Creative Journal Pam Winters Studio

Day One: Instagram Illustrations

Day 100 (I made it!)
Day 99
Day 98
Day 97
Day 96
Day 95
Day 94
Day 93
Day 92
Day 91
Day 90
Day 89
Day 88
Day 87
Day 86
Day 85
Day 84
Day 83
Day 82
Day 81
Day 80
Day 79
Day 78
Day 77
Day 76
Day 75
Day 74
Day 73
Day 72
Day 71
Day 70
Day 69
Day 68
Day 67
Day 66
Day 65
Day 64
Day 63
Day 62
Day 61
Day 60
Day 59
Day 58
Day 57
Day 56
Day 55
Day 54
Day 53
Day 52
Day 51
Day 50
Day 49
Day 48
Day 47
Day 46
Day 45
Day 44
Day 43
Day 42
Day 41
Day 40
Day 39
Day 38
Day 37
Day 36
Day 35
Day 34
Day 33
Day 32
Day 31
Day 30
Day 29
Day 28
Day 27
Day 26
Day 25
Day 24
Day 23
Day 22
Day 21
Day 20
Day 19
Day 18
Day 17
Day 16
Day 15
Day 14
Day 13
Day 12
Day 11
Day 10
Day 9
Day 8
Day 7
Day 6
Day 5
Day 4
Day 3
Day 2
Day 1
The pledge!

Recently, I started participating in the 100 Day Project on Instagram, a creative challenge originally begun by artist and author Elle Luna and the print publication and online magazine The Great Discontent. It was easy for me to choose my theme and accompanying (unique) hashtag, which is #100DaysofEarlyChristmas. My main creative business goal this year is to create a line of holiday products based on my designs and drawings. Doing these daily drawings and posts for the challenge will keep me on track to have a sizable collection of ideas ready to develop into finished holiday-themed illustrations that will then be turned into cards, gift wrap and whatever else I can dream up. Having made it just over a third of the way through my journey in the challenge, this is the perfect time to gather up my ideas so far and post them here. This is a figurative high five to myself and everyone else participating, for not only taking on the challenge, but also for sticking with it.

One key part of the 100 Day Project is the fact that one publicly commits on Instagram to doing it, no matter when you actually join the challenge. It’s a daily exercise in which you have pledged to participate, and once you do that, you are now voluntarily connected to a group of people who have made the same pledge. You instantly feel the connection with everyone by way of common hashtags such as #The100DayProject. Each participant also has the option to choose their own, unique hashtag to coincide with their chosen theme, so that there is an instant showcase of their work on Instagram (when you click on their hashtag). Participants can create and post whatever strikes their fancy, each project being a distinct personal journey of some sort or other. I’ve seen posts by people working on improving a particular skill, getting back to doing an activity they love, sharing inspiration and daily rituals, and so on. The possibilities with this challenge are literally endless. For me, I’ve noticed that it’s gotten easier to just posting something, even if I’m not crazy about the piece, for the sake of keeping up with the challenge and my commitment to the daily practice of getting my ideas down on paper. The 100 Day Project brings into sharp focus how important it is to simply begin. Day One already seems like a long time ago, but if I had never started the journey, Day One wouldn’t even exist.

Related links:
#100DaysofEarlyChristmas (My project)
#The100DayProject (All projects)
#100DaysOfFutureMemoriesByElleLuna (Elle Luna’s project)
The 100 Day Project (History + details)

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Small Wins

By Pam Winters

I’ll admit it: I’m not a very consistent blog writer, or reader, for that matter. I’ve come to the conclusion that it has more to do with overwhelm than a lack of desire to write, or read. In my mind, I see too many options in the way of topics, ideas and blogs to check out. Other times, I see a blank page, and I don’t want to face it. I started a blog last year, thinking it would be a good addition to my website as yet another creative outlet for my mind and hands. I’ve started thinking recently about the reasons why consistently writing for a blog seems to elude me, when I’ve literally written my thoughts down my entire life, in the way of journal entries, pieces of art, letters to friends, personal reminders and more. Upon reflection, I think part of the reason has something to do with a piece of advice I heard this week while watching Chase Jarvis’ interview with Tim Ferriss on CreativeLive’s 30 Days of Genius series: when approaching a new or existing project, Tim Ferriss recommended asking oneself, “What would this look like if it were easy?” In other words, how can we start accumulating and celebrating the “small wins,” as opposed to putting our efforts off for one more day, thinking perfection is the only option? When I apply this logic to the activity of blogging, I can clearly see the obstacles I’ve been unwittingly placing in my own path. These include thoughts such as, “What am I going to fill my blog with?” and “What if I can’t think of anything interesting to put on my blog?” and “It’s been over a month since I posted anything on my blog! I need to write something amazing right now!” Surely, I can manage to document one thought at a time (such as this one), posting highlights that readers will hopefully enjoy and find useful and/or entertaining. So, I’ve decided to take the expectation of the word “blog” off of my shoulders for now, and adopt a new goal that is within my grasp: one small win at a time.

Related links:
Chase Jarvis
CreativeLive
30 Days of Genius series (CreativeLive)
Tim Ferriss

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Love and Books

By Pam Winters

Two things I loved about grade school: Valentine’s Day and books. Even now, when someone mentions Valentine’s Day, my mind immediately goes to childhood days gone by, where I traded paper valentines with classmates, each of us filling one another’s decorated Valentine’s Day boxes with an assortment of handwritten cards. In much the same way, I looked forward to the monthly book orders and annual book fairs at my school. When the order forms for new Scholastic Reading Club books came in, I pored over the selection and carefully chose the titles that sounded the most interesting to me. It was always exciting when the books arrived and we got to take them home. Receiving and giving valentines and books were favorite parts of my childhood, and the memories attached to these things remain very special to me today.

And so, Valentine’s Day is here again already. As I recently discovered, February 14 also marks International Book Giving Day. Pairing these holidays makes a great deal of sense. Valentine’s Day traditionally being a day for showing others we care, our collective mindset is primed for opening our hearts, spreading joy and giving gifts. This is where Book Giving Day finds a warm welcome, with its mission to “get books into the hands of as many children as possible.” This means both new and gently used books are fair game—anything that will benefit a child.

There are a number of ways to get involved on Book Giving Day, many of which you can find at bookgivingday.com. Inspired by their list, here are several good ideas:

Donate books to a library, where they can be shelved or sold to raise funds for other books.
Donate books to a medical office or other such place with a waiting room (e.g., a car dealership, hair salon or spa).
Give books to/trade books with the children of family and friends (e.g., books that your children have outgrown).
Attach a book plate to any book you donate/give/trade that asks the recipient to read the book and then pass it along to another reader.
Spread the word about Book Giving Day on social media, using #bookgivingday.
Start planning your own 2016 book-raiser! Check out Milk+Bookies, a non-profit organization that helps plan events for collecting books in the U.S. and Canada, for more information on hosting one of these.

As we enter this day of cards, candy and flowers, consider also the simple gesture of passing along a book. Much like that paper valentine received from a classmate, one book has the potential power to make a young person feel special and valued. And if this were to help instill a love and appreciation for reading that lasts a lifetime, I would say that Valentine’s Day just got a whole lot sweeter!

Pineapple Expression

By Pam Winters

Inspired by the tools at hand, I let the project unfold. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
The journey began with a pencil sketch and quickly evolved from there. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
In order to “color in” the pineapple, I created shapes in Illustrator (left) and cut them on a CAMEO using special stamp material (right). (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
The stamp pieces made by the CAMEO are mounted onto acrylic blocks, then inked. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
Once the colors are stamped, the pineapple image is inked and stamped on top. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
I started creating lots of gift wrap, cards and prints! (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
I then decided to turn the image into digital art using Illustrator. (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
Once the digital art was complete, I created a pattern and ordered custom gift wrap from Spoonflower! (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)
This project required a few tools and lots of patience! (All images © 2016 by Pam Winters)

Pineapples have been dancing through our minds and hearts in recent years. Based on this trend, I had pineapples on the brain when I met with some coworkers for a craft night. Before long, while chatting with my friends, I found myself sketching a pineapple, and then began hand carving a stamp using the supplies I had with me. As we wrapped up for the evening, sharing our projects with one another, I tested out the pineapple stamp on a piece of scrap paper. Not bad, I thought. Someone suggested the possibility of making pineapple gift wrap with the stamp, so I decided then and there that was exactly what I would do! I mean, even at the height of the pineapple’s popularity, it’s not every day you see pineapple gift wrap, right?

I came home that night, and stamped it again using darker ink. I could see my pineapple vision taking shape. Within the next day or two, I got the image carved the way I wanted, and that’s when the process of surface pattern experimentation really began for me. The pineapple looked good stamped on its own, but it needed something—a bit of color to fill it in. I started with colored pencils, making a few cards for friends that way, before gradually expanding my reach to other tools, including the Silhouette CAMEO and special stamp material for the CAMEO to cut. I now had shapes I could stamp first for the color portions of the pineapple, with the pineapple stamp being layered in a darker (chocolate) color on top. This was happening!

There is something unmistakably special about handmade gift wrap, but it’s also quite a challenge. Encouraged to keep going, I decided it was time to take my art to the professionals for the production side of things. So, I digitally traced a scan of the stamped pineapple image in Adobe Illustrator, for the purpose of creating a pattern to upload to Spoonflower’s website. Soon, my first roll of custom gift wrap made with the pineapple pattern arrived in the mail, and it was literally just what I had imagined!

It’s fun to look back and see how this project unfolded, one bit of inspiration at a time. How many things inspire us every day that we could potentially turn into something we only dream of right now? Please take a moment to let me know what’s inspiring YOU these days in the comments section!

The Value of a Handwritten Letter

By Pam Winters

To sit down, relax and get lost in the art of writing letters to family and friends used to be a regular habit of mine. Sadly, I haven’t given letter writing a regular slot on my schedule for some time. Sending out a handwritten card or letter has become something of a luxury nowadays, and I know that it’s simply a matter of prioritizing and making the time for it. I want to stay in touch with the special people in my life—that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the accepted routine of emailing, texting and messaging/posting on social media to communicate with the people in our lives. That said, I still have hope that putting just a little effort back into the letter-writing process on a consistent basis will gradually breathe new life into an activity that is still very much at my fingertips. In fact, I see no reason why letter writing needs to take a back seat to social media. Hashtags like #handwriting, #handwritingchallenge and #imbringingbirthdaysback are being used right now on Instagram, for example, to share photos and video of artistic handwriting and other handwritten letters, cards and notes being produced all over the world.

As someone who grew up writing to pen pals, the back-and-forth conversation that takes place in mailed letters is something I’m not ready to relinquish just yet. It’s strange to think of younger generations never being taught cursive or anything resembling penmanship in school. There is evidence that handwriting’s absence in education can have detrimental effects on student learning and performance, as shared in a recent article on CNN’s website. Not to mention, the joy of writing to and receiving letters from a pen pal is something special. And if you’re still keen on sending and receiving fun snail mail as an adult, there’s a place for you, as well: Swap-bot.com, for example, is a great website for creative people to host and join swaps of all kinds. I’ve used it many times to keep my creative juices flowing and have sent and received some very cool things. You choose how involved you want to be, and it’s free to join!

If you’re like me, a little inspiration never hurts when trying to reach a goal. April is National Card and Letter Writing Month, and I personally plan to write at least one letter/card every week leading up to April, and then more during that month. Hello!Lucky and Egg Press, two stellar card and stationery companies, host a Write_On campaign that challenges everyone participating to write 30 letters during April. The campaign’s website lists a host of reasons to write to someone, and these serve as excellent inspiration any time of year: Reasons to Write.

I hope you will join me and treat yourself to writing and sending at least one card or letter before April, and then maybe a few more during National Card and Letter Writing Month. Let’s keep each other going! Who will you write to first?

Related Links:

Why handwriting is still important by Emanuella Grinberg (CNN article)
Swap-bot website
USPS Kicks Off National Card and Letter Writing Month (Press Release)
Write_On campaign website

Day One: Instagram Illustrations

Newsletter

Small Wins

Newsletter

Love and Books

Pineapple Expression

The Value of a Handwritten Letter

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