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I need to clear my heart today… So I decided to share what I am loving right now with you.
I love reading what my fellow bloggers share in their “Inspiration” or “What I love” blogposts so I thought that regrouping what I do am exciting about could be great.

But don’t forget, you can help me spread the word about my Etsy shop opening and win an handmade journal. Learn more about it here.

I am currently loving and excited about….:

• Samantha Kira new mini-journal class. Learn how to make fantastic fabric and button journals, with a lots of versatility. {a new-journal making mini workshop}

• Connie has gathered 21 fantastic artists to share their art journal secrets. It is the second round, the first one was awesome. You can learn from Goddess Leonie, Willowing, Lisa Wilson and so many more; the techniques and themes are very different from each other and cover a lot of areas. Exciting !!! Learn more about it: 21 secrets Spring 2011 edition.

• PanPastels are soft easy to use pastels… I love them. I think they are becoming my favourite medium for shading faces. I have a lot to learn but I am loving it ! I will share soon the page in my Journal I started with them yesterday night.

• Lindy Stamp Gang is now offering their awesome Starburst products in what they call «color shot». This is the same amazing ink doubled with amzing shimmers, but in a pot instead of with a sprayer. SO now, I can use them to paint. And this is gorgeous. I love their product so so much. It makes me happy and I want them all… they even make me like vintage-y brown colours, coupled with colours shimmers (they call this «MoonShadows» what a name !). And they treat us well by having sales very often during the year (they are currently having a 20% off everything for St Patrick day !). They also have amazing two-toned embossing powders, stamps etc. And you can buy seperately the caps to change your sprays into daubbers, crazy !

• I started a new Art Journal yesterday night while the girls where already in bed and dear Husband was playing video games. The first page is not finished as I type this but will be today. I already love it. This is the journal I finally decided to play in:

• I am happy to read the big dreams shared on my opening shop comments.
• We are FINALLY having a dry day in Vancouver, with some sunshine coming through the clouds.

Hello you !

Here it is… It is with great excitement and a lot of nervousness that I announce my Etsy shop OPENING !!!
I am SO excited to finally share my art and hopefully some people will like it enough to buy it.

This is a huge step for me. I know I make a big deal from it but I realized that my anxiety about opening this online shop is related to the fact that to me, putting my work for sale is another way of exposing me, who I am, moments of my Life and Path, to the World.
«And what if people do not like it ?» «What if some think it is stupid to even dream of selling this crap ?» «What if they think I am a weird woman that should be in a mental institution because my artwork is not that conventional ?» Yes, I thought all this over and over again.

But I keep having this quote from Marianne Williamson:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

And this is so true for me (I replace “God” by “The Universe”). Too true maybe. So it keeps me going, stronger and stronger. Because I did not discovered this firey passion for art by coincidence. This was not accidental.
I know that some find that this is crazy stupid, but I am as affraid of being successful than I am of failure. «What if it gets too big for me, if I can not handle it correctly ?» «What if success changes me in someone I do not want to be ?». I know with conviction that my close circle won’t let any of this happen, they will gently remind me who the True me is so I don’t get lost. And I believe that because I am aware of this, I won’t let it happen either.

So here I am, opening an Etsy shop with currently only 8 items but it is okay, I am working on adding more soon. As my dear friend Anu told me when I said “I am affraid to open it with only 8 items, 8 is nothing”: “8 is not nothing, 0 is”.

Here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/InnerVoice. But be careful… there is a slight difference between my blog name and Etsy shop because InnerVoiceS was already taken, I had to put the S off…

Now, enough with the heavy, place to the FUN and let’s go partyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy !

To celebrate the opening I am giving away one of my handmade journals. There are all made with fantastic paper, bound by me, covers made by me too.
This time will be a bit different than the other giveaways I have done… Here are the rules:

Each give you one entry (via comment on this blogpost). You can do one of them, part of them or all; so you can have 1 to 5 chances to win):

1. Leave a comment on this blogpost. Let me know what would you do if you could achieve your biggest dream.
2. Tweet about my shop with a link to this blogpost, then come back and comment again with a link to your tweet.
3. Talk about it on facebook with a link to this blogpost, then come back and comment again with a link to your status.
4. Write a blogpost about it with a link and you can write two comments here to let me know.

So the more you help me spread the word, the more chances to win you have 🙂

Contact me via email if you have any question and/or difficulties: nolwenn@inner-voices.net

Coucou !

As promises, here is the flip-through video of my second Art Journal. I love it ! But I have also noticed that the feeling is different from what I felt when I finished the first one.

I love glancing through the journals and see the evolution in front of my eyes since July 2008 when it began for me. It is just obvious and magical. I see the positive changes that happened in me, the discoveries. And my journal is now essential to me alongside my spiritual path…

This week, I wondered a lot about what would my daughters see about me in these journals in a few decades. Will they continue to explore and play in their own journals as they love to do now ?

Here is the video:

You can head on my YouTube channel to watch my previous videos if you want: http://www.youtube.com/user/NolwennBC

Hello Lovelies !

I finished my art journal yesterday… the video is currently exporting, will be uploaded for tomorrow (Saturday). Happy happy !

But it means that now I have to chose which of my blank journals will be number 3 to follow me on my path…

A few explanations, from the journal on top left to the one on bottom right:

• Three journals made following Julie Prichard’s online class “Supernova, the beginning” (unfortunately she closed it). I love them, they look quite «pro». If you look closer to the green one in the middle, the cover should remind you of something… These are the first I created myself.
• Journal with a spiral binding made by Samantha Kira. Paper is kraft cardstock. Can be interesting to see how paint and the other media I use would react on this !
• Two journals made following Rhomany’s awesome simplified (i think she said she simplified it a bit) coptic binding class. I kept the spine visible so I can see the gorgeous chain look. The green with dots is actually fabric covered bookboards as covers. The brown one is bigger, I made the covers with spackle to create texture and Lindy Stamp Gang’s starbust stains; I also painted all the first signatures so I can see pretty colors on the spine.
• My first fabric inspiration journal, Not a lot of pages, only one signatures. But lots of inclusions (i bought a few on Donna Downey’s shop to try). I can always add up to 3 other signatures if I want to.
• Journal big by its size but very few signatures. I did the sewn-on-tape binding explained by LK Ludwig. It contains lots of flips so I will play with opening horizontally, vertically, sometimes both. Interesting and can be filled quite quickly.
• The last one is the big 9″x12″ Strathmore visual journal for mixed media. But I think I will keep this one for my mind-mapping etc. Inspired by what Andrea Schroeder creates in her huge Moleskine <3

So what do you think ? Which of these pretty babies should be the lucky number 3 ?

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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.

Hello !

What a weird week it has been for me… A mix of very good moments and others like yesterday when I just wanted the day to be over. I think it is all part of Life and these moments when we feel «bleh» are there also to remind us of all the other moments when life feels so good.

This week, I am thankful for..:

• My mom’s call on Wednesday.
• The talks with my best friend. She told me she is going to start writing her Gratitude Moments and maybe even her own 365selfportrait project !
• She introduced me to the world of Enneagram. Do you know about it ? This is kind of exciting and scary at the same time. The public library has some books about it, I requested the first copy available.
• My Art journal is finished.
• I get out of my house and met an online friend, Melissa. This was great ! And I think that we will meet again. It gave me the will to do this again, even alone. Going to a bookstore with my journal and a few art supplies and just let it flow. It helps not caring that much about what people could think of what I am doing !
• I found the cuff bracelet I had no clue where it was.
• A while ago, Connie from Dirtyfootprints-studio told us about the sisters forming the band Rising Appalachia. There is something about this duo and their energy… it just makes me happy. Maybe a recollection of a Past Life 😉 And it tickles me again to visit Peru someday.
• Thanks for the “auto levels” option in photoshop.
• I finally started to read the book “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher. This is going to be an emotional one I guess…

There was a lot more but for now I will just share this 🙂

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):
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