You guys, I'm sitting here reading the comments on today's giveaway post and I'm blown away by all the cool stenciling techniques! I'm writing now to ask for your help. I love showcasing other people's talent and creativity and I love stenciling! Let's combine the two! If there is a stenciling technique that you love -- something super simple and basic, or something wickedly complicated and insane -- I would love for you to do a guest tutorial post for this blog! If you're interested, please email me with the following information: Your Name Your Blog (if you have one,... Read more →

Today I want to talk about "Dash Circle Dash." When I designed this stencil I called it "Texture." It was later renamed by the good folks at TCW. But texture explains exactly my intentions with it. I wanted to be able to quickly create lots of overall visual texture. I made this scrapbook page back in 2013... ...which is ugly and in no way shows off the awesomeness of "Dash Circle Dash." Sigh. But that was then and this is now! As you might guess from my earlier confession about the name, what I really like to use the "Dash... Read more →

I'm so very pleased to share that my very sweet and talented friend Birgit Koopsen (who is just as silly and fun and full of life as you might imagine after looking at this photo)... ...has a brand new line of rubber stamps with Carabelle Studio. Carabelle Studio is a French company and their products are hard to come by here in the USA, but for all of you over in Europe, you should have no problem getting your hands on them! ETA: You can purchase them from The Ink Pad in NYC. They ship everywhere! Be sure to tell... Read more →

There are so many über talented folks out there in the world. I love that instagram gives me a chance to gawk at their creativity. If you click on the "explore tab"... ...you will see tons of cool stuff that instagram is recommending to you, based on who you already follow. Check out some of my recent finds: davidshillinglaw I am obsessed with this account! Everything he posts is so weird and graphic and interesting and wonderful! hannahadamaszek A colorful tassel necklace looks like an easy DIY to put on the to-do list! humansofny These kente cloth patterns are absolutely... Read more →

On September 12, 1999 I moved to New York City for a three-month internship. I subletted an apartment for nine months, figuring that nine months would be more than enough time for my "New York Experience." Somehow I never managed to go back "home." It's hard for me to believe that I've called New York City home for the past fifteen years. But, it's true! So here are five photos of me out in the city that I love. (By the way, what did we do before digital photos? And camera phones? I couldn't find almost anything pre-2004!) 2001 My... 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! As I've mentioned many times before, I like to use my art journal... Read more →

A friend recently sent me a link to a great article by Luminita D. Saviuc, called "15 Things You Should Give Up to Be Happy." As I read down the list, I started to think about how the list was filled with things that I tell my students all the time. So here is Luminita's list, with my comments on how each one can be related to art-making! 1. Give up your need to always be right. You guys, art making should be fun! Needing to do it "right" can be very inhibiting to the creative process. I believe that... Read more →

Today I want to talk about the "Filmstrip" stencil: Here is a layout I created with the stencil back in 2012: More recently, I've been playing with it in my art journal: As you can see, I layered the numbers from the stencil on top of some of the stenciled film cels. I also stenciled in both black paint and white paint. On this page I lettered inside of the stenciled film strip. And did you notice that I also used the "photo" from the filmstrip across Jack's forehead in the photo? This is a photo I posted on instagram... Read more →

I'm so pleased to be a spokesperson for the Brother ScanNCut. It's a product that I genuinely like and use all the time! As part of my spokesperson duties, you'll be seeing lots of video tutorials from me on using the ScanNCut. Some of the videos will be project videos (one of them appeared two weeks ago), but if you're like me, you want quick and dirty explanations of how to use the various functions of the ScanNCut. Therefore, I'll also be sharing short and useful technique videos each month! Here are the first two: Julie's 4 Fabulous Tips for... Read more →

Chelsea is a neighborhood in Manhattan famous for many things, one of them being the gallery scene. Chelsea is packed full of art galleries. The new gallery season, just like the school year, usually begins in September. Last Thursday night there were a ton of openings to celebrate the beginning of the new gallery season. MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) invited members to a cocktail hour in Chelsea in order to kick off the openings. At first we thought we were in luck since there didn't seem to be anybody at the cocktail hour. But then we hit the... Read more →