The JFJ Giveaway!

We had some kits left over from some recent workshops, so we thought that we would give one of them away before putting the rest up for sale. This will be the first of many giveaways to come!

We are often asked what kinds and what brands of materials we like to use, so we put together a basic kit. Now's your chance to enter and win some of our favorite journaling supplies.

The kit includes:

• a 9.5"x7.5" mesh zipper bag
• a 12 color set of Prismacolor watercolor pencils
• an 8 color set of Prang watercolor paint
• a jumbo UHU glue stick
• a yellow Crayola marker
• a black uni-ball Vision pen
• a silver metallic Sharpie
• an official JFJ sticker

That's $45 worth of merchandise! And we're giving it away - FREE!

How it works:

We're going to pick one lucky winner from the comments to this blog post, and only this post. To be eligible to win, you must leave a comment below describing your favorite material to use in your art or your journal. You have until midnight Eastern Time on Friday, March 13 to enter. We will randomly select and announce a winner from all eligible entrants on Saturday, March 14. The winner will then have until Wednesday, March 18, to email us with their shipping information, and we'll ship out your prize - FREE! All you have to do is leave a comment. That's it!

Don't need the materials? Enter anyway! The kit makes an awesome gift for a friend or relative.

Enter now by leaving your comment below. You have nothing to lose, and make certain to share with all of your artistic accomplices!

Free Fodder

I'm at it again - giving away stuff. This time, it's a free, hi-res PDF download of Permission and Initiative Prints and Cards that I have worked on recently. I showed a sneak peek of the Permission piece in my Mixed Media Fun post, and shared the images in my Permission and Initiative post.

The image below shows a quick peek at the 5-page document.

The download includes two 8"x10" prints, four 4"x6" cards, and eight 2"x3.5" business-sized cards. The two sheets of 4x6s and 2x3.5s are meant to print back-to-back so that you can have double-sided cards.

So, give yourself the gift of Permission and Initiative. Download the file by clicking here, print them on card stock or photo paper, and have fun.

Hang 'em up, glue 'em in your journal, or laminate 'em so you can always be reminded that you have both permission and initiative to create. You never have to wait around for someone to say so.

You can check out other free downloads that I have on the JFJ site by going here.

Enjoy.

Mixed Media Fun

I've been working on more things. This time it's for a free download that I want to make available. Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll be finished and have it uploaded for people.

I layered a variety of watercolor techniques, along with some watercolor pencil and ink. I can't wait to share the finished project.

Works in Progress

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.