I've always admired and been intrigued by artist's sketchbooks but have never used this method for myself.  My creative process has always been to have an idea in my head and just go to my stash, select the fabrics, and stitch.

But now that I'm working in different mediums, I find having a place to try new things is a great idea!

I've started 3 different sketchbooks and this is my latest.  Playing with crayons.  Yes, I'm regressing to my kindergarden days but why not!  This was when I was the most creative. Here, I'm playing with water-resistant crayons covered with water color paint.  I love how the crayons are picking up the texture of the cold press paper.  I might try printing this on fabric and adding stitch.  

Hmmmm.  Maybe I'm getting my mojo back!

I have a confession.  Ever since moving into my new studio, I have been creatively challenged.  Perhaps its because I finished a major sereies of work that took me a year to complete.  Maybe its the blinding sunlight in the afternoon that changes the way I see color now.  Perhaps its just overall distraction as I settle into my new environment.  I don't know.

But I do have a strategy for dealing with this lack of inspiration.

Work in another media.

I have a new "sketchbook" that I'm having fun with.  I'm spraying water-soluable inks through stencils and then adding water with a brush.  On the left page, you can see he spray pattern and on the right, you can see what happens when you add some water.  

It's fun, brainless, and poduces some surprising results.  Maybe inspiration will come if I continue this process over the next week.  I'll keep you posted!

I've been studying watercolor painting for the past year and have purchased at least 8 different palettes to try to come up with something that works no matter what instructor I'm learning from.  Each instructor has their "favorites" and specific paints they require for their classes and NONE of them is the same!

Paints are expensive and palettes are limiting.  And once you squeeze the paint into your palette, you really can't remove it.

So one day, I saw these small plastic rectangles in my art store and thought "perfect!"  I'll just squeeze my paints into one of these and move them around within my palette.  That way I can mix and match colors to my class or needs.  But I couldn't find a commercial palette that would fit these small boxes.

I love shopping at my local art store since most of the people there are artists and have come up with innovative and inexpensive solutions to solve problems that commercial companies have yet to figure out!

The woman in the watercolor department said "I have the perfect solution!.  Buy this student watercolor set (metal) and buy these thin small but powerful magnets.  Attach the magnets to the bottom of the plastic rectangles with super glue and fill the pans with paint.  Then put them into your metal water color set and you are ready to go!"

Genius.

I wrote the name of the color with a Sharpie so I know which color I'm using.  You can see my first one, I wrote it upsidedown!  Don't do that!  Also, I have two pans labeled as "rose" but one is "permanent rose" and one is "opera rose" so make sure you can differentiate each color.  

Now, I can mix up a palette for every class and situation.  YES!