I want to go to America. So badly. Bali has my heart, and always will – but I have the US of A on the brain.
I can’t explain it, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t know anyone in America, I have nobody to go and visit. Sure, I’d love to go and do galleries in New York, and cycle along South Beach in Miami. But they’re just touristy things. I have this all-consuming, underpinning drive to go to the States, and I have no idea where it came from. All I know is that I have to get there before I turn thirty.
I’m not great with money. Saving has always been a big issue for me – I live pay check-to-paycheck, scratching together enough to buy food and wine. However, all this has to change. I don’t enjoy it, and it makes it almost impossible to believe that things like big international holidays, or buying houses, are possible. I need some sort of alterior driver, something that fills me up to the brim with joy, and determination to reach my goals.
So, that’s how I wound up bent over my outdoor setting last night, glueing cut outs from travel magazines to a blank art canvas. I decided to make a travel mood board!
I’m a very visual person, so it helps to have pretty things to look at around the place, things that I’ve created myself. Creating mood boards is a great way to motivate yourself to work for the things you want, but also to affirm and manifest those things every day. I’ve always had mood boards and scrapbooks lying around – occupational hazard of being a creative weirdo, I spose – so, I want to show you how easy it is to make your own! It’s like the actual, real life version of Pinterest (are we Pinterest friends yet?!)- except better, because this one, you can hang on your bedroom wall!
You will need:
A blank art canvas. This one was $6 from the Reject Shop (25cm x 45 cm)
A stack of travel magazines for your chosen destinations. I got all these from a local travel agent, and they were all free
Craft glue
Scissors
That’s it!
Go through all the magazines and tear out the pages that leap out at you. Photographs of cities, natural attractions, market stalls, maps, anything that you find inspiring. Look for words, too, or quotes about the cities you want to visit. Make sure you check the front and back of each page, in case you think you found a great image and start hacking away, only to flip the page over and discover a way better one on the other side!
Once you’ve gone through every magazine, go back through your pile of pages and carefully trim each image. You don’t have to be precise in cutting them all exactly to size either – remember, all the images will overlap, and you can always use a smaller one to cover up unnecessary space!
Arrange your images into three piles – large, medium and small.
Starting with the large images, arrange them focussing on the edges of the board. When you’re happy with the layout, glue everything down securely.
Grab the medium-sized images, and fill in some of the larger gaps. You can start to overlap the images now if you want to! Now, glue everything down.
Finish off with your smallest images, covering up any blank spaces or large unnecessary gaps. try to mostly paste any text over the top of your other images, so you can still read the words.
Voila! You’ve just made a mood board! And you were saying you haven’t got an arty bone in your body … tsk tsk.
You can add glitter, rhinestones, feathers, sand, leaves, googly eyes, sequins, train tickets, pamphlets, anything you like. What you have now is the foundation of a working motivational tool, so keep at it! If your plans change, you can add new pictures, or cover up places you no longer want to visit. Every time you go to work on your mood board, think positive vibes and know that one day, you will get there. It’s all about manifesting the things that you want, because you deserve them!
My mood board is now sitting next to our microwave, so it’s the first thing I see when I go down in the morning to make a coffee. I start my day dreaming of visiting the MOMA, driving Route 66 in a hot pink vintage car, sipping cocktails in Miami, playing Black Jack at the Bellagio in Vegas (as well as doing something else a bit special in Vegas, too, but – shhhhh …).
They’re your dreams, so go out and make them happen!
Getting my kicks on Route 66,
MJ x
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