13 Reasons to (Not) Cut Up a Magazine

Hello! Happy Spring! The last two months have found me on a blogging hiatus and for a very good reason: I was busy revamping my website, Valeriestorey.com. It was time for a change, and most of all, time to start selling my beaded bookmarks, jewelry, and artwork online. Hope to see you there!

Now that's done, however, it's back to blogging and one of my favorite topics: using magazines as a source for art and writing prompts.

I love prompts for any kind of creativity, even for game playing. Over the years I've used prompts in so many ways I can barely remember a time when I didn't use them. From Susan G. Wooldridge's Poemcrazy and her idea of creating "word pools," to simply having stacks of photo references for NaNoWriMo, magazine prompts have been my go-to method of writing forever. In my opinion, nothing matches an intriguing photo or a mysterious phrase to get a new scene or manuscript really going.

There's just one small problem: I can't find enough magazines! Always in the past free magazines seemed to be everywhere I went. I found them in local tiny libraries or for the grand price of twenty-five cents in thrift stores. Friends would happily give me several at a time, saying, "Oh, you like to cut things up. Take these--please!"

But lately my sources have dwindled. People don't subscribe like they did before, or they read online. So when I do come across a magazine full of great pictures or stories, I don't automatically grab my scissors. Instead, I'm keeping the pages intact and using every little thing they have to offer.

The upside to keeping magazine pages whole rather than shredded is I have a fresh outlook on how I use them, almost as if they were a type of multi-purpose reference book. I've discovered that I can more easily carry an individual magazine with me any time I choose to write outside or at my favorite cafe--no more dropped cut-outs scattering each time there's a breeze. Another benefit to working from a single magazine is I've discovered each issue will have a certain consistency that brings cohesion to a theme or a "look" for when I'm searching out characters or settings. For instance, take:

1. Characters. Because so many magazine issues are built around a single theme or subject, especially the month-by-month issues, it's easy to find groups of people (characters) who belong together. Whether they're all on vacation, all bankers, all celebrating Easter, or all wearing the strangest clothes ever designed in the whole of human history, page after page will feature people in related poses or situations. Regarding them as a group can create a cast of characters with a natural reason for knowing or meeting each other. Even the people and pets in the ads can fit into this united gathering.

2. Settings. Travel destinations. Art galleries. Home improvement. Magazines dedicated to single subjects will have multiple articles and ad repetitions of offices, bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchens, gardens, hotel rooms and restaurants providing so much detail, detail, detail you might never stop writing. When these details come from the same source, you once again have a more unified vision of where your characters interact and why.

3. Phrases. Article titles or ad-copy headlines are perfect for structuring story themes, or even adding to dialogue when they share a common purpose. For instance, art and design magazines will use a lot of technical references; literary magazines tend to be more poetic. Having a full list of phrases from a single source can be an excellent way, for instance, to title chapters or create a logical plot.

4. Found poetry. I love found or "black-out" poetry, taking shortened versions of existing phrases or lines out of context and placing them into new--often startling--arrangements. My personal preference is to use food magazines, but any magazine focusing on just one topic can provide an underlying consistency to your work, resulting in a more complete and better-crafted poem. To keep the magazine in top shape, consider photocopying the pages so that you can experiment with different ideas more than once.

5. And speaking of food . . .  Recipes! It's rare for a magazine that includes recipes to simply present a grab-bag of ideas somewhere on the back pages. Individual issues will instead usually choose one food type, such as salads, pasta, or a thousand-ways-with-eggs to complete each month's edition. "Recipe groupings" are great sources for character "show, don't tell" when you want to describe any of your characters' food preferences, dislikes, or allergies. They can eat the same thing over and over but cooked in a variety of ways, or avoid certain dishes with valid authority rather than "I don't like it."

6. Respond to a magazine's theme. Study each page and/or article as a whole and freewrite your feelings about what you read or saw. Sometimes the general color scheme alone can inspire a wealth of emotional response.

7. Add your own article or story. When you're finished reading a magazine, write something of your own to add to it. You might even want to write a piece in the voice of one of your characters to explore what truly interests them or how they feel about any given subject.

8. Get mad! Conversely, something about a magazine might bother you. You don't like the message, or how it was presented. Get snarky, be rude! Throw it at those horrible people in their dreadful glass houses with too much furniture and artwork. Let 'em have it. And make sure your characters behave even worse.

9. Get published. Why not? Magazine editors are always complaining about submissions that have nothing to do with a magazine's theme or requirements. But if you like a magazine, have studied it thoroughly, and think you have something to contribute, write a piece and submit it. Contact information and submission guidelines are usually listed in the first few pages.

10. Don't just sit there--read. With a magazine in your sketch- or writing-kit, you'll never be bored and will always have something to read wherever you go. You can't do that with a folder full of cut-outs.

11. DIY. Fashion, decorating, style--the things we're attracted to might be things we'd like to imitate or make ourselves. Creative prompts aren't exclusive to writing or painting. Ideas for knitting, pottery, or sewing can be as readily based on a magazine prompt as a story.

12. Art school. On a completely different note, magazines are fun to sketch with. I like to copy, trace, or find color palettes as exercises to fill my sketchbooks.

13. Break the rules. Draw on the pages. Add doodles, improve the view, change the colors of everyone's clothing. Use gesso to glue pages together and turn the whole thing into an altered book for more drawing or collage. (Of course you now have to go find a new magazine for new prompts, but at least you had fun!)

Tip of the Day: If you haven't already, gather a limited number of magazines that inspire you. I find six is a good number without being too cluttered. Personally I like to have a combination of art, fashion, interior design, food, and some kind of subject I wouldn't normally choose, say, a pet magazine. A good literary magazine is essential too. And don't overlook shopping catalogs. When you're ready for a new collection, simply pass your used copies on to your other writer friends and start all over again!

Staying Home? Make an Altered Journal!

© Honourableandbold / Dreamstime.com

It's springtime in Albuquerque and the streets are stunning right now: trees in full blossom, daffodils glowing golden-yellow in every yard, birds bustling in the branches, and hardly a car to be seen thanks to the sudden need to "self isolate" and keep a low profile. Many of us will be staying home more than usual, cancelling social activities and group meetings and doing our best to stay safe and sane. In other words, it's a perfect time to start (or to at least take a fresh look) at one of my favorite creative activities: journaling! 

Without a doubt journaling has been the single most valuable tool and practice of my writing and artistic life. Rarely a day has gone by that I haven't journaled in one way or another, whether it was to record my joy, work through my despair, or simply to find an inventive way to deal with plot-bunnies.
 
Although the majority of my journals fall into the category of hodge-podge grab bags, i.e., volumes of complaints, gratitude lists, poetry, and to-do lists all in one convenient spot, I've also written and created many journals dedicated to a single theme, e.g., nature, haiku, or travel. Over the coming weeks I thought it would be fun to share some of the different types of journals I've enjoyed best, starting with A, the Altered Journal.
 
In reality, "altered journaling" is a bit of a redundancy as any journal you work with is altered from the minute you fill in the first page! All that white paper quickly transforms into an individual form of expression that will never be matched again. But sometimes it's fun--and necessary--to go a step further beyond simply writing down your thoughts. That's where the altered journal comes into play, turning your words and ideas into a stand-alone work of art that can be enjoyed for the sheer beauty or individuality of the journal.
Starting an altered journal is easy, and relatively inexpensive. Most if not all of the materials you need are probably right in your house (great for when you can't leave home!). 
So, how to start?
 
- Begin with an old, possibly ruined book, one that's truly beyond its shelf life. Whether the subject is years out of date, the condition is poor, or it's just a book that never was, um, that well-written, choosing a hardback rather than a paperback to alter is often best. (Tip: unused, unloved cookbooks are an excellent choice. The size and paper weight is often larger and heavier than a novel or work of nonfiction, giving you plenty of room for writing and artwork.)
 
- Once you've got your book, I've learned from hard experience that it's imperative to not fall into the trap of journaling on every single page. In fact, unless you want to end up with an unwieldy, never-ending project that you will be sorely tempted to abandon halfway through (been there, done that) it's best to limit your page length. To make your journal easier to work with you can either remove a number of pages, or you can use thin coats of gesso to glue sections of pages together, leaving just as many surfaces to work on as you think you can comfortably handle. 

- If destroying books no matter how bad their quality breaks your heart, then how about using something like an old calendar? Once again, liquid gesso can be your best friend as you can use it to paint over any of the date pages or artwork you don't want while leaving a nice white (or any other color; a little acrylic paint mixed with the gesso works a treat) surface to work upon. 

- If you really want to keep things simple, try just altering the cover to any kind of blank composition book. Collage, paint, doodle--express yourself! 

- Another easy way to start an altered journal is to rework an old journal you already have, one that has served its purpose and you no longer want to re-read or keep. Collage or gesso over the existing pages, isolate certain passages to create found poetry, cut and tear the edges into interesting shapes and patterns. 

- For a super-simple altered journal, take a new or used greeting card and staple several folded blank or printed pages down the center. Consider using handmade, watercolor, construction, or even wrapping paper for your pages. 

- "Found" pages stapled or sewn together can create interesting journals in a wide variety of sizes. Recycle and combine old postcards, junk mail, and magazine cut-outs to create something unique and brand new! 

- How about making a journal out of used paper shopping bags? I have always loved drawing on what's called "bogus" or "kraft" paper, the same stuff they use to make brown paper grocery bags. Besides cutting down the bags into pages, you might like to fold one big piece of paper accordion-style or into a cube that opens into a series of smaller "pages."

Whatever you use for your altered journal, be sure to fill your pages with more than writing. Experiment with rubber stamping, glitter glue, ribbon and fabric, any kind of sticker, and your own artwork Most of all, enjoy the process and don't stress about the outcome. Whatever you make, I know it will be beautiful!


Tip of the Day: Currently it seems as if our daily lives and routines are being altered by the minute. It can be scary and for some people I am sure it has been deeply tragic. My sincere sympathies go out to those who have lost friends and loved ones. 

While we wait for things to improve, I believe it's truly important to stay active and to stay positive. Journaling in all its many forms is the best way I know to remain focused, involved, and engaged with your creative self no matter what may come. Wishing you all a safe and happy passage through these troubled times.

Old Books for New Art

This week I've been tearing up books. Lots of them. Not because I have anything against books (no!), or have a particular fondness for the sound of tearing paper, but because sometimes the best thing to do with a dog-eared, multi-read, falling-apart old paperback is to turn it into, you guessed it: collage! Or, better yet, an altered book of its own.

My love of using books as the basis for collage or as backgrounds for artwork started several years ago when I tried using a second-hand volume of architectural renderings as an art journal. At the time, I was so new to the process I thought you had to gesso, paint, and alter every single page of a book to have it qualify as an "altered book." I hadn't yet learned that the established technique most book-altering artists use is to glue or gesso several pages of an old book together in such a way that you end up with about a dozen or so very stiff, very solid "boards" to work on. Instead, I water colored, drew, pasted, and wrote on every single page of my altered journal, back and front. It took months (years) to complete and I still see room on the pages for more I can do. The end result was a monstrosity so thick it has to be held together with the kind of rubber band used to bind a bundle of asparagus or broccoli crowns.

Despite the enormity of my task, or maybe because of it, I learned an enormous amount from that first effort, mainly that one of the best collage materials available were the pages of other old books. Torn or cut up, the pages yielded all sorts of treasures, from weird illustrations to bizarre snippets of text just right for the type of mood or atmosphere I was trying to evoke. And I haven't stopped.

My method for  choosing which books to tear up is most often related to the age of the book, e.g.:

• The book is at least 50 years old, but is in no way a collector's edition. This especially applies to books printed on acidic paper and that (unfortunately) are disintegrating on their own with no help from me.
• If I do use a newer book, such as a mass-market paperback from the '90s, it's amazing how even a 20-year-old book can age to the point of having a broken spine, dog-eared and brittle pages, and the entire thing has yellowed to an unattractive yuck-color. No one could possibly enjoy reading the book in its current state of decay, and that's why it's on the "please take me away" free shelf at the library or similar.
• Sometimes, just sometimes, a brand new book can also be a total disaster due to an accident of some kind: the cover is missing as are several key sections or pages, the remaining pages are beverage-stained, mud-smeared, and/or water-logged,  and the whole thing is destined for the trash.
• Mass-produced nonfiction books, regardless of age, often have amazing illustrations and photographs, but contain very little informative text, especially if the research or covered topics are hopelessly out-of-date, or the quality of the writing is below par. Ho-hum cookbooks, history texts, and how-to books you find on bookstore bargain shelves are all good examples.
• Finally, magazines of all ages are always a good stand-by if you just can't bring yourself to tear up a beloved book, no matter how bad the condition.

Next step: what to do with all this paper madness. How about: 

1. Pasting the torn strips and pieces of text into a random pattern on top of another kind of support, e.g., a journal page, a Masonite board, or Bristol board, etc. 
2. Turning chapter titles, lines of text, and individual words into found poetry.
3. Covering the text with thinned gesso, acrylic paint, clear gel medium, or even watercolors. I like to vary the thickness of this coating, sometimes like it to be completely clear, or quite heavy to just leave the faintest amount of ghost text in the background.
4. Drawing on complete pages that have been torn from the binding, but not cut up in any way.
5. Cutting, folding, and gluing the pages into decorative shapes or small envelopes to paste throughout my journal.
6. Photocopying the various pages to create different sizes, distortions, or stronger backgrounds to then color or paint upon.
7. Label or title an existing collage or mixed-media piece.

The best part of tearing up books for me has been discovering the perfect piece of text through the happy accidents of randomness. For example, I might find in my pile of shreds a passage about the beauty of gardening. Matching and pasting these lines on to a scene of urban decay creates a tension that I don't think I could express any other way. It's magic!

Tip of the Day:  Book lovers, please don't despair. I realize how painful the idea of tearing up books can be for some of you, but look at it this way: when you tear up an old book, you're actually saving it (or at least the best parts). What would normally end up in the trash can now be a serious creative tool.

Stay Motivated with Art Prompts

© creativecommonsstockphotos

Happy February! It's nearly Valentine's Day--time to re-commit to those works-in-progress, art journals, sketchbooks, and unfinished "fill in the blank" projects. Last February I wrote a post about Falling in Love with Your Personal Project, but what about when the honeymoon's over? How do you keep the flame alive? 

For day-to-day inspiration I'm a great believer in prompts, especially magazine cut-out photos whether they're used for freewriting or as references for painting and drawing. But there's one big problem with magazine pics when it comes to art: the same images I use for writing are often too bizarre and/or detailed for sketching. I also sometimes resist drawing them because as fun as it is to write about a girl sitting on a throne wearing a giant moose head for a hat, I don't know how inspired I am to turn that idea into a finished painting. On top of that, there's always the big question of copyright law; reproducing photo images, no matter how loose the interpretation, can be tricky..  

This year I want to expand my art prompts and "inspiration files" into something more personal and less as just things to copy. Some of the ways I thought I could do this would be to: 

• Yes, continue clipping magazines--but with a difference: when I've got my images, I'll keep cutting and then collage them into strong images of my own design. Photographs that I would consider too dull for writing about are perfect for this, e.g., a pear from one picture, placed beside a teapot from another, with a cat from a random ad sitting close by. One advantage of this plan is I can really create the tonal values I want, combining serious darks with some brilliant lights, and all from a variety of sources.
• Purchase more used books for altering. Moving downtown has put me within walking distance to several great second-hand bookstores, including the Friends of the Library. At these shops I can buy a relatively inexpensive collection of out-of-print, oversize books to turn into altered sketchbooks. I can either draw directly onto the pages, or I can gesso, paint, and collage the book into something brand new. One advantage to this idea is I can try working more directly from my imagination rather than relying on pre-made images.
• Choose a theme and work on it for a month or longer in a variety of mediums, e.g., zoo animals. I can try drawing them in charcoal, acrylic, pastel, graphite, colored pencil, metallic marker, pen and ink . . . mud! Besides getting to explore more styles and techniques, I'll have a focused purpose and reason to draw every day. No more, "what do I draw now?"
• Illustrate a novel, or better still, one of my WIPs. This isn't a new idea for me, and I'm sure I've mentioned it before in previous posts, but it's always a good stand-by, particularly when choosing a theme like I mention above.
• Take my own photos and arrange them into a storyboard. Now we're talking! How about starting with say, three--beginning, middle, and end--but then consider expanding the "story" with as many as 28 (similar to the number of pages in a children's picture book).
• Cut out random shapes and "good parts" from failed paintings and drawings. Arrange them into a collage, and then fill out the empty spaces with new and improved drawings. No such thing as a "mistake," right?

So that should keep me busy for awhile. How about you? Do you have any favorite art prompts or methods you use to keep yourself inspired? Be sure to drop a line under "Comments" and let me know. Thanks for visiting!

Tip of the Day: Give your creativity a Valentine. Journal all the ways you love your work and how you can go deeper into that relationship  Knowing in advance why you want to stay with a creative project can often keep you motivated to complete it.

Fall in Love with Your Personal Project

Happy Valentine's Day! And what could be a better day for celebrating all the passion and love we pour into our manuscripts, journals, canvases, and sketchbooks alike? However, as much as we might be crazy in love with our work destined for publication and gallery showing, how much attention are you giving to a "personal project"? You know, the one that might never end up on a bookstore shelf or win a prize in a juried exhibition? Chances are, it's probably your very most favorite. I know my personal projects certainly are.

In case you're wondering what exactly is a personal project, I thought I'd start by explaining what it is not: it's not a dud. It's not something so bizarre or scary you keep it hidden, afraid of what people will think of it or your sanity. And it's certainly not something so poorly done that you're ashamed of it. Rather, it's a project you love in spite of the market, an effort that you attempt fearlessly, trusting your instincts, knowledge, and personal taste to carry you right through to the end. In other words, it's your absolute heart's desire: The book you want to read. The painting you want to hang on your own wall. The volume of sketches that feed your soul and imagination like nothing else you have ever encountered.

Often a personal project can take the form of an art journal or similar, there's usually a more structured process going on. For instance, you might want to create a children's picture that you both write and illustrate, as well as design the size, format, and covers from front to back including the end papers. Every single element of the book is uniquely yours. Other examples of personal projects could be things such as:

• A themed and beautifully executed sketchbook. It could be based on a nature study, birds, travel experiences, fashion . . . whatever you love.
• An experimental or graphic novel along the lines of House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
• A blog or website. Yes, your blog can definitely be a personal project, used as a place to explore, try out new ideas using new technologies, testing and challenging your digital skills.
• A series of craft items: pottery, jewelry, sewing, weaving, etc. Any project using materials, colors, or mediums you would usually bypass for not being "commercial" enough but that you've always wanted to try.

Some of my own personal projects have fallen into all of these categories: my altered book project (still a work-in-progress); my "Silly Little Birds" sketchbook; my "30 Days of Kimono" art journal, and my current Asian-inspired painted ceramic work. I have no idea if any of them will ever be "For Sale" but they are all projects I had to work on, or lose my sense of self.

The best part of working on a personal project is it can get you through times of creative slump or ennui. As my husband loves to say: A change is as good as a rest, and working on a project miles out of your comfort zone for no real reason other than you love it can be a creative life-saver. If you're unsure of where to start or how to decide on a project, consider some basic guidelines:

• Choose a subject you love, but have never felt confident enough to sell.
• Use your personal project as a way to create daily rituals, discipline, and find pleasure in going to your studio or home office. This can be especially valuable during the times you're not feeling as inspired or motivated as you'd like to be.
• Refrain from avoiding the work or even beginning it because it's "not for sale." Instead, unless you're on some impossibly tight deadline to complete a commercial project, try to give your personal project top priority. It's a great warm-up exercise before returning to other manuscripts or assignments you're working on.
• It's fine to dive into the middle of a project, wanting to do all the fun parts first, but try to give the project a sense of coherency with an eventual beginning, middle, and end. Work toward giving the project a sense of being a finished body of work. Don't cut corners, become lazy, or feel you can be stingy with supplies because "no one else will see it." 

Most of all, keep in mind that your personal project should reflect the very best of you and your creativity. Make it shine, make it sing, and give it as much TLC as you can spare. Go for it!

Tip of the Day: Although the whole idea of a personal project is to make it personal, I'll bet you a silk pajama (to borrow from Ogden Nash) that some of your favorite published work started out as a project the author or artist wanted to keep private and not for sale. At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with submitting or selling what began as a personal project if that's what seems appropriate when you're finished. Just don't let the idea of selling scare you from starting or falling into the "perfection" trap, one that keeps you from expressing yourself fully with all the individuality you can muster.

#AtoZChallenge, B is for Buy a Butterfly

Happy Saturday, all! The perfect day for some art journaling and for today's topic: Buy a Butterfly, or, Sometimes it's Good to Shop.

In yesterday's post I emphasized the importance of using as much FREE STUFF as possible for your journal, but today I'm singing the praises of treating yourself to a trip to the hobby-, dollar-, thrift-, or art supply store. Nothing fancy, mind you, but every now and then your journal could use a little store-bought item or two. And taking yourself to buy some supplies makes the perfect Artist's Date.

My favorite way to do this is to set a budget of about $10 - $20 max, and then drive off with no expectations whatsoever, just an open mind and a sense of adventure. Some of the things I'll look for include: 

• Bags of collage goodies: from paper scraps to die-cut card pieces, such as the butterfly featured above. I've bought collections that are based on a theme, such as beaches and ocean-side designs, or vintage clothing and Victorian sayings. Other bags have included a variety of fascinating but totally unrelated items; one bag I bought even had tiny little clothes-pegs and safety pins in the mix. None of these bags cost more than $5.00 and they were jam-packed with inspiration.
• Old and very-bad-condition books. These are excellent for tearing up and re-using the pages of text and/or illustration for journal backgrounds. (Note: if the book isn't completely falling apart, it can be turned into your actual journal as an "altered book.")
• Bags of ribbon scraps.
• Pre-cut fabric quilting squares. These are usually bundled into small color-coordinated packages.
• Stick-on pearls, rhinestones, and other blingy-type thingies.
• Jewelry-making components such as pendants and miniature printed pictures for inserting into clear pendant-cases. (I don't know how to exactly describe these pictures, but they're wonderful for collage. Each sheet usually has about 20-30 different designs.)
• Stickers! So many to choose from!
• Scrapbook pages sold in tablets or as individual sheets. (The tablets can be pricey, but they're often on sale, especially at the discount stores.)
• Origami papers.
• Craft magazines. Good for inspiration and cutting up for a wealth of words and images.

And that's just for starters. After I come home with my treasures I usually sort them into different categories of size, theme, or color. I then keep everything in a series of cigar boxes for the smaller pieces, and photo-storage boxes (decorated of course!) for the larger bits.

On today's page I've used a background of watercolor crayon, some leftover strips of a scrapbook page, four pieces of die-cut card from a purchased package, and a lovely quote from a lovely member of my writer's group. She had included these in our Christmas cards a few years back and I always knew I'd use mine in some meaningful way down the road--like today. 

For the written part of my journal, I'm going to continue with "I remember. . ." recalling the time my first-grade teacher brought caterpillars to class and we placed them in an aquarium filled with leaves and branches. I'll never forget watching the "worms" (I was a rather squeamish child) form their cocoons, and then the wondrous day when the butterflies emerged to fly out the window. Some things stick with you forever, with or without the glue-gun.

Tip of the Day: The next time someone asks what you'd like for a birthday or holiday gift, why not suggest some supplies for your art journal? I love it when someone surprises me with a grab-bag of notions and "puzzle pieces." Not only does it give me some interesting insights into how other people think (i.e., why they chose particular items over others), but I enjoy the challenge of using things I may not have picked out for myself. Wishing you all a creative weekend!

My Altered Book, Post-NaNoWriMo

Four Girls and Six Colleges; Altered Book Page

Sometimes I just like to write a book for fun, and usually it's for NaNoWriMo (aka National Novel Writing Month). No big deal, no serious thought of publication, but worth it's weight in writing practice and who knows? Maybe there are some characters, scenes, or settings that will be used one day--maybe even the majority of what I wrote. But while I'm at work on these "just for fun" books, I don't like to think about anything as daunting or real as editing, commonsense, or marketing. Instead, I just freewrite every wild and crazy thing that comes into my head and let the plot chips fall where they may.

For the last three NaNoWriMo years, three of these "for fun"manuscripts have turned into a  connected series, all based on the altered book project I started four (!) years ago and that I titled, Four Girls and Six Colleges. The title is derived from the actual book I'm altering, a collection of architectural drawings of six historic Australian college campuses. The four girls (featured above) who became the main characters of both the altered book and the 2012 NaNoWriMo manuscript, were amongst the first photos I pasted into the book. I was so intrigued with their stories that for NaNoWriMo 2013 I wrote Six Girls and Four Colleges (about their daughters), followed by last year's effort, Homecoming which featured their granddaughters.

But now that the manuscripts have been written and put away for a rainy day, it's time to get back to my original inspiration, the altered book itself. One of the reasons I'm still working on it is because when I embarked on the project I didn't realize that most people gesso or glue together several pages of their chosen book to make very thick single pages. After that it's fairly simple to collage, paint or enhance the resulting 12 or so backgrounds. In my case, however, I thought you were supposed to work on EVERY page--as in all 96 of them, back and front.

So here I am, several years later, still slogging away with the watercolor crayons and glue sticks. Some of the pages are pretty complete, maybe even finished; others have a long way to go. The good news is none of them are blank, as in, white-page-staring-me-in-the-face. Take a peek:

There are many, many more pages, LOL, but as they say, that's all for now, folks! Hope you enjoyed the show! As for me, it's back to the crayons and glue sticks. Sigh.

Tip of the Day: When's the last time you wrote or made something "just for fun"? If it's been a while, brainstorm a list of projects you'd love to try no matter the outcome. Pick one and start playing today! (P.S. Keep in mind that this is all about the sheer pleasure of personal creativity--you may want to take a page from my own experience and go for quick-and-easy rather than " 'till death do us part.")

Art Journal Tip: Map a New Adventure!

Where have you been? Where are you going? Today's prompt from Art Journal Class, My Favorite Tips is all about making--and using--a map in your art journal.

For this exercise you can use any kind of map: old atlas pages, leftover vacation maps, cut-outs from travel, airline, or food magazines, or maps you just invent--often the very best kind! You can also find some great maps online; all you have to do is download, print, and voila--instant art journal pages.

Drawing a map into your art journal can, like all art journal techniques, be a combination of art, writing, and anything else that pops into your head. Some different types of maps you might want to work with can include:

• A map of where you currently live.
• A favorite place you lived in the past.
• Your childhood room, play area, or classroom.
• A vision quest.
• Where your pet travels every day: a known or imagined route!
• A vacation locale; either one you remember or are currently visiting, or one you've always dreamed of seeing.
• One or more settings from your work-in-progress or from a book you've already published.
• A fantasy world. Again this could be inspired by literature, perhaps a book you've read or are reading.
• Your writing space or art studio.
• Your garden--both the one you have and/or the one you want. (An added benefit to a landscape map is that it can help you decide what to plant when the season's right.)
• How you got to where you are in life; and where you want to go from here.
• An actual, real-life map--one you like just as it is, or one you alter, adding your own notes, illustrations and warnings: "Here be monsters!"

Once you've included a map in your journal, you might like to take the topography a step further and/or share it with a wider audience. Some ways to do that are:

• Actually turn a map into an art journal. Cut or fold it into a "book"; lightly gesso the pages so the map imagery still shows through; sew or staple the pages, and you have an instant journal. If you have too many thin pages, you might like to gesso some together to give them added strength. Makes a great gift too!
• If you decide to illustrate your WIP journal or notebook with a map, why not just go ahead and add the map to your published text? I did this with The Great Scarab Scam, my Egyptian mystery for young readers.
• How about adding the same map(s) to your book trailer too?
• Scan your illustrated map and turn it into a transfer for a T-shirt, tote bag, or cushion.
• Turn it into a greeting card.
• Or a party invitation with full directions on how to reach the party.
• Cut up a copy of the map like a jigsaw puzzle and paste the pieces in various places throughout your journal.
• Frame it as a "treasure map" to put on your wall for daily affirmation and help in accomplishing your goals.
• Sell it! Local historical societies or tourist boards might love having a colorful and whimsical map directing visitors to important sites.
• Include an illustrated map with your next holiday group letter.
• Encourage your children or students to make their own maps. A fun and educational activity for everyone!

Tip of the Day: A great way to use either an existing map or one you've created yourself is to use it as a collage background. This is especially useful for those pesky fold-out vacation maps that never seem to fold back into shape again. Happy mapping--happy trails!