Thanks for your kind words on my last post my dear friends. There is a lot more than January-blah going on inside my head, but I will talk about that in another post, another time. The block might even have something to do with the fact that I picked writing as my one little word this year. The word that will guide me to the thing I really want to do right now, or hinder me? It will be a challenge, but now it’s chosen and I’m going with it. I’ll report back to you how it feels in a month or so. Anyways. Writing…
I was just reminded of a text that I actually did write recently, though not for this blog. It is called The Story of Pink. It’s about how I fell in love with the color, and how it has become my signature color more and more through the years…
The Story of Pink
The Story of Pink is, among a lot of other great content, published in Tammy’s colorful and art journal prompt filled digital zine, Daisy Yellow Zine! You can buy a copy of this issue (lucky number 13) here (or any/all of the back issues), or wait a bit and try your own luck below…
Zine giveaway – now closed
EDIT: This giveaway is closed. A copy of the e-zine will be e-mailed out by Tammy Garcia who is the Editor in Chief of the zine. The winners are Melissa T. and and Melanie K. – congrats girls!
I’m giving away two copies of this zine to two lucky readers of my blog, courtesy of Tammy of course! Leave me a comment below, and tell me something about your creative practice/life right now. What are you doing, thinking about, or what is your plan to do this year? Or maybe you’ve got a suggestion for me on how to infuse more writing energy into my life? Just something short and sweat, and you’ll be in the draw. Last chance to win is on Sunday (1 of February).
Good luck and thanks for reading, visiting, commenting, sharing, and being here with me. If you’re not already, be sure to subscribe to upcoming blog posts.
This year I am spending more time on doing art just for me including my first ever art journal. I’ve been reading about them for awhile and decided it was time for me to make my own.
I’m kind of floundering at the moment, and haven’t felt much like creating. It’s a horrible feeling! The one thing that makes everything seem a little better, seems to have left me. Ugh, but that sounded so negative! I came here cause your posts always cheer me up. I’m headed to archives now!
♥ thanks for all the cheering up you do !
hi hanna. my word for this year is less. less=more is the inspiration. one thing i am doing right now-is working on closing out several journals that i started a few years ago. at the time, i was having more fun making journals, and setting journals up for specific themes, supplies, etc. fast forward to now….and i am not happy to have over a dozen journals that set neglected on the shelf. lol. so-i’ve made a schedule to work in 13 various journals and am excited to 1-be working in them again and 2-close them out in a few months and decide how i want to proceed. thanks for the giveaway! fingers crossed <3 jenny
For Christmas this year I gave many friends the gift of creativity and inspiration by promising them a handmade postcard each month and challenging them to send one back. This has been great fun and I am thinking about each month all the time. It has proved a great inspiration to me! I am also concentrating on doing one thing a day in my art journals, even if it is sticking a piece of washi tape down. I find this gets me to my journals and usually gets me working longer than I thought I would. Fingers crossed a zine comes my way to inspire me even more Hanna! xo Pam (Mpls)
Hannah, your blog is always so encouraging, and even when you’re struggling with something you’re still positive. Love that! I’m hoping to concentrate more on art and journaling this year – the zine would be great timing! Thank you for all you do for the art community. (o:
Pam that is a great idea for the postcards!
I struggle with my creative works – too many self doubts, too many not knowing where to begin, too much insecurity! I need to push on and past it – I know this. I am new to your blog but love your Pink story and hope to find more inspiration!
Just recently I’ve been getting back into counted cross stitch and have completed several smalI designs. I’m making a yo-yo quilt – if I ever make enough yo-yo’s for it! I have a lot of sewing projects, a lot of paper projects, and I’d like to do something with all the flannel fabric my late mother left behind!
I’ve finally started blogging, inspired in HUGE part by you! My latest creative practice is to get in the studio whenever I can, even if it’s “just” 5 or 10 minutes at a time. With an 8-month-old baby, naptimes are all too short and there’s just not gonna be big blocks of time for a while, so I’m trying my best to utilize every tiny chunk of time I can. And it’s working! I’m binding 8 journals right now, one step at a time.
I am continuing with the Documented Life Project journal again this year. I decided January will be the only month with the planner section. I want to give myself a two-page spread for each week for art journaling. I already keep a written journal and do Project Life (photo a day/daily journal card) so writing down my life for a 3rd time seemed really redundant. Trying to make time to do some kind of a challenge every week. May be DLP or some other prompt. Thanks for a chance to win Tammy’s zine.
Aloha, Kate
I’m working on the Documented Life Project for the 2nd year. This is the first time I’ve worked in a large two page spread format in a long time and I’m finding it challenging! I’m also trying to keep an “art journalish” planner and just today found The Art Journaler’s Card Club and I’m inspired to try to do something along those lines as well. I’d love to win a copy of Tammy’s zine so thanks for the opportunity!
In 2015… more collage, more journalling, more watercolour sketching, more journal and notebook making, more artist paper making…… and more time for zine inspiration if I should win!
I’m looking forward to reading your article! Last year I had a lot of difficulty focusing on art. Everything I created (or more realistically, just started) looked messy and frenetic, likely reflecting my state of mind. It led me to become frozen and the thought of doing anything became overwhelming. This year, I have worked harder at calming my thoughts. My word for the year is START. As in JUST START. But in a more controlled manner. I got a fresh journal in which I can only make disciplined art – not that I can’t play, but that the goal is to think about what I am going to do next. I keep another messy journal that I use to tame my mind before I work on my “grown up” journal. Have a good year ahead Hanna.
My word of the year is begin, because I never knew where to start. Now I do start, don’t search for the perfect way or perfect piece. But I make a big mess and I have so much fun. I did lots of Journal pages in January and it makes me HAPPY!
Congratulations on having your article published. Would love to read it (and possibly win it!).
Ive started working on the Documented Life Project and look forward to improving my journalling skills. I also hope to work through several of the art books I have and i mprove my collage and watercolour skills this year.
This year (well, January anyway) I’m pushing myself in textiles . . . it’s going back to where I began but there’s a huge difference in the work I’m doing . . . much more hand stitching for a start! I’m looking much more at the process as well from sketching to sampling and then through to the final project.
As you know I am forever messing around with a whole lot of widely diffent projects so this year I’m really looking at boundaries and trying to focus on projects that build on one another rather than flitting around like a butterfly and never developing or growing. Perhaps that’s the way to go with writing . . . really work on one thing, all the time pushing yourself to the limit, and then pushing some more. What would happen if you wre to write about your love affair with pink again? How would it be different? What would remain the same?
Recently I’ve decided to concentrate myself more on the things that really speak about me instead to waste time and energy on a lot of things without big results.
I’m following my creative instinct for flowers, rustic style, animals, recycling, pale colours and quitness. These will be the themes of my arts&crafts (sewing, embroidery and drawing).
i am sewing… alot! having fun turning vintage fabrics into useful things :). hope your issues are resolved soon.
I really enjoy your blogs and art work. I love to draw & color ever since I was a child. Now at age 66 I use colored pencil & ink instead of crayons. Focus is my word of the year, I am so easily distracted, oh look a dandelion. I’m having a bit of a struggle yet. Looking forward to your next blog. Thank you.
This year I’m trying to get myself into the habit of creating daily. I also really want to start filming some art journal vids for my blog, but I might have to practice being less afraid of the camera first!!
I don’t have a creative practice AT ALL at the moment. Last time I worked in my journal was May! I keep hoarding papers and tidbits and my desk looks like a diaster area. But I can’t seem to DO anything. I know I have a lot to get out of my head … I even bought a cheap composition book to write and start arting in … and nothing. Not sure what is going on but I would love to have one of DY’s zines. I follow her blog and love her prompts. Thanks for a chance to win!
I’m getting ready to share my art by teaching classes to co-workers after work. They’ve seen my art and want to play too! I’m nervous, but excited!
I’m moving in to the livingroom after a breakup, and i already know where I am going to put my new easel that I haven’t bought yet. Can’t afford my studio spot 2015, so home is the place this year.
Right now the app SKTCHY gets all my attention.
I feel that I’m coming out of a deep dark hole and I expect my journalling to reflect this!
Fingers crossed!
I am exploring animal forms in my soft toy making and find that having bright fabrics around me (vintage sheets, pink gingham, happy colors) inspires ideas. Sometimes word pairings inspire stories for me: coffee shop, signs of spring, urban life, sun glow, slow living. Congratulations on getting your article in the zine!
Thanks for all of your inspiration! I’m trying to keep a journal on a more regular basis, and I have plans to make more collages. My word for the year is “hope,” based on the Anne Lamott quote:
Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.
xo,
Suzi
this year i want to paint more but ever so often people need a card to cheer them up so that’s what i’m doing most: trying to cheer up people with my cards and cheer myself up at the same time. i first chose ‘cheer up’ as my 2015 word but instead i decided on ‘become…’
this year I’ve been trying to do something creative every day but it’s been a month of back to back deadlines and I’m finding my creative juice is submerged under everything else. I have high hopes for getting back on track in February!
Hi Hanna! I’ve been trying to dedicate myself to filling a page each day in my Moleskine planner. Writing, drawing, receipts, you name it. Whatever goes. Just something to boost my creativity and help me keep a record of my days :)
Hi Hanna – the best thing about my year so far has been committing to Life Book and Documented Life projects – they help to get me to “show up” at my art desk – and that leads to creative joy once I start, often with a simple step of my first background layer and no idea of where it will lead me.
This year I’m just focusing on trying to journal more, I keep telling myself I’m going to go for it, but then don’t do it. I too am having difficulties getting the artsy energy back into my life. But seeing your posts helps a lot! x
For January I got out an old booklet I made years ago, and packed it in my Florida vacation bag. I would write on each of its 30 pages. Part of the deal is to write larger, opening e’s and o’s, for example. The booklet sat unused for almost two weeks. Finally I got inspired, started writing, and now I’ve got just 2 pages left. I’ve heard it takes 28 days to start a habit. I hope to keep going in another notebook when I get home Saturday.
I am making things in layers more – adding bits while on the phone or while watching a movie, takes the pressure off any one layer being perfect! Keep doing what you do and good luck x
Hanna, for the past year and a half I got involved in mix-media arts! Love it! I have a passion for art journals and have made several! But then, they are a reminder each day to move forward – I do struggle here. I also love to organize my notes, copies of Gelli prints, greeting cards project, all of my found objects, my ephermeras, and you name it. I know I have spent a half year organizing and loving it all! I was involved in a FIRST zine swap this past winter. Although, I am inclined to study more about zines and have found that they are all ZINES, ZINES, ZINES and etc. I enjoy your blog and learn from it. I purposed to stay focused in 2015!
What a wonderful giveaway! This year I am deepening my painting practice and have the intention to truly listen within… To connect even more with my unique voice and how it expresses itself in my heart…. I find that this is where the magic lies for me.
Well done! Love it.
I’ve been drawing more lately which is something pretty new to me. I also love doing collaged 4 x 6 cards and have a notebook that I doodle and draw in and also write quotes down or pieces of text I think of or read that I think would go good on one of my ICAD cards. So much I want to do and yet so little time. *Sigh* : )
This year I intend to get better at knitting and crocheting. I have a few big yarn projects planned!
Hello Hanna,
This year for me has three things: nr 1 is continuing art journaling, nr 2 is my quite new hobby snail mail and nr 3 is using up more of my stash in my art journaling and snail mail. I am trying to make more room and I have soooo much…
Cindy
This is year I am trying to make more time for creativity. Time is always an issue with me . . . so trying to create something every day . . . even if it is only something small.
I really enjoy the color combinations. I mostly have been focusing on smaller art journals with comments about daily life.
I started the year off with tons of creative energy, though 4 weeks in, I already feel it starting to dwindle. It’s funny how life seems to get in the way of our best intentions sometimes. At least we know others face this as well? I’ll be taking 21 Secrets starting in April for the first time, so I’m looking forward to that. Thank you so much for the giveaway.
Ah well, I missed your giveaway, BUT…very cool idea for a zine article. You make me love pink too! I’m not sure if you were saying at the beginning that choosing “writing” as your yearly focus is actually hindering your writing, but if so, I am definitely going through that over here. I was going to put a real focus on drawing faces, and invested money in online classes, and I have kept myself busy with just about every creative pursuit EXCEPT drawing faces! Too much pressure!