New Year, New Me

Every year I and many others stay up late to ring in the New Year armed with resolutions that are abandoned weeks later. Those 365 days are filled with such promise and hope, yet fall to the wayside due to the ins and outs of daily life.

It's weird because I usually make long lists of things I was going to change immediately.This year I made no resolutions, I made no lists. It's just business as usual, and the overarching goal is to create habits and routines that support my life.

I Have Just 5 Overarching Goal Areas for this year: 

Balance, Health, Creativity, Organization, and Connection

bal·ance

ˈbaləns/

noun

1. 1.

   an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.

   
   
2. 2.

   a condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.
3. 
   

Balance-Lately, that's all I can seem to think about- the ever elusive balance. 

Basically to me it means to focus on what's truly important so that can stay upright and steady throughout your life.

I will be adding more in the blog posts to come with actual steps I am taking in each goal area I would love to hear from you about your journey

Digital Journals

One of the things I've discovered that really help me along with my art journals are digital journals and pixlar express. I carry my phone with me everywhere, take photos frequently.


I must confess I take pictures of weird stuff. I have taken photos of dust motes on the windows and they make some nice effects in pixlar. I have taken pictures of interesting floors,

The Plaza and Dust Motes

My phone's storage is all filled up and I can't bear to clean up because then I wouldn't have all these photos to play with and transform.




At some point, I will have to crack down and clean it all up.




Sometimes, it doesn't matter if the photo is a little blurry. I take a snippet here and a snippet there and add an overlay, use the double exposure and viola! I have photo that looks like a painting.

Benoite Park On A Rainy Day

The most important thing I've learned is to not beat my self up for not journaling in the traditional sense.

I've had to learned to take advantage of the moments and materials that I have available right in the present moment. I am being creative each day, and my filled up phone storage is proof.

I'm often away during the day and taking my journal is usually not an option. All I have is the photos I've taken, and pixlr. I've also started downloading graphics and my journal pages themselves to my phone to play with.

So here's some of examples of what I've been working on.

Close Encounter-Trust Your Gut

We had a close encounter the other day-not with aliens but with would be criminals. We stopped at the ATM machine. Little did we know a car full of people with bad intentions started following us. Their first mistake was that they passed us on the shoulder of the road. That got Larry annoyed and he watched them closely. The whole time they followed us but Larry didn't say anything to me. He didn't want to worry me, but they were on his radar now.

We arrived at our destination, and Larry parked to watch them. I was like what are we doing because it was weird for him to park so far out. Both of watched as they sat there, as they never turned off the ignition or their parking lights.

We went to another side of the building to another parking lot. I can't begin to tell you how my stomach dropped as they came around the corner in their beat up white car. They looked like big burly guys, thugs and I was scared. Larry wished for a gun. We pulled out and Larry told me to get their licence plate number. We went somewhere else and they didn't follow us anymore.

I am so grateful they were stupid and passed us on the shoulder. That pissed Larry off and he watched them closely. I'm glad he's so observant and didn't just drive into their scheme.

Some could say how did we know what they intended. The fear I felt when they came around the corner is answer enough for me. I will trust my gut every time. I will trust Larry's instincts every time.

If not the story could have ended differently for us.

Ways To Simplify The Season

Thanksgiving used to be so simple. As a kid, you hung out on the couch in your jammies. Watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, then went to relatives and ate good home cooking.

Today's Thanksgiving involves a whole new level of stress like never before. You cook like mad (okay I don't cook I just go to relatives houses and let them cook. I do help with dishes and do my part on the eating end.)
The next day you are already thinking of Christmas shopping. It's just run, run, buy buy, more, more.

So how to simplify Thanksgiving and the season?

1. Slow Down And Plan
Santa makes lists, you make lists. Stopping and planning makes all the difference between rushing around like mad and leads into step 2.

2. Focus On What's Important
Stop and remember what's important about the holiday season and plan around those priorities.

3, Spread It Out
Accomplish your to do list over a period of time instead of in one massive, mad evening.


4. Turn Off The TV

They have teams of people who design ads to get you to buy those things you don't need. They pay billions of dollars to research ways to get people hand over to their hard earned cash happily.  Do yourself a favor and turn the tube off.

5. Be Selective
Choose the activities and traditions that you truly enjoy and bring meaning to your life. Ditch those no longer serve you or fit your life.

For me I will still be working on my art journal, taking long soaks, and listening to music I enjoy. I'll let a few Christmas songs sneak in, but not many.

I'd love to hear from you and how you simplify the season.

                                                                                   

You Have To Show Up-Art Journals

I've been keeping an art journal off and on again for at least 10 years.
Generally I start my journal and then get excited about a new journal. Because of this I have many journals that I have started, and a few that have been completed. It was a pretty exciting moment when I completed a full journal. I worked pretty hard at it to get it done. Somehow, it's just more fun to start than finish. Something about all those pages to fill calls to me, but this year I'm going to be a Closer. My goal is to create an art journal entry every day and finish my current journal by the end of the year,

Last year I discovered the joy of completing a journal. Usually in November I get the hankering to complete a journal so that I start working on new one in time for the New Year.This year the book I am working on completing came from a garage sale. I have two of them. One I began working on a few years ago, and the other is pristine with beautiful white pages just waiting to be filled. They are square with a corrugated cardboard cover and a metal butterfly charm.

Usually I start with the words.  I just pour out all my thoughts, no worries about correctness.  Next is the background. I use acrylics and watercolor crayons. Sometimes I pour the paint directly on the paper and squish them together ink blot style. Then I add collage elements. Some from magazines, some from my own artwork and some from our discarded dictionary prints. The hunt is on for that perfect element that says, "I belong right here."

There's a lot to appreciate about art journals.  I can pick up where I left off at any time. I'm certaintly not perfect. I don't think I could journal every day obsessively. There's an ebb and flow to journaling. Life gets busy and hectic at times. Yet my art journal is always there, a sanctuary from the craziness of life. I gather my thoughts in my journals, harvest recurring themes, and brain dump on occasion.
It bothers me that I'm not able to stick with my journal consistently for long periods of time. But for all that my journal is what remains and what I come back to. I've always kept a journal in some form or fashion, it's just taken a while to complete.

I'm not an expert. I can only share my experience. You don't have to be able to draw to be an art journaller. You don't have to journal everyday to be an art journaller. You just have to show up.

Until next time,

Kim

Launching Of Poster Prints By

Welcome to Poster Prints By Us I'm so glad you stopped by!

Steampunk Ostrich

We're Kim and Larry, the quirky geniuses behind Poster Paper Prints.
In the past we have worn many hats. We've owned a thrift store and a siding business, though not at the same time.

Thrift store are awesome. Owning one is a crafter's dream!

Kim has taught 2nd graders and art. 

Halloween School Party (I don't normally come to work in pajamas!)

Kim has always been dabbling in the arts and Larry has the entrepreneurial spirit, which brought us to our Etsy business.

We create fun, and somewhat wacky dictionary art prints. We have a quirky style that combines old with new. Mixing up vintage illustrations with colorful images gives us much delight and causes the crisp, black illustrations to pop! Our images range from classic vintage to contemporary pop culture with some of my own art work for good measure.
We also create the favorites like Alice In Wonderland Prints, the Wizard of Oz, and Edgar Allan Poe with a Twist.

 Steampunked Edgar Allan Poe

What you'll find in this blog:

• I'll be writing about all the things that bring inspiration. 

• My one great dream is to create a beautiful, colorful, house filled with my own art work and handmade crafts. I love taking thrift store finds and upcycling them into something new. So I will feature DIY Projects, art projects, and art journaling tips. The dream is to make youtube tutorials, but that is for later.

• There is so much talent out there. It is very interesting to discover the creative process that artists undergo to create their magic and I'd love to share that with you in interviews with Etsy artists. Picking their brains for business tips wouldn't hurt either.

• Exclusive Deals on our dictionary art prints. Check out our blog for news and exclusive deals that you can only get here.

• Vintage Graphics   We have a huge collection of vintage illustrations. It seems a shame to keep them to ourselves. So we will share them here.

Until next time,

Kim