Note: If this newsletter doesn't display in its delightfully colorful formatting, you can view it on the Web at www.artellawordsandart.com/ARTELLAGRAM-3-28-09.html. * Important Update: The final entry day into the discounted Pilot Program of The Complete Idealist's Blissness Action Camp is March 31, 2009, including those applying for scholarship aid. Several of you have asked when the next Pilot Program for this course will be coming, but there is always only one pilot program per new workshop, and the $75 half-price savings is only available now as part of the Pilot Program, in exchange for your feedback on the course. As detailed below, after March 31, The Complete Idealist's Blissness Action Camp will be available in the Artella store at its full price. This Monday, March 30th, is the first teleclass in my new program, The Complete Idealist's Blissness Action Camp. The topic for the first class is Life/Work Balance – which I believe is the single most important factor for your success in making a creative living doing what you love. I think the concept of balance is, sadly, often misunderstood. We often feel that if we are focused and disciplined, upbeat and positive, loving and generous, healthy and energetic...then we will be "balanced". Well, there are two main problems with this. First, as breathing human beings, it's unfortunately impossible to have only positive traits, and if we are always trying to strive for something that is inherently unattainable, we're sure to end up feeling like failures, because we'll never, ever feel good enough. If we can get rid of the false ideals, however, and instead just expect and ENJOY the chaotic, off-kilter, lopsided essence of life, that opens us up to a great deal of freedom, which leads to success in business or any other projects we're undertaking. The second problem with striving for "balance" is that most people's understanding of this state swerves away from what balance actually IS! Balance is not about walking around with a bunch of "positive", happy qualities, it's about walking the tightrope between the poles within us and the circumstances outside us. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve learned that true balance, ironically, actually means that we accept the parts of us that can be pretty lopsided. That we can embrace and love the most topsy-turvy parts because they are really full of gifts for full, authentic living. In fact, a certain amount of chaos is powerful fuel for creative people. The trick is to find the ways that the chaos of "real life" can infuse our work, and in turn, how our work can energize the rest of our lives. I have found this concept so important that I’ve actually chosen to make it the leadoff topic in The Complete Idealist’s Blissness Action Camp. And that's what the call on Monday is all about. Consider this an invitation to tango with tenacity and disco with uncertainty. And if you fall down, who cares? You can always just curl up with a lady bug hidden in the soft grass (one with asymmetrical dots, preferably) and take little a nap. :-) If you have a creative business brewing, and you'd like to know more about The Complete Idealist Blissness Action Camp, keep reading to get details about how you can save over 1/2 off the regular price when you sign up by this Monday. For those short on time, to simplify this week's Artellagram, here are some "quick links" to the highlights in this edition. You can simply follow the links that you're interested in and go directly to that section. Last Days for Pilot Group for The Complete Idealist's Blissness Action Camp Muse Cruise “Sail” ends April 1 Final days for March YOUpons! Creative Cartography Coaching Complete Idealist Super-Bundle Packs Join the Artella Affiliate Program The Artella Daily Muse Update Become part of Artella's Team! In the Studio with Kathy Davis Creativity Tip: Asymmetry in Art and Writing Quotz Crystal™ 1. Last Days for the Pilot Group for The Complete Idealist's Blissness Action Camp! The Complete Idealist’s Blissness Action Camp starts this coming Monday, and there are only a few days left to sign up for the Pilot Program and save over 1/2 off the regular price, in exchange for your feedback on the course. You can get all the information about the Pilot Group, here! Every new course we offer only gets one pilot group, and the last date we are accepting purchases of The Complete Idealist’s Blissness Action Camp Pilot Program is March 31, 2009. At that point, the Pilot Program is permanently removed from the Artella Store and the workshop will be sold at full price! We also still have a few scholarship slots left, so if you’ve thought about being part of all the fun but the cost was of concern, we encourage at least applying for a scholarship since it is a quick, easy process, and we’ll get back to you with an answer usually within 24 hours. You can get all the Scholarship info, here. The Complete Idealist’s Blissness Action Camp pairs five fun and dynamic live teleclasses with an unprecedented super-packed list of "Blissness FreeBees"…designed to help you and your just blossoming business get Queen Bee-sized amounts of the "buzz" that has become vitally essential in today’s marketplace. Artella’s Complete Idealist Blissness Action Camp is currently the only workshop in America that actually helps MAKE your goals a reality by giving you tools, services, and opportunities that can’t be found anywhere else for both launching your blossoming business and even more importantly, for MARKETING it powerfully, continually, and widely. So if you read through the series description and the power-packed FreeBees list, and you get that deep-down excited feeling about what is truly possible, then I hope you’ll join us. I can’t wait to work with you live on our first call on Monday! (If you can’t make the call live, don’t worry - they are all recorded for you to enjoy at any time!)  I’d love to work you and your wonderful creative “blissness”! 2. Muse Cruise "Sail" ends April 1! Our Grand Opening Muse Cruise "Sail", will end on April 1, 2009. So there is still a bit of time to hop on board, and when you sign up for more than one Luxury Cabin, each new Membership is permanently locked in at just $5.00! Here are some of the new comments that we've recently gotten about the Luxury Memberships just this week! Isabella shared her thoughts about the Luxury Art Journaling Cabin: "My favorite things about this membership have been receiving the Art Journal Journey ezine and the audios. I always look forward to the audios each week! The journal pages keep getting better each month. Please keep all of these things going! Thank you for providing so much inspiration and all of your hard work!" Joyce wrote us about ther Luxury Art Studio Cabin. She said, Each kit keeps getting more and more beautiful and expansive. Love the unique themes. Keep 'em coming!" About the Luxury Blissness Cabin for creative entrepreneurs, Beth said "I LOVE the Blissness Splash magazine. I love the whole thing. I keep reading it over and over. It gives me the hope that maybe I can do it. Thanks for your encouragement and the good practical info." Bill, who leads the new online forum for Members of the Luxury Digital Art Cabin, encouraged all the artists to enjoy this week's goodies: "Did you download the new Music-themed Pixel Pack, yet? It's wonderful! Oh my…I get so excited every time I receive a new packet" And Tara wrote us about the Artella Land Complete Access Pass: "The Complete Access offers the very best Artella has to offer…which is saying a lot. Thank you for this unparalleled opportunity to inspire all my interests, all my facets. There's no place I'd rather play than Artella Land!" The "Sail" for all of the above Luxury Cabins ends April 1, so if you want to grab one than one Luxury Cabin at the permanent locked-in price of $5, sign up before then. There is never any obligation, and your big pack of free goodies and coupons is always yours to keep, no matter what. 3. Final Days for March YOUpons! The Artella YOUpons for March are ending on Tuesday, March 31. YOUpons work like regular coupons, only instead of US choosing which one coupon to offer each month, we give YOU several and the power to decide which one is best for YOU. The March YOUpons include some great deals, including: Never-before-seen discounts in Artella Mae's Vintage General Store The lowest price ever on an Artella print issue Deep price cuts on our most popular products, including our line of Digital Altered Book™ Supplies, our popular Artellabets Alphabets, and the eBook, Paper Doll ABCs: Paper Doll Ideas, Inventions, and Techniques for Artists Take a last look at the March YOUpons, here! 4. Creative Cartography Coaching in full swing! After taking some time off from individual consulting to be with my baby son, I'm once again offering consulting for individual project development, only now enhanced for 2009 with a valuable creative twist! Have you ever just wished someone could hand you a literal map...with all the steps and paths mapped out to get directly to your creative dream? That's what we do in Creative Cartography! After hearing from you about your dreams and goals, I work with you to create a map for how to get from here to there while keeping you really inspired and creatively passionate as you do it!  Since creative folks are generally very visually oriented, I also follow up your session by designing just for you a Customized Creative Cartography ActionMap, based on your own journey, and completely customized for your goals. This is fun and artsy on the outside, but ultimately a very valuable and resourceful visual map that you can print out to guide you on your journey and keep you inspired along the way! If you take a look at the links above and feel that Creative Cartography Coaching is something that would help you, I'd love to work with you! :-) 5. Complete Idealist Super-Bundle Packs -- We've placed our most popular creative business programs and put them into the most deeply discounted value packages we've ever had, specifically geared for creative souls ready to follow their dreams of making a living creatively! The Complete Idealist Super-Bundle Packs include ALL of Artella's best resources for creative entrepreneurs, as well as the introduction of my new Creative Cartography Coaching service. We've never offered these heavily discounted packages in our 7 years online, and hope in times like this, now is the time they would be of most help. If you'd like some help figuring out which Package is best for you, or if you have any questions about any of Artella’s resources, please feel free to write me directly. I'd welcome hearing from you! 6. Are you an Affiliate, yet? Have you been wanting to bring in some additional income? If so, you'll be very happy to know that Artella's New Affiliate Program is finally here! After many of your requests and over a year in the making, Artella's Affiliate Program is ready to help you start earning income, just by spreading the word about Artella. The Artella Affiliate Program is free, and within a few minutes, you can be ready to actually start earning real income, receiving 25% commissions, one of the highest commissions available online. Get all the details about Artella's exciting Affiliate Program, here! 7. Daily Muse Renovations Still Underway! Thanks to all who have written to ask about The Artella Daily Muse! We're still working on some very exciting renovations, including implementing many of new requests from our loyal Daily Muse readers! If you would like to receive an email message when the all-new Artella Daily Muse is ready, sign up for our free Daily Muse Teaser! 8. Interested in Becoming Part of Artella's Team? If you're interested in becoming part of the amazing Artella Team, check out this post in the Artella Cafe for details. We're rolling out some exciting new features in the coming months and would love to bring a few more wonderful, creative souls on board! One of the most important keys to success for a "Complete Idealist" is that she has true passion for what she does. Kathy Davis is the epitome of such passion. She obviously has a deep love for creating her beautiful jewelry and accessories in The Shoppes of Artella, and I hope you will enjoy this interview with Kathy! I hope you enjoy this interview with Kathy! Artella: What advice can you give to someone who has lots of ideas, but never gets anything completed when multiple projects are demanding consideration. Do you have this problem and how do you handle it? Kathy: I have this problem a lot. My husband accuses me of having A.D.D. because I always come up with new ideas to “ADD” to my list of things to do. If you are lucky enough to have too many ideas, enjoy it. This is what we call a good problem; you just need to figure out to use it to your advantage. The best way I have of dealing with it is to get the idea out of my head and down on paper. I carry a pad of paper around with me and whenever a new idea strikes I jot it down quickly. I even take the notebook to bed. I have so many ideas that yes, I do have trouble getting to all of them but I find that I can go back and revisit something (sometimes months later) as long as I’ve taken the time to jot it down. At least it’s not lost in the depths of time and forgotten. You can read the rest of Kathy's interview, here See Kathy's products in The Shoppes of Artella, here. If you want more artist interviews from Artella, take a look at our eBooks Artist Profiles Assembled and Artist Profiles Assembled, Vol 2. ART TIP OF THE WEEK: While balance and symmetry are important concepts in art composition, sometimes it's fun to just play around with asymmetry. Here is the art project from "Asymmetry Muse", one of the Muses in Artella's AlphaBetter Muse Workshop: This is a simple piece that was quick and fun to create. The charm in this piece is to incorporate the ideas of asymmetry in as many ways as you can. For example, how can you incorporate asymmetry into the background, the color scheme, the sizes of elements, the design of the focal figure, the lettering, the embellishments? When it comes to creating mix-n-match, asymmetrical figures, the possibilities are endless. You might even try creating a self-portrait in this way, to celebrate your own lopsidedness! See more instructions for this project, here! WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK: One way to play with the concept of "balance" when you are writing is to write using both sides of your brain: the linear, structured left-brain and the more free-form, intuitive right brain. Often, writers approach their writing from one side or the other, but if you can engage both sides of the brain within a singular writing session, some really interesting things are likely to emerge. A "whole-brained" writing session could look something like this: Create outline for piece Turn on inspiring music and begin writing with non-dominant hand Brainstorm for new metaphors, i.e. use the process in Artella's Metaphor Machine Grab a handful of markers and write in different colors, different sizes Pace the room while outlining your next couple of paragraphs Write the next couple of paragraphs from Dr. Suess' point of view You get the idea. Obviously, this is just an example, and you can adjust it in a way that works for you. The idea is to have tricks from BOTH sides of your brain in your writer's toolbox, so that you can try lots of different techniques and access the full spectrum of your creativity as you write. This Quotz Crystal™ is a high-resolution jpeg image, suitable for printing. Print it out and hang it up to remind you of the importance of balancing among all the wonderful parts of your life! ~Admiring your tango with tenacity, Marney Artella Founder, Mango Lover, Hula Dancer Artella Land ~ the creative isles of words, art, and spirit Artella PO Box 6211 Kamuela HI 96743