Saturday, June 16, 2012

A Little Inspiration (and a thank-you)

Today, I want to share links to three inspiring new blogs I've recently discovered and one old favorite.  But before I get there, thanks to Ginger for some great "Happy Mail." I won a giveaway of postal art from Treasured Memories, and it arrived last week. It's pictured above.  Now, on to the inspiration!
First off, The Sketchbook Challenge is a great site for anyone who wants some inspiration to start a sketchbook or spend more time using her current sketchbook. It's got a monthly challenge, some wonderful tutorials, and it features a wide variety of styles.  Overall, I think it helps make the idea of sketching less intimidating.  You can check it out at this link.
Second, Unruly Paper Arts (click here) has replaced the beloved Gingersnap Creations Challenge blog that I used to frequent.  It is really starting to come into its own and has lots of interesting tutorials, challenges, articles, etc.  This recent tutorial featured a completely new (to me) technique for making nature prints like this one:
It's definitely worth checking out!
The third new blog I've discovered is bilingual (French/English) and called The Art Journal Cafe. It has lots of how-to's and interesting information for people interested in art journaling.  I particularly liked this post which gives a "recipe" for making an art journal page. If you ever wanted to try you hand at making an art journal page but didn't know where to start, this tutorial could be for you.  I want to give a hat tip to Marjie because it was her post (here) which led me to the Cafe.
Finally, I haven't checked in with The Scrappy Tree lately, but I really liked this tutorial on creating mixed media journals/albums (it was a follow-up to this previous tutorial).  Scrappy Tree is a great blog for all kinds of paper crafts, and I feel like they had been on a bit of a hiatus. I'm glad to see them back.
Let me know what you think of these blogs if you check them out or if you have any new blogs to recommend. I'm always looking for more inspiration.

6 comments:

Karen said...

I've never had much success with sketching, but have always been interested in it, so I've checked out the Sketchbook link, but it will take me awhile to work through it. It looks wonderful. I'm quite behind with some of my photography blogs, so I'm trying not to look for new inspiration til I catch up on the old! This, however, was too interesting to pass up.

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

Very interesting links! I like the stuff at the Art Journal Cafe. I'm not mch good at sketching but I love looking at what others can do

Lynne Moncrieff said...

Hi
Isn't it always fun to receive happy mail.
Wishes
Lynne

Jo Murray said...

Thanks for all the info Rinda.

The Mann Fam said...

Wow! Thanks for all the great information. I especially liked searching around the Art Journal Cafe. I drool over talent and ideas others have. I need things spelled out a little more so when I spotted the challenge: technique that was so helpful and inspiring. I'm am going to give that a try in the near future.

Ginger said...

Thanks for those blog links Rinda, lot of inspiration there!

Happy the envelope made it to you :)