Work with an arsenal of creative tools, from markers, pencils and pens to stamps, stencils, inks and paints, to find unique, intuitive ways to make your mark.Inside Doodles Unleashed, you'll learn how to:Doodle spontaneous marks, repetitive patterns, stylistic scrawls and moreCreate textured and doodled backgrounds for your mixed-media artUse photographs, vintage fabric and typography as inspirations for doodlingWork with unusual tools--skewers, toothpicks, sequin waste and more--to create surprising and unique marksDevelop a doodling style that's all your ownAnd if that isn't enough, you'll find links for additional downloads and video tutorials sprinkled throughout the pages, for even more doodle insight.With over 60 doodling techniques and exercises, you'll find plenty of ways to unleash your creative spirit and make your mark!

    Explore intriguing methods of combining bookbinding with specific crafts such as quilting, jewelry making, or polymer clay with Adventures in Bookbinding! With different levels of expertise including basic, novice, and expert, this book is filled with illustrated step-by-step instructions and photographs that demonstrate how to construct the cover pages, create unique bindings, and much more with a diverse range of media.From a needle-felted journal to a quilted workbook (and many more), each project also features two other versions with the same binding geared to those with more or less experience.  The novice version is for those who have no knowledge of the craft and want shortcuts, but love the look. The expert version is for those who have a great deal of knowledge and proficiency of a certain craft—the master art quilter, for example.  For this version, an expert guest artist has created the cover and the author has created the binding.  This offers yet another creative opportunity: the collaborative project.  If you love getting involved with round-robins and other shared endeavors, this will show you yet another way to combine your skills with other crafters!Discover endless possibilities and challenges that will forever inspire you with Adventures in Bookbinding!

    She is a thread artist. And in Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing, she'll show how to harness the power of her fearless kamikaze sewing style–just dive in and give it 100 percent. Here you'll not only find out the nuts and bolts of sewing, but learn to have confidence to blaze your own sewing trail with confidence and flair. (And sprinkle of glitter!) The Crafty Chica is here to bring out the thread artist in you. Whether you can hardly sew on a button or are already threading bobbins like a champ, Kathy's got a project just for you. From place mat totes to embellished skirts, Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing proves that you're in charge of your sewing machine, not the other way around. With these 30 fun fabu-low-sew projects to carry, wear, and use around the home, you can leave the ordinary behind and channel your own Crafty Chica within.

    From choosing the best pens and paper and knowing the different styles of lettering, to adding color to your finished pieces--this book covers it all. The book includes templates for labels, cards, handmade bunting, and word collages. It even includes a how to guide for posting your best work on social media. Each lesson builds on itself, unlocking endless opportunities inside the playful art of brush lettering. As a self-taught artist who left her day job to pursue a creative life, Peggy Dean is the ideal teacher for artists and non-artists alike.

    Offering step-by-step instruction, visual inspiration, and even a library of copyright-free images, this hands-on guide covers all the necessary materials, tools, and know-how, from adding color and transferring images, to décollage (tearing away layers). And to spark the reader's imagination, there are 52 creativity prompts, such as a collage using the letters of a single word.

    Twenty-three of his magnificent, inventive quilts—ranging from the relatively simple Tilt, ideal for beginners, to the more complex Circle of Stars, for more advanced stitchers—are showcased in the book, along with step-by-step instructions for making each one.   Along the way, Fassett also offers over a hundred photos of geometric inspiration from around the world—everything from triangular watermelon slices, to rectangular sheets of metal on African scrap dwellings, to lollipop-shaped topiary trees in Japan. In the accompanying text, Fassett reveals how he experiences the colors and basic shapes around him, how we can train our own eyes to see this rewarding source of creativity, and how we can, just as he does, combine striking fabrics with simple shapes to create our own spectacular quilt designs. Also available from Kaffe Fassett: Kaffe Fassett's Bold Blooms, Kaffe Fassett: Dreaming in Color, and Kaffe Fassett Quilts Shots and Stripes.

    Tamara’s kind, non-judgmental voice guides your way. What is holding you back? Where do you want to go? Let go of the past! Use these expressive exercises to help you recognize your personal challenges and other obstacles, then work through them. Let go of limiting beliefs, find courage, feel gratitude, heal pain, and develop self-love as you playfully create. Each themed chapter presents four to five two-part projects. First, you will explore a common issue that hampers creativity and/or positive self-worth. The second portion is a step-by-step mixed-media art project designed to help you work through that issue. Just a few of the explorations:Let go of what no longer serves you by taking stock of what’s holding you back, then create a zentangle butterfly to symbolize you flying away from those limiting things.Embrace and love your inner quirky bird by taking an inventory of your quirky traits, then create a bird that celebrates them.Heal old wounds by writing a letter to yourself as a child, then create a house to keep your inner child safe.Adding rich variety to the messages and art inspiration, some of the project outlines have been contributed by Tamara's guest teachers: Roxanne Coble, Andrea Gomoll, Alena Hennessy, Mystele Kirkeeng, Ivy Newport, and Effy Wild, each of whom are noted mixed-media artists in their own right. The final chapter presents a simple binding method for creating a keepsake book of your Life Book projects. Steeped in inspirational images and uplifting affirmations, Create Your Life Book can help you achieve both personal and creative growth.

    Altered books bring together a variety of mixed media and papercrafting techniques including collage, journaling, rubber stamping, embellishing and scrapbooking. The creative possibilities are endless - go where your imagination takes you!Through 18 step-by-step demonstrations and 65 variation ideas, Bev Brazelton teaches you basic, intermediate and creative techniques for crafting unique altered books. You'll find helpful tips as you're guided through the process of altering pages along with captivating embellishment ideas such as adding doors and drawers to your altered books.Whether you're a beginning crafter or a fine artist, Altered Books Workshop will give you comprehensive instruction and inspiration for creating multi-dimensional art that is a reflection of your moods, thoughts and life. Make your altered book the greatest story ever seen!

    Going far beyond standard notions of developing an abstract "style" or particular "look," Creating Abstract Art unleashes the numerous possibilities that abound in your creative subconscious. Familiar obstacles such as "I don't know what to paint" or "How do I know if this is good?" are easily set aside as you explore fun exercises such as connecting dots, automatic drawing, shadow hunting, working with haiku poetry paintings and much more. So turn off the noise in your head, follow your own instincts and delight in what emerges! 40 exercises exploring original ideas and inventive techniques for making abstract art. Projects can be done in any order and with nearly any materials--start working right away on any project that grabs your attention! 50 contemporary artists share diverse work and viewpoints on the process of working abstractly. Write your own artistic license and start Creating Abstract Art your way, today!

    Chapters cover composition, abstraction, texture, layering, using found objects, encaustic, integrating text, and adding digital imagery.

    Lyne's techniques, which he developed through twenty years of teaching poetry workshops, flow from an understanding that poetry is an art form open to everyone. We all can-and should-write poetry.In this enchanting and inspiring volume, Lyne will introduce you to the pleasures and surprises of writing poetry, and his methods and insights will help you tap into your own unique voice and perspective to compose poems of your own in as little as a few minutes. Whether you are an experienced writer looking for new techniques and sources of inspiration or a novice poet who has never written a poem in your life, Writing Poetry from the Inside Out will help you to craft the poems you've always longed to write.

    Copy or trace direct from the page, or follow one of the quick exercises to improve your skills. Featuring all the journal elements you could wish for - banners, arrows, dividers, scrolls, icons, borders and alphabets - this amazing value book will be a constant source of inspiration for journaling and an 'instant fix' for people who find the more artistic side of journaling a challenge.

    Her innovative ideas are now collected and elaborated on in this unique volume. Carla offers a year's worth of assignments, projects, ideas, and techniques that will introduce more creativity and nonsense into your art and life. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists offers readers a fun way to learn and gain expertise in drawing through experimentation and play. There is no right or wrong result, yet, the readers gain new skills and confidence, allowing them to take their work to a new level.

    The heroes are grittier. The women are sexier. The pages are designed for maximum impact.Heroes have been turned into highly cool antiheroes, such as the famous characters Spawn and War Blade. Cutting-edge comics venture beyond the traditional boundaries to extreme anatomy, extreme costuming, extreme special effects, and extreme methods of storytelling.Drawing Cutting Edge Comics is the first-ever guide that shows readers, step by step, how to draw the radical characters and cutting-edge techniques that are the gold standard for designing extreme comics.Dozens of fantastic, how-to illustrations demonstrate the basics as well as how to create such intense coloring techniques as knockouts and glows. Plus, several leading cutting-edge artists describe how they spin original character designs, many created exclusively for this book.

    Author Carol Marine was herself suffering from painter's block--until she discovered "daily painting." The idea is simple: do art (usually small) often (how often is up to the individual) and, if you desire, post it and sell it online. Today Marine is among the best and most celebrated daily painters, and the curator of the popular online gallery dailypaintworks.com. In her debut, "Daily Painting," Marine reveals the tips and tricks that helped her and other daily painters pick up the paintbrush and start creating beautiful, bountiful, marketable work.