Writing Down Ideas - Being Creative #7

This week's topic at the "Being Creative Blog Party" over at Amisha's Gorgeous and Fun Things  is "Writing down ideas? Do you do it? Do you like it? Does it help?"

Truthfully, I would have to say that I very seldom write anything down, nor sketch out ideas. I have done so on rare occasions, but it is definitely not a habit. Probably the closest I come to that is when I flag an idea or a layout in a magazine that I really like, but so often I forget to go back and look for it.

So I think that this is an area where I might really gain some benefit. It has only been a short time that I have been making art on any kind of regular basis. Before about a year ago, I was very sporadic and made art primarily when I was on vacation and had time to do it. But over the last year I have tried to be much more intentional in being creative on some sort of consistent basis. So I think I will begin to make an effort to write things down. We'll see how it goes. Maybe next week I can give you a little update! : )

Now on to my creative effort that I am going to share today. I just want to share a couple of backgrounds I've been working on and a page from one of my altered books.

First are a couple of background pages that I made from instructions in Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop 2 called "Start Where You Are" by Linda Blinn. I made my own sprays by adding ink to water in spray bottles. I then used some items that I had around as stencils. This is done in my water color pad. I'm practicing before I put something into my actual Art Journal - sort of a "journal for my journal", as one lady in the workshop put it.  Maybe this will turn into my idea and resource book for writing things down!

Spray inks over assorted home objects - item on the right is a paper overlay for scrapbooking.

Used spray ink over household items

I used a doily, heart tag from clothing item and I picture of a woman that I cut out from a book. The blue in the right hand lower corner is some metallic blue water color that I brushed on. Upper right is just some white plastic mesh I had around the house. Again - this is my "journal journal".
I don't know what I will actually end up making on these pages, but it sure is a fun beginning!

Altered Book Double Page Spread - Red booklet on right opens up.

I already posted this picture in a previous post, but I wanted to show the booklet opened up. See below.

Booklet opened

Front Cover of the Book - work in progress- I used a map of my beloved home state of Mississippi as the background!

Book Spine - I'm using the various countries in the book as my page inspirations.

So there you have it - some of my work from this week. If you'd like to see other posts on Being Creative and Writing Things Down, head over to Amisha's at Gorgeous and Fun Things. You might find you want to join in the fun. It is a great inspiration and very gentle and affirming. I love it!