Welcome to the third roundup of useful and inspiring resources and links. This time the theme is recharging your creative batteries, connecting with the creative community and learning new things.

It’s still summer, but we’re reaching the back to school part. I still can’t help but think of this time as a perfect time for learning something new, connecting with people and starting new projects. Refreshed and rested from the summer.

CREATIVE COURSES

Sister Diane of CraftyPod offers a range of e-books and courses for creative entrepreneurs and has got such a talent for making the technical side of running a creative business, simple and easy to understand. I’ve just signed up for Diane’s new e-course Write, Publish, & Sell Your Crafty E-book. Seeing as I finally got the printer to work, I need to plant the seeds for a new long-term dream!

Author Stephanella Walsh created The Creative Identity eCourse as an offshoot of the live workshops she’s run in Manchester since the beginning of the year. “The online version is an expanded study of the eight constituents of our writing identity. During the course we shall investigate the products and the reasons of our creative endeavours while paying close attention to our fears. I have devised The Creative Identity Map as the starting point of the exploration, with pit-stops at Creative DNA, Creative Yearning and Creative Loss amongst others. The course will include Q&A sessions, podcasts, movie clips, live chat and lots of reading and writing. It begins on 19 September, join us now!”

Get started making beautiful mixed media art projects for your home using salt, sand, paint and charcoal with 4 Mixed Media Art Techniques from Cloth Paper Scissors. Free e-book with amazing paper craft techniques to inspire you to make creative gift tags, postcards and other mixed media art. Both for beginners and veterans.

Includes: “Who Can Resist Magic”,  ”Fusion-Dyed Collage”, “Mixed Media Watercolor Technique” and “Textured Backgrounds for Collage”.

Beginner Drawing Lessons (the first part of three). Written with kids in mind, but perfect for adults, too.

“This series is the result of many sketching sessions with my girls, during which I realized there are a few recurring concepts that I am always reminding them of. For these lessons, I have reduced lots of information into three basic ideas that can be utilized when drawing: Line, Value and Color.” By Amy at Elemental.

CREATIVE PROJECT

The Sketchbook Project – “it’s like a concert tour but with sketchbooks. Anyone – from anywhere in the world – can be a part of the project. To participate and have us send you a sketchbook that will go on tour, start by choosing a theme.”

(A big thank you to Wini who blogs beautifully at art love joy, for the suggestion!)

CONNECTING WITH THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY

If you’re looking for a space to connect with other creatives, sharing the downs and celebrating the ups of your creative life, check out Celebrating Each Step on our Creative Path. Every first Sunday of the month. By Concetta at Glittering Shards.

Did you miss the first roundups of Resources For Creative Entrepreneurs?

• Here’s part one: Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs
• Part two: Resources for Creative Entrepreneurs. About Easy Blogging, Digital Downsizing and Inspiration for Life.

Have you got any useful reads or resources or inspiring projects around being a creative entrepreneur that you’d like to share?

Tags: community, connecting, courses, creativity, fresh start, how-to, inspiration, resources, tutorials

Frost Star

Finally some of the pieces for Christmas are falling into place. After many attempts, I found the right bulb for the new Advent star, it turns out it’s the same type that you use in an oven! Who would have guessed…

iPhone photography: Advent star with window reflection.

If you’ve heard my laments about the lack of sunlight this winter, you can probably imagine how poor the lighting conditions are for photography. So I gave up on waiting for sunshine, and I also wanted to show you some of my Christmas lights, so I reminded myself of how much I love the spontaneity of lo-fi photography . The gritty grain, the distortion, the overload and the pastels. Like playing rock ‘n’ roll, like feeding the distortion of your electric guitar back into the amp, like feeling the base in your body before you let your guitar play the sweetest song. Raw emotions with a minimum of editing and styling.

iPhone photography: Christmas lights on the balcony.

I’m so grateful for all the new online friends and acquaintances I’ve met this year. Carla, the creator of the wonderful iPhone app Gratitude Journal. The many brave soul seekers I met in the Unravelling course, and the inspiring, talented artists I got to know in Marisa’s fish bowl. Tracy, the artist and crafter of the Pink Purl. Jamie who created the Full Moon Dreamboards that it’s been so magical for me to participate in. Just to mention a few. You’ve all brought so much light to my life!

iPhone photography: A pale pink amaryllis

Tags: community, connecting, dreamboard, ease, gratitude, imperfection, iPhone, iPhoneography, lo-fi, serendipity, simplicity, winter

Pink heart

I’m just about about emerging to the surface after having spent six weeks In The Fish Bowl: Life As An Artist Online with Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday, holding onto this quote by the Persian poet and philosopher Jalal ad-Din Rumi: “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”

It’s been six dynamic, inspiring & empowering weeks, charged with a combination of expert know-how and a passion for doing what you love to do. Organically connecting everything from pricing, to blogging and marketing with being connected to your vision and following your heart.

Thank you Marisa, for your focus on being true to your self, and thank you all of you amazing and inspiring artists who participated in the course!

Tags: community, connecting, courses, creativity, hearts, love, quotes

Autumn leaves.

Today is The Day. I can feel it clearly. The Snap. It’s as though a switch has been flipped. There’s a crisp lining to the day, a chilly backdrop, it’s the first day of autumn.

Autumn holds the promise of new beginnings for me. The glorious display of autumn leaves. Change. A fresh start. I think part of it comes from my childhood, from going to school. A new school year, new books, new subjects, new teachers, pencils and notebooks… Sometimes a new school, and a new route each morning and afternoon.

My theme for the autumn is to connect with my friends, inspiring artists, places and creativity. And to give myself some creative challenges.

The Creative Every Day Challenge is a fantastic, fun and simple way to infuse your life with a daily dose of creativity. It’s a low-pressure and freeform challenge to bring some focus and inspiration to your day-to-day life. Highly recommended! October’s theme is “Connect” – which also happens to be my theme for the autumn!

Next, I’ll be connecting with my senses in Unravelling Further: Exploring the Senses, a workshop where you stop to smell the roses. It’s about living a rich and enchanted sensual life, seizing the day, immersing yourself in taste, touch, sound, scent, sight and intuition through a series of photo assignments, projects and challenges. And I’m so looking forward to reconnecting to some of my online friends from this summer’s course, Unravelling: Ways of Seeing My Self, who also will be revelling in their senses this autumn! From unravelling to revelling…

Another project for my autumn is In The Fish Bowl: Life As An Artist Online with Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday. The transparency and exposure of being an artist online can make you feel like you are a fish in a bowl, and this course is about navigating the fish bowl by staying fiercely loyal to your vision. I’m incredibly excited, this really feels so right for me just now! The course started last week and I’m feeling elated and thankful for lovely Marisa’s first class and the wonderfully creative and inspiring community of women crafters, artists and designers who are all swimming in the fish bowl!

Dare I connect with my dreams too? Speak my wish out loud? Jamie Ridler hosts Full Moon Dreamboards, and I’m tempted to participate one of the dreamers!

Finally, and this is still in the works, I hope to take a trip to London this autumn. To connect with my English self. Family and friends in England. I’d like to take some courses at The Make Lounge. Return to the Tate, Greenwich Market. The Maison Blanc, Holland Park, Chinatown, The Chelsea Physic Garden, St. Martins in the Fields. Oh, so many favourite places…

Tags: carpe diem, community, connecting, courses, creativity, dreamboard, fresh start, inspiration, seize the day, senses, sensual