Blog post for Saturday (as I'm teaching during the day so here's Saturday's post, Friday night at 8:30 ;)):

Journal pages from the other night-
So, last Sunday when I was teaching at Frenzy Stamper, Dawn asked me a good question. How do I Unblock the Block, or how do I get rid of creative block? Here's the thing-I don't get creative block. I play. Every day I do something creative. If I don't like what I do, I do something else. If I don't like the stuff I pasted down, I paint over it. If I don't like what I painted, I paint or glue over it. The secret is to PLAY. Every day, do something. Find something you like, do it. Figure out how many different ways that there is to do something-stay on your toes. Stay fresh.

I started the two pages above by PLAYING. I dug into my big deep bag o' collage goodies (actually a one gallon ziploc bag I filled with the stuff I bought from One Good Bumblebee). Using my handy, dandy glue stick and a ruler (to snip off any unwanted edges), I tore the papers into squares and rectangles and glued 'em all over the pages (this is NOT a two page spread but two separate pages). I loved the look of the pages before I even added "focal images". Then I fussed and hemmed and hawwed about which focal images to add. I held up various ones. The mushrooms fit perfectly right away. I dug through the bag finding 3 of them and finding the mushroom "Tally" card. The stickers were an after thought. On the bird page, I started with the birds and glued them down right away (of course, why wait?!? LOL) which of course, presented me with a zillion problems to solve afterwards. I dug out my pens and my stickers and said "what else can I use to bring these pages together?" Use what and where? By PLAYING on the pages with papers like this and just messing around with color and line and trying to figure out HOW to present the pages, I keep myself active and aware of "how can I do this?!?!". It's fun to problem solve as an artist. It really does keep you on your toes.

Oh, the other thing I do is this-I don't tear anything out. Lots of artists/teachers will tell you to tear it out if you don't like it. I don't. I figure that in my journal there are pages-lots of pages. For every one "good" page there are several I'm on the fence about. Your "bad" and your "good" pages show your progress and your struggle. They're just as much a part of your journal and of you...Keep 'em in there. Not everything you do has to be perfect. Art is a learning experience...and it's fun.

So, go dig out a bunch of that special collage stuff you've been hoarding, I mean saving, and USE it. Open up your journal and start by ripping, tearing. Hold papers against papers-figure out if you like the colors or the patterns. Move stuff around on the page BEFORE you glue. Glue stuff down and then figure where do you go from there. Ask questions. Walk away from the page. Go back to it. Paint over it. PLAY. Don't be afraid to make a mess. And, pat yourself on the back every now and then, hold up your page and say "I Made This."