Tag: mixed media journaling

Mixel is MindFULL

If you had a clean canvas of time in front of you and were looking for creative inspiration, where would you go? This is what I reflected on as I closed my eyes in the sun at the base of Copper Mountain last weekend.

In addition to some small house ideas that I’d like to get done (and I find lots of inspiration on www.houzz.com) and some pending work projects to keep me sharp and productive (of those I can reveal, one of the best retailers, www.basspro.com, continues to care about what their customers think), I now have some personal creative time for the first time in a long time.

One of my intentions for this year is to MindFULLY infuse my blog and to really get back on finding and sharing some creative resources with all of you. We share what we need to learn.

Love that as soon as I decided this, my very creative friend and author, Rena Tobey (author of The Integrity Moment), emailed about the following app.

The app is called Mixel. The article in the New York Times says it is  “aimed at amateurs…allows users to grab images from the web or elsewhere, collage them almost effortlessly and then pass them around, social media style, for appreciation or re-mixing.” Looks fun! Check out the article at  http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/mixel-makes-art-social/

Let’s make 2012 one of our most MindFULLY Creative years. Please share what you find — and any creative ideas that infuse your days. You can email me at robin@themindfullcreative.com. We’ll take your recipes, decorating tips, books/music/movies you recommend, life lessons, MindFULL moments. Over 100 people read the MindFULL Creative every Monday. It’s not a lot, but if everyone sends in one idea, then we will surely share a year of unbridled creative spirit.

The more we share, the more we will have to draw on when the weeks are long and the days are short. The holidays are over, but the spirit can live on.

 

How do you MindFULLY learn about new creative sites and resources? Let us know!

One New Idea

Just this week, I had no fewer than 7 conversations with fantastic, “successful”, interesting, delightful  people who are bored with their lives. If there was one big bed everyone could crawl into, they’d put on their pj’s and scoot under the covers.

But alas, there isn’t. We have to get up. We get to get up! We are lucky we have the luxury to ponder “what Next?” And therefore, I say, “Come on, gang, we can do it. Let’s get up and get dreaming!”

“How?” You might ask. “I don’t know…”  However, what I do know is that there are some paths to figuring out what you’d like to do and hopefully, they can lead you to “Next”.

One of those paths is through journaling. Not writing words in a book, blah, blah, blah, but writing, creating, gluing, drawing and thinking as your hands move. No censoring. No self badgering as to whether you are an artist. That’s besides the point.

And that is why Judith Cohen-Mamet and her YouTube tutorials are a gem. Judith shows you how to journal and add some fun techniques to a traditionally dry process. Below is a link to the first of a series of video tutorials for mixed media journal techniques. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rfGQDcjXg. After the video, check out the additional helpful hints found on her blog (www.jcmamet.net)

In addition to using Judith’s  techniques, consider using colorful crayons to scribble your dreams. Better yet, MAKE the crayons. I saw this technique on a friend’s Facebook page and thought it was so different. And how do you break the boredom cycle? BY DOING ONE SIMPLE THING IN A DIFFERENT WAY. One thing. Try it!

– soak the crayons in warm water (the wrappers come off much more easily this way)
– break into smallish pieces
– spray the baking pan with oil for easy remove.

– put in the oven at 250 degrees for 10 minutes
– they’ll be pure liquid when you take them out, but they’ll cool in another 10 minutes and viola, you’re done!

FYI – my friend’s friend got the pan at Crate & Barrel (it’s a whoopie pie pan 🙂

So, this week, try doing one thing differently, rip out one article from a magazine or newspaper that interests you or consider taking one class on a topic you’d like to learn more about. Just ponder one new idea. You don’t have to marry anything. Just explore it. You never know where it might lead. Certainly, it will add to “Next”!

What did you MindFULLY find to add to your “Next”? Let us know!