I recently completed my Life Book 2013 lesson. Life Book is a huge online art journaling class. My lesson is on using items from nature... ...to create an art journal page. Here's a peek at some of the details from the page: My lesson -- a downloadable video and a downloadable .pdf with written instructions -- will go live as part of Life Book on Monday. Unfortunately, I just found out that registration for the 2013 class is already closed, but you can join in on all the fun for 2014 here. I'm not a part of the 2014 class,... Read more →

I broke out my big ol' 12x14 Gelli Plate the other night. Sometimes I make intentional prints. You know, prints that are meant to be finished art, like this one: But, sometimes it's fun to simply make a mess with lots of layers and colors. Check out my messy unintentional prints: For a sense of the scale of the prints, here's a picture with my hand: I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them. Some will probably become journal pages. Some will likely become collage papers and get torn and cut up. I'll have to think about... Read more →

When I was in college I used to take notes covered in doodles. It wasn't because I was bored. The truth is, doodling helps me to focus and do a better job of listening. Sitting in a meeting last night I couldn't help but let my pen wander. How about you? Does doodling help you pay attention? Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

I went pumpkin picking last week! I picked up three regular pumpkins and two mini white ones. I haven't decided what to do with the little white ones yet. The regular ones, however, I attacked with paint right away. Last year I painted up some colorful pumpkins. This year I decided to go in a totally different direction and play with metallics. Man, were they hard to photograph. So much shiny. Very cool in person, but super hard to capture by camera. I used a combination of spray paint and paint markers to decorate them. Have you painted up some... Read more →

I recently spent an afternoon admiring the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. There was lots to see. Mother Nature is a wonderful artist and the people who designed the Botanic Garden did a great job framing her art. Take a peek: In a city of concrete and steel, it's lovely to spend an afternoon surrounded by natural beauty. Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

If you're new to Art Journal Every Day, there is a short introduction here. All of the previous posts can be found archived here. There is a flickr group for sharing right here. Remember, it's just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day! No need to finish anything or even like it. If you've done some art journaling this week and you've blogged about it, or put it on flickr, please leave a link in the linky list at the end of this post. Thanks! One of the most frequent questions I get is about pens. Which ones... Read more →

I'm busy with lots of projects-in-process at the moment. My studio (and my living room and my kitchen for that matter) look like they've exploded. Here's a peek into life around here: I'm busy and happy. How about you? Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

I've got a quick tutorial for you today on using the Brother ScanNCut to create masks for Gelli Prints! For those of you who have asked about the ease of using the built-in software, hopefuly this tutorial will show you a bit about how easy it is. Draw your design on a piece of plain white paper. Don’t worry about overlapping lines, focus on the general outline. Load the design into the Brother ScanNCut for scanning. Scan to Cut Data so you can save the design. Choose the first scanning option – an outline scan. Be sure to drag the... Read more →

Here's a quick round-up of three fabulous ideas that are on my "to try" list! I hope they spark your interest too! How To Make a Paint Pad by Alma Stoller: I love that the pad stays wet and usable for a long period of time. I usually just roll out my paint onto a sheet of palette paper. This is a much better solution! Print on Post-Its (video tutorial): Super cool idea! I can't wait to try it out and leave some very personalized post-its around! Globe as Guest Book: So brilliant! I love the idea of having a... Read more →

I am still doing Project Life and loving it. In the past few months I've taken a simpler approach than previously. Here are a few of my current favorite things to do in my Project Life album: I use my handwriting -- messy and sloppy and so not perfect. But, it's fast and easy and makes every page personal. I use paint -- paint is an easy way to add lettering and/or color to a photo or jazz up a journaling card. I try to tell a story -- There's no way to actually capture every bit of life, but... Read more →