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About Lili And Bella

Hi Hello!

I'm Carola

I'm a Sri Lankan-Canadian artist who loves painting and drawing in my unique abstract style to create intuitive art.

On my blog and social media, I share my joy of creative hobbies, stationery, and journaling while encouraging others to embrace their inner creativity with my artwork and creative process.

You can also find me on Instagram (@fromcarola) where I post daily creative inspiration and on YouTube where I share art tutorials and stationery videos.
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Hand holding a vinyl sticker of a floral bouquet in an ink bottle with blue, purple, and yellow flowers. In the background on a yellow mat are sketches and drawings along with ink bottles.

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Create a Vision Board to Manifest Your Goals

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Collection of artwork created by Carola

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My Substack Monthly Newsletter

fromcarola

Hi friends, hope you’re having a great Wednesday

Hi friends, hope you’re having a great Wednesday. In today’s livestream, I painted abstract flowers with fountain pen inks - look at that shimmer! ✨ Inks featured:
1. Ferris Wheel Press “Sugar & Spite”
2. Sailor Manyo “Sakura”
3. Esterbrook “Quirky Leaf”
4. Robert Oster x Atlas Stationers “Vampire Pigeon” Paper used: Watercolour paper (Canson cold press) and EveryDay notebook by Galen Leather (Tomoe River Paper) 🎥 Replay is up on YT. Thanks for joining and for watching 🫶🏽 #fountainpenink #fountainpencommunity #inkartwork

How are your planners and journals doing after Q1?

How are your planners and journals doing after Q1? What I’ve really enjoyed is using my TN to showcase happy mail as well as stickers and ephemera. I also really liked using the Sterling Ink N2 as a dedicated book for documenting hobby-related things such as fountain pen inks and books I’m reading. The biggest change I made in Q1 is that I took apart the Take A Note planner and hole punched the pages to put into my PLOTTER A5. Instead of reaching for a whole other notebook, now I can just flip the page of my PLOTTER weekly and write on the TAN pages. I only include one week’s worth of pages at a time so it doesn’t bulk up my binder. Here’s my planner and journal stack going into Q2:
1. Sterling Ink N2/Weeks size - hobby journal, to track and document my fountain pens & inks, books read, podcasts listened to, shows watched, etc.
2. Hobonichi A6, 5-year diary - daily “little joys” and drawing with a glass dip pen using fountain pen inks
3. Travelers Notebook standard - inserts for creative journaling and travel
4. Hobonichi Weeks - creative memory keeping and daily highlights
5. Sterling Ink B6 notebook - stream of consciousness journaling
6. Hobonichi Weeks - catch-all planner
7. PLOTTER A5 rings - daily planner
* incorporating Take A Note A5 pages
8. Hobonichi A5, 5-year diary - daily archive of events In my latest Substack blog post and YT vid, I reflect on what’s worked for me and what changes I made going into Q2. #plannerstack #plannerlineup #plotterusa #hobonichiweeks #sterlingink #travelersnotebook

Another livestream, another great chat. Today, M

Another livestream, another great chat. Today, Marina ( @studio.aquamarina )and I co-hosted a live where we talked about practicing art with watercolour paints and fountain pen inks, as well as other topics. I shared how I started painting abstract florals and my take on why we need to continue practice creativity. While we talked, I painted flowers with inks and recorded my process - you can see this process on my yt channel (no talking, 🎶 only) The fountain pen inks I used:
1. Wearingeul “White Rabbit”
2. Wearingeul “Mad Hatter:
3. Ferris Wheel Press “Edwards Gardens”
4. Robert Oster x Pen Addict “Fire on Fire on Fire” Thanks for joining and thanks for watching! The replay is on Marina’s yt so make sure to check it out. #fountainpen #fountainpencommunity #stationerycommunity #fountainpenink

Hi friends, hope you’re having a lovely day 🫶

Hi friends, hope you’re having a lovely day 🫶🏽 In today’s livestream, I sketched flowers in a Midori MD cotton notebook using Tombow MONO Drawing Pencils. We also chatted about notebooks, paper, fountain pen nibs, and more. Thanks for hanging out in chat - there was an encouraging discussion on why practicing creativity and art makes a world of difference. If you’re looking to pick up some stationery supplies, feel free to use my codes - you save a little and I get a little 🤗 🎥 Replay is up! Thanks for joining and thanks for watching 💕 #stationerycommunity #midori #midorinotebook #flowersketch #tombowpencil #tombowusa

The hype is real: I got a Midori MD cotton noteboo

The hype is real: I got a Midori MD cotton notebook and did a floral pencil sketch 🌼 wow does the paper feel nice! It took me a while to get one of these MD cotton notebooks, but now I see why it’s great for pencil use. Let’s chat about it and sketch some flowers using a Tombow MONO Drawing Pencil set this Wed (April 9th at 9am PT) on my twitch livestream 🙌🏽 (replay will be on YT as well). 📖 The book is one of my fave references: “Flower Colour Guide” by Taylor and Michael Putnam
_ As a TombowUSA Creator Crew member, I get free products to create with and a small commission on sales. Code CAROLA can save you 15% on your order. #pencilsketching #tombowusa #tombowpencil #floralsketch

Hi friends, hope you’re having a gentle end to t

Hi friends, hope you’re having a gentle end to the week 🫶🏽 In today’s livestream, I painted with fountain pen inks that were randomly chosen by friends in chat. I love the surprise (and challenge?) of painting with random inks. I think the shades worked pretty well together! Inks used:
1. Teranishi Guitar “Gentle Green”
2. Ferris Wheel Press “Ambrosia Indulgence”
3. Colorverse “San Francisco Bay” (2024 SF Pen Show ink)
4. Pennonia x Amarillo Stationery “Rosa Mexicano”
5. Tom’s Studio “Neptune”
6. Robert Oster “Violet Clouds” We chatted about fountain pens, nibs (custom grinds too), inks, and FOMO about the Atlanta Pen Show happening this weekend - if you’re there, have fun! 🎥 Replay is up on my channel. Thanks so much for joining and thanks for watching. Have a great weekend! #stationerycommunity #fountainpenink #fountainpenink #flowerartwork

In today’s stream, I painted abstract florals wi

In today’s stream, I painted abstract florals with ink samples that I got from @fountainpendulum 💕 Love how these fountain pen inks came together. We also chatted about pen shows, Travelers Notebook setups, and all sorts of stationery things. Inks featured:
1. Nagasawa Kobe “akashi museum gold”
2. Dominant Industry x Wonder Pens “ginger chicken” (shimmer)
3. Robert Oster “gold antiqua”
4. Lennon Tool Bar “bubble tea”
5. Pilot Iroshizuku “murasaki-shikibu”
6. Pelikan Edelstein “rose quartz” Replay is now on YT. Thanks for joining and thanks for watching! 🫶🏽
#fountainpenink #fountainpencommunity #stationerycommunity #abstractfloral

🖋️ I have a distinction I use among my curren

🖋️ I have a distinction I use among my currently inked fountain pens: some are “notably inked”. Every month, I choose a number of pens based on model, nib, and matching inks specifically to explore and have fun with while journaling. They’re notable because this lineup may change the next month, while my core lineup of pens stays consistently the same month-over-month. Notably Inked in March:
1. Esterbrook Estie (b) + Diamine “writer’s blood”
2. Esterbrook Estie (Techo) + Sailor “afternoon tea”
3. Esterbrook JR (Stub) + Dominant Industry x WP “tuna and olives”
4. Skogsy Cholla (Sankakusen) + Amarillo Stationery “toasty joggers”
5. Franklin-Christoph 46 (medium Cursive Italic) + Dominant Industry x Wonder Pens “chicken in the sky with diamonds”
6. Ferris Wheel Press Joule (m) + FWP “blue revelry” Read more in my Substack post and see these pens in action on YT. Have a great weekend, friends! 🫶🏽 #fountainpenink #fountainpens #fountainpenart #esterbrook #franklinchristoph #ferriswheelpress

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