Art Resource Hub - Free Digital Downloads (Available Now!)

 

Have you check out the Art Resource Hub, if not you would have missed the FREE monthly digital downloads that you can use in your art journal and creative projects.

In this months papers you get an abstract design that you can use as part of a collage, attach images to the surface or paint directly onto the surface and create an image.

Here are some of the previous papers that are available for you to use in the Art Resource Hub - get your copies now and share how you use them by tagging me on Instagram @realityarts

Artsy Meetup Marathon - 2 Days to Go!

 

Only 2 Days to go - the Artsy Meetup Marathon

December 31, 2023 - January 1, 2024

Artsy Meetup Marathon

We only have a few days left before we see in the New Year.  When I think about what I want to spend time doing next year, creativity is at the top of the list!  and so I will be joining Kiala Givehand in the 3rd Annual New Year’s Eve Artsy Marathon.
​
We are going to bring in the New Year being creative with amazing people surrounded by our art supplies. 

Here are the artists that will be taking part

We would love you to join us?

This year's Artsy Meetup Marathon is:

• 24 Hours of Creative Lessons from a variety of guest teachers (names below).  You don't need to be there all 24 hours, the recordings will be available a few days after the event.
• The Scedule will be live on the website
• an opportunity to learn, play, and explore with other creative souls.
• a list of techniques, tips, and tutorials for your visual journaling and documented days. 
• There will be several GIVEAWAYS throughout the night
• a powerfully creative way to bring in 2024 with intention.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Teachers

Kiala Givehand - mixed media bookbinder, storyteller, printmaker, & wisdom keeper -- @kialagives

Tiffany Goff-Smith - mixed media artist -- @SouthernGals_Designs

Kristen Radden - creative divination junkie -- @otm_academy

Rachel Torda - artist, writer, seeker, & watercolor mermaid -- @thedreaminglotus

Meghann Early - intuitive art journaler & junk journler -- @meghandthemoon

Amanda Trought - mixed media artist & blogger -- @realityarts

Shemi Dixon - mixed media artist & youtuber -- @shemidixon

Leaca Young - artist & reiki practicioner -- @leacayoungart

Tina Riley - art & heART journaler -- @tinarileyimaginariums

Kristi Nazzaro - mixed media artist -- @soul_positive

Suzanne Earley - mixed media artist, quilter, and founder of strawberry moon magazine -- @suzanne_earley

Liz Constable - book artist, teacher, & author -- @bookartstudios

Dee Dee Catron - mixed media artist & mark maker -- @deedeecatron

Aly Million - mixed media artist and journaler -- @alycadabra

Brooke Henry - maker, teacher, art journaler -- @bbhenry_art

​Susanne Randers - paper lover, eco dyer, and bookbinder -- @mitkrearum

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd - art witch & collage fanatic -- @dansmoncrane

Misty Granade - abstract mixed media artist -- @misty.granade

Cindy Gilstrap - mixed media & journaling artist -- @junqueart

Kristin Peterson - mixed media & collage artist -- @alteredstatesstudio

Joyce Van Der Lely - artist & empowerment guide -- @joycevanderlely

​

We are going to have so much fun at the Artsy Meetup Marathon, and you will have so many hints and creative tips to see you into the New Year.  JOIN THE PARTY!

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Before You Go

Check out Filling the Creative Well Mixed Media Course - LEARN MORE

Join us for the Artsy Meetup Marathon - See in 2024 with Us

Introducing the Artsy Meetup Marathon

December 31, 2023 - January 1, 2024

Artsy Meetup Marathon

When I think about what I want to spend time doing next year, creativity is at the top of the list. And that’s why I said YES to Kiala Givehand when she invited me to teach in the 3rd Annual New Year’s Eve Artsy Marathon.
​
We are going to bring in the New Year being creative with amazing people surrounded by our art supplies. 

We would love you to join us?

This year's Artsy Meetup Marathon is:

• 24 Hours of Creative Lessons from a variety of guest teachers (names below).  You don't need to be there all 24 hours, the recordings will be available a few days after the event.
• The Scedule will be live on the website
• an opportunity to learn, play, and explore with other creative souls.
• a list of techniques, tips, and tutorials for your visual journaling and documented days. 
• There will be several GIVEAWAYS throughout the night
• a powerfully creative way to bring in 2024 with intention.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

The Teachers

Kiala Givehand - mixed media bookbinder, storyteller, printmaker, & wisdom keeper -- @kialagives

Tiffany Goff-Smith - mixed media artist -- @SouthernGals_Designs

Kristen Radden - creative divination junkie -- @otm_academy

Rachel Torda - artist, writer, seeker, & watercolor mermaid -- @thedreaminglotus

Meghann Early - intuitive art journaler & junk journler -- @meghandthemoon

Amanda Trought - mixed media artist & blogger -- @realityarts

Shemi Dixon - mixed media artist & youtuber -- @shemidixon

Leaca Young - artist & reiki practicioner -- @leacayoungart

Tina Riley - art & heART journaler -- @tinarileyimaginariums

Kristi Nazzaro - mixed media artist -- @soul_positive

Suzanne Earley - mixed media artist, quilter, and founder of strawberry moon magazine -- @suzanne_earley

Liz Constable - book artist, teacher, & author -- @bookartstudios

Dee Dee Catron - mixed media artist & mark maker -- @deedeecatron

Aly Million - mixed media artist and journaler -- @alycadabra

Brooke Henry - maker, teacher, art journaler -- @bbhenry_art

​Susanne Randers - paper lover, eco dyer, and bookbinder -- @mitkrearum

Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd - art witch & collage fanatic -- @dansmoncrane

Misty Granade - abstract mixed media artist -- @misty.granade

Cindy Gilstrap - mixed media & journaling artist -- @junqueart

Kristin Peterson - mixed media & collage artist -- @alteredstatesstudio

Joyce Van Der Lely - artist & empowerment guide -- @joycevanderlely

​

We are going to have so much fun at the Artsy Meetup Marathon, and you will have so many hints and creative tips to see you into the New Year.  JOIN THE PARTY!

****************************************

Before You Go

Check out Filling the Creative Well Mixed Media Course - LEARN MORE

Creating Fabric Beads: Material Mondays

 

Creating Fabric Beads: A Sustainable and Creative Project

Ever wished you could transform your leftover fabric scraps into something beautiful and useful? Look no further than fabric beads! They are surprisingly easy to make and offer a fantastic way to recycle unwanted materials, contributing to a more sustainable lifestyle.

Scraps into Treasure:

This project starts with a simple base, like a recycled plastic tube, or check if you have any plastic drinking straws in one of those draws in the kitchen. They offer a sturdy core for your fabric bead. Wrapping thin strips of fabric around the tube with glue or stitching creates the foundation of your bead.


Working with Embellishments

Here's where you can go to town in your art supplies! Grab those forgotten seed beads, ribbons, and any other embellishments you have lying around. Each bead becomes a canvas, waiting to be shaped with contrasting threads, seed beads, or even bits of wool, the possibilities are endless!

Benefits of Creating your Beads:

• Creating fabric beads offers more than just artistic satisfaction. It's a fantastic way to:Reduce waste: By repurposing scraps, you give new life to materials that might otherwise end up in landfills.
• Develop crafting skills: Learn basic sewing and beading techniques, perfect for future projects.
• Enjoy a mindful activity: The repetitive nature of beading can be quite therapeutic, offering a moment of calm.
• Create unique pieces: With endless combinations of fabrics and embellishments, every bead is a one-of-a-kind treasure.

Getting Started: Check out the video to see how I created them.  Here are some of the supplies that you will need.

• Fabric scraps: Any fabric will do, from cotton to silk.
• Embellishments: Beads, buttons, yarn, ribbons, the possibilities are endless!
• Needle and thread: For stitching the fabric and securing embellishments.
• Glue gun (optional): Offers a quicker alternative to stitching for some steps.
• Recycled base: Plastic tubes, paper or plastic straws

Your finished fabric beads can be used in countless ways stringing them together to create necklaces, bracelets, or earrings.  You can also use them as embellishments and sew them onto clothing, bags, or pillows for a unique and personalized touch.

Creating fabric beads is a fun, sustainable, and rewarding activity, it is a great time to express your creativity, so, gather your materials, unleash your imagination, and let the joy of fabric bead making take over!

Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Before You Go

1000 Dog Portraits - Work Published

In keeping with the post I shared a while back about celebrating your achievements, I thought I would share some of my artwork that got published in a book some time ago, but we can still celebrate!  In fact I have a journal dedicated for things that I have achieved, so that I can look back as a reminder and see how far I have come.  It is important that you write down all your achievements, not matter how small.

The Book that my work was published in was published in 2014 and is called 1000 Dog portraits, curated by Robynne Raye. I created 2 playful paintings which were selected.  It was a reminder to me to 'go for it' and not hold back and allow the critic to voice their untruths.

On the Run - Amanda Trought, 1000 Dog Portraits

My main focus was to have fun and bring out the colors in each of the paintings, and I like the cartoon like feel of my dogs, and they may one day feature in a children's book of their own.

Amanda Trought Art - Dog Portraits

It was great to see the diversity of work from both artists and designers from around the world, and to have my work published alongside them.

I think I might spend some more time playing about with colors and shapes, and see what other playful characters that I can come up with. Why not try it out yourself.

Cole my dog is wondering when I am going to do a painting of him, he loves posing for the camera, and makes sure we only get his best side!

Cole, Such a majestic looking dog

Hanging out with Cole

Stay blessed and be a blessing and keep your eyes out for many other creative goodies that will be coming your way.

You can check out the book  HERE on Amazon 

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Free Trial on Patreon - Join Us

Weekly Art Journals & Exhibition News

 

In this weeks video I shares how you can add crochet to your art journals and create different effects.  I really enjoyed adding this element to my art journals and you can add different color wool to your piece.  I used a different color wool at the end of the pages, and I will be coming back to add journaling and some embellishments to the page.

I have one of my paintings in the exhibition - A Seat at the Table, and today there is a 'meet the artists' organized so I will be sharing a bit about some of the work that I do, and what inspires my pieces.

I love the vibrancy of colors and the painting was a very therapeutic piece to complete.  The painting is for sale so if you are interested do get in touch.

Join us on Sunday where we share our video collaboration for Artsy Second Sunday.  A group of us meet and share a video based on a prompt for the month.  It is loads of fun and you can join us in the live chat on YouTube and see how my art journal page was created.  It starts at 12pm EST  I am scheduled for 1.48 EST You can schedule a notification HERE

If you can join us it would be great!  Check out all the videos in the hop which will be listed in the description of the video. 

Hope you are having a lovely time this Easter Weekend.

Blessings.

52 Art Journals - Mixed Media Mini Art Journal

 

This Art Journal uses digital papers I created for my patrons.  They also get to see how to put the art Journal together. It's made from one sheet of paper or card. I have used the digital paper and collaged additional onto the covers of the mini journal.

We have on the front card cutouts which was originally from a greetings card with a butterfly and some flowers and flourishes and then we've just got some other elements using ribbon.  I have used background paper and painted paper as well underneath and altered ribbons on the side. 

On the pages I also use old artwork, collaged and stamped tags and embellished handmade paper. I have left space in the journal for additional writing or doodling 

You can check out the video above to see more details

If you are interested in some of the resources, you can check these out - 

Ribbons

Background Papers

Encouraging words - Free downloads check out Creative Fabrica

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Check out some of these offers

Creative Awakenings - Book Review & What If?

 

I will be resuming my twice monthly book reviews of the books that I have brought over the years and have had a chance to work through them and see how I liked their lessons.  I think it is important for us to be continually learning and expanding the mind, especially creatively, there are so many tools, supplies and techniques that you can learn that might add something to your own creative practice.

Todays book is Creative Awakenings by Sherry Gainer 

The back reads - what if you could unlatch the doors to your heart and allow yourself to explore hopes and dreams that you haven't visited for a very long time?

Creative awakenings is the key to opening those doors showing you how to use art making to set your intentions creativity coach sherry gainer will guide you through the mile posts of this exciting journey.  Creative Awakenings envisioning a life of your dreams through art which is such a lovely way to look at things. 

It has got several chapters and in between each chapter a mile mile markers.  In the first chapter she talks about how it all came about and connecting with other artists and how she how she contacted with them and building your dream journal.  She's also got examples of supplies that you can use and setting yourself up for the journey so the envision process is a specific process that she walks you through step by step.

Check out the video on Amazon for more details HERE

Creative Jumpstart Join Amanda Trought

 

My Video for Creative Jumpstart 2022 goes live today and you can watch it in the Classroom.  I had great fun making my Cards.

And they are a great resource for getting you started quickly in a creative project and can be done with most supplies.  They can be added to art journals, sent as gift cards or used as tags.

If you want to come and join us there are over 30 artists all sharing their creative ideas, you can check it out HERE

We would love to see you!

Arts and Wellness Café - Helpful or Not?

Come and join me for the latest episode of Arts and Wellness Café 

Check out the video HERE

In this episode I include how I find keeping a journal is useful.  I had read the Artists Way many years ago and I started to do my 'Moring pages' which is 3 pages of continuous writing first thing in the morning.  I found it really useful to get out my ideas and every now and then I wrote out some really great nuggets of inspiration.

I also examine my interpretation of the differences between a collector and a hoarder.  I thought there were some massive difference, I still do ( I am not sure my family would feel the same way though lol).

For the Art Journal page it is time for us to 'Spread our Wings and Fly and you will see how the page develops.  My main supply used in the Neo-Colors

Tip for the Week - Give yourself time to Create

I give myself time every day to do what I creatively want to do in the studio. So if you give yourself a portion of time you never then feel like you have been robbed or you haven’t got anything done.  I have a range of different things that I would like to try but don’t have the time.  

If I schedule a bit of time for myself I can just enjoy doing that thing or enjoy say working in an art journal or playing with a new supply without any pressure and then you still got time to get on with the work but you have to give yourself permission you have to say this is the time that I will schedule for myself and you stick to it.

You must not do other things in that time like going to hang out the laundry but you need to stick to the time that you have chosen.

You will find that you definitely will grow if you start to do it over a period of time, and you can compare to see how much you are getting done and the quality of your work from when you first started 

Question of the Week - What one nice thing can you do for yourself this week?  This is something you need to think about as we often leave ourselves to last or over look ourselves.

Spotlight Artist of the Week 

We take a look at Rachel Bellamy, Artist and you can check out her new course - The Joy of Motif HERE

Here is an example of her work...

Thank you for joining me, looking forward to hearing what 'nice thing' you are going to do for yourself.

Word for the Week - Perceptive - Arts and Wellness Café

Welcome to this week, the word has been so far 'Perceptive' and it is great to think about how the word relates to our creativity.  When you think about what you do creatively how much of it would you say you get a sense that there is more to it than you yourself put in - in regards to effort?  Do things click, work out and often give you goosebumps or chills.  

It matters not if that is not the case for you at the moment, as there are areas of what you do that you just can't quite explain, and you don't need to (smile).

I started the week off with the podcast and you can listen to the episode HERE or below

In Arts and Wellness Café I continue the theme and you can watch the video HERE or below

I share some of the work that I have been doing in the studio along with some of my stitched pieces.

Textile Wall Hanging - Amanda Trought

For more behind the scenes and exclusive content you can check me out on Patreon

Creativity and Healing - with Larissa Russel and Amanda Trought

I recently joined Larissa Russell of Creative U and we spoke about the healing power of creativity you can listen HERE or catch the video below

Watch the Video of the session

 

Arts and Wellness Café - A continuation of Bliss

 

Have you ever thought about the word bliss and how it relates to your creative walk?  Can you see your work as a vehicle that provides the nurturing moments when you can take stock of your surroundings and feel at peace?  I continue to look at the word bliss and the way in which we can look at our creative journey and find the pockets of bliss within.  

At the end of the video I take a look into one of my art journals and share how you can create one using recycled materials.

PODCAST

Also check out the podcast recording which started us on the journey in search of our bliss!  

I look forward to hearing what things in your creative space brings you bliss.

Stitched Projects - Wall Hanging

 

Here is one of my recently finished stitched wall hangings.

It is a mixed media piece that includes fabrics, beading, slow stitching and Moringa Wood that has been harvested from my garden and then wood burned.

The nature of the piece encourages reflection.  The stitching by hand encourages you to slow down, the addition of seed beads and jewelry embellishments sets the whole piece off.

I find the stitching to be very therapeutic as well as selecting the threads and the embellishments that want to be added.

The wood that is harvest from the garden has to be stripped first, then dried before it can be wood burned. This piece is available for sale and I will be adding it to my website if you would like to welcome it into your home.

Thank you for joining me, Stay blessed and be a blessing.

Arts and Wellness Café - Hopeful Extended

Arts and Wellness Café

Join me in the studio for Arts and Wellness Café where we look at more ways in which 'Hopeful' impacts on you health and well-being.  

I also share with you two short process videos so that you can look at playing with backgrounds, just using Inktense pencils, collage paper in a journal, you can apply colour to the page and use it when you only have a short time to play.

Creating pages in your Art Journal Add colours to the page and activate!

I also catch up with some of the Life Book taster sessions, it is great to be able to see what the other teachers did for their sessions and here is one that I was able to do Inspired by Eulalia Mejia creating the backgrounds, using gesso and going in a mark making on figures, the one below is what we did in the classroom.  

Here is the the one below that I was able to do, it is a lovely exercise and very therapeutic as well with all the mark making.

If you would like to register for Life Book CLICK HERE

Use the code FEELHAPPY20 to get the 20% off at the checkout, you will also get all the taster sessions as well!