30 June 2009

The Birth of a Scrapper

Okay so I know I said I was going to wait until the weekend to post some of the first scrapbook pages I ever created but then I got off line and started thinking. Next thing I know I'm scanning the first four pages with the intent to share here. Yeah that's me...a bit unpredictable at times indeed : )

So what got me into scrapbooking other than being shifted to night shift and despising working that particular shift? Well like I said earlier I had this idea, one that kind of formed in my head as tiny little grains of salt that soon grew larger and larger until I couldn't just ignore them anymore, couldn't blow them away like dust, couldn't sweep them under any rugs to hide them, couldn't even remove them from my brain because amongst those tiny little grains of salt was forming an idea, a thought, a possibility that I wanted to dare attempt but that literally scared the crap out of me. You know those doubts I spoke of earlier? Yeah those niggling little things that poke at your mind and at your self-esteem whispering negative little phrases in your ear while stirring little flecks of uncertainty within...? Yeah they were there in leaps and bounds but me I'm one who trudges on despite everything and so I dared to attempt scrapbooking. It proved quite the challenge but I took the initial step.


When I first started I wasn't even sure what exactly it was I wanted to do. I had a vague idea, a vague notion, a teeny plan emerging... I knew I wanted to do something with all the convention pics I took through the years. I knew I wanted to find some way to be able to display them all. I knew I wanted to make it interesting, something I'd return to again and again. I had the base idea. What I was left with after that? Where to go from there. How to breathe life into my basic ideas and how to make them merge and blend, bleed into something more. Thus I underwent a transformation in my thinking of sorts. I spent days toying with the idea, days thinking of how to do exactly what I wanted, days of fighting off the doubts, of ignoring those urges that said I was totally insane for even attempting such a feat. Eventually I came up with an idea, a beginning...a place to start.


The first page of my scrapbook oddly enough became Life Lessons...a list of little lessons I wanted to keep with me, of things I had learned, of things I needed to keep in mind when working with two very difficult people. My first page was created and I loved it...it also became the starter for my very first scrapbook.


Art Journaling at its beginning...


Okay so I was originally planning on starting by sharing some of my scrapbook pages, but have to scan them first and probably won't get to that until the weekend so I'm opting to share the start of my Chicago journal. Now you must be patient with me as I haven't quite figured out how the displaying image bit goes on over here so images may be a bit...whacked. : )

I started journeying to Chicago for a sci-fi convention several years ago. It ended up becoming a yearly event and remains one to this day. It started back in 2004. It was my first year actually touring the city and seeing it. I had been to Chicago in the past but only as a stop off for layover flights so I had never seen beyond the Chicago O'Hare Airport. I decided when I went to this convention I was going to see the city. After doing some research and such I found out that a CTA train went to the city from the airport and since my hotel provided free shuttle service to and from the airport I had a way to get there. The first year in the city I stayed for approximately 10 days. I usually stay about ten days each time I travel out there. After taking a yearly trip out there since 2004 I now have tons of pics from each individual trip but again like those conventions pictures I referred to in the previous post they were all placed in albums that are rarely looked at, so I decided to try my hand at a travel journal. What I now have: a huge overly stuffed journal full of pics and such from my last five years of vacations to the wonderful windy city of Chicago.

It's proved to be fun and interesting trying to make each year's entries different from the past years of entries. I've dabbled a bit with acrylics, a bit with drawing, a bit with colored pencil and even fiddled some with stickers in the journal. I admit the first few pages look a bit "rough around the edges" but they are some of my earliest attempts at creating a sort of art journal (keep in mind the only prior experience before undergoing this particular project was from an LJ community in which you mailed journals on to others who each contributed to the journal with their own stories, artworks and such). The Chicago journal has proved to be an interesting way to "wet my whistle" so to speak, my way of "getting my feet wet" and breaking past the initial "I don't think I can do this" phase.


Now? Now I find it extremely interesting to go back and see what I've learned and how my journaling has changed. I'm glad I started the journal and though I'm not always in the mood to work on it and it seems to be an unending work in progress it's something that keeps my creative muses flowing even when my writing muse stalls. The other big advantage to creating one such journal? I have a great unique album that I can cherish and hold onto for years to come! Who could ask for more?

29 June 2009

Oh the Years How They Fade...

So years ago, many years ago, I was one of those people who said I had no interest in art whatsoever...well, other than gazing at other's works. If you would have asked me back then if I'd ever do anything remotely artistic I would've probably laughed in your face and told you I could never be an artist. My how times seem to have changed a bit.

How do you ask? Well let me tell you. :)

For years I admired other's art and longed to one day learn how to be that creative too. My creativity though seemed limited to my writing. Yes I'm a writer. I write stories, have been writing for over 20 years now. My how time flies!

So yeah getting back to my main topic of discussion...

I write, my creative muse has always been for writing and then one day I started fiddling with artwork, started looking at magazines for scrapbooking and gazing longingly at all the wonderful layouts people made. I wondered if I could do that too and would simply shake my head, say no way and never think on it much again...other than to pick up those same magazines and again look at the pics.

I was shifted to third shift abruptly after one of our night shift workers committed suicide. I stayed on night shift for about half a year. It was the WORST half a year I have ever had! I hated the two I worked with because they were always so negative, gossip queens most would have labeled them and they were nasty! So me? I tried to work on my stories, on my writing there but just couldn't do it. I need a certain level of silence, of comfort to work and that just was not the place for it so I picked up those scrapbooking magazines. Eventually I wandered off to AC Moore's and gazed at the aisles of stickers and paints...I broke down and bought myself a blank scrapbook. My mind began to toy with the idea of fiddling with scrapbooking on my own. Soon I was going through convention pics. I travel to conventions, have been for years and have tons of pics of the guests at the cons but sadly they remain in envelopes and storage...never to be seen by others. So I got this brainy idea to make a scrapbook devoted to the conventions and low and behold I was on my way to becoming artistic...a foot in the door, a very shaky one at that but it was enough...

Eventually my sights journeyed to the wonderful world of art journaling. I've always liked journaling and to discover that people sent personal journals around the world for others to add to...well that just plain intrigued me...and soon I was joining an LJ community just for art journaling. I got sucked in quite thoroughly and have been hooked ever since!

For years worked on other people's journals (still do) and created entries for them then got a brainy idea to try it for myself. Now? Now I'm experimenting and having a blast, all the while expanding my minimal repertoire of artistic talent...the journey has been quite...amazing ever since and thus I decided why not share a bit of that here with others. I tried that over at my other blog but it just didn't seem to fit, you know...so here I am daring to create a second blog with a separate blogging company and wondering where this door will lead me...if any where.