Introducing: The Art of Inspiration Journals!

Creativity

Feb 24

Written By

I remember exactly where I was when I read an article on Etsy, about 9 years ago, about a girl who had traveled to Mexico and was 'so inspired by all the colors' that she started hand-dying scarves and selling them on Etsy.

I had zero idea what she was talking about.

How do you get from Mexican street food, clothes, and trinkets to hand-dyed scarves on Etsy?!

In my mind, those had NOTHING to do with another, so I begin investigating.

For years I read books, asked questions, and opened my eyes to the world of 'inspiration' to figure out how it worked.

IT TURNS OUT INSPIRATION IS A LOT EASIER TO UNDERSTAND + HARNESS THAN YOU MIGHT THINK.

Inspiration works like this:

You see something that is interesting to you.
Your artist brain gets a little tingle
You make note of the thing (it could a color, shapes, line, pattern, word, movement, anything!)
Then you play with it. You turn the shape over, you make the pattern bigger, then smaller...
Then you move on.
Later, something else catches your eye and you repeat steps 3-5.
Finally, you have an idea or a project due and it's time to create. You sit down, combine all those little bits and pieces and turn them into a brand new, fully-fledged idea! A new creation all your own!
You manipulate, you add, you subtract, you abstract. Sometimes knowingly, using a notebook of ideas, sometimes just by letting your brain bring up these things on its own.
Then, you have a finished piece of art made up of all the bits and pieces of the world around you.

And that is what inspiration is. How you find it, how you use it.

After researching and developing my own creative process when it came to inspiration, I created a system of finding and curating inspiration and turned it into an online course. In the course, I taught how to create your own inspiration journal full of prompts, templates, guides, ideas, etc for teaching yourself the art of noticing.

A student asked, 'why don't you actually create and sell these as ready-made journals so we can skip this step'?

At that time I was living in Korea and the thought of figuring out the mail in another country + designing and printing a journal that lived up to the standards in my head felt so overwhelming so I brushed the idea to the side....but 6 years later it was still there!

The idea of creating a ready-made inspiration journal to help you capture your ideas and turn them into art just wouldn't leave me...

https://youtu.be/3Q63mSroBi8

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY: THE ART OF INSPIRATION JOURNALS ARE NOW REAL & AVAILABLE FOR YOU!

As soon as we moved to Asheville I began looking for a local printing company who could bring these beauties to life! They are printed on recycled paper that is perfect for capturing all of your inspiration and ideas.

The books have a mix of prompts, templates, ideas, suggestions, and challenges to get your ideas onto the page and turn them into art.

They have 50 pages and are 3.5 x 5.5 inches, so they are the perfect size for your purse, backpack, suitcase, or pocket.

Whether you are a hobbyist or a professional artist - I made these for you.

I made these to help you plan your next jewelry collection, your new art piece, to gather ideas to go into your art journal pages, to remember quotes for your next book or blog, whatever your craft - I made this for you.

Years of creating and learning have gone into creating the perfect guide to help you harness the power of inspiration and turn it into art.

HOW TO USE THIS JOURNAL

Use this journal to collect ideas, gather colors, patterns, shapes, words you love.

Use this journal to help you create your next painting, gather marks for your next art journal page, collect quotes for your book or blog post, to work out the perfect shape for a piece of jewelry, to brainstorm possibilities, to practice, to observe, to create.

Then, turn your doodles, scribbles, lists, and ideas into art.
(but don't worry the journal will help you with that part too!)