CLEVERcreating - Balance between thinking and doing

7 Creative Travel Journal Tips and Tricks for the Best Journey

July 26, 2024July 26, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

Whether you keep it simple or more complicated, making a creative travel journal during your trips is great fun.

My mother used to make scrapbooks when she was back from a holiday. It was in the pre-digital days, so she had to wait until the film rolls were developed. When time passes we might forget things.

Nowadays we are fortunate to have access to smartphones and small digital printers so we can work on a travel journal during the trip. It is one of my main creative travel journal tips: work on it every day.

Are Inspiration and Creativity Important for an Interesting Life?

June 21, 2024June 20, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

Although many people don’t consider themselves creative (which I don’t understand and even disagree with), inspiration and creativity are important to us.

Both the word inspiration and the word creativity are used in 2 ways. Physical versus mental.

Inspiration literally means inhalation on the one hand, expressiveness or divine force on the other. The latter is attributed by some to a higher power and by others called the flow or being in the zone.

Gelli-Printing Magazine Pictures for Beautiful Results

June 13, 2024June 13, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

When I started making Gelli prints, I used lots of stencils and all kinds of objects to make textures. I also printed some photos which worked quite well.

This was definitely a matter of beginner’s luck because they all failed when I tried to print pictures a few months after that. 😉

So when this year’s 100-Day Project came along, I sunk my teeth into making loads of prints and discovering how I could make sure the results were more consistent.

Read my tips for Gelli-printing magazine pictures in this article.

The 5 major Tourist Attractions in Breda, the Netherlands

June 7, 2024June 6, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

During Covid-time (doesn’t that seem like a long time ago already?), I travelled virtually. I made dream boards about my bucket list of places to go to.

And as another replacement, I made reviews about travel destinations. For example, about the tourist attractions in Breda.

Breda is the hometown of both Tom and me. It is a cosy, provincial town with a beautiful historic centre.

In the months before we left Breda to emigrate to Spain, I wandered around a lot, already feeling like a tourist, taking loads of pictures.

A Helpful Colour Theory for Hobby Artists as a Thorough Foundation

May 31, 2024May 30, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

Why should a hobby artist care about the colour theory? Well, any knowledge that contributes to your toolbox is helpful and expands your possibilities.

In this article, I explain the difference between the colours on your screen and those of paint. I talk about Johannes Itten’s colour theory and give some tips about resources.

A colour theory for hobby artists is in my view just as important as for professional artists. Hopefully, it will increase your enthusiasm for your hobby.

10 Exciting and Unusual Things to Do in Cordoba, Spain

May 23, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

Córdoba is about a 4-hour drive from our house if we go in a straight line. There are enough exciting things to do in Cordoba. However, the last time we visited, it took us a week to get there because we first visited several other places.

Including the village of María which has a beautiful botanical garden situated on the slope of a mountain. We also stayed at a campground in the middle of the Cazorla National Park. And visited the beautiful excavations of Cástulo in Linares. I’ll write more about that in another article.

We enjoy this way of travelling so much, getting from one place to another at our leisure and seeing both known and unknown places. I can highly recommend the alternation of camping cabin and hotel stay that we have done.

A Creative Approach to Add Text to an Art Journal, 7 Tips

May 31, 2024May 16, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

An art journal can be created in 2 ways. The focus can be on images with added text. Or the focus can be on texts to which images are added.

That depends on your own preferences. Are you primarily visual or are you mostly text-oriented?

If you’re going to add text to an art journal, it’s a good idea to try both methods. As an artist, we sometimes have to step out of our comfort zone and challenge our personal preferences to take leaps forward.

In this article, I describe several ways to display text, but also to create text.

7 Terrific Tourist Attractions in Cartagena, Spain

May 9, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

A joke from my childhood: a bull called Hannibal jumped over the fence and exclaimed that his name was now Hanni because he had lost his balls in the barbed wire. A pretty lame joke, all the more since my schoolmates used to tease me with it.

I knew that Hannibal the army commander (the one from the elephants) was associated with the Spanish city of Cartagena, but only recently I discovered the exact connection in the museum of the Punic Wall.

Apart from the Punic Wall, there are several other exquisite attractions in Cartagena. The city is only an hour’s drive from our house, so we visit this beautiful city often.

10 Tips to Crop Pictures the Right Way for your Blog or Magazine

May 3, 2024May 3, 2024 by Hannie Mommers

A well-chosen picture explains the content of your article for a blog, magazine, or newsletter at once. A photograph can show something in a single image that otherwise would need a lot of words.

Sometimes it is better to crop a photo to get the focus on the desired part. In this article, I give you 10 tips to crop pictures the right way.

Cropping is considered making changes to a picture. When you use photographs that somebody else made, make sure you have permission for these changes.