Video: Creating without a Plan

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I sat down to create without a plan.

Don’t you just love doing that?

I wasn’t sure what to create so I picked a journal I hadn’t worked in for a while and one of my most fun materials-Tempura Paint Sticks. The paper is black and it was fun to see how the paint sticks showed up. Initially I was just putting color on the paper and deciding to try and blend it a bit. From there a whole magical scene emerged.

Would you like to play? Even if you don’t know what to make-you can always make a mark. Let me be your studio buddy as we play in our journals and listen to what the muses are guiding us to make. You can watch the full video below.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Art Journal Page: Letting the Cranky Out

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Today I am creating in an old Happy Planner I found. It was a dated planner and I hadn’t done all that much in it so I decided to turn it into an art journal.

I love using items like this to create in because they don’t feel precious and it also feels good to be using something I might not have otherwise.

I had a little fun looking through the beginning of the planner as it was when I was pregnant (and had just found out) with my youngest. I took those pages out to be used elsewhere and began thinking about what I wanted to do in the journal.

I started off with a coat of gesso, some paint and some tissue paper and that was as far as I got the first day. You can see the little video I made about the planner below.

When I sat down to work in the planner for the first time I wasn’t feeling great. My thoughts kept running negative, cranky and no matter what I did it just felt like I couldn’t shake out the negative. So while I was painting, and feeling cranky, I decided to just let all the thoughts that kept coming up in my mind out onto the paper.

I did a lot of illegible writing which I love. It let’s all the emotion out but there is no need to go back and read it again so it’s perfect for use in an art journal.

Especially when it’s cranky thoughts.

I wrote everything out using a Tombow marker which was great because it reactivates when it gets wet and I was able to blur the words out completely.

I stopped on Friday with the page just started but I felt so much better! It was a release of that energy and went into the weekend feeling great.

When I came back in to work on Monday I really didn’t know what I was going to do. I felt so different so I decided to just have a play and see where it went. As you can see in the video below, it went all over!

That’s my process though. I need to feel my way into most things and eventually the screaming girl that was going to look like me turned into a completely different, happy person with blue glasses.

Who knew?

I had so many moments during this process when the negative voice was jumping in telling me to turn off the camera and stop pretending to be an artist. I decided to keep making art anyway and I am so glad I did because I just love how the pages turned out!

I was inspired to add a house and I am not really sure why but I love how it came out-even though it’s not where I thought it would go. I think my favorite part of creating is to set out on a wave and ride it in never really knowing where I’ll land.

I hope you enjoy the videos and that perhaps you can set aside a few minutes to create along side me. Wishing you a lovely day!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Weekly Round-Up for the 4th Week of August 2022

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This week feels like it moved quite quickly.

I kept forgetting my schedule and was uploading things a bit off calendar but in the end I got there. So in case you are just stopping by today I wish you a beautiful weekend and here are some things you might enjoy along with some iced tea and swing in the hammock.

Making Collage Papers: On Monday I shared a little “Create with Me Session” where we had fun with paints and making papers for collage. You can read the blog post (and watch the video) right here if you like.

The Week in Flowers: For the love of Zinnias, and Asters, and FeverFew and well… all the flowers really. You can see some photos of my cut flowers right here.

Dilletante TV Has New Episodes: If you love watching a creative video (I know I do!) you can jump to all the videos and just the videos right here on the site. No chatty blog posts just the videos for your viewing pleasure. I realized I missed a few so it is now all current and up to date with all that’s visual here on The Dreaming Dilettante.

Creative Podcast Episode #8: Recorded, although not actually recorded (I explain in the podcast) and then re-recorded and uploaded a bit later than normal this podcast does get there in the end. We are chatting all about creative resistance and sharing the journey not just the results. You can listen right here to Episode #8 or check out all the creative podcast on the podcast page

So that is what has been going on here this week. I hope you had a lovely week and are looking forward to nice weekend. What do you have planned? I would love to hear!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

 

The Week in Flowers: The 4th Week of August

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This week in flowers is all about Zinnias and Asters-and I am oh so alright with that.

If my garden only had Zinnias, Asters and Feverfew I would have everything I needed for my favorite kind of bouquet.

I am thinking about covering some of my sunflowers so that those beautiful yellow birds I mentioned last week are forced to leave me some seeds to save for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, could we ever just pick 3 flowers to grow in our gardens?

Until next time…

–Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

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 3rd Week of August 2022

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This week started off slow and then I couldn’t believe we had reached the end today! Time is funny like that I suppose.

I hope your week was wonderful and that you had some creative time. If you missed any of the goings-on with all things Dilettante here is what happened this week:

I Uploaded a YouTube Video!
I am still unsure how I feel about all things YouTube but I am going to try and upload there weekly Create with Me videos and see how it goes. In this video we have a chat and then spend about 20 minutes making painted papers. If you want to watch the video on YT you can do that here or check out the blog post & video on the site here.

This Week in Flowers
The flowers are slowing down a bit and I am hoping to get out in the garden this weekend to plant some more zinnias, beans, peas and my lettuce for fall. I’m also planning a good clean out of what’s expired (harvesting some poppy seed heads hopefully) and of course, bringing in some more cut flowers. You can see this week in flowers post right here.

New Podcast Uploaded
I also uploaded this week’s podcast which you can listen to here. I am thinking about adding it to podcast players and found one site that can do that but if you have a particular player you prefer let me know and I’ll see about setting that up.

Letters for Creatives
I also sent out my “Letter to Creatives” today. If you would like a weekly dose of inspiration delivered to your inbox about weekly you can sign up for that here.

So that is all I have for this week. I am hoping, as I mentioned, to spend some time in the garden this week. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous lately and I would love to get some clean up done and prepare for the fall garden. Are you planting anything? I would love to hear what!

As always, I wish you a lovely day and I will chat with you next week.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante