November 18, 2021

Creativity & Community with Andrea Chebeleu

Ali recently interviewed Andrea Chebeleu, a fellow artist, teacher, and entrepreneur.

Humble Beginnings

Although Andrea is now the owner of A Work of Heart studio and her own art supply shop, her business started in her own home. It began with scrapbooking—Andrea made scrapbooks for her clients, and as her business grew, she needed more space.

After moving into a commercial space, Andrea had room to teach classes, bring in instructors, and experiment with more forms of mixed media art. About 23 years ago, A Work of Heart was born.

Balancing Creativity with Running a Business

Running a small business is time-consuming, which Andrea knows all too well. It can be easy to put off creative endeavors when you have a never-ending list of business tasks. However, keeping the soul filled is important to completing those everyday tasks.

Andrea implements a strategy called habit stacking, which is outlined in James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. This is when you use an already established habit, such as brushing your teeth every morning, to help you form a new habit.

Sometimes time is the issue, which is why Andrea encourages short sessions that are easy to fit into a busy day. Her Watch. Learn. Play. membership is developed around quick 15 minute lessons!

Andrea also uses morning pages as a method for clearing mental clutter and inspiring creativity.

Together, these strategies help Andrea keep up with her daily creative practice in her art journal.

Living in Your Journal

Andrea uses the phrase “living in your journal” to illustrate how she treats her daily creative practice. Her daily journal is set up in a non-stressful way, and she makes her journaling simple by using her daily life to fill up the journal pages.

Andrea will be teaching participants how to make her art journal in her upcoming The Bookmaker Collective course (Saturday, December 4 from 7-9pm EST AND Sunday, December 5 from 11am-6pm EST), which you can check out here.

The journal was also recently featured in Somerset Art Journaling magazine. You can view the article here: Chebeleu Somerset Article

Looking Forward to 2022

Next year, Andrea will continue her “living in your journal” series with monthly live classes, which will include special guests (like Ali) and gifts! She will also be resuming some in-person classes throughout the year but will continue online classes as well.

Thank you to Andrea for the inspiring conversation. Don’t forget to visit her website and Instagram!