Manda Townsend for Classes Kara Made

One of my favorite , bloggers, and paper makers Manda Townsend is collaborating and creating books with Tell A Story, my latest art journaling class. I’m a little obsessed with her interpretation of this class prompt and couldn’t resist sharing a bunch!

Manda wrote about a bit about her book on her blog (and shared a coupon code!). I will be sharing more of Manda’s work with Tell A Story soon!

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New Class! Tell A Story


Happy to announce that my latest art journaling course for Classes Kara Made is available! Find it here.

About the class…

I think writing is a total pain in the ass, but it is the best way to figure out what you think about something. Writing stories is particularly pain-in-the-assy. You have to put all these weird pieces together and connect them in a way that makes sense and is interesting. There is usually a beginning and a middle and an end, and one of those (or, hey, all of those) is especially hard to figure out.

Stories are worth it though. Stories help us understand who we are and how we fit into the world.

These days snippets of our stories are scattered everywhere. On our blogs, our feeds, our occasional journal entries, our phones, our photobooks. Often we don’t take the time to write them out, to think about our stories, and to get the beginning, the middle, and the end in there. Tell A Story provides five different methods of telling linear stories in a mini-book art journal form. Tell A Story is inspiration for five different ways to tell a story — your stories, your family stories, and your inner stories.

Included:

  • Unlimited access to private blog
  • 5 Story Prompts/Ideas
  • Explanations and photographic examples of 5 art journal mini-books
  • Email access to instructor

Purchase Tell A Story!

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Time For New

Time For New

Over the next month or two I am going to be working on something new. After a lot of thought I have decided to leave I Just Might Explode in its current form + name behind. This place has been my home for self-expression and exploration for over four years (!!!) and it feels sad and weird to leave it behind, but I am so ready. “I Just Might Explode” was a phrase I drew in an art journal years ago and it represented the sort of burgeoning angst and evolution I was experiencing at the time. It no longer feels right to where I am in life and where I want to go. I want a no-pressure home to post longer writing, kick-ass links, music recommendations, and weird projects. Mostly, I need a fresh start. I need a place where I can leave preconceptions about what a “blog” is behind and how I’ve always done it. I’m doing away with advertising, so I can focus on Classes Kara Made and design  and post offensive things without offending advertisers (JK! sorta).

I want to be more of a creator and less of a blogger.

I’ll be importing most of my old content to a new URL and all the old links will forward there, so you won’t lose any of my lame posts or bad sentence structure in the move. The web is changing and maybe the blog is dead, but maybe just lame blogging is dying? I don’t know. Let’s make good things and share them, is what I think.

In the meantime, I am working on a new art journaling class for Classes Kara Made, along with new content additions to Click Your Life and The M. I’ll be taking on more design clients for January, so send me an email. As always, I’m still over-posting on and .

I’m also just really enjoying drawing things in my sketchbook, writing hard-to-write shit, decorating my (new!!) cute-as-hell apartment, and just living my life and being happy. It’s a good season, y’all.

As always, thanks for your support. The internet and this online community I’ve been a part of for almost seven years has absolutely shaped who I am, my career, and passions and lucky-as-can-be life. I wouldn’t want it any other way. You people fucking rock.

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This Etc.

Untitled

Been listening to . And thinking about this and laughing (delightedly) about  and needing to start this. Wanting and wishing for some of this. That’s all.

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1280x800

2560×1440 // 1680×1050 // 1440×900 // 1280×800 // iPad // iPhone // iPhone 5

I write little passive aggressive notes to myself pretty frequently and I’ve had in my head since October. That Instagram even inspired my friend Kristina to . I made it into a free desktop + iPhone + iPad wallpaper so you’ll remember to worry about your own fucking self. Enjoy!

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Classes Kara Made Sale

Cyber Monday Sale

Today everything on Classes Kara Made is 40% off! All you need to do is enter the coupon code goodvibes at checkout! It’s a great time to pick up The M for hella cheap or gift an art journaling course to a crafty friend. Sale ends at midnight.

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