Let's get into some creative play ☀️

online workshops are live! plus lots of links✨, resources & a sneak peek into my process and materials 📓 🌱

Oct 16, 2024

A while back, I asked my IG and you all here on Substack, how they felt about me offering virtual workshops and I got so many wonderful responses (thank you 🙏🏾).

Many of you shared interest in both online versions of creative collage journalling and more psycho-educational workshops! After some research and necessary follow ups 👩🏾‍💻, I’m excited to share two new online workshop offerings with you all this Fall:

Creative Collage Journalling Online 📓 - Nov 3rd 2024 (3pm - 5:30pm)

Good Enough: Healing Perfectionistic Ways of Being 🦋 - Nov 10th 2024 (3pm -5pm)

Today I’m attempting to do two things at once: share some of my upcoming offerings and also give you a sneak peek of some of the deep dives into sourcing materials, my personal collage process, and all the tips and tricks I’ve found along my collage journey. What I’m sharing today is a behind-the-scenes of the resources I’ve started to share with online creative collage workshop participants coming up on November 3rd.

I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that I need to do better (I know, I know) about posting about what I’m doing in my therapy work, and opening up more ways for folks to engage with me online and off. Who knows where this will go, but this is my foray into experimenting with fresh avenues and new ways to connect. I hope to see you there.

Check out the details and more info on each of these workshop offerings below. A sneak peek into my tips, links + tricks are at the end ❤️

Share Feelings, Healing.

🎨 Creative Collage Journalling: The Online Workshop

🗓 Sunday November 3rd from 3pm-5:30pm EST (2.5hrs)

Join me on the first Sunday of November (the 3rd) for an afternoon of therapeutic art journalling, release and connection. If you've always wanted to check out our in person collage events, but haven't had the chance, this is your opportunity to get access to all of the therapeutic collage journalling content shared at IRL Bloom events.

For those that are curious about diving deep into this self care and grounding tool on their own, I’ll also be sharing a detailed list of my most loved therapeutic, creative tools, collage materials, and sourcing tips in advance of the workshop ⚡️ Everything from how to navigate eBay auctions for sourcing the magazines you want, to my favourite small business creators and Etsy shops for supplies + more 🙌🏾

Cost: $30 (includes access to the 30 day post-session replay 😊)

Because this is an online workshop, I unfortunately won’t be providing the collage materials this time ☹️, but a short list of very basic supplies is available on the Luma registration page (think scissors, paper, glue etc).

Good Enough: Healing Perfectionistic Ways Of Being 🦋

🗓 Sunday November 10th from 3pm-5pm (2hrs)

What does perfectionism really look like in everyday life?
What legacy or generational burdens, lessons, or experiences contribute to developing a perfectionistic mindset?
Is there something wrong with me for wanting things to be perfect?
How do actually I heal and grow beyond this?

If you've ever asked yourself any of these questions, this workshop is for you 💌

Join me on Sunday, November 10th from 3:00pm-5:00pm EST (2hrs) in diving deep into the roots of perfectionism, exploring what it is (and isn’t) and how it shows up in our lives from an intersectional perspective. Using cognitive, emotional and somatic tools, we’ll learn ways to meaningfully address the harmful impact of perfectionistic mindsets on your relationships, work and home life

💥 Because I love a good lil bonus resource, this workshop will also include a downloadable PDF of curated journal prompts, tools and insights that I share with my therapy and consulting clients on this topic.

Cost: $30 (includes access to the 30 day post-session replay 😊)

Collage Materials + Process (Tips + Tricks Part 1)

Originally shared as part of a series of emails and resources shred with online collage journalling participants. To access the full PDF and the rest of this content, sign up for the workshop here.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This is part one of my earnest attempt to do what has previously been hard to do: talk about all of the things that I do when it comes to my visual journalling/ collage journalling practice, offer my personal tips + tricks for sourcing materials, and share some of my favourite places to shop and products I love for my journalling/ art practice.

Today is just an introduction, and my spicy brain way of getting the info out of my brain and into yours without too much hassle (lol).

Of course, as promised, you will get a full document of this and all the goodies to come post workshop with all of this info to save and use ❤️

without further ado — let's talk collage journalling!✨📓

For me, collage journalling is many things – a way to keep a visual archive, a form of journaling, a hobby to keep me busy, a form of adult play, sensory and somatic soothing, a way to practice being "imperfect", visual aids for memories and keepsakes, a way to collect ideas, to process things that I don’t have words or concepts for yet, and a form of mood-boarding / visual collecting etc.

Collaging and the process of cutting and pasting different elements, images, colours, textures and words is at its core an experiment and an archive of who you are. It can almost act like a snapshot of a moment in time -- a feeling, a memory you want to cherish, or be a visual representation of unlearning perfectionistic mindsets and finding your version of flow.

Use this practice however you like: the beauty is that it’s yours to explore 🔎.

There are days I like to start with a prompt and write a bit before I dive into magazines and supplies, and then there are days I browse all my supplies, see what inspires me and then go from there. We'll talk more about the actual process of collage journalling and explore prompts during the workshop, but we won't have time for everything.

~ Cue this email 💌 ~

I could probably keep going here, but you get the point. I use this practice for many things in many ways 😄.

Let's use a real life "imperfect" collage I made as a way to introduce you to some materials.

The prompt I used : What inspires me about florals and blooms?

I called this one 'closer to happiness.'

In my eyes, this collage (although messy and imperfect) is a great example of how I might use multiple layers, a variety of different textures, stickers, paper and images to describe my love for flowers — to express the hope and optimism that they inspire within me.

Here, I used florals in 5 different ways:

floral designed paper I found on etsy that I ripped and layered over colourful gradient paper (link is dead but this is the etsy seller!)
dried flowers
transparent floral stickers
a single pink paper flower from Michael's
a cutout of a car from the front of the collage zine I made.
& a single sticker from this scrapbook kit I found at the thrift store (only link I could find for this book — thrifting is a game 😅)

I want to stress that these are all just options. You don't need to get many things to get started. In fact, some of my most interesting and powerful collages I've made from journal prompts are made with items I found around my house or on the street.

Consider this a nudge to find inspiration and seek out little things that make you happy for your own personal practice – what you can find and what works for you will depend on where you are, how much you can assign resources to invest in this (time, money, etc) and the type of practice you want to have when it comes to journaling in a visual format.

I'll end this with a little visual inspiration for you:

Feelings, Healing.