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Do you know Zentangles ? I’m pasting what is said on the official Zentangle website:

Zentangle is an easy to learn method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is a fascinating new art form that is fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being. Zentangle is enjoyed by a wide range of skills and ages and is used in many fields of interest.

It’s beautiful pieces of patterns put together.

I’m not a patient woman and I don’t like taking too much time on tiny little details… and because of it, when I first tried Zentangles (after seing Milliande’s videos on Youtube), i nearly threw away my journal of anger. Oops.

But this week, I received so many signs about Zentangles that I couldn’t just ignore it and that’s why I decided to give it another try.
Thanks to Kerri on Twitter, I found some amazing patterns ! It really helps to have a kind of “patterns bank” somewhere when you don’t feel inspired, when you don’t know what to add and/or how to do it.

Click to enlarge

I started by tracing a 7×7 square on my journal page, and then with the biggest pen of my PittPens set I traced intuitive shape. When finished, I thought it looked like a kind of weird lotus flower, which I loved. And that is where the magic happened: I took every space alone and worked in it, not thinking about what will come next, what if I mess it up, just enjoying the repetition of the pattern in the area. And I filled it entirely, I didn’t give up, I liked it.
I love the fact that it taught me to be patient and calm with myself and with what I create. And that it was good not to stay on a bad experience.

Some useful links about Zentangles:
Zentangle.com
tanglepatterns.com

PS: I am starting to fill my FlickR photostream so come and have a look if you want; it’s there => http://www.flickr.com/photos/nolwennp/

This week, Jamie is asking us about what we wish to envision… Strangely, it’s not as easy as it seems for me to formulate this one.

Lately, I started again working on Positive Affirmations. Everyday, I visualize, I declare, I feel, and I enjoy receiving what the Universe answers me with.

I wish to envision my life as an Artist, as the Healer I feel I am in a way I don’t see yet, as a loving mom/spouse/friend/daughter.

I realize that making art (and trust me, art has a lot of gazillions of different faces) is what makes me happy, what keeps me sane in my daily life. So yes, it’s frustrating for some reasons (dreaming of a space dedicated to creation, having to stop because of X reason etc.)

I wish to discover why I am here. Why I can’t make concrete what I feel I have to do.
I wish to envision people happy and seeing how they can change their life thanks to one of my big project, because I feel it’s important I build it and share it in the World, but regarding this, the Universe seems blind 😉

But I hold up tight and don’t give up. Nop.

Hello !

I hope you all had a wonderful week-end.

Today, I am going to share something that is very important to me, you may be okay with it. Or not. It’s alright if you’re not.

Since my early teenage years, I am a huge believer. I don’t call it “God” or “Allah”, it’s not a “He” or a “She”, sometimes I call it in French “Les P’tits Vieux” which I don’t find an appropriate term in English. For me, and it’s my personal point of view, It is both Feminine & Masculine, Dark & Light, Positive & Negative… the ambivalence in everything, everywhere. But most of the time, I simply refer to this Life Force as “the Universe“.

Before I discovered Art Journaling, I was an avid writer in diaries (since I was something like 7 years old) in which I glued and doodled sometimes. So the writing part is kind of important in my Art Journalin process; even just a word or a short sentence make me feel like it’s more complete.
I love writing unsent letters. Do you know this ? It’s simple: you write a letter to someone you have something to say (usually, it’s something painful you can’t tell directly to the person, but it can be anything you need), and when you are finished, you symbolically destroy it. What I do is that I safely burn it, visualizing all the negative feelings associated with it vanishing away; but you can burry it, tear the paper and flush it in a river: be creative, it can be absolutely anything (just be careful, ok ?) ! The major positive thing about it is because it stays “unsent” you don’t have to censure yourself and you can expose everything you feel, every word that needs to get out of you.

It is a very powerful way to keep going on your life without being hold back by old feelings. Give it a try 🙂

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In this Art Journal page, I wrote a letter to The Universe to express my Gratitude regarding all the beautiful Souls that are coming into my life lately, and I ask for some guidance (You see, no need to be in pain to write an unsent letter). Gratitude is an important part of my life, that’s why I began the weekly ritual I call “Gratitude Friday“, you can read more about it there.
Then, I simply let the paint go on the page, trying not to overthink but to just enjoy the process.
I used my Silhouette to cut the stencils.
It’s not perfect at all. I made a glitch when i wanted to stencil the round thing in the left corner, using black fluid acrylic: bad idea, too liquide, it resulted in a huge black spot on the page. Not a problem, i just incorporated it and add some more texture with the bubble wrap while it was still wet. Before, I would have litterally panicked and the Gremlins would have been feroce with me “look at what you just did, you blew all your page, it’s ugly, boooooooo”. Not this time. So I notice a change in the way I see my Art Journal process and I am glad.
My girls wanted to participate and added the stars and butterfly. Pretty pretty.

And here is my first Art Journal video !! I want to deeply thanks all of you who told me they liked my first one about being BIG & FEARLESS, and for sharing it around you, I’m so blessed to have you, thank you !
I hope you’ll enjoy this one as well:

Gratitude Friday is a weekly ritual I started in order to focus on all the small and big positive things that happened during my week. I invite you to join me, you’ll see how much being thankful can change your life. If you want to know more about it, read my introduction post.

What a week !

Kind of weird I’d say, but full of all ranges of emotions. It makes me grow and I am more than thankful for this..

I can’t help but be amazed by what the Univers puts on my way, even if I don’t always understand it. I stopped over-thinking what happens, why sometimes the tears just go off my eyes as if my head is just too full of water and needs to let go (but now that I am writing it, I guess it’s because my head is too full of emotions, it needs to let go and tears are a good way of getting rid of it. I suppose): I take everything and everyone as it comes in my life, I bless it.

➱ Thank you for opening my eyes on something my Heart was longing to feel as my Mind didn’t want to listen: I needed to feel like I belong. Like I am not lonely anymore.
➱ Thank you for all the opportunities I notice, the windows that begin to open up in front of me.
➱ Thank you for all the beautiful souls gathered around Connie for her workshops, for what they bring to me, for what I offer to them back, for what I learn, for what these people give without counting. I know now what BOLD truly means.
➱ Thank you for all the Art Journalers from all over the world I talk to, on Twitter as well as on Facebook. It’s like a big giant family I belong to, even if people don’t know me yet. I am peeling my layers step by step by becoming fearless.
➱ Thank you for all the support I receive, and the cheering as well. I would never EVER have thought I’ll receive such a positive reception regarding my video. I am blown away and my heart is overflowing with Gratitude.

I rarely feel the power of Gratitude as intensely as I am feeling it now… I know that a lot of people are sceptics, think “it’s just another New-Age thing” or “it’s just positive thinking and nothing else”. Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever it is, I see everyday what positive it brings in my life and in others’ and for me, it’s just not an illusion. I absolutely don’t want to force anybody to have the same opinion as me though. I am digging deeper around Gratitude and how to explore it, enjoy it, soak in it.
If with this ritual I helped one single person to shift how (s)he see his/her life, I’d have done what I desired to do.

If you wrote your Gratitude Friday on your blog, don’t forget to enter your NAME and URL below so I’m notified and can come to read you (you can also join by commenting this post):
[linkme]

If you follow me on Twitter, you have noticed that I was close to throw my computer away yesterday… and nearly reached a state of nervous breakdown because of my video not uploading on YouTube. After 4 failed attempt and nealry 24 hours lost, I uploaded it on Vimeo (I don’t give up on YouTube but now it can wait) !

As you may know, my World lately turn around a few things, and the BIG eclass is one of them. We are at the end of the second weak together and I already feel like I belong with them. It’s something I realize I was unconsciously seeking.

Yes, you may think that I am totally obsessed with this class but Connie was right when she told me “I feel it’s what you need and it will change you” (not exactly with these words but the essence is there); and YES I am obsessed. I dream BIG, I wake up thinking on the next step, I feel BIGger and accept it easily.
Being BIG is not only about painting BIG. It is about (for me) accepting that you can do whatever your heart is calling, you can be whoever you wanna be. You deserve it. You are enough. You are worthy. You are beautiful the way you are.

So I wanted to really become fearless. I am a young woman that let fears guide her too many time. I take control now but I still feel overwhelmed by these doubts and fears and “what if…”.
I was willing to film videos of me making my Art Journal, Painting etc for something like a year, but the fear always kept me from it (“your voice is awful” “how would you do as people read your blog in French and others read you in English” “you are fat and ugly and not pleasant to watch”……).
I went through that and just set my camera so you don’t see my face and that’s it. After all, it’s what most of art journalers do on their videos. Mine is simple: it was the first one EVER. But I really really enjoyed the process, and the editing with my husband who helped me a lot. I want to do more 😉

So… here it is. I am going BIG and FEARLESS:

Here is what it looks like:

PS: I finally succeeded in uploading it on YouTube, in the power of letting go I trust 😉