How To Make A Simple Journal

 

Don't procrastinate anymore about making your first handmade journal. My Alone In The Woods And Writing mini journal was quick and easy to make. It's not complicated but very simple. It got me started in my handmade journal projects. You can make a short journal too!

I had a piece of my hand-painted cardstock that was ok but not the best that I'd made. Rather than throw it away, I decided to use it for the cover. I planned to add collage. The size of this scrap did not matter but the journal ended up being about 5 x 4.5". 

I glued a piece of red paper onto the back of the scrap cardstock and trimmed. I folded it in half and I had my journal cover. I gathered together various other scrap papers and those that were too large, I trimmed. This was going to be a journal with even pages rather than ragged and raw. I stacked the scraps on top of each other and folded them in half. Some pages were a little short and I left them that way. 

The front of the journal is collaged and textured. The moon is a circle of paper with a script design. The cottage is one of my odd sketches on a piece of cardstock. I drew in the roof tiles and the eaves after gluing it to the cover. I doodled on the lines and dots on the cover background.

The two black trees are scratched in with a dying ink pen. The white trees and the stars are scratched on with a dying bottle of correction fluid that I wanted to toss. It made a very bumpy texture reminiscent of tree branches and bark. The tree trunks are scribbled on in black. More trees and bushes are pieces of salvaged book paper and my hand-painted paper cut with spikes across the tops and collaged down. 

The title is hastily scribbled words from when I first got the idea for the theme of this little journal. I was looking at the circle of script paper and my sketched cottage as I sorted scraps. I saw a big moon shining through trees onto bushes and a cottage in the woods. 

Notwithstanding the secluded eeriness of it, I thought how quiet and serene it would be to be writing there. I scribbled the words just to see a possible title. I was going to type and print them but decided that using my writing could add character and atmosphere to the design.

I did most of the collaging after I assembled the book. On the inside front cover I glued an image of red flowers that I tore from something, probably gift wrap, then scribbled black curlicues over it. On the first page I stamped a forest in black, with my hand-carved eraser stamp, until the ink faded. I glued a piece of scrap image and handwriting at the bottom.

Any pages with grid lines are patterns from the back of an embroidery book. I was going to toss them but decided to toss them into this mish-mash journal design.

I painted, drew lines, stamped and glued clip art on various pages. Then, I cut the corner off of an envelope and painted both sides with markers to make a corner bookmark, keeping with the night theme.

The pages are fairly pristine compared to an embellished journal that I would create today. I wanted to provide as much space as possible in this one for writing down thoughts.

The pages I chose for this one-signature journal were scraps that I liked and scraps that I did not like very much. I was not concerned with the colors or themes of the papers. I knew that I would add collage and other embellishments to some of them that would reflect the journal theme, Along In The Woods. 

I cut another moon, sketched another cottage and wrote out my title again for the back cover. I chose embroidery thread for sewing the book together. I punched holes in the spine at intervals, pushing through all pages and the cover. There are many types of authentic book binding sewing techniques. I usually like to just sew what I feel. Something unique, odd and eclectic.

For this journal I did learn the most basic stitch, the saddle stitch. After punching the holes, I used a needle and the embroidery thread. Instead of tying off the thread in the inside middle of the journal, I made a tail at the top and attached a decorative shell coin charm. 

My favorite zipper pouch sewing demonstrator, Jan Howell, has made an excellent tutorial on binding with the easy saddle stitch:

DIY Saddle Stitch Bookbinding | Simple Craft Project

Have you wondered what is the purpose of a junk journal other than a creation to look at? Here is a good overview, by Megan at Compass & Ink, of how they can be used. I like the suggestion of using one as a gratitude or spiritual journal. They can also be used as dream journals.

Junk Journal Ideas & How To Make Them

Create tags and envelopes to add to your handmade journal using instant download printables.

Printable Cards, Tags & Envelopes at Love Romance Marriage Shop

 

Get Started Now!

Have a wonderful Monday in this first week of February! I hope you do something creative today, something that you've been procrastinating about, dragging your feet in starting. Do it today! Start it today! Take a baby step towards it today! Today is the day to get started! Get started now!

Hearts And Dots ~ Hot Experience ~ Printable Paper

♦ "Digital & Hand-painted Hearts" design, original painted from left over paint from other projects, a green process.

♦ Prints on standard 8 1/2 x 11" paper.

Start With Something That You Like

Amidst the unpleasantness of life you have control over how you start your day. You set the tone by choosing to focus on the positive at the beginning of your day. No one or no thing can take this control away from you. Start your day with something that you like, a thought, a plan, a choice, an action. Determine to have a good day. It's as simple as that.

Set your course each day for positivity and success! It really is up to you!

Living A Creative Life Is Easy!

You know that I like to share how easy it is to live creatively. I try to add some creativity to every facet of my life. One way that I do this is by designing and creating as much as I can of what I want and need.

I shared this post: You Are Creative! In it, I encouraged you to believe in yourself and be careful to whom you share your work with. Trying to convince others to accept and value your work is the same as casting your pearls before swine. There are those who cannot appreciate your work and they will trample it in spirit and in words.

Start creating now! No more procrastinating! Don't fail yourself anymore. Take authority over fear!

Sarah at Red Rocking Bird shares a couple of quick and easy techniques in her video, BOOST CREATIVITY - A Creative Life is a Happy Life , to get your general, creative juices flowing. She shows you how to create simple marks with any materials on any type of paper. These easy marks can then be used to design patterns that can be used in a variety of creative projects. 

 

Happy Creative Friday: You Can Create!

 

Embrace your creativity! Enjoy creative living! It's a breath of fresh air everyday! You can create. You have the ability within. It's not like what anyone else does. It's your special vision, you way of seeing things. It is a gift that you have to enhance and brighten your life.

See this inspiring post: You Are Creative!

Lettuce Craft Featured Project

~ One of my projects, Nature-Inspired Scrabble Tile Necklaces, is featured at Lettuce Craft, a wonderful, busy craft forum. I'm going to write a post about the site soon. I'm still new and learning my way around. ~

The Benefits Of Blogging For Business And Marketing

It is shocking how many crafters, makers, artists and other creatives have stopped blogging. I reviewed my blog reading list to see who was still posting. I ended up purging from 125 blogs to 6, and 2 of those 6 are mine. Most crafters hadn't posted since 2015. A handful had posted in 2017 and after that, none of the 125 bloggers that I was following had posted. Something happened around 2015 in the crafting/makers/creative community where people stopped blogging. I asked myself is blogging dead?

Here are some possible reasons blogging has all but stopped in our creative community. Do any of these reasons fit you?

1. There seems to have been a general loss of enthusiasm, disillusionment and disappointment about online selling. 
2. Seeing many listing websites come and go. The demise of ArtFire, Dawanda and others was depressing. While some creatives migrated to other venues, some gave up listing.
3. The postal system started to increase fees yearly, negatively impacting handmades income. Sellers had to raise prices often when they did not want to.
4. Life has become more busy. Can't find time to blog.
5. Sales have fallen off and can't find a way to increase them.
   

One crafter said to me recently that back during the time when creatives were blogging the public couldn't get enough of handmades. I think there is still a love for handmades but other product types have flooded the market. Etsy's homepage is filled with digitals and printables, which I made the jump to because I love graphic design. POD sites are doing well and 3-D printed products are taking hold. Despite this, many handmades sellers are still doing well but they are not blogging. They are overlooking the greatest value of creating blog posts, advertising and promotion. 

Paying for online advertising is not affordable for most independent creatives. We are left with sharing through the few social media sites that are active. Social media, however, does not provide the value that it used to. People rarely interact anymore and there may be likes given but they lead to few sales. Any economically productive ways to market online have dwindled as well. So, why is blogging important for business? It gives us an easy way to draw potential customers and increase sales.

Consider These Benefits Of Blogging Then Ask Yourself Is Blogging Worth It

1. Can be used to market and promote without being flagged as a spammer. 
2. No advertising fees. 
3. Format, content and length of posts are controlled by the blogger. 
4. The frequency of posting is controlled by the blogger.
5. No limit on images in a post. 
6. No limit on links in a post. 
7. The type of SEO used, words or long-tail phrases, is controlled by the blogger.
8. Blog posts can be found by search engines. 
   

If you are blogging, you should continue and tweak your style and process. If you are a creator and you are not blogging but asking yourself should I blog, you should start. Selling competition has exploded over the past few years, since 2010-2015. Savvy blogging is a great way to successfully compete. The challenge is to:

1. Learn simple ways to start using keywords and phrases in blog posts, product listings, etc. The easy techniques in this book will guide you. Learning and using keyword search doesn't have to be expensive, tedious or frightening. In Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing, you'll learn to conduct fast, free and easy keyword phrase searches and add the results to your marketing content.
2. Choose a schedule to consistently prepare posts. You really can post as your schedule allows. Of course, the more frequently you post the better. You can choose to post once a week or twice a month but the key is to post every time you have set aside a time frame to do it. The goal is to be reliable to readers and potential customers. As you become adept at creating posts and are able to free up more time, you can increase your frequency. If you can never make more time, keep posting on your original time schedule.
   

Though I have been consistent with blogging over the years, I've known for some time that I'm too sporadic with posting. I've never given up that I will develop a good blogging schedule. Blogging as a marketing tool is invaluable when used with skill and commitment.

Here are some articles on the value of blogging that I found to be helpful:

 6 Reasons Why Blogging Is Important For Marketing And SEO by Kristi Hines

17 Ways To Get More Traffic To Your Blog In 2022 by Brian Dean

 How Long Should A Blog Post Be In 2022 by Lena Sernoff

Do People Still Read Blogs? The Truth About Blogging In 2022 by Rowena Zaballa

Do People Still Read Blogs In 2022? by Ryan Robinson

Truelist Blogging Statistics by Maja Josifovska

Learn Keyword Search To Use In Blog Posts, Product Descriptions And In Other Marketing Content

 

Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing

Successful People

Successful people do the things

that it's always hard

to commit to.

You Deserve It!

Don't forget to always reward yourself in some way, big or little, when you reach a goal or milestone, no matter how small it is, but certainly if it was a particularly difficult journey.

Consistency

The best way to succeed is to do what you love. In that way, you'll never quit. Long-lasting success takes consistency.

POD Can Be Good Passive Income

I reopened my Society6 shop so they can sell physical prints of my artwork and greeting cards. Of course, they sell designs on many other products. I will be primarily promoting my wall/framed art and greeting cards from this shop, though my designs will be available on many of their products.

I don't sell maker and handmades products anymore and am glad that I don't have to do packing and shipping anymore. I only sell my digital and printable graphic products from my own shop, Printaphoria. 

While artists don't receive a lot of money through POD, it's a great way to set up a passive income stream.

Set up your shop. Upload your designs. Write your product descriptions and add your keywords/search terms. Post your listing and move on to something else. 

 

There is, however, consistent promoting that you should do because competition is very stiff at all POD sites. I doubt if very many artists generate income by doing nothing, despite the great site traffic. Adding designs regularly will also help.

I used to be on Zazzle and Curioos but left a couple yrs ago. I was also at Society6 previously, which was the easiest POD site to leave. No problems. No headaches. No drama in closing my account. I'm glad to be back!

 

Visit my shop here:

 

https://society6.com/artsycrafterydesignstudio

How To Write A Poem

 

You can write poetry and become good at it. Whether you write for yourself, to give to others or to sell, you should start writing and keep writing. If you don’t know how to start, begin by deciding how many lines you want to have in your poem. 

In my poem, The Sky Through Bare Branches, I decided to write two stanzas (paragraphs) with five lines each. The lines in this poem do not rhyme, but are free-flowing thoughts. This is called free verse. I also decided that the first line of each stanza (paragraph) would be one long thought and the same thought. This gives my poem continuity. I wrote the other lines as broken up but related thoughts.

I love seeing the sky through bare branches.
I don’t know what it is, but
The white limbs of
The paper birch look silvery
Against the azure blue.

I love seeing the sky through bare branches.
As the scattered leaves
Shiver stiffly in
The cold gust,
I bid fall ado.

I wrote what I was thinking and except for the first lines in each stanza (paragraph), I broke my thoughts into short sentences. I substituted similar words along the way that I thought sounded better for the flow. If you keep writing poems, over time you will feel and develop your own flow.

In the beginning you will sometimes edit your poems heavily. Eventually, you’ll need to do very little editing. You will train yourself to write your thoughts into lines of poetry in the way that you want them to be read.

In Blue Winter Sky, I chose to write three stanzas (paragraphs) of four lines each, and this is a rhyming poem. If you want your poem to rhyme, decide on which lines you will rhyme, or the format. You can choose any rhyming format, but some formats are harder to rhyme. You will be rhyming the last words in lines. 

Rhyming the first and fourth lines in a stanza (paragraph) is an example. You can even rhyme the first and third lines, and the second and fourth lines in the same poem. This is quite a challenge. My favorite poet, Robert Frost, often rhymed the first, second and fourth lines, leaving his third lines to stand alone.

Sometimes your thoughts will lean towards a certain rhyming format. I chose the third and fourth lines (the last two lines) in each stanza of Blue Winter Sky. This is a less common rhyming format.

The winter sky is very blue,
As I look out in disbelief
That winter sky could be so rich
In color blue, while trees are sticks.

I stand and gaze on wintry scene,
With brilliant blue across the sky,
With air so very crisp and cold,
With skeletal trees so black and bold.

The sky is such a lovely blue.     
On Heaven's canvas Nature's brush
Has deftly added glorious hue,
Has placed her artist skill on view.

More Poetry Writing Tips:

~ The rhyming words do not have to be spelled similarly, like bold, cold, sold. They only need to sound similar, like hue, view, dew or rich, sticks. You can also rhyme words with different numbers of syllables, like bold, behold, untold.

~ If you can’t think of a word to rhyme with any line, search online for words that rhyme with the word that you're trying to rhyme. You can also buy a rhyming book if you plan to continue writing poetry and would like a handy reference.
 
~ Capitalize the first word of each line (sentence) of your poems, even if it is a continuation of the previous line (sentence).

~ Use punctuation to help the reader pause and stop to take a breath here and there, according to the flow of your poem’s message.

~ Most of all, write what you want. Poetry is about what you think, feel and know. There will be others who can relate and will appreciate what you have written. If someone does not like or understand what you have written, thank them for reading and keep writing and sharing. 

~ Your work is not meant for everyone. Value your thoughts and your poetry and don’t change your style to please others. Insist to yourself that you have something to write and that it is valuable and keep writing!

You Are Creative!

A friend of mine recently penned this inspiring statement about the creativity that lives in all of us.

Life is one great creative manifestation. You may think you don't have a creative side; yet you don't need to be an artist to live in a creative life. You are innovative and can think of so many new ways to do all sorts of things. Your inventive, creative side can be as simple as creating a special recipe or at work in doing a spreadsheet a new easier way. The importance of CREATIVITY in this life is that it allows you to express yourself. Your self-expression is "ONE OF THE GREATEST DIVINE GIFTS YOU OFFER OUR WORLD." -Evann Woodard

 

The greatest hindrance for most people in releasing their creativity is the fear that it will not resemble the work of others enough. There is also the lingering hurt from being ridiculed or laughed at when creativity was shared. Very few of us can maintain our confidence after experiences like that. Many people also feel that they have to produce fine artist-level work in order to be authentic.

The manifestation of our inner creativity is for ourselves first. It is to first please ourselves. There are things that you can do. You can create something that was not there before. You can take something and alter or enhance it so that it doesn't look the same as it did before. The greatest consideration is that it be important and valuable to you.

Next, your creativity is for whomever can and will appreciate it. Rather than attempting to coerce some to accept our work, we should surround ourselves with those who appreciate our efforts without having to beseech them. 

 

The old saying is valid, A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. If a person does not appreciate our work, their hearts will not change through our begging. This is important in both our private and social lives. We should improve where we want to and can and go where our work is admired and appreciated. 

 

Yes, you have creativity within. You are creative. You can create. Believe in yourself. Protect your creativity. Let it come out, in private if you have to at first. Always remember, don't throw your creative pearls before swine, because they will be trampled upon. If you feel that you must share your work in the beginning stages, show it to those who are inclined to be compassionate, kind and appreciative of the skills of others. Whatever type of creativity you choose to explore, maintain your confidence and keep creating!

Be Flexible Be Successful

It's so hard for some to keep on keeping on with their plans, projects and dreams. When we love something and truly believe in what we are doing, we can't stop, anyway. Success also comes through the ability to adjust and adapt. While we're pressing on and never giving up, we need to be flexible in order to succeed.

Behind every successful man there's a lot of unsuccessful years. Bob Brown

You have to accept yourself in order to be successful. S. Holland 

Inspiration Tuesday

 

You CAN do more than you think you can. 

You CAN create reality with your thoughts.

You CAN bring your desires to pass through your words.

You CAN control your thoughts and direct them to the good that you want to do for yourself.

You CAN receive outstanding, tangible results for your redirected efforts.

You CAN cause your imagination to tell you the truth so that you can break free and excel!

How To Do Keyword Research Book At Amazon

 

Now at Amazon in Kindle and paperback format. 

Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing

Find the PDF version at Printaphoria:

Simple Keyword Search PDF Book

Learning and using keyword search doesn't have to be expensive, tedious or frightening. In Simple Keyword Search That Even You Will Feel Like Doing, you'll learn to conduct fast, free and easy keyword phrase searches. If you:

• have never done keyword research,

• are not sure what it is,

• have no idea where to start

• but know you need to,

then this simple, keyword phrase search guidebook is for you. 

Developing good SEO (search engine optimization) habits through keyword search and use is necessary to increase traffic to your listings and content. It's especially vital when selling from your own shop, website or low-traffic platforms. Even at high-traffic venues, competition is so massive now that it's next to impossible to benefit from some of that traffic.

Why beat your head against the traffic-blocking wall when you can quickly learn how to carry out simple SEO keyword searches and use them to pull in more customers? Once you learn, you can carry your skills wherever you sell on the internet. You'll no longer be dependent upon anyone else's website to make sales.

SEO through top-ranking key phrases application is a major player in successful e-commerce. It's great that you are learning just how useful and essential this skill is!