When I was growing up, I thought being an adult meant you had it all figured out. Life poses no more big surprises, you know how to handle any situation. At 39, I think I can safely say that that’s a load of horse shit.
Continue reading Introducing the Stress Less Pencil
Art and creating have gotten me through many of the tough spots of my life. Science is also catching up to what we’ve known since we first drew on cave walls (I’d like to think so at least): engaging in the arts has a massive positive effect on our mental health.
That’s why I’ve started the Stress Less Pencil – a weekly creative prompt designed to improve mental health.
Here are the first 10 prompts that will help you connect with yourself, manage stress, and have fun while you’re doing it.
Continue reading 10 Creative Prompts to Manage Stress and Mental Health
You’ve seen people create wonderful journal pages on YouTube and Instagram. You’ve bought yourself a notebook, some Washi tape, and some pastel markers. You’re ready to go.
You start looking around for more inspiration. Bullet Journal videos eventually lead you to to #plannernerds and to Art Journaling Facebook groups where people happily show off their Junk Journals. And some of this sounds vaguely familiar. Didn’t your aunt talk about this stuff when she got into scrapbooking? And whatever happened to keeping a good old diary? Or is that a journal now?
For those of you who are, like me, a bit confused with all these different brands of artsy journaling, let’s break down the difference.
Continue reading Journal, Bullet Journal, Planner, Art Journal, Junk Journal, Scrapbook – What’s the difference?
Do you also like to fill up your empty planner pages with some original art work? Every month, I leave some spreads empty on purpose between my weekly spreads, so that I have some space to let off some creative steam. My planner is therefore a nice hybrid between a bullet journal and an art journal.
But staring at those empty white pages can be tough don’t have any inspiration. I’ve therefore created this list of prompts to kick start you to get your creative juices flowing.
Continue reading 30+ Art Journal Prompts for your empty Planner Pages
Pop Art is an artistic movement that ranged from the late 50s to the 70s and well beyond. Pop Art’s imagery focuses, as the name says, mostly on popular culture. Everyday life, commercial products, celebrities, advertising, the mundane items of everyday life.
Pop Artwork uses bright colours, outlines, and features visually often inspired by comics. When asked to name some famous Pop Art artists, most people will probably name Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, maybe Roy Liechtenstein.
But as so often, I ask myself, where the women at? Surely the whole movement wasn’t exclusively run by male artists?
Of course it wasn’t! So let me introduce you to some of the best female artists of the Pop Art movement.
Continue reading Meet the Female Pop Art Artists Nobody is Talking About
Learn how to make your own DIY Washi tape storage using toilet paper and other things you likely have around the house.
If you’re into arts and crafts, then you’re probably very familiar with the beauty of Washi tapes. When I first started my bullet journal a was gifted a huge bag of different decorative tapes for my birthday. They are gorgeous, and I love all of them.
The problem was how to store them all for easy access without it being a huge mess. My solution at the time was to just throw all the Washi tape rolls into a bunch of Ziploc bags, and then throw those in a drawer. It works, but it’s not the nicest.
Continue reading Super Easy DIY Washi Tape Storage from Toilet Paper Rolls
Corner to Corner, or C2C, crocheting is everybody’s new favourite thing it seems. And to be fair, I totally understand why. C2C gives you amazing options for creating patterns.
The main idea is that you work from the bottom left corner to the top right corner of a piece by creating diagonal rows of small blocks, a bit like pixels in an old computer game.
Continue reading How to Corner to Corner (C2C) Crochet – Beginner’s Tutorial (Left-Handed)
At the moment of writing this, we are at the backend of the first Covid 19 lockdown. One thing I noticed was that I’ve been getting a lot more nostalgic lately, thinking about childhood toys and old memories with friends.
I’m obviously not the only one, as I’ve been seeing some great tattoos commemorating the past.
Here is a collection of some great retro tattoos that had my nostalgia running hard.
Continue reading 15 Retro Tattoos to make you feel nostalgic
Want to jazz up that plain tote bag of yours? Or maybe an old t-shirt? Here’s a step by step guide on how to decorate fabrics with linocut print.
Giving somebody a blanket is one of the nicest gifts I can think of. Blankets provide warmth and comfort, it’s basically like giving away a permanent hug. Even better if the blanket is handmade with love.
I was absolutely thrilled when I learned out how to crochet edges around fleece blankets. You get to combine lovely fabrics and cool prints with your favourite crochet stitches and colour combinations, to make beautiful comfy blankets for your loved ones.
Follow the steps in this tutorial to create your own blanket with a crochet edge.
Continue reading How to Crochet Edges around Fleece Blankets – Beginner Crochet Tutorial