Vision Plan Cards

 Many of us who identify as creative are challenged when it comes to the business side of things! And even zoning in on what we have to offer can be a challenge - so many ideas! So many possibilities!! 

Thoughout Color of Woman and the other Intentional Creativity® trainings, we are offered tips and tools to help fine tune our vision, and keep us on track. One of the recent offerings for both students and course graduates was Dancing Entrepreneur, which was offed as either a weekend course, or a deeper 5 week dive. 

Vision cards

I took the deeper dive, and enjoyed the depth of offerings, calls, and focus groups that emerged. Several of our teacher Shiloh's colleagues and advisors shared insights, and it was very rich.  

In addition to creating a folded Vision Plan Book, we created a deck of 16 card Dancing Entrepreneur deck, as action prompts for our next 'Dance Move.' We wrote short prompts or Dares on the back, and Shiloh suggested drawing one daily.

Vision Cards

I loved seeing the other students' work, and was especially drawn to a visual organization system Karen Dawn created, and to how she incorporated the cards. Karen has developed a visual planning wall that helps her stay organized and focused, and I'm excited to participate in her 6 week course. 

Our next assignment is to create a Vision Board for our own planning wall. I enjoyed Karen's video with tips on creating one. I've done and taught several over the years, it feels timely to do one focused on current energies! 

I'm thinking of creating some calendar pages for my wall, like I've done in journals. One of Karen's inspirations for her wall was realizing how many great ideas were tucked away in her journals, and "out of sight, out of mind!" (Does that happen to you, too?)

Calendar spread

One of the Creative Business planning projects we did in CoW was to paint our Biz-Muse - she's a whimsical muse, with a winged eye, for seeing behind the ordinary, and intentions collaged on strips of paper.

Biz-Muse

Next up - collage time!!  

I used an 11×15" sheet of watercolorpaper for the backing, and images and words from several magazines for the board. The mountains are The Three Sisters, which I grew up with in Central Oregon.

Catching Dreams

It's always fun to experiment with the creative process, and see what emerges. This week there's a thread of unrest, so I find painting prayer dots a soothing balance. With that in mind, I was curious when I saw my friend Gisela's tutorial video on painting a dream catcher in a journal! 

My grandkids had out the box of craft paint, as they had been decorating their trash baskets lids, and I had one of my composition book journals with me. These are great places for creative play, it doesn't have to be perfect! It was a lovely ready to sit at their picnic table in the sun and paint! 
I stared with several glides for the background, and splattered stars - seeding my dreams. One role of a dream catcher is to capture the bad dreams so they don't trouble us - so happy to do that right now! 

Night sky with stars

The next step is to paint the hoop, either free hand, or using a container as a template, and then begin to fill in the pattern - 

Dream Catcher - basic lines

As we begin to fill in the web, we are invited to consider what we are grateful for - dreams that have already manifest - family, basics: food and shelter, health ... 

Dreams and prayer dots

After filling in the web of lines, and adding some color while reflecting in gratitude, we painted feathers for the dreams we wish to bring in - continued well being, time/resources for creativity, safety, ... While engaged in the creative process, our whole brain lights up, and insights flow - this is a good time to lightly play attention, and jot down ideas! 

In our community, we often "Pray in dots," and I had three friends in mind as I painted dots around the hoop and feathers, I had three friends in mind with needs for healing and comfort. 
After I came home (across town) I pulled out a board book juju journal I began with Cat Caracelo and her 12 Days of Solstice group last December. I joined two matching books with black art paper as a hinge - this center spread was the foundation for the dream catcher page.

Hopes and Dreams

I followed the same process with dark paint, this time my Golden Fluid acrylics, then slayer stars, hip, web and adornments. The comet of new wisdom, Neowise, is seeding new directions, the feather brings insights, and the goddess stone helps ground and center. I used my water pitcher as a template for the hoop, and painted prayer dots around the edges. 
This version echos the web pattern of the dream catchers I've made with supple sticks and linen imitation sinue. 

One of the Dream Seeds is to do a series of these mini classes with a theme of Good Medicine - we've offered several in our bimonthly Red Thread Circles - What's in your Basket? Medicine Wheel - revisiting the color wheel and Medicine Black via the lens of the four direction wheel - and Prayer Flags.

Medicine Wheel

Happy Paint Party Friday!