3BT...to go!

one of the best bits of this whole "online community" thingie is how very interactive it all is! for example, a few years ago i discovered a fabulous blog called three beautiful things...and i was so inspired by it that last summer i started my own 3BT journals*...for which i thanked the inventor of said idea, the lovely clare grant...and then she came along and admired my papery versions...and then... (eventually...b/c as we know, i don't work FAST!) ...i got to make one for *her*!!!

how cool is THAT?!?!!
(hint: it is very very cool indeed!!!)

wanna see it?
(excellent...'cause i'm gonna show you!)

here's the cover. clare's favorite colors are blue and grey. i went with blue and silver...which is quite a lot like grey...but sparklier...because as you know, in the laurniverse...

sparklier=better!!!

(products used on cover: patterned paper: my mind's eye, cosmo cricket; clipart birdie: anahata katkin; flowers: prima; brads & sparkly stickers: making memories; gems: mambi; chipboard numeral: heidi swapp; rub-on letters: jenni bowlin; flocked letters: k&co; inks: colorbox; other: chipboard, acyrillic paint, diamond glaze, stickles glitter glue, foam tape, book ring; interior pages are made from scraps of plain & patterned cardstock cut down to 4x6"; some pages incorporate maps, old dictionary pages, game cards, and other bits from my vast collection of vintage weirdness!)

and now, a few pages. most of them are blank, but i would not be *ME* if i didn't decorate a few, right?! here's a dot-to-dot dinosaur:

(yes i know, it's gonna be hard to fit 3 beautiful things on here, but he was just TOO FUN to resist; plus, the back is blank!)

a map of england, just in case clare ever needs to know how the population was distributed in her country before the industrial revolution:

and of course all of the journals i make MUST include a page with cakes on:

and here's a sprawly photo, to sum up:

and there you have it: a book which i hope reflects not only how much fun i had making it, but also the huge amounts of respect and gratitude i feel towards its recipient!

thank you clare, for sharing your wonderful idea, and reminding me that there are *ALWAYS* beautiful things to be found, if only i will take the time to look for them!!!

*i have talked about this year-long adventure A LOT already; to access those posts, g'head & click the "3BT" label thingie right below this message!

YIKES! i forgot to post this project!

and it's a shame, since it's kind of a good one!

see, what happened was: i made something FOR someone, and held off posting till they recieved it...and then...they got it, but there were some date-based things i had to post first...and then...ok this is embarrassing: by then i had forgotten that i hadn't done it!

on the plus side, i wasn't sure WHAT i was gonna do today until i suddenly remembered. so i guess...ummmm...WOOHOO for short-term memory loss (when it very occasionally works in your favor) !!!

ok, so the item in question: it's a "three beautiful things" journal i made for someone who, when i was talking about my year of 3BTing said that they were EVEN LESS JOURNALLY than me... (an appreciable feat!) ...BUT...liked the little books i made, and jokingly opined that they thought they WOULD be inspired to 3BT if they had one of those!

which of course is exactly the combination of flattery and challenge that's virtually guaranteed to spur me into action! (eventually.) (it took me a few weeks to actually get around to MAKING said book, of course!) i asked for a few hints as to colors and themes...and then perused some of this person's own stunning artwork, and came up with THIS:

(patterned paper: sassafrass, plus vintage dictionary page; rub-on owl: hambly; grungeboard swirl (painted & diamond glazed): tim holtz; clear stickers: heidi swapp; flowers & leaves: prima; sequins: doodlebug; pearls & gems: kaiser; brass snap: we r memory keepers; other: vintage lace, colorbox inks, acrylic paints, bookring from staples, foam tape)

now if you're seeing brown, and olive, and burnt orange, and an owl and thinking, "oh my gosh! that looks SO familiar!" then i suspect you've already guessed that the recipient of said volume was none other than my lovely friend and fellow CAARDVARK miss tanis! (the only thing i could not manage to work onto the cover was a TREE...but there's one on the title page!)

as with all of my little books, i used scraps and bulk cardstock to make most of the pages and they are of various colors (with maybe an occasional pattern thrown in), but just blank. but in this case, i could not resist adding in a FUN page or two; pages from various old books trimmed to size, and so forth, just to change things up and maybe make a starting point for altering or journaling or adding on to. not that tanis needs MY HELP--nooooooo sirree bob!!!!! more like *I* could not resist sharing some of my vintage bits and bobs with her!

here's a page with a canadian theme, from a 1970's school book:

here's a page from an old betty crocker cookbook that's covered with cakes! (& before you ask, "hey lauren! what on earth is tanis s'posed to make out of a page covered with cakes?!" i will admit that i have NO IDEA...but hey!...it's a page that's covered with cakes!!!!! at the very least, it oughtta make her *smile*, right?! it TOTALLY makes *me* smile! (ok, and also...it makes me want some cake!) (sorry, tanis!)

here's one of my favorites, it's a page from a spanish workbook, that i trimmed to fit:

and i guess that's about all i have to say about this project, except that it was very, VERY fun to make and i hope you have enjoyed seeing it!

BLOG CANDY--extended!!!

edited and reposted, saturday 8-2-08

being as how blogger has been exceptionally temperamental for the last 24 hours, and i have heard from several people that they were unable to access the comments section during that time, i have decided to

extend the drawing deadline

until midnight, on sunday 8-3

(...and i will leave this post on top until then...)

it hardly seems possibly that it's been twelve months since, inspired by clare grant’s amazing blog, three beautiful things, i quite hesitantly decided to embark on my own daily “3BT’ journal! but since i have four--count ’em four--completed 3-month books to prove it, clearly an entire year has indeed elapsed!

the idea was to combine my growing interest in the idea of art journaling with the safety net of the 3BT structure. (seeing as up until then my attempts at journal/diary-keeping had lasted a week, tops, i felt i needed the back-up of something *particular* to record each day!) it took a while for me to get into the routine, and even longer to really allow the “art-journaling” part of it to catch fire, but it has become a habit that's often the best part of my day!

i love looking at all four books together: the first one is tiny, almost entirely flat, and uses hardly anything but the plain ivory pages with which it came stocked; the second is 4 x 6” and while still quite lump-less i had begun to mix in postcards and other ephemera; book three, at 5” square, has started to have some pages with texture, and ribbons & other embellies overhang the edge of an occasional page; the last volume mingles pages of every shape and size, and is crammed full of all the day-to-day treasures i feel compelled to collect and save!

to celebrate my year of “beautiful things” ...and since i've been very remiss in allowing benchmarks like 100 posts and my one-year blogiversary pass unremarked... i've assembled a little collection of BLOG CANDY goodies. look:

the lucky winner gets: 2 making memories 9 x 9 paper packs ("bella" & "sam"); a christina cole 8 x 8 paper slab; an assortment of glittery handmade 8.5 x 11 papers; a set of technique tuesday clear stamps ("petal pushers"); a set of my sentiments exactly clear alphabet stamps ("collage caps"); some mambi bling; american crafts metal photo corners; 2 packs of li'l davis designs glitter garden chipboard shapes ("floral ice" & "floral rose"); 2 packs of chip chatter flower shapes…and maybe one or two surprises from my vast collection of vintage weirdness!

just leave a comment on this post by the new deadline, midnight, sunday august 3, telling me one of YOUR beautiful things for the day to be included in the random drawing. so tell your friends...tell your grandma...tell your grandma's friends and your friends' grandmas ...OR... keep it all to yourself & increase your odds; but whatever you decide, be sure and enter today for a chance at the swag!!! ♥♥♥♥♥

ps: many thanks to nina for teaching me the secret of the tiny heart!!! :)

so then, what's next?

i have not meant, in my recent posts, to imply that i won't be 3BT-ing anymore! in fact it's so much of an ingrained habit now, i'm not sure i could stop if i wanted to--which i don't! :) however, thanks to having a whole year of journaling under my belt, i now feel like i have the confidence to pursue the "ART" part of "art journaling" a bit more! so i've got me a very special little lined notebook for the 3BT... (which the lovely monkee maker gave me a while back; i've been savin' it for something special!) ...and i've made a special home for what i hope will be daily art pages!

'member this guy??!

(5x7 art journal made from: large sheet of chipboard; page from a vintage child's book about the solar system; love elsie patterned papers; sharpie pens, colorbox inks)

yes, it's the very cleverly disguised flying purple people eater, from back in april! i found him recently in a stack of "stuff too cute to throw out" and thought he seemed like the perfect muse for a slightly nervous newbie art journaler. being as he is a uniquely stylish kind of guy, i don't suppose i can go too far wrong under the PPE's expert tutelage, do you??!

(the back of said journal; eventually it will have the name of the project and dates inscribed upon it; but...and here is proof of how silly i can be...i don't like to do that until it's full--for fear of jinxing the project!!!) :)

i suspect there will be some cross-over btw the new and old journals, as my main fear is a lack of daily subject matter. i find it quite comforting to know that when i haven't got a firm idea i can always "fall back" on one or more of a day's three beautiful things as my inspiration; whilst also going a bit further afield into conceptual ideas that don't involve text. or that's the IDEA, anyway; we shall see how it goes!

♥ in the meantime ♥

you have until MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (friday, august 1) to enter the famous beautiful things blog candy giveaway! just leave a comment ON THE ORIGINAL POST and tell me one of YOUR beautiful things for the day. i'll be picking the winner randomly, and announcing the name tomorrow! good luck to all...i only wish i had prizes for everybody!!!

random stuff i've learned from a year of 3BT-ing

before saying one more word on this subject let me re-emphasize that not just this project, but the ENTIRE IDEA AND CONCEPT of "three beautiful things" is the pure genius of the lovely and amazing clare grant! if you like *anything* about this, pleeeeeeeeeeease go along and check out her blog--you can thank me later!!! there is NO WAY i would ever have thought this up on my own; i am continually awestruck by the way she can distill the very essence of an experience into one perfect...and perfectly evocative...sentence; she has my heartfelt thanks and admiration always!

and now a few summing up thoughts for the year:

1. my friend beshka’s advice, “give yourself permission to make something ugly” …a thing which i at first didn't understand…and then did not believe helpful…is a statement of absolutely invaluable genius for which I am grateful pretty much every single day!

the very first page i made...bird mania had only just begun!

2. “using up” time, energy, and supplies on a “morning page” is never EVER a waste... (i feel i owe julia cameron quite a large and sheepish mental apology on this point!) ...more like an investment; one that pays serious dividends!

3. making “pointless” things (those which cannot be given or sold and don’t “lead to” anything else) is hardly ever pointless…and almost always leads to something else…eventually…that i could not possibly have imagined or planned for.

a recent page featuring the "new baby", whom i have christened "sister klara" in honor of kristie's old pal

4. having always hoarded little bits of paper, stickers, badges, advertisements, postcards, photos cut out of magazines…some wind up in a project or greeting card but lots more just get “saved” in a box or clutter my desk until either feel frustrated or finally part with them. a daily journal provides an EXCELLENT home for such treasures!

5. my handwriting isn’t so bad, afterall; and immediately makes any item on which it is featured uniquely “MINE” (if not always uniquely *readable* lol!)

a recent page made with ZERO planning...testament to instinct kickin' in when it's needed!

6. it sounds counter-intuitive, but 3BT-ing is actually quite effective against mild depression. it turns out there is often quite a bit to be happy about, which just gets hidden or forgotten in the rush and bustle of daily life. especially if there are bigger, less positive things going on...it is quite helpful to be actively seeking the good stuff!!!

7. shaped pages (like, say, a flower) can be challenging to work with…but they make ya think in creative ways! in fact, generally speaking, a "problem to solve" can be your best friend, creatively.

8. planning is excellent…but sometimes “winging it” is great! once in a while you’ve just gotta start drawing/stamping/gluing WITHOUT A PLAN!!! (& a journal is the ultimate no-pressure, no-audience, no-expectation setting for such experiments!)

a vintage party invitation i have been "saving" for...something...yet loathe to use! VOILA! it's been given a permanent home where it can be loved and cherished!

9. i don’t have to love how every page turns out! (you have no idea what a breakthrough this one was for me!!!) pages which are the most fun to make might not be my favorites to look at…or vice versa...and that’s ok.

10. if i never make anything i HATE…i am probably not taking enough risks in my art! sometimes it is GOOD to “go too far”!

11. and finally--this is not a NEW insight, but it bears repeating anyway--there are very few paper-crafting crises which can’t be fixed (or at least improved) by the judicious application of rhinestones!!!!!!!!!!

page 366: it only seems right to come full circle!

there are still two days to enter my beautiful things blog candy giveaway!

leave a comment ON THE BLOG CANDY POST and tell me one of your beautiful things for today! ...AND...if you have a few minutes, go and read the ones that people have already left! they are magnificent, every single one! thank you!!!

ps to those who've very kindly expressed interest in seeing additional pages: if you click on the "3 beautiful things" label at the bottom of this post you will get a list of all the posts i have done on this subject...all of which have at least a few pictures!

what i made when i was s'posed to be doin' something else

yepper: a couple of 3BT pages, from the other day, at work. i took a REAL LUNCH and spent half an hour playing with the (admittedly limited) supplies we have on hand and a couple of things i grabbed on my way out the door at home. the first is a free-form collage. (i made the little circular "thought dots" with the holepunch--i felt quite proud about that!)

(piece of a kraft-colored box, buddha from an advertising postcard, the inside of my bank statement envelope & part of an ad that was in it; sharpie pen)

the second is a journal entry as written by james bond, if he were stationed waaaaaaaaaaaay out in the suburbs, in a not-very-glamorous cover job, but still a 100% concientous superspy. (heesun is one of my neighbors at work):

(james bond from a discarded dvd cover; p-touch labelmaker; 7 gypsies & rubber stampede stamps; sharpie & mr. sketch markers)

yes, once again, i have managed to crack myself up...as i do onna regular basis! well...SOMEBODY'S gotta do it, right??! :)

can i be frank?

we got home last night later than expected from visiting my in-laws in maryland (happy father's day!) and instead of finishing today's blog post, returning emails, and visiting other people's blogs, i decided the most efficient use of my time was to sprawl on the couch with lovely husband jeff, eat chinese food*, and watch friday night's taped episode of doctor who**...which just MIGHT be my all-time favorite!

hey: a girl's gotta keep her priorities straight, kwim?!

sadly, it means i don't have anything FAB ready to show you today. but no worries--i can always CHEAT! :) here's a 3BT page from last week i really like: it's the postcard from my friend paul's studio opening***, a picture of francis albert from a post office brochure, the backing of a sheet of sinatra stamps, the label off a pellegrino lemonade, and some fish stickers, obviously.

HAPPY SUNDAY, DARLINGS!!!

*finally i got A PROPER FORTUNE: "you will travel to many places"! wahey! ok, no tall dark strangers or mysterious parrots...but still... :)

**as well as providing the best explanation of agatha christie's mysterious ten-day disappearance in 1926 that i have ever heard: i bet all those christie scholars feel PRETTY SILLY now!

***the painting, which i rotated, is actually a snowy forrest scene; but those deep blue-green shadows looked quite "oceany" to me somehow...i know, i know, it all sounds SO unlikely...just go with me, ok?! :)

embellishment-a-go-go!

i don't know if i've ever mentioned this to you, but i quite like pink. and black. and sparkly things. and cute little birds. and foreign text, and basic grey, and...well...

without futher ado, may i present the cover of 3 beautiful things, volume four?

this is what it would look like if i worked flat and only used the flower-shaped pages which came with the book:

(love elsie "betty" album; patterned paper: prima, urban lily; chinese newspaper; cardstock stickers: basic grey, creative imaginations; epoxiy stickers: michaels $ spot; felt fusion: queen & co; brads: hot off the press; rub-on alphas: making memories)

of course, i work BULKY, and i've made pages of all different shapes and sizes to supplement the ones that came in elsie's book, so IRL, it actually looks like this:

and here's the whole sprawly, scrawly, messy, non-homogeneous, conglomeration of junk i have clipped together with an extra-large bookring from staples:

nice, innit?! :)

entire pages, woohoo!

yes, indeedy, as promised i have some full-sized
goodness for ya.

behold:

i showed the detail of the stamping yesterday...but here it is again, in order to show you what i do when i don't feel like incorporating the flower-shape into my page design: i draw lines. problem solved.

here we have the inside of the envelope from my bank statement + epoxy stickers from michaels $ spot + my recently aquired *BLACK* stickles!!! (how did i not know about these sooner??! and more importantly: how did i LIVE WITHOUT THEM??!)


pursuant to the idea of incorporating more "real life stuff", a page from a day my friend lelia & i spent shopping: we went to the mall, (i got jeans) and to wholefoods, (i got this recipe card thingie that's the page's base) we had chinese for lunch, (there's my fortune) we ran in to michael's for 5 seconds on the way home (where i spotted--& grabbed--those MAMBI rhinestone flourishes as we walked past them on the way to frames!) i LOVE the immediacy with which this page makes that day "come to life" for me without even reading the text!!! (which is on the back)

jeff did not understand this joke...and didn't find it remotely funny, even after i explained it! (nevertheless, it cracks ME up!) it's a page from a catalog in which PLASTIC MANNEQUINS are utilizing a (presumably VERY HOT) bbq grill (!!!!!); in the dymo'd text, the wife mannequin warns the husband mannequin, lest he suffer the fate of "uncle bob"!
...ok, nevermind, jeff might be right...
(yet i am--AGAIN--chuckling anyhow!)

finally, may i present to you, my single favorite page i have EVER MADE?
(ok, a slight exaggeration, but i *DO* love it!)
(it is very VERY "i can has cheezburger"!)
(what can i tell you? yes, i am both that obsessive...and that immature...)

(kitten pic from an old "ideals" magazine; stamps from k&co outlined in white signo pen)

text reads: "we iz kittehs, not chikkins!!! we not *GOES* in basskit!!!"




tomorrow: THE COVER!

(which is much more sensible...and yes...even *pretty*...with flowers onnit...and a cute bird!)

bass-ackwards...as usual...

a lot of people, if they had a snazzy new 3BT journal to show off, would post the cover first, followed by selected pages, with close-ups of specific techniques or products at the very end. but then, a lot of people are not me. in fact, as far as i can tell, hardly ANY OF THEM are me!!! :)

i was lucky enough to stumble upon this cool love elsie flower-shaped book on super-duper sale a couple of months ago. i wasn't sure how it would be to work on flower-shaped pages...but for the most part i am liking it...and when i'm NOT liking it, i either ignore the shape & paste in a journalling block, or i just make square or round pages and slot them in.

so howsabout some "macro" details from said book of goodness?

i b'lieve you've seen this little dude...once or twice before...i have a couple frances meyer chipboard birds, but mostly i use the same one over and over as a template for patterned paper (in this case a map of moscow)

here are some creative imaginations rubs layered OVER text from an old book. i like the way they are slightly transparent, so that beneath the soft pink flower you can read helpful hints for successful curing of cement

i love these brenda walton alphabet stamps! (also a FAB bargain) sometimes i mix them with other alphas for a fun look; this time i outlined with marker and embellished with stamps & scraps & gems

here is part of the wrapper from the cool pen trashalou sent me...it was WAY TOO CUTE to throw away...plus lately i am hugely inspired by the way elise blaha makes entire minibooks just to save her favorite ads and other "real life bits" she collects (the sentiment is from a cheezburger pic that cracked me up!)

tomorrow, we go large!

in the meantime,

happy monday, darlings!

totally pointless

(but in a *GOOD* way!)

the other day at work i found this cool pic of frank sinatra in a trade mag. i was dying to make something out of it...i didn't know what, exactly. i tore it out and put it in my bag to take home, but it just wouldn't let me be! "make me into something!" it seemed to call from across the room, inside my totebag, in a slightly muffled way, "make me into something...NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

so i did.

of course, being at work, i didn't have much in the way of supplies, and i had zero in the way of free time.

but i did anyway.

(when the mojo is that strong, darlings, only a fool resists!) :)

i cut the photo out from the background...i glued it onto a white notebook divider thingie i found...i drew clouds with a pen...i colored in with a highlighter and a marker and a silver leafing pen that came from...you know, i have NO IDEA where that came from...when the paper got gunky from over blending, i laminated the whole thing onto another piece of divider with packing tape...cut it into a circle...and wrote around the edges with a sharpie pen.

after it was done, i decided it was a page for my newest volume of 3BT. (whose cover isn't decorated yet...when it is, i'll show ya!) when i got home, i journalled on the back and added the rhinestone star.

i spent like ten minutes on this, tops.
it *looks* like i spent ten minutes on it, tops.
and yet...i loooooove it!

the point of my story is this:

go make something!

make something without thinking too hard.

make something that no one else will "get" or like.

maybe even something no one else will ever see.

make something pointless!!!

(it's really, REALLLLLLY fun!)

...not VERY interesting...

it occurs to me that i have not posted anything of a papercraftical nature all week! what's up with that??!

it's not that i haven't MADE anything cool...in fact i've made some decent cards this week, if i do say so m'self...it's just that i can't show them...yet. they're for the special caardvarks design team gallery that goes with our next challenge, starting 4-20. ordinarily, i would have time to do some little challenges in between, or at least make my paper adventure page for this week. but since we'll be on vacation next week, and i am still contending with the back from H-E-double-hockey-sticks... (many, many thanks for all the good wishes on that score, btw; it's MUCH better, but not yet 100%!) ...anyway, the point is, that i haven't made as many items as usual, and thus i am forced to fall back on the old stand-by...showing some pages i kind of like from my three beautiful things journal. so here ya go!

some pocket pages:

(the lefthand one is a cutdown DHL envelope & contains some receipts from awdrey's "DMV day"; the righthand one was me playing with some new products--the felt fusion and dcwv chipboard sayings--and some scraps)

some picture pages:

(the monkey one is an extra pic from sockrates & tipsy's most recent photo shoot; the tiger is from a magazine and says, "here kitty kitty" in rub-ons, and "warning: objects in book may be closer than they appear" in dymo labels)

some pages that don't really have anything in common...except i like them... :)

(the lefthand one is me using up some word stickers i didn't really like--tho they sort of "work" as a background, dontcha think?; the righthand one is part of the cover from a clothing catalog; it accidentally got wrinkled when i was gluing it on...but i like the effect!)

minibook mania!

ok, so everyone knows my favorite thing to make is cards! and lately, my other favorite thing to make is pages for paper adventure. but my other *OTHER* favorite thing to make is mini-books! look, here's one now:

(patterned paper: my mind's eye, bengali newspaper; flower clipart: anahata katkin; rub-ons: daisy d's, american crafts, making memories, lil davis, american crafts; ghost butterfly: heidi swapp; cardstock sticker; wild asparagus; other: foam tape, colorbox inks, plaid acryllic paint, papier glass finish)

this particular book is my third volume of "three beautiful things". (i started keeping a 3BT journal last july, inspired by clare grant's fantastic blog i've talked about the idea generally, and volume one and volume two in other posts, which you can read by clicking the links in this sentence.)

now i have nothing against store bought mini-books--there are loads of nice ones out there, just waiting for to be customized. but sometimes you can't find just the right one for a particular project, and anyway they are SO easy to make! this new book has covers which are 5 1/2 x 5 1/2" partly because i wanted to work in a square format and partly because i had a whole stack of 5 x 5" glossy black cardstock offcuts leftover from making nephew matthew's birth announcements in october, and this seemed like a good way to use them up! :) (3BT1 was a 7 gypsies swatchbook, 2 1/2 x 7"; 3BT2 was 4 x 6" and made by me; i also made my paper adventure journal from scratch, it's 5 1/2 x 8 1/2")

i started out with two nice thick squares of chipboard, painted the edges, glued on squares of patterned paper and sealed it with papier glass finish (similar to diamond glaze) for extra strengh and a little bit of shine. i've made books with sewn or spiral bindings, but for daily journals i like to hold ‘em together with book rings (you can get a variety pack at staples for about $3) so that i can add, subtract or move around the pages. i punched the holes with my crop-o-dile, but a fairly sharp hand drill (like for woodworking) is also an easy way to get nice neat holes.

i tend to stock my little books in advance with about half as many pages as i think they're going to need. i use scraps of cardstock and heavy paper in the requisite sizes, and add more pages in as needed. most days i decorate one page, write my “three beautiful things” and i’m done. but some days i have more time, or ideas to try out, or i just feel like playing, so i will occasionally decorate “extra” pages which can be used when time or creativity is at a premium. i have also found these little books to be of great value as a sort of “design lab” to try out ideas seen in magazines or online…to experiment with new techniques…and to use up my scraps and break in the cool new supplies i cannot wait to use.

i’ve also found it’s a really good way to “warm up” before starting to work on a larger project or idea. this is has totally surprised me, even though art journalers have been saying so for YEARS, but somehow--perhaps stubbornly--i didn't really believe it would hold true for ME! “why,” i would ask myself, “would i waste time, energy and materials on something that no one else is ever going to see?!” but it turns out the nameless and numerous “they” we are always hearing about were TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY RIGHT on this point: this process doesn't sap your creative energy, it actually DOES revive and envigorate it! who knew?! (ok, clearly everyone except ME, but thank you very much for not rubbing my nose in that!) :)

have you seen this website??!

it's called three beautiful things ("3BT" for short!) which a very cool woman called clare is using each day to (and i quote) "record three things that have given me pleasure". her beautiful things can be big or small, serious or funny...mostly they are tiny, ephemeral moments that could easily slide away without being noticed. except clare noticed them. and made a concious effort to write them down. every single day. and what writing it is! i would give serious money and/or one of my less vital limbs to be able to turn a phrase in the seemingly effortless way she can.

i found the blog a couple of years ago and read it avidly each morning with my coffee; then, while brushing my teeth, i would think about the previous day (since, emphatically not being a morning person myself, i hardly ever experience a "beautiful thing" before 10am) and decide on my three. often i would think, "i should start doing this properly" or at least, "i should write these down"...but of course i didn't...

embarrassingly, somehow (probably when my comp crashed & all links & emails were lost) i got out of the habit of reading 3BT. and then the other day--out of the blue, while doing something else--i found it again!!! and this time, i'm resolved: i AM doing it properly! whereas clare is a writer, and chose a blog format; i am a papercrafter...so i've made myself a funky little minibook. in addition to things i experience & enjoy, i'd like some of my "beautiful things" to be little innovations or discoveries i have made creatively. the feathery friend on page 1 represents my current "funky little bird mania" phase; sometimes i may doodle, or paste in a swatch of patterned paper, or maybe i'll stamp in there, who knows? i'm thinking my book will probably be three-quarters 3BT and one quarter art journal...but we'll see...

thank you, clare--your blog is one of my three beautiful things! :)