Blog | Linda Matthews

Fresh Inspiration

This week I'm continuing my year-long journey of making daily art and the theme this month is inspired by nature. For the last 52 days I've spent about 15 minutes every day making art. It sounds like a marathon effort, but in reality I now really look forward to this...

Natural Connections

This week I'm continuing my year-long journey of making daily art and the theme this month is inspired by nature. As a life-long nature-lover I enjoy spending as much time outdoors as I possibly can, taking photographs or simply soaking up the peace and tranquility...

How to make a Handmade Journal with the Stitches Hidden in the Spine

It took a little trial and error to figure out how to make a cover and assemble last month's journal which was themed Taking Flight. I wanted a cover that looked like a book cover with no stitches showing on the outside, and pages that weren't all squashed together....

Inspired by Nature

This week I continue my year-long journey of making a daily art journal page. I'm constantly inspired by nature and all it's beauty, so this month I'm really enjoying collecting memories of the things I most love about the natural world and creating pages for my...

Fabric Dyeing and Playing with Color

Playing with color is one of my favorite things to do, particularly when hand-dyeing. Mixing and blending different colors to create brand new colors is magical, and even after 30 years of hand-dyeing I'm still always excited to see the results. During these last few...

The Nature of Things

This year I'm committed to spending 15 minutes per day being artfully creative as part of my daily artistic practice. To make it a quick, easy and creative process, I'm designing a new printable journal kit each month and using one page per day to create pages for...

Taking Flight – a Stitched Mixed Media Journal

A preview of my latest stitched mixed media journal - Taking Flight. I made this journal using the Taking Flight Printable Journal Kit which you can find here in my online store. You can find additional information about how I make my stitched mixed media journals here.

Beginnings, endings and fresh inspiration

Yesterday ended a full 31 days of daily journaling, one page per day. I allowed myself 15 minutes per day and some days it took a little less time, some days it took a little more time so it all worked out in the end. I've already begun to assemble the pages into a...

The Moments In-Between

This week's art journal pages went together quickly as I didn't have much time to spare. I was thankful that the backing pages were already printed and just waiting to be used. It made the process so easy but still so creative. I added some distress ink to the pages...

3-2-1 Printable Gratitude & Creativity Tracking Journal Kit

Several months ago I wrote about my 3-2-1 Creativity Tracking Journal, which is a journal I designed and use every day to help me stay on track with my daily creative practice. It's a combination gratitude journal and creativity tracking journal, and it takes only...

Small Interesting Things

This week I continue my journey of making art every day. I've never been much for counting the days and wishing for time to pass quickly, however after several weeks of making art every day, I've already become more mindful of how fleeting time really is. I'm not sure...

Being Creative In No Time At All

Last week I began my year-long project of making a journal page every day with the intention of collecting daily memories along the way. To make it easy to get started with this project I designed a printable journal kit with the idea of using the printable pages as...

Are You Too Busy for Creativity?

Life is just what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. John Lennon Yes it's true - we're all too busy it seems! One of the biggest challenges we face is finding time to do all the things that need to be done in a day. By the time we're done dealing...

Taking Flight Printable Journal Kit

The new "Taking Flight" Printable Journal Kit gives you wings to fly and is filled with possibilities. I designed this journal kit because I wanted something inspirational to start the year off in a positive way and I'm using the pages to create memory journals and...

Gathering Memories

This year I've committed to a daily artistic practice of recording a memory from each day on a journal page, and at the end of the month I'll be assembling a completed memory journal. I believe that to achieve sustainable goals, things should be easy and fun, so with...

Developing a Daily Artistic Practice the Easy Way

Welcome to a brand new year with a brand new project to take us right through the next twelve months. This year I'll be creating beautiful memory journals, a new one every month, using my new Creative Art'n'Soul Printable Journal Kits. You can find all the information...

Join me in 2018 for something new, creative and fun – Creative Art’n’Soul

In 2018 my business celebrates its 10th birthday! That's right, I've managed to develop, grow and nurture a creative business for 10 years, something I never would have thought possible prior to that time. Over those years my business has evolved and changed in lots...

How to Make Mini-Tassels using Silk Cocoons

One of the best things about being a textile artist is discovering unusual things that can be stitched and sewn, and incorporated into mixed media art in creative ways. Silk cocoons and silk carrier rods are definitely some of those unusual things. The cocoon is the...

The Dream Keeper

Since 2010, instead of making new year's resolutions which have generally fallen by the wayside within a few weeks or months, I've been choosing a single word and using it as a guide to navigate through the year. A single word is a powerful thing. It's a simple...

PhotoArt Pincushion Tutorial

With gift giving season just around the corner, these pincushions are a perfect handmade gift for your sewing friends ... or even for yourself. And they are so quick and easy to make you won't be able to stop at just one. You can easily personalize these pincushions...

The 3-2-1 Creativity Tracking Journal

Do you ever find yourself wishing you were more creative? I do my best to make at least 15 minutes of creative space in my life every day, if not more. I find that having a regular creative practice not only helps me to be more creative, but it's also where I find a...