Welcome!

Hello everyone and welcome to my Artful Side. I'm new to the blogging world, the video world--all of it really. I've recently taken up art journaling, after many years of wondering, researching, watching everyone else's videos, etc. I've always been creative and crafty--I have a music degree, I'm a pro photographer, I've scrapbooked and love anything DIY--so art journaling intrigued me.

The thing that I most love of art journaling is that it breaks all of the rules. My rules, really. It is so perfectly imperfect. And I love that. I loved to scrapbook, but I always felt that my pages were just, eh, which led to me completing less and less of them as time went on. Oh, but don't think I didn't give it a go, I did. I used to spend hours (during my single and kidless phase) with other scrapbookers in a back room of my favorite shop, working on page after page, spread out across the table, knee deep in paper and photographs. But I just lost it. It required so much energy, time and MONEY, it was ridiculous. And it just started to feel like work.

Enter, art journaling. I've taken to YouTube lately (not for the animal videos or clever memes), and found a lot of inspiration and creativity. Admittedly, I've used a lot of tips found over on Jennibellie's blog (isn't she amazing???!!!). But I've also been so impressed with other blogs and vlogs I've come across--so many creative people!

So here I am, creating and creating, and trying to learn the craft in my own private space, rather than in a group work area. I think I'm finally at the point where I'm willing to emerge and share some of what I've done with the world. Hopefully the world will be kind to my rookie self. So here it goes…. my first video on YouTube! Just a simple one, to get my feet wet and experiment with the idea of making a video, and of course to figure out the camera and edits. I hope you enjoy it!

-Shannon