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Video: Making Collage Papers Together

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I am excited to share another create with me session. I am planning to make these, or some version of them weekly and next week I am planning on sharing an art journaling practice with you. This week I am making some more painted papers that I plan to use in collage.

If you want to get creative but maybe you don’t know exactly what to make, painted pages can be so much fun! If you don’t like collage and think you don’t have a use for painted pages you can do the same thing in your art journal to get ride of white space and then create over top of them.

Some other uses for painted pages:

  • Homemade wrapping paper: You could use a roll of kraft paper to make marks and paint splatters or even copier paper to wrap smaller presents.
  • Fold them into homemade gifts bags
  • Homemade gift tags
  • Turn them into envelopes for happy mail
  • Use sturdier paper and then bind them together to make a journal
  • Cut the paper down to make homemade greeting cards or postcards.
  • Use as backgrounds for photos in memory keeping
  • Cut them up and use them in your planner
  • Make tabs for your planner or journals
  • Use in your Rainbow Glue Book

The possibilities are really endless! If you have some ideas please share in the comments-and be sure to link your blog so I can stop by and say hello!

In addition to making painted pages I am having a chat about an upcoming popcorn journal video, Bob Ross and making mud.

Mentioned in the Video:

Last Week’s Create with Me:

Jennibellie’s Video on Making a Journal from a Cereal Box

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Weekly Round Up for the 2nd Week of August 2022

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How is your August going? I have been feeling good, if not a bit antsy from time to time. Do you ever feel like you are supposed to be somewhere doing something but you don’t know where or what? I have been feeling that way a bit this past week so I’m trying to spend more time doing and less time lost in my head.

Here’s a bit of what I have been doing:

My First Create with Me Art Journaling Session

I had so much fun playing in my art journal with no goal in mind other than to play in my art journal. If you would like some virtual company to have a play with your journal you can watch the video and read the blog post here.

This Week in Flowers (and Pumpkins)
I am so grateful for the bouquets that I am still able to cut from the garden. I also share with you my pride and joy-PUMPKINS! Something I have been trying to successfully grow for years. You can see all the photos in the blog post here.

Weekly Podcasts
I also recorded a new podcast for this week where I am chatting about creative living. If you fancy a chat for about 20 minutes or so why not make your self a cup of your favorite beverage (iced tea? I love unsweetened iced tea this time of year) and join me here.

Letters for Creatives
I am also sending out my letters to creatives today. If you like the idea of a weekly email meant only to be inspiring to my fellow creatives you can sign up here.

Book Club
I decided to make my Book Club posts monthly and plan to share them the first week of every month. I wasn’t reading fast enough so I thought I might not have enough content to share each week. Unless of course I shared with you all the books I have added to my TBR (To Be Read) list! Of course after deciding that I finished 2 books this week so maybe I would have had something to share. Still, I’ll stick with once a month and see how it goes.

Not shared specifically on the blog but I have a fun video with painted papers coming on my YouTube channel on Monday. I admit to being nervous and excited to get my channel going again. I am taking small steps and will be sharing weekly there but every video that goes on YouTube can also be found on Dilettante TV here on the site so no worries if you aren’t hanging out on YT.

I finished painting an old sofa table for the studio. I started it last Friday and was able to give it a second coat this week and set it all up Wednesday. I am so happy with how it looks (you can see the before and after below) along with how my vintage typewriter looks on it.

    

I have a piece going in my art journal about birds. I was inspired after watching this video
on Sandi Hester’s YT channel (thank you Laura Bray for sharing her channel with me!). I just loved how she painted her birds (and the automotive brushes she was using-so I had to order some!)

I have been working off and on with birds the past few months and on Saturday we took a trip to our local used book store and I picked up an Encyclopedia on birds (along with some other books I’m hoping to use in collage). The page is sitting on my desk in my studio and as I came in to work today I was inspired to add some collage to it so that’s just what I did. It’s still a work in progress but I’ll be sure to share it with you when it’s all done.

I do hope you have had some time for your creativity this week. Please let me know what you have been working on-I would love to hear!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Video: Create with Me Art Journaling Session #1

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How is your Monday so far? I hope your week is off to a great start. I am sitting in my studio writing to you-so all in all it’s a great day.

Today I am sharing another video with you. If you read my post last Monday you know that I am working on sharing more video content with you and while I am still debating about sharing on YouTube (I keep going back and forth) I wanted to share a fun Create with Me video here for you today.

I do love watching my favorite creatives don’t you?
I love sitting down and creating with a video playing in the background or sometimes on those days when I just can’t be creative I am grateful to share in the creative play of others and it really makes me happy.

If you would like to see some of my favorite creatives you can visit the link in my sidebar.

One of the things I really hope to do with this site is to encourage my fellow creatives to make their creativity a priority. To claim in for themselves and to make time each day to refill their creative well in a way that only expression can. To sit down with your chosen medium and play. To get lost in your own world, following the direction of your creative muse. For me, this time restores my soul, my mind and my physical well-being in a way nothing else does.

You know those days when you are just completely exhausted and want nothing more than to plop down on the couch and veg out? I have found that if before plopping down, I sit down at my desk and pick up a gelato or colored pencil and tell myself to just make one mark, I almost always feel better instantly. Suddenly I am making more marks and often times ideas start to flow and I find I have done an entire journal spread and I don’t feel so exhausted anymore.

Other times I just make the mark-and that’s ok too.

Today I invite you to try and make a mark. There is no goal here, nothing we are trying to make other than time with our creativity. In the video below you will see that I don’t make anything. I fill a page with color, I have fun, I do some journaling to let out the feelings that need letting out and calling in the energy I need to call in. There is no great masterpiece at the end-unless you count how great I felt after.

So if you have 20 or so minutes to sit with your supplies and your creative muse I would love to have you join me-regardless of your chosen medium. And if you do join in, please leave a comment below-I would love to hear how you felt and what you had a play with.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Music by Joystock – https://www.joystock.org

Painting Faces

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How are you? I have been working through with the help of some art making. This weekend the weather was a little gray and between puttering in the garden (and bringing in some cut flowers to place in bud vases around the house) I made some art.

I have been working on a theme of small ladies that I would love to turn into stickers. I do love stickers and adding them to journal pages or in memory keeping. I am still fine tuning them. I love how they look as sketches but when I start painting them I feel like they are loosing a little something. Maybe I should try them all in colored pencils?

I am also working on a little paper clay decoration for Father’s Day. I am hoping I can get it done in time-I have been doing a bit here and there as I can. The inspiration came from Sarah Hand’s new book “A Happy Book of Little Gifts to Make” (that’s an affiliate link and if you make a purchase I receive a small commission but it doesn’t cost you any more).
With any luck I can finish it up in time and share some photos with you.

I was also flipping through one of my larger sketchbooks. I don’t know about you but there are certain sketchbooks or art journals I just connect with. It has very little to do with the book itself and I think more to do with how I have created in it so far. If I have been free and having fun just playing with materials I tend to really, really love the book. This is one of those journals. Usually, once I realize that I love the book I suddenly put all this pressure on myself to “keep it going.”
It feels a little like learning to ride a bike-once you realized you are doing it you fall over?

In flipping through this journal I came across I piece I had done a while back that I absolutely loved. I mean, really loved. I just connected with her so much and I am sure it had to do with how I felt creating her. I remember when she was done and I shared her with my family they just smiled and said it was nice. They didn’t quite share my enthusiasm. Art is like that though isn’t it? It can feel like the entire Universe aligned and offered you clarity and then another person can see it and just shrug. Art is so very personal.

I get it-it’s not as if she is a fabulous execution of a face. Still, she meant something to me and flipping back through the journal and seeing her I felt it all over again.

I also felt the call to make another one (and maybe more than one). This time however I felt a little nervous. Afraid I was putting pressure to create the same feeling I had when I made the one above. (I named her “Babette” by the way)
Instead, I picked a background page that had my favorite colors mixed in it and it and just started playing.

Can I say I love her even more?

 

I also love this photo with my messy desk. I took it just to make sure I captured her and instantly knew this would be a part of a post I wanted to share with you.

I am pretty sure this journal is going to be filled with similar girls. I love the two-page spread and there is just something about each of them that speaks something to me.

I hope you like this little peak into what I have been creating over the weekend. I would love to hear what you have been making or creating. Please share in the comments below.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

 

 

 

My Mini Creative Retreat Update & This Week’s Creativity

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Happy Monday! I hope this is finding you well. We are having gorgeous weather today and I have been spending some time out in the garden. There is lots to do (isn’t there always) and I still have lots to plant out. Zinnia seeds, snapdragon plants I picked up and so much more.

I wanted to give you a little update about my mini creative retreat. I ended up having-in essence 3 days in the house all to myself something I haven’t had in close to 8 years maybe? Hubby took the little ones on an adventure looking at dinosaurs, snakes and owls. Then swimming in the pool and riding amusement park rides. It would seem our 3 year-old has quite the adventurous spirit when it comes to the rides so I am hopeful I will have another friend to ride the roller coasters with.

Everyone hit the road just around noon on Thursday and I spent the day at home. I did some of my free writing which was a practice I let fall away the past few months. It never ceases to amaze me how the practices I love the most and that replenish and fill me the most are the first things I let go of. Still it felt wonderful to be back with my daily writing journal and just letting the thoughts flow out. It was from this exercise that I decided I wanted to make myself a treasure box and I wanted to do it out of paper mache. Now I have never made a box using paper mache but it sounded like it could be a fun project. I did a little search to see if there were any tips and I found a wonderful video and a blog showing how to make exactly what I wanted to make. Sadly neither the channel nor the blog have been updated in 8 years or so but I still enjoyed looking around. There is something I am just loving about blogs again and I feel there is going to be more and more of them coming back in the purest of forms. Here’s hoping anyway.

So I made up my paper mache box and set it out to dry. Can I just say how much fun it was to do? I love getting messy and I find this kind of creativity so therapeutic. I also had do a minor repair on my paper mache project from Sarah Hand’s class that I mentioned last week. I had them both sitting on the kitchen table under the ceiling fan drying. I did quite a bit of art journalling too and really just relaxing and playing. At night I was looking for a movie to watch and found “Groundhog Day,” which I had actually never seen before. It was a nice light movie to end the day with.

On Friday I woke early (well early for me anyway) and video chatted with the family. The weather was gray and not overly inviting to work outside so I spent time prepping and sanding my paper mache pieces. I think the best part of this little retreat was just floating around and doing things as and when I wanted them. I took a little drive to the craft store and picked up some paints for gelli printing and a few other miscellaneous items for other projects. I enjoyed sushi for lunch and made quite a few gelli prints following on of Carla Sonheim’s classes I just signed up for. It was a lot of fun and I have some plans for these prints that I am looking forward to exploring.  I did manage some gardening and planted up some hanging baskets and a pot for the front porch that I am pretty proud of.

On Saturday I napped in the afternoon. I was tired and just needed a nap and thought, “why not nap?” The family came home around 8pm so the house was chaotic with luggage and laundry and things to be put away and stories to hear. Sunday was my son’s birthday and we celebrated at home just us. He asked for a treasure hunt to find his presents and pizza for dinner. I had picked up his cake on Saturday which was delicious. Unfortunately the family is dealing with colds now-seems to be a bit of a norm when they travel. Nothing serious just running noses and laying around. Most are already feeling better and on the mend but I think any plans for the rest of the vacation will be on hold.

I am grateful to be writing this blog post on our patio under the tent. The afternoon sun floods the garden and I am enjoying a cup of tea, 2 pieces of dark chocolate and writing to you.

I feel I learned a lot from my mini retreat. Namely how important time like this is for me, my mental health and my creativity. I am hoping to make these happen regularly and to also bring into each day some of the best parts of my retreat. Making my creative a priority is not only healing for me it’s a gift I have been given that needs to be nourished.

I hope you are having a nice start to your week. I would love to hear about your creative retreats if you take any and how you go about it. I prefer to do my retreats at home but I think the mobile minivan studio will be coming out again soon.

Wishing you a beautiful week!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Time to Myself….What to Do?

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I am sitting at my kitchen table. The ceiling fan is on creating a gorgeous breeze as the windows are open bringing spring indoors. Probably a few bugs as well since almost all of our windows are original to our 120 year-old house. Still, it’s my favorite time of year.

I do love fall and winter equally but for very different reasons. I love the coziness, the hunkering down that comes with the chilling off of the weather. I love snuggling up with a cozy blanket and a warm drink. I love putting the storm windows down and retreating within. I love crisp walks in the cold, red noses and watching the snow fall.

And then I love the spring. As those same storm windows go up, screens come down and windows are open. I love the first time you can step outside without a coat and when the sun shines bright enough that you remember what it’s like to be hot again.

My days are usually simple and similar. I like to keep my schedule clear and move from one moment to the next enjoying what is presented in front of me. Or at least trying to. I admit that this does prove to be a challenge when you are part of a family, especially a family with little ones. My creative, introverted self has been seeking some retreat time. Solo time in the house where I can explore with a bit more depth (i.e. time) my creativity and really to just be. This month my husband is taking the kiddos for a little vacation and I will be on my own for 2 days.

My first thought was, “What am I going to do?”

There is pressure sometimes isn’t there? Pressure to make plans or to make things extraordinary. I have been looking for a little break like this for quite literally years and now that it is coming I feel a bit unsure. My brain initially was asking about my plans-telling me I have to make the most of this time and just do everything I want to do.

I listen, get caught up in it’s thinking for a minute before smiling and reminding the mind just who I am. How I hate plans, I don’t like big deals and I much prefer living fully within the little moments.

So my plan is to make no plans but to make lots of containers.

I was really introduced to the concept of energetic containers by Andrea Schroeder. The idea that, for an example, if your workspace is clean and ready to go it’s a container waiting for you to make art. You could really take this in lots of directions. If your car is cleaned and full of gas it’s a container for a road trip. So for me, I am not setting any lofty expectations for my mini-artistic retreat (other than naming it, “Michele’s Mini-Artistic Retreat”).

When I was first dipping my toes into homeschooling I read about how you can leave interesting things around the house for kids to discover. Books, toys, etc where you aren’t telling the kids they have to read this book then use these blocks to build a house but rather you are giving them access to these things that they could do with however they feel inspired to. They may use the books to build with and the blocks become characters.

That’s what I am going to do for myself. Leave lots of goodies and spaces ready for me to play in.

I was planning on taking part in a studio clean out that is happening over at Jennibellie’s Journal Workshops but that’s not happening until June and I really want to pretty up my space for my little retreat. No worries though, I am a really messy artist and pretty sure the creative corner will need another clear out come June 🙂

I am thinking I might have some audio books ready, podcasts ready, playlists ready and my work stations prepped and ready to go. My car will be clean in case I want to go for a drive and the house will be clean with candles at the ready and probably some incense.

I am going to create containers that I can pick and choose from as I wish, moving from moment to moment. I might not make anything creative. I might not read one book or plant one flower. I might take naps and binge watch other people making art and planting flowers.

And that’s ok.

I might make amazing pieces of art, record some podcasts and write some blog posts. I might fill the garden with flowers, go for walks in the woods and take fabulous photos of what I see. I might go on my own little adventure or finish my book.

And that’s ok.

I might come up with something completely different than anything I can think of right now.

And that’s ok.

I don’t want to add pressure to myself to cram into 2 days the dreams I hold. Instead, I am hoping to listen to myself-really listen to what I need without interruption. I want to give myself the grace to experience this different way of being without rules or expectations and to just float from moment to moment.

And maybe, just maybe, bring more of that back to the everyday.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

P.S.

I would love to hear what you would do with 2 days free to play and make art. Please comment below. I also am thinking of sharing my creative corner clean up with you so please let me know if that interests you.