Portable Art Studio!!!

I meet with an amazing, spirited and inspirational bunch of gals for a monthly art journaling ( and any other medium we are inspired by) gathering. We share whats happening in our journals, help each other through our creative dry spells, cheer our breakthroughs and share our latest artistic gidgets and gadgets! This past meeting we were thrilled to meet our newest member Janeen who for the last few years was the owner of "Paper Doll", a lovely little mixed media art store in Portland, Oregon. She brought the most incredible, organized, stuffed-to-the-gills, "art studio in a bag" I had ever seen! She inspired another of our gang Teri Owens to do the same and we "ooood and awwdd" over both of their bags. So I promptly drove to Lowes after our meeting where the hardware section carries a terrific assortment of heavy duty tool bags that work perfectly for your "studio on the go"(you can get them at Home Depot too)! I finally got mine organized today and can't believe all that I was able to condense down and fit in the bag! They are so sturdy and have a gazillion pockets and small sections to hold all your art journaling supplies. You can see more funs pics of their bags and ideas here on Michelle Allen's blog!

The trick to making these art bags carry everything you might ever need in a pinch is to take everything out of any bulky packaging and condense down into empty tins you might have and being creative with smaller containers etc. I was amazed at all I was able to toss and space I could save! I am working on a small binder that will house ephemera, images, stickers, lace bits, etc and will slide into the central section as well. The incredible fun about this bag is you can carry it into any room of the house or leave your studio anytime and have all you really need ready to go and at your fingertips!
















Having all your supplies for art journaling gathered and ready to inspire really does encourage the creative process too! This is a new page in my journal called "Creative Child". I am enjoying using magazine images of faces as a jumping off place to explore a page and see where it goes! Click on the image to see more detail!


EDIBLE ANIMAL CELL MODEL!

Just had to share this fun project! My youngest son is currently glued to the show "The Cake Boss' and has high hopes to design some fabulous mammoth cake one day. He was inspired for his recent homework assignment to make a creative model of an animal cell. He gave me the shopping list and then went to work designing his rice krispie treat masterpiece! I have been trying desperately (without much success) to give up sugar and I must confess to sneaking several sugar hits when he wasn't looking. He had a great time and it made "homework" not such a chore afterall! Click on images for an up close view!