Behind The Scenes at Creativebug

You know how people say "My job is not as glamorous as it seems"? Well, in most cases, yes that is the truth. My job is not glamorous. I sit at home, type on my computer and then my husband comes home and essentially pulls me out of being a mole person for the day.But. For once, the 'oh so glamorous' mantra was true in my job. The week I was filming at Creativebug was honest-to-goodness, hands down the most glamorous and amazing week of my life. Now, know there were toilets that needed plunging and I am cursed with a sinus infection every time I fly, but even the toilet plunging felt perfect. I also did all my own hair, make up, wardrobe and had to walk to work. But you get the point. The ability to show up, do the fun part (the art) and then leave and let someone else do the part I don't love (the editing) was absolute Hollywood level glamour for this entrepreneur who does every.single.bit of her own work.In July my biz partner Caylee and I flew to San Fransisco for a week to film 4 classes for Creativebug. Creativebug is an online art course platform that hosts the most top notch, high quality, well known creative leaders in our industry. So the fact that they wanted us to teach there is still blowing my mind. They are able to host these big names because their level of quality is insane. Their customer/teacher service is Hollywood status. They are kind, fun and creative. They put art, quality + customer service first and it shows. They were an absolute dream to work with it.Today, I wanted to pull back the curtain and share some fun behind the scenes things with you, like how we landed this gig in the first place, the course development process and some sneak peeks into the Creativebug studio + what it was like to film with them.

Our first course: 30 Days of Art Journaling

First, the details, we filmed 4 courses (total between the 2 of us). The first one came out this week! Its a 30 day art journaling challenge and every day in September a new tutorial will be released. We are doing a lot of fun things to celebrate it, like giving away a free year to Get Messy to anyone who completes the challenge and going live every weekday on instagram to create. You can join us with a free trial here! The rest of the courses will be slowly released around the beginning of the 2019, sign up to my email list to stay updated!

How It Started

Let's talk about how this whole thing got started...in short: I emailed them. The long story: we worked really hard on growing Get Messy and developing our artistic styles and becoming good teachers for years. This body of work, reputation and the relationships we developed made us an easy yes for CB when they got my message. They knew who we were, had seen our work and we were all at a perfect place (time, geographic location, etc) to collaborate.But once we got the yes and finished losing our minds, we had to get to work. We had 4 courses to develop and we needed to be completely prepared for the unknown. We didn't know exactly what the filming situation was going to be, what products exactly they would have, we did know the filming time frame was incredibly small, we didn't actually know these people so creating live in front of them was nerve wracking. We had so many unknowns (even with their detailed and thoughtful guidance-some things you just have to experience to understand), so we did everything we could to prepare.

How We Prepped

CB was amazing at helping us with all of this and guided us through each step of the process. We scheduled meetings at crazy times to hit timezones all over the world for prep.  We developed outlines of our courses, wrote out 'scripts' (these were lose and just for us to stay on track), we made practice art, we submitted ideas, got edits + feedbacks, reworked ideas, fretted over everything and got excited over and over again. We went into the week with a timeline of how long each project would take, detailed supply lists and sample artwork. We were as prepared as we could be.Caylee and I (and CB) use Google docs to stay organized. We created lesson outlines in shared folders and would meet over Google Hangouts to talk through ideas and develop the courses. Then we would create art separate, add photos in and reevaluate together. This was a long process of talking through our ideas, making sure the classes flowed and editing. We made endless lists of things to pack and bring and to do in person beforehand and on camera. Google Drive is our number 1 business tool we use to create and work together.We created 2 courses collaboratively and then each had one separate. For our courses together we developed the ideas together and then split up the lessons. We each worked on our lessons and ideas and art and then would come together to be sure they fit and flowed with one another and edited from there.To develop our lesson plan we thought about all the struggles we had heard members from Get Messy discuss. We thought about who our target audience was and assessed our own strengths. We also had to work with the input from Creativebug and base our lessons on what their audience liked. So we settled on beginner to intermediate level art techniques that ranged in time and supply needs. We wanted this course to be accessible to everyone, so we did not choose a specific theme. We varied the lessons so everyone would find a few they enjoyed and worked off our different strengths to teach lessons that were simple, detailed, layered, short, long, involved, deep, easy, etc. We looked for ways we could build from one lesson/skill onto the next. We tried to hit all the main tenants of art journaling: backgrounds, techniques, journaling, stretching supplies, idea generation, layering, finding a style, making a habit, experimenting, growing and problem solving.Which is a lot. But I think we were able to cover all main points and more in the course. It took a lot of idea sessions, thoughtfulness and spreadsheets.

Filming!

We arrived in San Fransisco on Sunday afternoon and were blown away by the Mission District, which is where we stayed + their studio is located. This first afternoon we spent exploring (aka looking for food) was worth the whole trip. This place was bursting with color and life and quickly hit my favorite cities for artists list.   This is also where we arrived at an AirBNB whose toilet needing plunging and my sweet husband facetimed us (and laughed at us) and assisted us in fixing the problem. Still we were on cloud9 and this hiccup did not faze us one bit.The next morning, our first morning of 'work', I was in a dream as we walked (walked!!) through this beautiful neighborhood filled with art, with a backpack full of art supplies, wearing my favorite outfit, walking towards a studio full of amazing, collaborative artists thinking that this was it - I was finally living in my own real life dream world, one that I didn't even know existed. If I could, this would be what my life would feel like every single day. And when we arrived (late of course because we had flipped the address and couldn't actually find the studio), I was no where near disappointed because my real life dream life also featured a beautiful converted warehouse space filled with art and beauty and the workspace of my Ikea dreams.Now, I can't show you everything when it comes to filming + tech, because secrets are what dreams are made of or some other weird quote, but I can show you and tell you about the professionalism, the quality, the beauty, the joy, the humor and the freaking amazingness of every second of being at Creativebug.Their workspace is open and lovely. It is full of art made by the artists who have come through and by the staff themselves, it is full of gorgeous, inviting furniture and oh yeah, it has a whole wall of craft supplies - any and everything you could ever want. (this photo isn't even half of it)Then upstairs in the film studio is where the magic happens. There are props, art, couches, insane cameras + tech equipment and then the mac daddy of it all: your backdrop.Courtney is a teaching coach who helps you create, prep, film and create your course. But she is oh so much more. She is an artist of artists. Somehow she creates the most perfect backdrops for each and every course Creativebug has. Each one different, each one gorgeous and each one so perfectly tailored to the instructor that you would think they had made it themselves. Ours was no less than what I want painted on my coffin. Somehow she combined Caylee and I's artistic styles so perfectly that we straight up wore matching clothes to the backdrop every single day - but yet we had not seen it before we got there....so yeah. Courtney is a magical fairy of an artist.Each day had a nice rhythm to it. We would start our mornings by prepping our art as much as we could so our lessons focused on the creating and not the gathering of supplies. We would switch back and forth between filming, me and Caylee, so we had a nice little break in between and could prep for our next lesson as filming was non stop and we had to make a lot of art and, therefore, a lot of decisions quickly. We had to be on camera, creating, narrating, teaching and taking direction. It was exhausting in the best way possible. It was nerve wracking to create in front of so many people + SO many cameras. Courtney was a great director and would feed us lines when we were stumped or would offer alternative ways to say things and would prompt us to explain further when we got too into the art and forgot we were supposed to be teaching.We had a 2 person film crew + Courtney, who was our director. They were each so incredibly patient, encouraging and sweet. They made us feel so at ease and so at home. They were never angry when we messed up for the 1000th time or couldn't say a word right or our pens wouldn't work or our artwork sucked. They were attentive and helpful and this would have been a COMPLETELY different experience without them and their grace.

Daily Details

We filmed 4 courses, did 2 live Facebook create-a-longs (watch here and here), filmed a promo trailer, filmed a Q&A, had marketing meetings, ate delicious lunches, played with Charlie the Pup and made some amazing new friends. To say it was a packed week was an understatement, because that was only during the day...We spent our nights exploring as much as we could except, you may have gathered, we were quite exhausted. Oh and I got super sick on one day and it could literally not have been any worse timing. We were so grateful to be there together to have that support and to be able to do fun stuff together.Watching Caylee teach + create was such a gift! She was such a natural at sharing her creative wisdom and letting her personality shine through, I can't wait for you to see more of her courses.We would arrive, film, film, film, follow their teams creative direction and go home exhausted and foggy but warm and fuzzy (except freezing because San Fran is essentially the Arctic to me). As suddenly as we arrived in that bright and exciting city it was time for us to go home. The next few weeks were very sad to not have our own personal film crew + lunch ordered in for us each day. But we left with an absolute fire in us to raise our own standards for ourselves and for Get Messy and to take our own courses and tech to the next level. We were so impressed with their ability to mix professionalism, creativity, fun + friendship and are using that to inform so much of our goals for the future of Get Messy.

After Creativebug

After our life changing, dream world week in San Fran it was back to reality of answering emails, working on marketing plans and doing the day to day work that moves us forward towards more opportunities like this and connecting our community with the magic we had just made. But that's also where the magic happens. Where we get to connect with our people and see the joy of art journaling be translated in their work and lives. THIS is what it is all about.We are seeing the classes in real time with the students, so each day is a bit of a surprise to see what the finished product looks like. And I can honestly say I have never been more proud. The editing, presentation and reaction have been just perfect. We both appreciate everyone's enthusiasm to join in and be part of the course. I am so grateful to have been able to create this course that will hopefully help so many of you dive a little deeper into your creativity and grow those skills and infuse more of yourself into your art.I would love it if you would join us and take the class. Please let us know what you think of the class and if you have any more questions about how amazing Creativebug is. Use this link to sign up for a free trial and dive into the class today! And thank YOU for showing up here, reading, participating and encouraging us and making all of this possible for us so we can bring you more creative content each week. I love you friends!