The Magpie scrapbooks, this is true. But let me clarify -- there are no decorative grommets, lattice-cut edges of family photos, or enough flim-flam fussy adhesive decor slapped onto an album page to make it weigh over a pound. The Jaunty Scrapbook is just a plain blank sketchbook that is starting to bulge from the pasted-on collage of imagery that is slowly filling the pages. The only special tools required is a pair of scissors and a small batallion of glue sticks, which I buy in bulk at the office supply store. This Bird goes through those things like they're going out of style!

I see an interesting photo in a magazine or catalog -- or even a funny scrap of paper -- and it gets saved for a rainy day when I can compose a little theme of imagery for each spread in the blank book. It's a sketchbook of possibilities and future inspiration. And it's an invigorating creative exercise to train the brain to gather imagery that doesn't necessarily match, but somehow "goes" together in a thematic way.   

What about  you? Do you have a way of organizing your thoughts and creativity in a collection of some sort?


Jaunty Fine Print:  photos by Denise Sakaki

 

Sometimes the Jauntiest thing is to do nothing at all. Let your mind wander, let whatever creativity happen (or not happen), and just be for a little while. Sounds flaky, but it really does wonders for the creative spirit, especially after running it like a racehorse nonstop for weeks. So this is my daydreamy Jaunty post of doing NOTHING, courtesy of the wipeboard marker artwork on the downtown Seattle window of Runic Games by Monsieur Adam Perin.

The supreme object of life is to live. Few people live. It is true life only to realize one's own perfection, to make one's every dream a reality.
- Oscar Wilde

Jaunty Fine Print: Photo by Denise Sakaki, artwork by Adam Perin