I'll be trekking off to Stampers Warehouse in Danville tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to seeing the gang there!!! I'll be back late Sunday night. In the meantime, here are some things to keep you busy:

Journal page from last night:

Oooooh!!! New stencils from Coffee Break Design:


People have often asked me where I find the images that I used. Pat in Massachusetts recently asked me where do I find the images that I use in my artwork? In other words, where do I get the goods? So, I promised her a post about it!

I will be bringing these 3 ziploc bags with me to Danville one has stickers, one had smaller images and one has larger, uncut images. Yeah, I don't travel light sadly... LOL

Some images from the "small images" bag:


Here are a few selections of some fun places to find goodies to use in your artwork:

The stores that I teach at like Zinnia, The Art Bar, etc.... I can always find something cool at one of the stores! It's fun, too, to trek to the stores that I only can visit a couple of times a year like Frenzy Stamper, Stampers Warehouse, Artists Nook, Stamp Act or Ink About it to find new things!!

Shoshanah at Hannah Grey has a keen eye for cool goodies.

One Good Bumblebee They are having a sale right now til June 13th-buy one mini pile of paper, get one free

From Japan with Love-stickers, tape

I just ordered from this etsy store Zombie Parts

other etsy shops that I have ordered from:

Shoe Flower

Tasty

Sweet Jessie

Clever Nettle

and

Flea Market Studio

Collage Joy has awesome AWESOME stuff!!!

Traci Bunkers has fun ephemera packs!

Vintage Charmings has special finds!!

Papier Valise

Go to etsy and ebay and google and search for: Collage ephemera, collage pack, vintage paper pack, ephemera pack, etc... There are TONS of goodies out there.

Scope out your library book stores, thrift stores and used bookstores. Even more goodies. Remember-TONS of books are TRASHED (NOT recycled. NOT donated.) daily by the big chain bookstores. I don't cut them all up, though. I have a very hard time cutting up children's books so I color copy them instead. I don't cut up vintage or rare books either. I use the color copy machine :)

Magazines: Oprah, Real Simple, Mary Jane's Farm, etc... I'll go to the newsstand or bookstores and scope out the magazines. Look in the photography section, the nature section, fashion, etc.. Look for things that would interest you. Like birds? Look in the nature section. Like food pictures? Cooking. Shoes? Fashion. As I read the magazines, I'll dog ear things of interest. In all honesty, I don't buy that many magazines.

Online. Go to Google.com and click on images. Enter as many key words as you can think of. Same thing with Flickr.com.

Carry your camera with you. Take your own photos. Go on an outing with friends and have everyone take pictures, then swap. It's fun to see the different perspectives (some people get up close with things and others get far away...). Make copies or use the originals. Swap with your friends.

Open up your eyes to the world around you. There are tons and tons of new and exciting things out there just waiting for you to find them... :)

Oh? And how do I store my stuff? I have two bags in the trunk of my car that I reserve for class stuff-goodies that you guys get to dive in and sort through. A hunter-gatherer's feast of finds.

At home, my own personal stuff-I have several different bags and boxes. I like to rotate stuff. When I'm bored, I go through and pick and sort out what I want in my "now" stash and then put the other stuff away for "later". Usually right before I go on a trip ('cause you know I can't leave home without my journal...), I sort through goodies pulling out stuff I want for the trip "now" vs. "later". It really just depends on my mood. I have yet to find "the" perfect system. I have various bags and boxes of stuff. I don't categorize. That doesn't work for me. (Though I have friends who swear by it). Play around with a couple of different systems and eventually, you will find one that does work for you!

Some quotes to ponder:

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
-Henry David Thoreau

"Those of us who keep our eyes open can read volumes into what we see going on around us."
- E. T. Hall

"It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes up to the top."
- Virginia Woolf

"The important thing is not to stop questioning."
- Albert Einstein

"Great is the human who has not lost his childlike heart."
- Mencius (Meng-Tse), 4th century BCE

"Sometimes imagination pounces; mostly it sleeps soundly in the corner, purring."
-Leslie Grimutter

"When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars."
-Vincent Van Gogh

"Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right."
- Henry Ford