As the new year begins, I am shifting my momentum so that I can connect more with people both face-to-face and online. To that end, I have been working on various ideas for potential projects for myself and for the Journal Fodder Junkies, and I have rededicated myself to helping others connect to their creativity. I have already begun putting a lot of energy into the shift, and I am hoping that I can sustain the energy throughout the year. I am excited to share a little peek into what I have planned.
One of my big goals for 2015 is to create a series of online workshops as a way to allow people who have been wishing to take our workshops but haven't been unable because of cost, location, or circumstance to share in the experience. The online workshops will be at a much reduced price than the face-to-face, but they will contain a lot more content.
Here’s my plan. By the end of the year I would like to have everything in place so that come January 1, 2016, the first official Journal Fodder Junkies online workshop can launch. I know that’s a year away, but there’s a lot to do. And I do have a day job, so if I get things done before then, I can launch earlier. I just don’t know how it will work out, so I'm giving myself a year to get it done. The workshop will be self guided, and the image above is a peek at what I have been working on. Participants will have 24/7 access to a series of videos, written instructions, and a whole lot of extras including discussions and forums allowing everyone to work at their own pace and share their progress and struggles.
The first step is to set up a platform that enables workshops. My first thought is to create a Ning site. A lot of people that I admire like Traci Bautista use Ning, but if anyone has taken an online workshop through another platform and has another suggestion, I am all ears.
If the first workshop is successful, the next step would be to add more workshops. I also envision a section that is open to everyone with free videos and downloads. Dave will join in when he can, and between the two of us, I hope to be able to offer a wide range of topics and techniques.
I know that there are a lot of online workshops out there for visual journals and mixed art, but I think that we can offer something a little bit different. Our goal is to keep it simple, and share ways to allow individuals to discover and enhance their creativity and tune into their own voices. I think that is what sets our books apart from many out there. We don’t dictate an end product, but we share a wealth of ideas, and individuals use these ideas as they see fit to make the art they want to make.
Along with online workshops, I’m hoping to put together more videos for YouTube, create a series of freebies and giveaways - downloads and other goodies, work on more book ideas - both solo ideas and ideas with Dave, and post more frequently sharing a variety of ideas, inspiration, and news.
And to give you a taste for what’s to come, I wanted to look to the past and share a tutorial that I made a while back. It’s all about how I made a two page spread about Change, and I offered this to people before. You might already have it, but I did make some minor tweaks. It’s more things like this that I want to put out into the world. So, please click the link and enjoy a free PDF download. The link should be a direct download to the file.
Please leave feedback in the comments letting me know what you think.