The Little Lost Pen (and friends)

I love pens. It’s somewhat of an addiction really. I can’t go into an art supply store or even Target without perusing the pen section. There’s always a need for a new pen: the perfect white pen to write on top of a dark-colored paint, the perfect fine tip black pen to sketch on mixed media or drawing paper, the perfect shade of [insert color here]. The list is never-ending. But that’s the problem, it’s always the search for that “perfect” pen. And the search for “perfect” often times leaves us doing only that –  searching and never creating.

A few weeks ago, as I was walking into the local library, I noticed a ballpoint pen on the sidewalk. So I stopped to pick it up.

I used to use ballpoint pens all the time when I consistently wrote in a journal. I carried a notebook with me everywhere. I wrote down everything. I had notes on napkins and scrap pieces of paper tucked into pockets and clipped onto pages with binder clips. And I always used a blue ballpoint pen. This ballpoint pen was blue, just like the ones I used to use. As I cradled this little lost pen between my fingers and gently swiped it across a piece of scratch paper to see if it still worked, I felt a sudden pang as if I had just been reunited with a best friend who I hadn’t seen in many years. I tucked the pen into my purse and promised it that we would embark on a long-overdue journey together.

I began taking pictures of the Little Lost Pen’s adventures on my Instagram account (follow the adventure using #littlelostpen). Our most notable adventure so far has been to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival where we met the owner of E & L Bindery who helped us choose a special handmade journal just for the Little Lost Pen.

It even made a guest appearance in a blog post I wrote for Artorium Emporium.

We’ve also gone to an antique show,

Lucy and I sketched out ideas for carving pumpkins and dressed the pen up in a washi tape costume for Halloween,

it has helped me with pages I’ve created for Get Messy Art Journal prompts,

and most importantly, has helped me jot down ideas for this blog.

Although it has been fun to play with the idea of taking this pen on adventures, it has actually served a much greater purpose – it helped me step away from the idea of the “perfect” pen and just have fun creating. Sometimes we need to break our routine and use materials that we normally wouldn’t choose or haven’t used in a long time. For me, it was a ballpoint pen, but it could also mean using watercolors instead of acrylics or even changing the type of paper you are using. As my 5-year old daughter and I were putting away groceries one day, I mentioned to her that you can make a journal out of a paper grocery bag. She didn’t believe me. So I made us each one.

I’ve been using mine for the NaNoJouMo art journaling challenge hosted by Dawn DeVries Sokol. I don’t typically use brown paper so it has been fun to work on the kraft paper. And I didn’t spend a ton of money of the journal so I don’t have to worry about ruining a precious book, which allows me to be a little freer with my creativity. And honestly, I’ve fallen in love with my scrappy little journal and have been collecting bags to make more once this one is complete (my favorite so far is a colorful, heavy-stock bag from Paper Source).

So my challenge to you is to find a material that you don’t typically use and try it out. Since finding the Little Lost Pen, I’ve also found a black ballpoint pen and two pencils that will begin to join our artistic adventures. I keep all of them tucked into one of my favorite little Orla Kiely cosmetic bags (I love these bags, I have a bunch of them and they are ALL full of art supplies, never makeup) in my purse along with some blank index cards and a small journal so that no matter where I am, I have supplies and a close friend to join me on my journey and keep me motivated and inspired.