics are amazing, they are a bit too expensive for people who just like to play with their colors and materials... Of course, if you have the money, you can buy the copics, as they are refillable and even the tips can be changed, and the color variation is unbelievable, and they are lovely to use, but if you would prefer to use your money to something else, you can get yourself something a bit cheaper, like Promarker Letraset - there's plenty of colors there, too, and they are nice to use.
I think one must is a white marker or white gel pen, what ever that's called.

It is a good idea to get a box of drawing pencils, graphite pencils, chalks, charcoal, charcoal pencil with a thick, watersoluble charcoal etc. etc. There's so much out there!

Like this Koh-i-Noor Giogonda artist set 

with a graphite stick, charcoal pencil, white and red chalk pencils, 

black and dark sepia (charcoal? chalk?) and black and sienna soft pastels 

with kneadable eraser and paper stump.

Then there are the paints; acrylic, watercolor, gouache, finger paint, poster paint, different inks and printing colors... oh, go wild! And there's a constant flow of new colors to the market, like stressing inks and shimmer mists and whatnots... the world is your oyster there :-)
But - as everything costs... get a couple of testing colors of those mediums you are interested in, in your favorite color(s). Then, at least, if you find out you don't like the medium, at least you like the color and it's not wasted ;-)

Have also good paint brushes for application.
A lot of people love the fillable paint brushes, those with water tank. (Water brush, aqua brush...)
I also recommend having a couple foam brushes, a bunch of cotton tops - or the makeup application tools, which are basically just different paint brushes and sponges :-)

Glitter, glimmer, shine, sparkle, metal wax, mica, there's a lot of ways to add some of this to your page. Don't forget eye shadows. Those things can be used as pastel chalks or glimmer powder as they are, or mixed with some adhesive.

basically, anything designed to dye, stain, color paper, wood or fabric can be used on paper.
Experiment with some things that are not...

Also, there's a British brand of materials that produce things that are not known outside Britain - but these can usually be found in online shops... so go visit foreign shops. ;-)

There are different glues and stuff like that. 

Which ever you use, remember to use a cheap paint brush that can be destroyed and thrown away without much bother. (Not too cheap, or you'll end up picking hairs from your work). But don't use your best artist quality paint brushes for glue and gesso! Or masking fluid.

Most art journalists swear in the name of matte gel medium for acrylics. It's apparently "dry", so it won't warp the paper, so you can glue anything with it, and it apparently keeps anything in place when it has dried. So - sounds really good.
It's good to have a glue stick, too, and I like the rubber glue.
I also think it might be a good idea to get a glue spray, with not a lot of hold, to use when you are to print on tissue paper or napkins. (Yes, you can.)
Also, white glue or milk glue is good to have, for all these recipes :-D
"mod podge" or some other decoupage paste/varnish
Packing tape is quite useful
masking tape
a lot of art journalists love washi tape. I haven't found any, so I don't know what it is and how it works and whether I like it or not... it doesn't sound like something I'd be very fond of, but you might like it. It can be used as fastener of your extra papers or photos; as ribbon to decorate the page; to add texture; etc. etc.
Some like staples. I don't. Some like brads. There's apparently a lot of embellishments like this made for scrapbooking, and of course you should go and see what they have, and perhaps you find something absolutely adorable and so you, that you just have to have and use on your pages. I'm a bit minimalist when it comes to embellishments. I like to make the impact with colors and patterns and composition rather than decor and accessories.

gesso. There's white, black and transparent. All of them have their use.

Clear nail polish. Nail polish is sort of polymer resin and can easily be used on paper, as glue, as shiny varnish, to add a bit polish to details etc.

Some sort of rags to quick clean up when mess happens, or to gather excess liquids etc. One can use kitchen paper, but old, clean rags, like flannel or old cotton t-shirts, or old cotton sheets, are equally useful, and reusable :-D Just make sure they don't lint. That's why "old". Used and washed many times, and natural material. It must be cotton or linen or some other plant fiber.

stickers are part of this scrapbook-y embellishment list in my mind. I'm really bad at using them.

transfer, rub-ons and other
there's a whole world here, too, about how to make them, how to use them etc. etc.

brayer

scissors 
You can even use the decorative scissors for different things, like making combs to add texture, or to make masks


the classics, ruler, eraser, pencil sharpener

some sort of heating/drying tool, like hair dryer or embossing heat tool.

baby powder or very very fine sand or other such dust. Some things won't dry unsticky. They need some sort of powder to bind the stickiness. Like in the olden times they powdered the letters to get the ink dry... that was very fine sand.

rubber stamps and ink pads

one thing that's very useful, is alphabet sets. Stamps, transfers, stickers, stencils, all go.

stencils and masks
masking fluid, masking tape - learn to use these

some sort of palette, to mix the paints, cups, bowls, plates, jars, bottles... apparently small spritzer bottles are really useful.

palette knife (knives)
plastic cards (like credit cards or hotel keys or gift cards) to be used to mix and spread the paint or gesso or what ever, in stead of a palette knife. Sometimes a plastic card is better ;-)

"journaling bits, embellishments, ephemera"
playing cards, collectible card game cards, tarot cards, oracle cards, old game pieces, post cards, old greeting cards, stamps, bubblegum cards, advertisement ephemera, photos, old tickets etc, paper dolls, paper ribbon, string, yarn, ribbons, tapes, bands, buttons, gems, artificial flowers, visit cards, leaflets, booklets, coasters, book pages, prints, note cards, notepad paper, flash cards, vintage lotto cards, tags, recipes, receipts, patterns, dictionary pages, lexicon pages, other book pages, children's picture books, scraps, envelopes, catalogs, calendars, almanacs, paper doilies, music sheets, maps...

doilies and lace - paper or thread, doesn't matter.

embossing paste, embossing powder and adhesive, modeling paste...
One thing I have been really happy about has been my embossing tool. It's a little metal tool with changeable heads, like a small ball, bigger ball, cup, edge, etc. for embossing paper or metal foil. I love it! But I have always loved embossed paper... my favorite scraps were the embossed ones. And those with glitter, of course, those were the finest :-D

mesh tape from hardware store; made to cover the seams in walls. That's great to add texture, and other things.

I really, really want a circle punch (and hole punch). All these fancy-schmancy cutters etc. are not necessary and in my mind 100% waste of money, but if you have the money - or someone throws these machines at you - go ahead. They have their use, too, and are fun.

Paper cutter. Really nice.

One important thing you are going to need is photos of you in different ages. If you have nothing else but current photos, then that will have to do, but you must get photos of you. Go to a photo booth if you don't know anyone with a camera.

I'm sure there's more, but we'll discover that on the journey :-)

What may come

Merry Yule, Happy Chanukkah, Joyous Holidays, what ever you celebrate, may it be lovely and amazing :-)

I am planning and preparing for a surprise for next year, so stay tuned :-)

Apparently someone thinks I should update my blog :-D

This morning I was on my way to Dictionary.com, when I was being a bit careless with my mouse, and ended up to Facebook instead.
Just in time to see a post made by a friend about the effects in adult life of emotional neglect in childhood...
Crap.
I was reminded of that even though I seem to have gotten over The Catastrophe, I still am suffering of the emotional neglect. *sigh*
I kind of thought that those two were related in a way that when I get over one, I'll automatically get over the other. No such luck :-D

Now I was on my way to Internet Archive Wayback Machine, and, being sloppy mouse handler, ended up here.

So... Spring Equinox was and went, and started the next Sabbathiad, second half of Spring, and we are heading towards the Summer and Mayday. (M'aidez... :-D)

Weekly checklist countdown

I ADORE christmas.organizedhome.com, and their master plan for an organized Christmas is pure genius. So I have adjusted their weekly checklist to Pagan Sabbaths, and here's a printable calender.

You should be able to right-click the image and view it, to be able to print a page for your Sabbath Planner. It should be clear enough.

3 weeks to Ostara :-)

Just 20 days... that's not even three weeks. (One day short... >:->)

It's a good thing one doesn't give presents on Ostara, because... hey, wait a minute. One doesn't? Oh, yes, one does. Baskets...

Anyway, this week I want you to do some things:

* I do wish you have your Holiday Center still up since Imbolc. You did celebrate that, didn't you, even when I wasn't around to remind you? Actually, I was in Finland. It was lovely. More snow than in Sweden. :-) It was a really, really cold day, and I wish I had blown soap bubbles. They say those freeze into ice baubles. I would want to hold one in my hand and feel how thin it is...
If you have cleaned out the Holiday Center, create one again. 

* Take forth your Ostara binder. If you have one. If you don't, get one. Take Sabbaths seriously, please! If we don't hallow our Sabbaths, no-one will, and then "the majority" will "steal" our traditions. Just like they did with Yule.

* Make a "family value" check. Go through your Ostara celebrations through the years, and how you would like to celebrate it. What is important to you in Ostara and the celebration. Plan how you will be able to lift up the themes and messages of the season that are important to you, and how you can create family traditions that are most memorable and enjoyable for you and your family.

* Update your Ostara card list, find out all the addresses, see that you have the cards, write them, put them in envelopes and stamp them, and write the addresses on them. Then post them.

* Are you going to travel? Now it's high time to make the travel reservations and check-up all the necessary details - are visas ok, everyone has been vaccinated, you have proper equipment, suitcases are whole and in working condition etc. etc.

* Houseguests? See that you, your home and your family are ready to welcome them. You still have time to fix the missing bits and bobs.

* Family photo session? Get ready. Appoint the photographer, plan outfits, etc. etc.
Also, do you plan getting your hair fixes? Schedule hairdresser.
Flowers? Order them.


* Clean your home thoroughly, ready for the decorations.

* Plan the Ostara meals, clothes, baskets, and everything else. Write shopping lists.

* Make a tabletop check. Do you have all the necessary tablecloths, napkins, glasses, cutlery, centerpieces etc. etc.