Zines

  When preparing to teach a class, i generally make notes of what I plan to include in my journal, and may add to my set of prompt cards. A fan of things 'tiny,' I  was intrigued a couple of years ago when I happened on a call with the lovely Denise Daffara on working in little "zines" 

... but I had missed the instructions, lol! 

So after the circle, I looked for more info on making these little booklets, and was enchanted! 

Calendar and Zines in process

Who doesn't like tiny booklets? And with the central slit, these fold into a cover and several pages - perfect for a little collage session, class notes, or a planning booklet! 

Double Calendar spread, paint and collage

I made a handout that would fold into a zine, and brought this project to our next Red Thread Circle - For my own, I used a double spread from this large biodynamic calendar. I liked the black and white illustrations of candles and beeswax, so worked around including them, and some of the text. The small blue Zine was created from another calendar. 

Acrylic paint and collage

A piece of Junk Mail, a double calendar spread, or even piece of notebook paper is great for a small "class notes" booklet, which can be written in directly or painted and collaged. 

Here's a little "kid friendly zine" tutorial.

A Zine could also used for:

• A poetry booklet
• A mini art journal
• Class notes
• A process page - write what you want to compost on the 'inside,' paint over' then flip and fold to "grow some lilies"
• A booklet of symbols you use in your paintings
• Writing about your painting

During the Color of Woman teacher training, we create Vision Plan and Story books on a half sheet of watercolor paper as part of the quest. These are a lovely visual way of collating ideas for our work with IC, but generally in a larger format. Here's one side of mine from the course - it makes a lovely background for an altar.

Vision Plan Book

I enjoy the compact booklets for collection my class ideas, as another option. They are a great size to tuck into a Planning Pocket, and a page may provide inspiration for a Story Card!

Happy Paint Party Friday!
Do you have a favorite style of art journal or booklet? 

Visual Planning

Last spring, Shiloh and her biz coach Amy Ahlers offered Dancing Entrepreneur for both Color of Woman students and the general community. We created the folded Vision Plan books (one of the CoW assignments) plus a set of 16 cards to support moving forward with our plans. 

We connected with others in the class (a weekend workshop or 5 week class) and used the momentum of the class to bring ideas into action or products. I developed my virtual Red Thread Circles, and collaborations with other students and IC teachers.

Some of the posts that caught my eye were of Karen Dawn's Visual Planning system, and I joined her Beta Test group on crafting similar systems of our own! I love Karen's creative approach to planning! (Her blog includes some of these teachings!) 

Vision Plan Board

Mine is on a foam board from a vision board class I offered, and has two of the Dancing Entrepreneur action cards, a little vision board we created with Karen, and - pockets. My clothesline is a ribbon, and I just taped the ends to the back of the board using painter's tape! You can use nails to tack the lines directly on a wall - so many options!

Karen uses this 'clothesline' system for organizing ideas visually. She found that when her notes were tucked away in journals and files, they weren't as accessible, and often dropped off her radar. (So me!) You can clip cards directly to the line, or Viola! - make pockets to hold sets of cards with those ideas! (Who doesn't want to make pockets, lol!) 

Larger file folder size pockets can be tacked up, with in depth writings/images. You can clip labels to the front of the pockets, to keep organize. I also like making little vision plans in Zines - these could easily tuck into small pockets! 

Planning pockets

As I dream into new offerings, and projects on my plate, I'm using this system to keep organize my ideas and action steps.

Reiki and the Red Thread

 While studying to become an Intentional Creativity teacher and coach in 2015, one of our assignments was to offer several Red Thread Circles and events. I included a simple circle as part of a 1st Degree Reiki class, and covered journals in 2nd Degree - the students loved it.

My teacher Maestra Shiloh Sophia invited me to consider the connections between Reiki and the IC teachings, "I know there are connections, explore what they are."

A Chinese legend tells that we are connected before birth with those whom we're destined to meet by an invisible Red Thread. Through out our lives, the thread may twist, stretch and tangle, but will never break.

We each hold, and are responsible for a unique piece of this thread.

With Reiki, we often feel the resonance of connection when we meet other  Reiki practitioners, or first connect with our Master. The teachings and practices of Intentional Creativity® and Reiki support each other in a beautiful way. Over the last five years, I've formulated a Red Thread Reiki curriculum designed to support practitioners on their journey.

Some of the Red Thread Reiki teachings are  included in my classes, others may be taken separately. Most are suitable for anyone, whether they've studied Reiki or not. 

These Circles include a check in, Meditation with self Reiki, and a simple creative project - no artistic ability necessary - really! Creativity is an innate gift inherent in being human, and becoming aware of ourselves as creative beings helps us stay present.

These pieces we create are imbued with Reiki energy, and can be used personally or gifted to others. Most circles are open to both Reiki Practitioners and those interested in healing.

• Reiki Principle Prayer flags 
• Soul Compass cards - rewrite old stories
• Blessing Box - for your Reiki Prayer requests
• Medicine Basket - what are your special tools and gifts?
• Personal symbol - use Metacognative drawing to unlock your unique healing symbol
• Reiki Journal - cover, process pages
• Finger labyrinth
• Symbol practice * Reiki 2 and 3 practitioners

Intentional Painting Classes especially suited for Reiki Practitioners:

• Medicine Painting - turn tragedies into remedies 
• Reiki Guide (watercolor paper or canvas) 
• Soul Spark 
  
• Healing Temple

Have questions? You'd like to work with me in person or virtually, you find information about these sessions and my Reiki classes on my website.

You're invited to contact me - I look forward to our journey together on the Reiki path!

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Grist for the mill

Today our Intentional Creativity® community had a call with Shiloh, EXPLORE, she shared the  graphic wheel, and at the end, gave us a DARE to rearrange something in our homes to create more room for creativity/ art making! 

The graphic is a good reminder for how we interact, share, and tend ourselves and our community. 

Process - both graphic and personal, isn't always neat and tidy! We often say, "When tears (or snot) flow, add them to the canvas!"

A story Shiloh often tells: when her mom was suffering from medication that made her feel crazy, Sue reminded Caron that she worked hard for the experiences, and it was all grist for her creativity! Not to discard any of it, but to let it inform her creativity (often poetry). 

This is a good reminder for all of us - when things come up for you, and they will! - acknowledge them! 

• Invite witness - and witness yourself! 
• Self care isn't selfish!
• Take it to the canvas or journal, use image and writing to distill an antidote for the poison - the creative process is a wonderful alchemical tool! 
• We often mark an unavoidable tragedy line on the canvas to acknowledge something that happened, that we didn't have control over, or say in - and it becomes part of the layers. 
• And pay attention when insights come - record them in your journal, create a Compass Card
• Sit with it, go on a walk, change scenes and come back later

Some of us are embarking on the Soulbird (painting) journey, or Motherboard Coach training, others are finishing Color of Woman or the Read Thread Guide ... Many are just beginning to paint and create with the community, others are frequent fliers! 

There's now a universal calendar of classes and calls on the Musea website, which will make offerings easier to track! I appreciate the calendar page in my MeetUp groups, especially now with our bimonthly virtual offerings. (Our next session is a virtual Soul Spa, next Thursday, September 10!) 

It's easy to see the shiny objects of a new class or training - deep breath - you don't have to do it all!! 

You are enough! 

There's a place for each of us in the circle, and we daddy hold our piece of the thread! 

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Prayer Flags RT Circle

In the mid 80s, I joined our local calligraphy Guild to attend a couple of workshops at the nearby Mount Angel Abbey, which has a beautiful collection of illuminated manuscripts. One of class was on a Japanese practice of writing poems on paper, creating prayer flags to hang on trees. We cut bookmark size strips from brown paper bags, and wrote simple poems (often haiku) on them, folded over the top, punched a hole, and used string to tie them on branches. "Hanging poems on Cherry Branches" illustrates this tradition.

Ishikawa Toyonobu

As ephemeral as these paper flags seem, they last for months, even in our rainy Western Oregon climate. 
Over the years, I've created tobacco ties to be hung in sweat lodges, using cotton cloth in primary colors and a pinch of tobacco, and hung Tibetan prayer flags, which have been used for over 2000 years in Tibet. That tradition goes back to the indigenous Bon, and "coupled with the natural energy of the wind, quietly harmonize the environment, impartially increasing harmony and good fortune among all living beings. ...They used colours symbolizing the five elements, blue for sky, white for air or clouds, red for fire, green for water and yellow for earth."  Tibet Travel

Brown paper Prayer Flags

One year, our pastor invited a Buddhist monk to speak on the prayer flag tradition. After his talk, we gathered around tables to write a favorite passage from Scripture or a poem on fabric squares prepared by our sewing group, the Sew and Sews. I chose a phrase from a Cherokee blessing, and wrote it in that language. The flags were threaded onto cords, and hung in our long hallway for several months.

Reiki Principle prayer flags and alt

When I attended my Color of Woman Graduation in 2015, one of the 2 hour circles offered by a graduate was on creating prayer flags on watercolor paper. After the introduction, we chose symbols to paint on one side of a 5x6" piece of watercolor paper, punched two holes at the top of each, and strung them on pretty ribbon to hang inside. 

I enjoy inviting my community to create prayer flags of their own, in my Red Thread circles and Red Thread Reiki 1 classes. The Reiki Principles offer inspiration for Reiki Flags. We use watercolor paper from a pad, or brown paper for outside flags. 
The possibilities are endless, one of my Reiki Master friends invited his clients to write prayer requests on strips of cloth, which he then hung on his fence! 

• Choose your materials, paper or cloth, fear or cut into shape and size of your choice
• A variety of markers, watercolor pencils and paint, calligraphy pens 
• Fold the top of cloth squares, and stitch channels for cord or string, and use fabric pens
• Take a moment to center, and focus on your prayer or gratitude
• Choose a symbol to picture your prayer, a drop falling into a pool for calm, a rainbow for hope, a tree for endurance, a butterfly for transformation ...
• Or Write a three line haiku using the formula: 5, 7, 5 syllables 
• Put your image or poem in the paper
• Punch a hole (or two of it's wider) for a string or ribbon (you can also staple it!) And thread through
• Tie to a tree branch, or string several flags and hang on a wall or porch.

This week, we brought making prayer flags to our Red Thread community via a Zoom call. As always, I was intrigued by the variety of flags created during our time together! On cloth, paper, barbers from the local dollar store, and in a smash journal! This was our second circle via zoom, answering the need for virtual connection. 

May these flags indeed, harmonize the environment, and bring peace to all living beings! 

Daily Practices

For over thirty years I've worked closely with clients as an energy worker and healer. Over that time, I've seen thousand of individuals, and as many shifts of mood, energy, emotions and physical aches and pains. I've also had the opportunity to study with some awesome healers and learned a number of methods to help keep my own energy clear and available. 

Some individuals are very sensitive to energy, and find being in a crowd extremely difficult, while others seem to float through energetic «muck» with little disturbance! If you are in the former group, learning and issuance some of these practices may help! This is ment as a reference and jump off for building your own favorite set.

AM: 

• Ground yourself. Stand with a tree, and practice sending your "roots" through the soles of your feet down into the center of the earth.
• Aura (the biofield around your body) imagine this as an egg shape, stretch your arms out, and turn in a slow circle, to define the boundaries of your bubble. You can imagine the outside of your bubble as gold, your true essence color (or silver) I like to imagine a rainbow of iridescent, like a soap bubble!.
• Have tea or cafe with your Musé and your journal
• Invite any angels or guides to be with you as you move through your day.
• Choose a story card affirmation for the day, and put it on your altar or carry with you.

Throughout the day: 

• pay attention to how you feel, what thoughts flit through your mind, etc. Notice where old stories arise, and feel into how it tells address to your affirmation
• Activity: qigong, Tai chi, a walk, yoga, put on music and dance... even if you take just a few minutes for conscious movement, it will build your energy. 
• Remember to breathe! And take breaks throughout the day.
• Drink water, batteries need water to hold a charge, so do we!
• Treat yourself to fresh flowers, bodywork, creative practices, lunch with a friend, find ways to bring more joy into your daily life.

In Public:

• Make sure you're grounded (stand by a tree for a few minutes if you can) and refresh your Aura bubble. 
• You can experiment with the color violet around your Aura, which transmutes energy, both yours and that of others.
• Sit facing the door if you're in a group (place of power) if you can, especially in your own office!
• Invite anyone else's energy to be processed in your field, not your body, and released. You can imagine "vacuuming" your energy field with a giant rose.
• Wash your hands with warm water and soap for herbs, with cool water for an energy clearing.
• Imagine bracelets of light around your wrists and ankles, if you feel like your energy is being drained. 

Food: 

• whole food, including lots of vegetables in season are most nourishing. Different bodies have different needs, so observing yours can be a great ally.
• Bless your food before eating, and invite your body to use it well. 
• My African teacher Erik Vormanns suggested beaming "rainbows" into our drinking water.
• If you drink tea, sofa, cafe, or wine, remember to drink water as well..

PM:

• Receive and embrace what the day has brought, and receive the gifts into your heart
• Journal a bit, and notice anything that came up for clearing, insights, something you'd like more insight on.
• Reflect on your word/affirmation, any insights about it today?
• Take several deep breaths, imagining your cells and DNA expanding into the new vibration.
• Express gratitude for the blessings of the day

Before sleep: 

• Thank your angels and guides for their support and blessings
• If you wish, invite insights while you dream, or to attend "dream school"in the Green Jade temple or other favorite place
• Imagine a beautiful gold or blue bubble around your bed (or whole home)

These are the bones of daily practices; I'd love to hear which you find useful, and ones you use! 

Red Thread Story Cards

Do you have some Old Stories and Beliefs running your life? Stories that make you "play safe" rather than dream big? Do you engage in negative self-talk? 

Most of us do! With Intentional Creativity,® we have many processes for unlocking the negative beliefs, bringing them conscious, and then writing new stories in living color! The creative process alchemises true shift, and freedom from outdated beliefs.

One of my favorite ways of shifting the stories is Soulful Story Cards, affirmation cards which offer an antidote to the old stories! In the past, I've written affirmations, then processed "what comes up;" ... here we identify the old beliefs first, then seek an antidote, which becomes our affirmation. The next step is the fun part, paint! Markers! Glitter!!

Story Cards and cover

There are many other possibilities with these personal card decks: choosing favorite quotes, or guidelines like the Reiki or Breema principles, cards for ideas and dreams, prompt cards. One of my students in this year's teacher training told me she's created «Well over 100 card decks, ... mainly for insight and process." Wow! 

Red Thread Circles are ways to connect with our community, in respect and in support for transformation. We often include an activity that is simple, and bypasses the "I can't do that!" "I'm not creative, ____ is the creative One!" "I'm too (old, out of shape, uncoordinated)"  one that is non-threatening, colorful and fun (& maybe messy!) 

At our last circle, a friend who teaches kids art said she realized SHE doesn't engage in creativity as much as she'd like! In our May Red Thread Circle, we'll create a cover and several cards, and offer suggestions use. I'm curious to see what beliefs tag along, and the variety of cards that will be created! 

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Color of Dreams

Certificates and cards with Queen

I am a Color of Woman Teacher and Intentional Creativity Coach!! My certificates and the Mother Mary Oracle card that Shiloh pulled for each one of us came last week, & I'm still a bit in Awe.  I. Did. this!  WE did this - our wonderful tribe of Color of Women students and the teachers who supported us on the journey! A dream made manifest.

Today Shiloh and her beloved husband Jonathan are on their way to New York, & the UN Commission on the Status of Women, CSW60 conference. The theme this year  is Women’s Empowerment and its link to sustainable development. With the Establisment of the NGO Intentional Creativity Foundation, Shiloh and other artists and dreamers are designing and taking part in two panel discussions. The second will feature footage from the Color of Woman teachers around the world, engaged in creativity & empowering women in their communities!


The website also includes profiles of Intentional Creativity teachers around the world! You can click on the map, or type in your area to connect with someone in your area. Several also offer online classes. Here's my listing! If you've found my art or words inspiring, I invite you to write a brief review on my page.

Denise & Sepha's Story Cards

At the beginning of March my friend Sepha, who is enrolled in CoW 2016 & I hosted the first of our Monthly Red Thread Circles, in the Back Door Studio of the Co-op Art Gallery. We had a simple card making project, fun, laughter, tea & chocolate!  Our next Circle will be Thursday April 7.

This weekend we will be painting our Winged One, to help give our dreams Wings! 

Winged Ones take flight
Butterfly, birds, soaring dragon
giving wings to Dreams


Here are a few inquiries to take to your Journal - & see what Wings come!

* are your wings clipped?

* do you find it hard to focus, with too many dreams & ideas?

* do you find yourself helping others fulfil their dreams, and neglecting your own?

* Does your timing seem 'off'?

* Do you spend more time on things that distract you from your TRUE dreams and values?
In Winged one, we will identify a few dreams for focus

Journey, journal and paint to find symbols & movement
 

Happy Fifth Birthday, Paint Party Friday !!

Hop on over & enter your blog post for the opportunity to win one of the PPF necklaces!!

Soulful Story Card Session

In our Intentional Creativity Teacher Trainings, an early assignment was creating a deck of 'Soulful Story Cards'. These area deck of colourful and personal affirmations, tied with a Red Thread.

Over the years, I've worked with Affirmations in a number of ways - in a Loving Yourself class, taught by my friend Joyce Marvel & based in part on the work of Louise Hay, we made Affirmation cards, sprinkled them with glitter, & posted them on our mirrors, carried one in our wallet, & wrote them in our Journals.
 
A year or so later author Douglas Bloch, author of 'Words that Heal' gave a talk to a women's group, & gave us a practice for bringing the negative voices out, and listening for the negatives, then rewriting the affirmation, back & forth, over & over, till the affirmation became the dominant voice! 

Soulful Story Cards

In The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron writes: "An affirmation is a positive statement of (positive) belief, and if we can become one-tenth as good at positive self-talk as we are at negative self-talk, we will notice an enormous change." Like Bloch, Julia suggests writing out the affirmation, then the 'blurts' which counter it, & suggests identifying their origin - who told you that?

The Soulful Story Card practice comes at the affirmation by first writing out the  'stories' that hold you back, critic chatter, or negative beliefs on one side of a slip of paper: "I never have enough time!"  "I'm too old" (or too young, or too busy) "I'd love to do my art, but I don't want to end up a starving artist" ... and then writing an antidote on the other. These are done on index cards or slips of paper, then the Antidote is transferred to your Watercolour paper & decorated. 

When a client or friend 'affirms' a negative belief, I often ask if they wish to reframe that, & affirm something positive instead! I'm offering Soulful Stories as a Red Thread Session this weekend, and will guide a group of Soul SiStars through the process of bringing old beliefs to light, and creating their own Storycard Deck.

Biz-Muse

I also finished my Biz-Muse, with her Visionary glimpse into my values, offerings, & whom I'll be working with, my Beloveds! 

October is a month of appreciation for this year's harvest. I am grateful for the wonderful teachings & supportive community of Shiloh Sophia and the Red Thread Sisterhood. As I move toward Graduation (in November) & completion of the assignments, this cycle of visioning and claiming who we are & how we wish to show up!





Happy Paint Party Friday!!