Shop Update: Abstract Art Products
New item in the shop this week! Abstract art on your favorite everyday items. Check them out by clicking the image below.
Resource Round-Up: For Introverts
photo via Death to Stock Photography
If you’ve been following the blog for awhile, you probably have noticed my public declarations of being an introvert. I’m totally more comfortable being alone in the quiet than with a big crowd of people. Talking to people all day (at work or in a conference situation) is draining to me and I often need alone time to recharge. If this sounds like you (or if you have an introvert in your life that you’d like to understand better), here are some helpful resources.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Also, watch Susan’s Ted Talk:
Charge Up by Claire Deane and Allie Lehman is a guide written by two entrepreneurs who are able to nurture their introverted tendencies and grow successful businesses. The guide is filled with tips and suggestions for routines that help you optimize your energy levels as an introvert.
Tara Swiger has tons of advice for crafty business owners who are introverts. See her archives on the subject here
Caring for Your Introvert is an article by Jonathan Rauch which highlights the characteristics of introverts.
Amazon links are affiliate.
Photo Series: Viewing Scopes
When you travel to enough touristy places, you start to notice all the viewing scopes they set around to help you admire the view. Instead of just capturing the view, I like to capture the scope itself. It’s actually interesting to see the variety that are available out there. Consider it another addition to my quirky photo collection.
Presents for You: Brush Lettered Thurman Quote
I love quotes. And I love to letter them out. And I’m happy to be able to share with you!
Use for Project Life, scrapbook, art journals, or just print it out and hang on your walls. Just click the links below to download the version you desire.
Click on photos for JPG
8×10 inch Color PDF
8×10 inch Charcoal PDF
Transparent PNG
I’d love to see what you’re doing with my lettering and you can share your great ideas with others too! Tag me on instagram @randomolive and use the hashtag #randomoliveletters.
Personal use only. (Because these words are neither yours or mine to sell.)
Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to see lettered? Suggest it in the comments!
What’s Your Personality Type?
I’m a pretty big fan of personality tests. I like that my quirks and characteristics can be explained by psychology and that I can learn a bit more about myself through broader categories.
One of the most commonly-referenced personality indicators is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI is based on psychologist Carl Jung’s research on human personality. With this indicator, there are four dichotomies for you to be sorted into.
Extraverted vs Introverted
Getting energy from the outside world versus getting energy from within one’s own thoughts and ideas.
Sensing vs Intuition
Paying attention to physical reality versus thinking through and interpreting the available information in your mind.
Thinking vs Feeling
Making decisions based on logic and evidence versus making decisions based on empathy and compassion.
Judging vs Perceiving
Others seeing you as task-oriented and organizing versus others seeing you as flexible and spontaneous.
I’ve taken a test like this multiple times and I can say that I agree with the results for me. There are a lot of ways that I think I totally embody the traits of INTJ.
What personality type are you? Take a test here and let me know in the comments!
More reading about Myers-Briggs at The Myers & Briggs Foundation.
Additional reading for introverts:
A Quiet Book Review
Charge Up: eBook
Digital Project Life Layouts: May 2014
Project Life is my preferred method of scrapbooking and I’m hoping to provide you with some useful tips for either documenting your own lives or putting together your own pages with minimal fuss.
Here’s what I’m going to emphasize with the layouts I share:
- The random stuff I like to capture and document for myself.
- The simple approach to Project Life that I take. There are a lot of photos and very little embellishment and journaling.
- The way I organize some spreads into themes or stories.
You can click on each image below for a slightly larger view.
Capture Idea: Walking to the parking lot after work, I noticed that my shirt color coordinated with my lunch box. Have you ever accidentally matched your things?
Story Idea: We went to baseball games at Angel Stadium two nights in a row, so I put all the pictures together on one spread.
Simplicity Point: For the right side spread, I fit the photos in 3×4 slots and then put title and first page cards in the 4×6 slots.
Simplicity Point: It’s nothing but squares on this layout.
Simplicity Point: On the left side, I placed a 3×4 journaling card in the space, but it didn’t quite fill the square widthwise. I solved that problem by color-matching the card and coloring the background of that slot to match.
Capture Idea: Snap the gas prices every so often. It’ll help you tell your future kids, “In my day, gas prices were only …”
Capture Idea: Keep documenting those books that you’re reading!
Story Idea: This whole spread was from a single trip to Las Vegas.
Capture Idea: I snapped our feet with some interesting looking tile at the Wynn. (You can read more about my photo series idea here).
Simplicity Point: I labeled my photos with digital clip art of banners and then typed over them.
Capture Idea: The view from your hotel room. Most of the times, I neglect this because it ends of being a loading dock. This was a pretty good one though.
Simplicity Point: On the right, I took a driving selfie with the front-facing camera on my iPhone 5s. The resolution was lower than a 4×6 photo slot, so I just placed it on top of a piece of digital scrapbook paper.
Story Idea: This whole spread was from a single trip to my mother-in-law’s house in NY.
Capture Idea: Airport selfie. We were taking a red-eye flight so we were wearing hoodies and looking overall disheveled. It’s important to document yourselves as you really are though, even without being all done up.
Simplicity Point: A super quick recap of the trip on a 3×4 journal card. Only the highlights here.
Capture Idea: I generally try to get a picture of the rental car we get. Just for fun.
Resources:
Photos edited with RadLab. (Affiliate Link)
Templates by Cathy Zielske: 01, 02, 05
Fonts: ABeeZee and Klinic Slab
Kit: Jade Edition
For more info on my general approach to Project Life, check out this blog post.
Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. She’s awesome. Go visit her website for more information or watch her 3-day course on CreativeLive.
Pen Collection: Purple
I have an obsession with office supplies and I’m a bit of a pen hoarder. One thing that I enjoy doing is swatching out my writing utensils to see how the colors compare between brands.
The Test: Each pen is used on white notebook paper and a yellow legal pad. You can click on the image below for a larger view.
The Pens: (links are affiliate) Paper Mate InkJoy 100
The Conclusion: Oh those purples. I love them all. Purple is the ink color that you can get away with using at work for fun while still being taken seriously. The colors are dark and bold and when you write, you can actually see what’s going on. Of note, the Papermate Profile Elite (and regular Profile) gives a redder tone than all the other purples out there.
Presents for You: Brush Lettered Roosevelt Quote
I love quotes. And I love to letter them out. And I’m happy to be able to share with you!
Use for Project Life, scrapbook, art journals, or just print it out and hang on your walls. Just click the links below to download the version you desire.
Click on photos for JPG
8×10 inch Color PDF
8×10 inch Charcoal PDF
Transparent PNG
I’d love to see what you’re doing with my lettering and you can share your great ideas with others too! Tag me on instagram @randomolive and use the hashtag #randomoliveletters.
Personal use only. (Because these words are neither yours or mine to sell.)
Do you have a favorite quote you’d like to see lettered? Suggest it in the comments!
Shop Update: Monogram Prints
New item in the shop this week! Brush scripted monograms in a colorful splash of paint. Check them out by clicking the image below.
Skillshare Course Review: Style Your Letters Boldly
I’ve been on a Skillshare kick lately and another course that I viewed was Style Your Letters Boldly: Hand-Addressed Envelopes by Erik Marinkovich. I’m still very interested to see the techniques from different hand-lettering artists. Especially to see if there’s anything useful for me to borrow.
My main takeaways:
Using Reference Material:
Erik recommends starting out by copying what you see, but to eventually stop looking at the reference material and developing your own style.
Letterforms and Deliberate Practice:
Erik emphasizes practicing your letter forms repeatedly to build up your muscle memory. He demonstrates a large sans serif font and a casual script. It’s useful to follow along to see the proper technique.
Composition:
Erik demonstrates the development of his composition by going through multiple iterations on tracing paper. Again, it’s very useful for beginners to see that experts go through multiple sketches before settling on a final design.
Overall Impressions:
I definitely got the most out of the detailed demonstrations and seeing the details of the techniques. There are some awesome ideas for composing your next envelope, possibly jazzing up your holiday cards for this year. Also, the lettering skills demonstrated in this course can be applied to other types of lettering, like signs and menus.
If these tips sound like things that might help you improve your lettering, check out the course page for Style Your Letters Boldly: Hand-Addressed Envelopes by Erik Marinkovich.
The links provided for this Skillshare course are referral links. If you sign up for a Skillshare membership using these links, I will receive a free month of membership. This will allow me to view and review even more courses on the blog.
