The Creative Instinct

Hi guys

I was going to write a post today (as mentioned in the video I made instead below) continuing on from the 'marinating' post I did last week and my Creative Instinct. 

Then I realised while I've spoken of the Creative Instinct a lot on this blog (I even have a tag for it on the right, and I'm not very good at keeping up the correct categories on this blog so I think that says how important it is to my creativity) I'm not sure I've ever fully gone into depth about what it is. I mean I might of given a description when I first started writing about it, but I never brought it up properly as a 'thing' to you guys, and yet I think it might be able to help one or two of you to identify this aspect of your Creative Self, so here's the full video version of 

The Creative Instinct:

click the image to be taken to the youtube video

I hope you have an awesome weekend 

PS If you would like another vid from me tomorrow be sure to open my email if you're on my newsletter list for an exclusive 'Ask Jennibellie' video all about writing in your art journals. 

If you're not on my list click on the image above to sign up or here: Jennibellie's Newsletter

 (it's free & I'll even gift you lotsa goodies for joining)

PPS If you are intrigued by the RAW Intuitive Journaling Class you can click on the image below to be taken to a page of the full details, watch a video, see what's included etc:

 Happy Halloween weekend 

xoxo

Marination and Videos

Hi!

I'm incredibly disconnected from online happenings right now and although my arty self just wants to chillax and say 'screw it' to turning the computer on and writing a blogpost, I wanted to hop on just to let you know where I'm at...as if you've been following me for any length of time you know I enjoy sharing the journey of being creative as much as all the glorious outcomes from it.

So the past couple of weeks I've been marinating!

Like crazy marination! If I were a chicken breast (or quorn fillet in my case) I'd be far too tasty and juicy for the taste buds to handle (and probably past my use by date now too lol). What I've been marinating in has been my creativity, my creative spaces, my future creative ideas, my current creative projects and my creative journaling.

The journaling I have been doing has been EPIC - I've done a lot of art journaling, junk journaling and spent a lot of time in my idea journals (video of how I capture and action my ideas is here). The kind of journaling that has been most useful, revealing and exciting for me though I've got to say has just been written journaling (video of me sharing my 'regular' written journal is here - there's two videos in this post, the written journal is the second one down) and gratitude journaling (I have a Gratitude Journal Kit which you can get here or by clicking on one of the sneaky peek pictures below if you would like a guide through the process) and I think both have greatly boosted all the work from the other journaling that's been happening - in fact I'd say they've turbo boosted it!

All this journaling has lead me to make a lot of decisions about my creativity and what I want to do/be doing in the future. I've found new areas of creative passion, from things I'd never thought I'd be interested in to new ways I want to get my hands dirty and it's just been great.

True, deep and meaningful marination though has required that I unplug from the internet. At the core of it it's been a re-connection to myself and I believe respecting your creative journey is all about listening to what you need in the moment. Sometimes being online is crazy inspiring for me and other times I need a hiatus (apologies for my hiatus from my Weekly Ramble - last week but I did see that I got a lot of visitors on Friday obviously expecting a blogpost, so I'm sorry for that but YOU are the reason I switched on this week, because I love you!). 

I'm still not ready to leave my delicious dish of creative juices just quite yet so here are some PRIVATE previous Weekly Ramble videos I have done (that you can only find if you go hunting through the archives). I'm sharing them here because all three kinda represent where I am right now - the first is about Relaxing in Projects, the second about a Creative Download and the third about Creating a New Space for your creativity to come through and right now I'm in a combination of all three. 

So grab a tea or coffee if you're feeling some creative chat time with moi and I can't wait to show you what it's going to be coming out of my marination, so exciting =)

Have a crazy great weekend!

Weekly Ramble's are blogposts I put out on Friday just to share whatever is happening in my art world, regardless of where I'm at in a process, or in my creative flow, or my studio etc the posts are more about capturing a glimpse of the middle than they are showing the shiny finish!

Where YOU Meets YOU: Making Meaningful Creations from Your Journaling

Hello

Today I want to share how wonderful it feels to create art pieces that feel incredibly meaningful to you before you've even begun creating them. 

But how can to you get a significant connection to something before it's brought into being? Before you've seen it, touched it or even thought of it? 

By pulling meaning directly out of your mirror, your reflection, your giant holder of all things meaningful to you - your journal, and smushing it together with your brilliant creative ideas of course. 

I'm working on a new class (well actually I'm working on several, and several other projects of all kinds, all at once - not very clever of me as it then takes aaaaeeeooonnns to get anything ready but my excuse must be that I have to go wherever the creative energy does, as you probably know by now if you've followed me for any length of time) and one thing that came up is how much I create from what appears in my journals - and how much those things mean to me as they hold SO much significance before my hands have even created them.

For instance I shared this dragon I created this week on social media:

and when I think about it creative dragons have come up a lot in my journaling lately (and blogposts too - click here to read 'What a visit with a Fake Famous Artist Taught Me About My Creative Dragons'):

When you create this way there is a connection already present between you and the creation and it is so POWERFUL it's palpable. So in the hopes of inspiring you to take up making some really unique and personal items to you, I thought I'd share some of the things I have made from my journals. 

So first up here's something I made a couple of days ago that is really easy to emulate...

as it is simply an atc I created (with scrap card I keep cut and collaged ready for when I want them) with a message on it that comes directly out of my written journaling (see my written journal right there underneath?)

These are great to keep around your journaling space as reminders of whatever is important to you at the present moment; right now I'm owning my power! We are insanely powerful beings, and through my journaling I've learnt to forego any thoughts of unworthiness that hinder that tremendous and beautiful brilliance from coming through. It's satisfying to say 'no' to all those pesky, niggly (and boring) useless thoughts & feels so good to whip out an atc, black pen and crayons as soon as those gems come up in your journal. 

Within couple mins BOOM: you have a lovely meaningful reminder of something profoundly important to you.

FYI: this journal space above is a big part of one of those new classes that'll be on Journal Workshops soon enough. Shhh! Don't tell!

Another creation was this doll I shared when I got a 'Creative Download' (aka My Raw Intuitive Journaling Class):

here's the journaling counterpart:

I actually covered this whole 'Creative Download' process/story/development in a couple of other Weekly Ramble blogposts with videos which you can find here:

How to Receive a Creative Cosmic Download

& Cosmic Download Chronicles Part 2 (aka I'm flyinnng!)

And finally I also realised one of the projects we did on Journal Workshops for my Birthday Bash (the 'Community Flag' project to be precise), also came about from the journaling I was doing back at that time about creative living (hence 'Creative Life' being on the flag):

If you want to see a video of the flag being created (and some other art technique vids thrown in too) then you can still check them out in the Birthday Bash Group [here] for free. There are many more creations I could share but hey, gotta hold something back for the class! lol.

So I hope sharing these projects has given you some inspiration. I really cannot stress enough how wonderful it feels to create art that feels significant to you before you even start. I realised writing the 'pull meaning directly out of your journal and smush it together with your creative ideas' sentence at the beginning why it feels so meaningful...

because it's where the unique meets the unique:

Important things in your journal = unique to you. 

Your brilliant creative ideas = unique to you. 

It's such a meaningful process because it's where YOU meets YOU!

Let me know if you give it a go, or if you already do this what have you created? Fill me in the comments below.

Have a wonderfully arty weekend

Much love

PS Did you see my latest video?? 

If not click the image below to watch:

Join Journal Workshops Art Community

What Are You Afraid To Do In Your Art Journal?

Hello Lovelies

My Weekly Ramble this week will literally just be a rehash of the only thing I've managed to do the last couple of days. I've felt pretty crappy and so the Monthly Challenge is what I'm going to be sharing here, but really I think it's worthwhile as it's a very important subject and something we should have more conversations about.

So the video this month I did a kind of tutorial on, so if you're feeling brave enough click the image below to open up the question 'What Are You Afraid To Do In Your Art Journal?'

Much love

Have a great weekend