by Linda | Jun 7, 2010 | my creative journal
Happy Monday to all and hello to everyone again as I’m back from my little vacation! I had a great time and thank you all for your well wishes. My husband and I took a road trip to the East coast of Italy and it was great to see new places and difference things. The weather has suddenly turned into full-on summer heat here in Tuscany and I’m totally re-energized by my trip and the sunshine combined. As I get back into the swing of things…let me first share some travel inspiration photos with you.
Ahh…vacation! I think that taking a break, whether traveling afar or just changing your immediate scene by taking a walk – helps to open up your perspective and shake up your normal routine. We all need that sometimes, so remember to let yourself go free when needed. You should not neglect yourself or your delicate muse! Any kind of break-time will definitely pump you up and refresh your mind for creative thinking. That’s how I feel now! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a bit of my travel inspiration!
by Linda | May 31, 2010 | DIY printables
Happy Monday to everyone! Here in Italy we actually have a holiday on June 2nd, Festival of the Republic. My husband and I will be on a little getaway, thus I will be taking a break from blogging this whole week. In the meantime, let me leave with a bit of inspiration and sneak peeks to keep your creative minds buzzing. First, I would like to share some of my mixed media artwork as printable collage tiles. You can incorporate them into your art, journaling and crafts…
Download Fortuna Collage Tiles PDF
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I’ve posted about these mixed media works before and I actually played around with them digitally… but in the end went straight on with black marker. I’ve had them sitting around for a while and finally scanned them in to print as papers. I’m hoping they will provide inspiration for your own creative endeavors. Let me know if you find creative uses for them! I also wanted to share some views of ongoing projects…
Finally, I just wanted to let Mr. Little Turtle say hello to you all. Hope you have enjoyed the photos with a peek of what’s crowding my desk now. When I get back, I’ll be sure to share the details and hopefully a little tutorial of my process. Until next time…ciao ciao!
by Linda | May 17, 2010 | my creative journal
Nature is so inspiring to me and I’m always amazed by the forms and patterns I find in the details of ordinary things. Sometimes it almost seems unreal, like perfect spiraling tendrils or perfect circles you see in plants. This weekend I went on a little walk with my niece, collecting wildflowers. I came across a “weed” along the side of the road and the leaves look just like cute little hearts!
How amazing and adorable does this little plant look? I was inspired by the pattern and had to take it home with me and photograph all the views…not to mention the colors are beautiful as well…from greens to yellows to golden reds.
There’s something about the heart shape that just touches me so much. Even though our hearts aren’t exactly shaped like this…which led me to wonder how the shape form was created in the first place. I found an interesting article about the history of the heart shape and coincidentally the last theory comes from nature!
This little “weed” plant certainly inspired a lot in me and led to other heart-related discoveries and experimentations. I hope you enjoyed this little heart-full Monday inspirational post – maybe you might want to step out into nature and see what you can soak in! Thanks for stopping by and now I’m off to create some heart patterns inspired from this plant. Ciao ciao!
by Linda | Apr 19, 2010 | my creative journal
Happy Monday folks! It’s definitely been a crazy few days with the Iceland volcano erupting. Travel interruptions, hotels fully booked, car rentals all gone…pretty crazy here in Europe. We don’t live in a big city area, but there’s enough news about the whole issue to cause lots of worry. I mentioned before that my brother is one of those travelers stuck in Holland – impromptu vacation, right? This whole situation is a great lesson in the power of nature. I was thinking no matter how technologically advanced we get, there will always be something out of our control. We have to be able to adapt with nature and go with the flow. I started to ponder the great power of nature, so scary – but also the delicate and vulnerable side at the same time. Nature is all around us, even if you live in the big city – there are plants around, birds chirping and always the sky is above you. It would seem obvious that our environment becomes a huge area of inspiration for all of us, no matter if we write, dance, paint or whatever…
This past weekend our family was able to visit a very nice agriturismo in the area to try out the food. Besides having a fabulous Sunday lunch with our loved ones, we also had a huge dose of nature. I’m no expert in photography, but I like the hobby enough to lug around my Nikon D60 everywhere to capture the moments. I take photos for many different reasons and I take a lot of photos – thank you to digital photography and a giant 16 gig memory card!
For scrapbooking, I take photos to remember the times, to preserve and tell the story of our lives. I also take a lot of photos to use as reference for drawing, to study the shape and forms around us on a 2D surface. Finally, I also take photos because I like to capture interesting views…especially when it comes to nature all around us.
I know there are a million photos of wildflowers out there and I’ve taken countless photos of wildflowers myself. But I still keep taking pictures of them, because it makes me happy to do so and somehow I seem to see and feel something different each time. BTW, you might want to check out Creative Tech’s Fundamentals of Digital Photography – it’s a free course to watch live or you can buy the videos to watch anytime and learn more about photography. I took all these photos this weekend, looking at the details and little elements of nature around us. We also had the privilege of seeing a wild boar mama with her little piglets…how darn cute are they?!
So besides using photographs as direct reference or for collaging material, I also think the process of photographing inspires. Capturing a moment in time…it makes you stop and really look at that one moment. Our lives seem to be getting busier and busier and photography definitely helps to slow myself down a bit. I hope you enjoyed some of these weekend photos I’ve shared and perhaps you’ll take a slow and closer look at your environment for inspiration. Have a great Monday!
by Linda | Mar 29, 2010 | my creative journal
Happy Monday everyone! I always take Mondays slow, giving myself a day to catch up where needed and soak up positive inspiration – instead of rushing around, giving myself anxiety at the start of a new week. It’s something I truly am thankful to be able to do, such a contrast from my old corporate working days of doing ten thousands things at the same time and getting overwhelmed constantly. I love to block out time to go through all my RSS feeds and survey the scene, taking it slow and really taking things in. I thought I would share some lovely links regarding what inspires me or just makes me smile. Like the daily drawings and collage work by Amanda Hawkins, fascinating to me and inspiring whenever anyone takes on a daily routine. I recently started following Carissa Paige’s blog as well and very much inspired by her work as well as her words, so open in sharing her feelings and experiences. Also, since the launch of Crescendoh.com I’ve visited the site for the Art Saves stories that are posted every Monday and then returning every day for the new links that are posted by the weekly curators. It’s definitely a place to be inspired not only regarding your art and craft, but really positive thoughts about life in general.
In addition, when I do get to doing something I like to listen to podcasts and radio shows to fill in the silence – or more truthfully cover up the construction noises from across the street! I’m a big fan of folks who broadcast on BlogTalkRadio…listening to art and craft related shows such as…
I hope you can take it slow this Monday, or at least take 30 seconds to just breath deeply and start the week with positivity and tranquility. Until tomorrow my lovelies, when I will share another art journal with me post!
