Creative Intention 2012

2nd Annual

This is our second annual Creative Intention setting for 2012. This is not the standard New Year's resolution  (those always seem so heavy). This is a creative intention...you get to say all the ways you plan on expressing your creativity in 2012. Maybe you will finish a creative project you've always wanted to complete, Maybe you will take a dance class, Maybe you work on a creative project at your church, Maybe you will fill the pages of a journal with you next novel, maybe you will teach art at your children's school for an afternoon. The options are as diverse as your imagination, so look into 2012 and see where you would like to expand your creativity. . How will you incorporate art and creativity into your life in 2012?

2012 Participants

• Creative Intentions for 2012

Get ideas from our 2011 participants:

• Andrea's 2011 Creative Intention Story 
• Marie's 2011 Creative Intention Story
• Julie's 2011 Creative Intention Story
  
• Other Creative Resolution 2011 Participants

2011 Creative Intention Story: Julie

2011 Creative Intention Story...

" My 2011 Creative Intention opened up a channel for creative play and experimentation in my life and it happened in gradual steps during the year." ~ Julie

In 2011 my creative intention was to make appointments for creative play. I planned to use all the art supplies I had been stock piling and make dates with myself and my friends to be creative.

Right after I set that intention, Andrea presented me with a challenge that we would take on together...to fill a HUGE 800 page journal with our art.  I leaped at the chance and started the BIG Juicy Journal.  I got the HUGE journal from A Work of Heart Studios layed it open in my studio and surrounded it with paints and colored pens. I began to create in short bursts of time (5 or 10 min) and sometimes in longer sections of time (1 hour or more). The more I created the more I enjoyed the process. I started to create while talking on the telephone. I turned off the TV (my guilty pleasure) and started listening to pandora radio while I slapped on some color, scraped on gesso,and wrote stories in my journal. I started to look forward to my time in my journal.

I have filled over half the book with art journal pages. It has become my go to book for new techniques, experimentation, contemplation and play. The book helps me share examples of journaling techniques in my classes.  It helps me discover and purge old art supplies so I can create freely. It gives me a big blank canvas to try new things as many times as I need without worrying about wasting paper.

Creative Intention 2012 Participants

"For 2012 I will inspire others to expand their creativity! I would like to expand my reach to share my creative process with artists all over the world. My big goal is to be a featured artist in my favorite Somerset Studios magazines. I would also like to design a creative journaling line of products based on some of the tools I use in my journal projects.


Julie
California
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"For 2012 I am committing to journaling! "No More Excuses" is a Gina Armfield course that guides you through the year with DAILY journaling. My journal is prepped and ready to go January 1.   "


Darci
California








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“Do Doing Done. To get going in new explorations, techniques, opportunities. To use what I have, reuse what I have, remove what I am not using.  To finish work in progress or find a way to be happier with it and get it done."

Marie

California

Pink lights

Unraveling last year's Christmas lights and found this strand of pink lights. So pretty.

Dreams do come true...Jennifer Sherman

Jennifer Sherman is a dear friend of mine. She's my curly hair mentor. She was hanging out with friends earlier this year and someone asked her to share something that she would like to do that she's never done. She said she always wanted to do a TED talk. Within a few weeks someone offered her the opportunity out of the blue. So here she is, giving her TED talk! Dreams do come true.

Art Storage Tip

This year I spent much of my creative time in my BIG Juicy Journal. I realized that I needed a quick and easy way to create on the go...so I found these plastic photo boxes from Micheal's. I purchased 2 boxes (If you want to try this watch for the 50% off coupons). I have one that holds 10 mini plastic boxes and one that holds 16 mini plastic boxes for groups of art supplies. I filled separate boxes with images, pens, little scissors, 2 stamp pads, stamps, tapes, etc.  and labeled them with my favorite label maker the Brother PT-65. Now when I'm ready to create on the go I just switch out boxes to give me all the supplies I need.

Announcing: Project 52

Today we are announcing a new project for 2012. Andrea and I went away to plan our 2012 workshop schedule and during our planning we decided to do something entirely outside of our comfort zone. Here's the deal ... we will be creating art journal backgrounds every week for 52 weeks starting January 2, 2012.

Each week Andrea and I will feature a set of art backgrounds created using the collage and journaling techniques teach in our workshops and practice in our journals. These backgrounds will be available for sale each week as a digital download for you to use in your own creative projects.

As a bonus we will periodically create items using each others backgrounds in projects and we will feature on our website. We will also welcome your participation by inviting you to send your photos of creative projects you have created with our backgrounds.

This is a way for us to try something new every week and offer our creations to you. It's exciting and a little scary but every once in a while you need to do something out of your comfort zone just to add a little spice to life.

We want to give a special thanks to Susannah Davidson Pfalzer (one of our Creative Resolution Participants for 2011) who inspired our idea with her Make 52 Project for 2011. We are really inspired.Check out Make 52 and prepare to be dazzeled on January 2nd 2012 for our Project 52.

Julie & Andrea