{kira's (revised) art journal supply list; free doodle PS brushes!}

When I re-organized my supplies for easier access and posted this picture, I never thought it would get more than maybe a few comments -- and most about the artwork on the table, honestly (the piece of the right is now finished and hanging in my studio!). But then I saw this comment:

And it got me to thinking: the last time I posted a supply list was way back in 2007. Look at my hair! I still have the same glasses, though (and am trying to save up for a new pair, since these are now out of date. won't you help a girl out?). And the same desk. As I watched this younger me talk about her favorite supplies, I thought, "Why not do an updated list?"

I haven't changed too much, at least I don't think so. But there ARE some additions, as well as more information on some of the stuff I've now been using for years.

(BTW, I don't know where that annoying sound in the background came from...maybe I should have used my mic! This was done quick and easy this morning!)

Download the PDF that goes into more detail and includes some basic stuff I didn't have time for!

I've also made a free gift just for YOU. I created a set of brushes to use for Hodgepodge #2's layout, and thought, "Why not share 'em?" I do want to get into making more things like this, so what better way to start than to just make it real!

Yep! For Photoshop! You use these just like stamps, but digitally! When you open your brushes palette, there's a little > at the top right -- click it, and then go to Load Brushes. Select this file and you're all set!

Download the set here on my DeviantArt page!

See you all at 8 est/ 7 cst for tonight's vlog!

{ new discovery: hand-carved stamps }

Ack! I keep getting distracted! The weather was hot and humid today, and work had my brains boiling up inside my skull after the hundredth frappicino. Came home and melted into a chair to relax and read fanfics -- ahh, yes. I rarely bring that up here (as I have a LiveJournal for all that!), but the new Star Trek's eaten my brain, and I can't get enough! So, I'm taking a break from reading and writing to post! *laughs*

I've never really been a rubber stamper. I think I can count with two hands the number of stamps I own, and in the last year, have used only my set of alphabet stamps in any of my artwork.

HOWEVER --

Last week or so, I was working in my journal, drawing more raindrops (as they're on my mind art-wise lately), and didn't like how un-uniform they were coming out. I don't mean little things here and there, but they just...didn't look right. So I decided to toy with the idea of making a stamp out of a nice, big, white eraser.

A trip to the dollar store later, I drew out my drop and, using my craft knife, cut around the shape, then down into the rubber. It's not the most practical way of doing it, but it's what I knew. I created a large drop, a small drop, and the cute little house there.

With my craft acrylics, I painted on the stamps and, well, stamped away!

A closed shop and an alternate, exploratory route took me to a beautiful new Michael's the day before Mother's Day, where I made a make-and-take and found the Speedball Easy Start Carving Set. It came with a piece of that, well, stamp carvin' material, the handle, and two tips with which to carve. Now, I thought it was going to be hard to do, all this drawing and carving, but let me tell you --

It's really, really easy!!

In fact, it's, well, addictive! After I made a practice star, I made several more fun shapes, carving until the light had faded and I had to turn on the overhead lamp. And then the next day, more shapes again. It's so easy and fun and calming! And then, when you use the right material instead of cheap dollar store erasers, you can even use 'em with regular stamp pads!

I love the look of a hand-carved stamp. It's solid and blocky and, with paint, looks...well...I just love how it looks! I use these wherever I can in my journal and in paintings, and am always on the look-out for new shapes to carve! *G* I'll be teaching a basic stamp-carving class during the summer journal workshop, but am free to answer any questions!

love, kira

P.S. Thank you for all your emails regarding yesterday's post! I'm gettin' to them as soon as I can, that is, when I'm taking reading breaks!

{ planning, moving, blooming, creating }

Sorry about spazzing out on y'all! I'll post into Saturday to make up for missing yesterday!

Things are changing here in KiraLand. Rooms are being sorted down into boxes, garbage bags, and sale piles, plans are being made, books are being collected. My studio is no exception; I’m down to the bare minimum when it comes to supplies, many things being sold off (anything not used for the last 6 months), the rest now in plastic storage containers or re-purposed boxes from work. The only thing about planning a move is the planning part -- I want to be finished! There! Scoping out storefronts for my new used-bookstore/cafe/art shop! Finding bookcases and filling them with decades of books, ordering art journal supplies wholesale, teaching classes, hosting poetry & prose nights. We’ve been brainstorming names; my favorite so far is ‘Book Friends.’ I giggle with delight when I think about the layout of our store, the possibilities waiting there. I just hope there are art journalers out there in New Mexico! *waves* I’m so restless....straddling two worlds -- the one I know, and the one I’m going to create. Yes, my finances are a mess, and starting a business is hard work, but when the idea was suggested by my mother, I felt this blossoming in my chest -- this whisper -- “This is what you’re supposed to do next.” With such a change on the horizon, my creativity has been charged -- and far-reaching. I’ve been working on a new summer workshop, planning out and writing lessons, drafting up video companions when necessary. I still don’t know how I’ll be teaching -- many people use blogs these days? Is that better than a mailing list? Any suggestions from those who have taken online classes would be great, as I haven’t taken any myself.

* you can see some of the lesson topics, there! A few weeks ago, Kelly Kilmer did a great post on the pens she uses, and I was captivated by the Pilot Latte pens. Ooo! Such great colors and the ink is fantastic -- works on dark paper, plastics, and, well, normally! The colors are amazing, fun, bright! And you can’t help but smile when you look at them! Heee! And an added bonus -- I found refills for my mechanical pencil I bought over in Japan a few years ago. Until now, I’ve either carried a separate eraser or cut one down with a craft knife....can’t tell you how happy I was to see JetPen carried the refills. Heck, I didn’t even know they existed!

Tomorrow, I’ll show you the stamps I’ve carved for myself. I totally got into that and can’t wait to share ‘em and my process. They’re a delight to use in my journal! love, kira

{ what's in your bag? }

I am SUCH a bag collector; I have over a hundred, and can't go three months without buying a new one. I don't know what it is...I feel like a bag is an extention of my personality, and I usually change them based on how I'm feeling/where I'm going. The nice thing about this is that they're all in really nice condition because I never carry them longer than a month at a time!

Here's my current bag; I LOVE IT. Click on the image to go to flickr and see the notes on each of the items. And then, come back over here to read about how I select a bag for my on-the-go journaling adventures!

One of the greatest ways to truly capture your life in your journal is to carry it with you everywhere, searching for those snippets of time when you can take a moment to record your world. But taking your journal with you, whether on a specific journaling journey or in search of spontaneous, elusive moments, can be a bit tricky, especially if it’s not a tiny Moleskine affair. Tossing a 5“x7” or larger journal into your purse can be...tricky. Here are some pointers on how you can find the perfect bag to either replace your purse or supplement it when you’re off on an adventure.

SIZE

Obviously, it needs to be able to fit your journal. But what more than that? Along with deciding to carry your journal, you need to take a look at what supplies you’ll be carrying with you. One of the mistakes people make is carrying TOO much; that can overburden you and your bag, causing you to re-consider carrying anything at all. You don’t need many supplies. Realistically, most of your on-the-go journaling will be writing or doodling on pages you’ve already painted and collaged, so papers, scissors, and other tools aren’t really necessary. I do recommend carrying double-sided tape for those slips of epherma you gather along the way, but other than that, pens and a pencil are fine. Personally, I carry the following in addition to my journal:

• 4 G2 gel pens in assorted cool colors
• 1 white gel pen
• 1 pencil
• 1 Sakura micron pen (.05)
• 1 ultra-fine black Sharpie

I find that these serve my needs while out and about very well, and if I do end up drawing something that needs more, I’ll color/add to it at home.

STYLE

Are you a messenger bag type person, a tote person, or a backpack person? You can find any style of bag in the size you need if you really look around. The bag needs to be comfortable and practical, with the organization you need to carry your supplies. If you’ll be replacing your purse, make sure you can fit your daily items in the bag in addition to your journal and supplies. One with a great variety of pockets is good, but you want the bag to reflect your style and personality as well. You can choose to grab a canvas bag to embellish and journal on (here’s some inspiration for journaled bags), completing the feel & look of your new accessory.

ORGANIZATION

If your bag doesn’t have a ton of pockets, you’ll need something to keep your stuff in! WIll you use a pencil bag, tin, or school box? Again, this depends on what you choose to carry. Perhaps you can use a small bag for daily use and set aside a larger box or tin for when you’re going out specifically to journal; this can double as studio storage for your favorite pens and markers when not in your bag. Check out the storage aisle of your favorite art supply or hobby shop for plastic boxes perfect for organizing pens, crayons, markers, and whatever else you love to use! I can tell you from experience that organizing supplies like crayons or colored pencils in a plastic box by color is really helpful when out working in your journal. My favorite is the ArtBin Solutions Series. These boxes are around the same size as a nice school box, but easily dividable for customization. I use the 3 to 13 size one for my watercolor crayons, giving each section a color range to store. A larger holds my Portfolio Oil Pastels. This allows me to just grab a bin and go, and the layout makes it easy to work as I can see everything laid out in front of me -- I prefer this to a pencil pouch, since things can get “buried” in the bottom of those pouches. If you can find the right bag, supplies, and organizational tools, carrying your journal will become second nature, and soon, you won’t be able to leave home without it! Now, we just need to get you working in it out in public... love, kira

{ make a change without a reason }

For some reason, I woke up the other day with a page idea in my head; beige and red, with some columnar paper I found when cleaning. I knew my current journal wouldn't be able to handle the size I had in my head, so I grabbed a 9 x 12 watercolor book I'd picked up on a whim last summer at Michael's since it was 50% off...how could I pass that up?!

Anyway, I took a trip to Hobby Lobby to grab some spray paint and a wall decor stencil. My spray paint had been depleted from last summer's spray paint adventures (not to mention being thrown unceremoniously in my trunk) and the stencils...well, I don't take the best care of my stencils or stamps, so they get caked with paint and such...and warp...but yeah! I wanted something new! The stencils I had from last summer can't work now -- I was a different person, then, as we all are after any passage of time.

I forgot the fun of spray paint, not to mention the immediacy...you can cover an entire page in a minute! And it covers awesomely, and there's just something about the way it LOOKS on the page....I love it so much! It's certainly different than stenciling with paint or whatever. I meant to do it earlier today, but I ended up getting my hair cut, then seeing WALL-E (AMAZING CUTE!), so I didn't get out there until the sun went down. But I set up my little station and started playing...now I'm just working on embellishing while watching 'Animal Cops' with the puppies.

So yeah! Now I'm working in a BIG journal. I've never worked in this size before, so I'm excited to see what happens. Sometimes, you just have to change things up to see what happens!

Do YOU have any questions about spraying or what you see? Ask! I want to start giving little tips, but I need to know what you're curious about.

A Copic Love Affair

MAN! I am SO FRUSTRATED! I started this post days ago, but didn't post it because I wanted to find my camera to take pictures for it. A few days later and the camera is STILL missing!!! I had to scan everything, and the settings are all messed up so everything came out like CRAP but it's all I've got and I've other stuff to work on (like the 'zine and the workshop) and can't really rescan everything right now...*grumbles* My laptop's running slow and this new interface for TypePad is SLOW....there's a HUGE delay when I type and things take FOREVER to format.

We're up to 58 "students" in the workshop! I thought MAYBE 10 people would sign up -- you all make me so happy and humble and give me great confidence in myself. Which is also why I want to post more!

Here's the post I wrote a few days ago, complete with the bad scans. Forgive me!

Whoah! You ever work with something and just BAM! You want to curl up with it and use it on EVERYTHING? That happened to me this week.

I had an idea for a page, one inspired by a few pages in Lynda Barry's What It Is (an amazing, awesome, TOTALLY COOL book. The only copy Borders had was DAMAGED and I STILL bought it!), and knew I didn't have the supply needed to do what I wanted to do. So, while out to grab some eye candy (a window-shop through Hobby Lobby), I decided to see if they had any single-sale markers in the light, light shade of purple I needed.

While I hoped I could find it as a Prismacolor, I could only get it as a Copic...the price difference is $2! But I sucked it up and got one...as well as a pretty pink in a light shade. I rushed home to create the page in my head before it flew away, and oh my! It was love at first use!

They gave the EXACT shade I wanted....and let me tell you -- writing with the brush end is awesome! I absolutely love writing with a close shade on my entries. Yes, that means less gets on the page, but -- OH! I just thought of this: I could write an entry in my usual pen over the larger brush handwriting! I've gotta go try this!

At $6 each or $60 for a 12 marker set, I had to go a bit cheap and get the Copic Ciao set -- they are thinner and a bit smaller than the Copic Sketch markers, but the colors and brush end are the same. They're recommended for beginner users since they cost less...I just felt the set had all the colors I'd really need! A few years ago, I started collecting the Fabre-Castell artist pens, and now have just about ever color....and now, I realize I don't need every color of the rainbow -- well, except for my watercolor crayons! *laughs*

l

Writing with a Pitt Artist Pen (above).

 

Writing with the Copic. See the difference? Isn't it just thick and JUICY?

tiny green buds where before there were none

This is my Spring.

Last week, I got my Spirit Cards read. A little-known fact: I am 1/8th Siksika (Blackfoot), and find myself drawn to nature and the tales of Native Americans. It feels...right. Anyway, these Spirit Cards are Native American and were read by a friend who's part Native, too, and has been reading these cards for about twenty years. A lot of what she said brought images to mind, one of which was that, "This is your springtime...you're getting ready to bloom." One thing I've noticed since I began healing myself, other than my heath improving so much that people are really noticing, is that things are aligning for me in the universe. Since this journal is where I am beginning to see the tiny green shoots poking through dark soil, I felt part of my friend's words should be on the cover.

It's made from felt and fabric. I embroidered the words in some unbleached muslin; it took the longest! I'm not very good at embroidery...I'm totally self taught...so much so I "invented" my stitches. It still was a blast to made, though! And the eyelets in the corners... *giggles* I'm just tickled pink!

Left: Me, mid-embroidery.

Mad-Dash Journaling.

I haven't been journaling lately....who knows why? Sometimes, you just need to go with the flow and accept that NOT doing an activity is just as valuable as doing it. This might sound odd, but it's true. You see, when I'm NOT journaling, I'm taking photos, reading, walking in the woods, playing with the dogs. All these activities feed my soul and become part of me. We are ever-changing creatures, and every experience we have changes us -- I am not the same person I was 10 minutes ago, and in an hour, I'll be different than I am now. My break allowed me to soak in inspiration, open my mind to changes in who and what I am.

If you've been reading, you know I've been going through some sort of spiritual journey. It's opened the world up to me, allowing me to see things differently. All of this input has been rattling around in my head until yesterday, it just had to get out. 

I didn't do much, and went out only to grab some new paint markers, fabric, and felt. The rest of the day was spent with my nose in my journal. Doodling and drawing and making dots -- I kept working on the yellow page here well past the point I'd usually stop....More and more and more and MORE!!! I colored and added more color and kept going and lines and omg, can you see how I just was charged, just couldn't help myself? *laughs* After I finish this entry, I'm going to go back to work....on my pages!!! Sorry that I'm only showing a bit...but near 'zine time, I like to save my pages for that...that way, the newest stuff's in the 'zine and reflects the most-current me. ;)

One of the things I've noticed is that I'm doing two things:

A. Moving around a lot,

That means, I'll doodle somewhere, and then flip the page and doodle elsewhere. Or draw. Or write. Or glue something down. Or paint. Well, I haven't really painted much as I pre-painted a bunch of pages....which reminds me, I have to do that again so I've got more places to play! But yeah. Unlike life, my journal is not linear.

B. Working piece by piece.

My pages are coming together after several small sittings. The page on the right down there (sorry you can't see all of it...it's still in progress!) started with paint. Then the drawing in pencil. Then the writing. Then the coloring of the girl. And it's FAR from done. On the left, there was the background, then the bird, then the cut out in the middle, then waves. Swirls. And the words ALSO came in seperate sittings. I mean that I don't sit down and work start to finish in one sitting. I'm LIVING in between. I might sit and doodle, but then I'm making lunch or playing fetch or napping or writing. Even going to work! I've found things are more unpredictable and easier to push the envelope, so to speak, than working through it at once.

Kira Workshop.

I'll be "teaching" a workshop this June through my mailing list, JournalGirl. I'm so excited to be doing this, and might start sooner....I'm creating, lesson by lesson, a journal for you all that will hopefully be useful to you after the class is over. I've wanted to teach for awhile, now, and figure if I can't do it in person, I'll do it online! Sometimes, you've got to just go out there and DO it. And, if I want to teach workshops in person, I'll have something together already -- as SARK says, make it REAL, and the rest will follow.

And Finally....New Amy Butler & K&Co. Stuff!!

OMG! Look!!! There's a new collection for K&Co. by Amy Butler. I wish I could have bought it all. Not only is it ROCKING AWESOME, but it's eco-friendly; the packaging is recycled and can be recycled! This picture only shows you a bit of the 88 die-cut pieces in this collection. They're all awesome, beautiful, and I'm giddy just thinking of all the stuff I'll get to use. It was only $5 for this whole thing. There's also beautiful fabric tags, alphabets, brads.....awwwwww......Run, don't walk, to your local Michael's and check it out!!

Baaaaaaa -- like the new duds? Read on!

Why yes, I AM a complete skitzo when it comes to blog layouts!

*G* Tried to clean things up a bit; I'm taking a cue from Lia and working on better-organizing things around here to gear-up for my mailing list re-launch tomorrow. New content, hopefully daily, that I'll be compiling for more-frequent posts.

I'll also be posting a vid this week that will correspond with some new items in my etsy shop.

But first, I must tell you about my new love affair with Apple Barrel Gloss paints.

I *heart* them.

I've been eeeehhhh about background lately, wanting more transparent colors over items...you know, a nice glaze of color. And while I get the general effect from my watercolor crayons, I can't mix those, which means I have to either settle or try layering colors....have you tried that? Yeah...it doesn't work very well!

When over at Red's, I tried one of hers, and yeah, liked it, but didn't think about it again until the other day, when I was feeling horribly fat, down, and ucky and had a bit of extra money to burn a hole in my pocket. I was wandering around Michael's (which was probably ill-advised), grabbing things off the shelf in that oh-that's-cool anti-climatic kind of way...totally emo and such, and was looking at all the paints and BAM -- a row of gloss paints in these awesome bright colors and WHEEE -- I had to grab a bucket from a nearby display to carry 'em all.

Upon getting home, I had to spill my paint and mmmmmm make some journal pages! It'd been awhile, and my meal break at work is JUST loooooong enough to eat and pen a journal entry or doodle some, so I've been journaling more (that, and I keep forgetting my book!). I had a TON of fun and you can see all my pretty pages below.

I've settled into a new style I'm LOVING. A mix of hand-drawn characters (whee!) and magazine people (and now at a discount!) with my new funking handwriting and lots of fun colors. And they don't take a TON of supplies or time to make, which is a plus since I have a lot on my plate! In fact, all my supplies fit in a nice big tote I got from work that's next to my chair right now. My room's freeeeeeezing....I snuggle under blankets to sleep and read but won't be sitting up there to journal. BRRRR! I need to clean it so I can move my space heater in.

OH! New thing! I've decided to give y'all a peek into my journal as I work in it -- I'll be taking shots every time I work in it so you can see how pages progress, as I don't do 'em all at once or in order or anything. So, I hope this helps some of you who are stuck or don't know how things get made. I've got captions on the photos thus-far to help explain things. It's all in a photo album here; I won't be posting pages until they're "done" on flickr. So it's a Kira-blog exclusive!!

GO! Journal In-Progress Gallery