Peering through

Following the Creative Jumpstart idea of Catherine Scanlon, I painted some background, dripped pale red ink on it and stepped back to see what was there. The drips kept reminding me of tree trunks, so I outlined them and made them browner. A layer of green at the top and some grass at the bottom, and there I was, peering through the trees at the light beyond, trying to see the path ahead. 

Much like my life, really...

Tags galore!

I was preparing a journal yesterday afternoon and wanted a tag. Oooops! None left. But I did have a lot of glossy card pieces that I'd decorated a while ago and hadn't got around to using because they were leftovers and not full pages. I hadn't really worked out what I could do with them. I pulled them out and found they were just the right size to make tags from. Problem solved!

Well, of course, once I'd started it was difficult to stop :)

Soon there was a whole pile of tags ready for further decoration. I won't run out for a while...

I also managed to make a leather cover for my travel journal. I'll be able to swap out the books inside as I fill them up. So all-in-all a productive day. How was yours?

Linking to Show and Tell Saturday over at Artists in Blogland (use the button in the bar to see what everyone else is up to)

Unfurling

Sending out tender, probing shoots.

Testing the water.

Taking a risk.

What is unfurling in your life at the moment?

WOYWW

Yes, my second What's on your Workdesk Wednesday. If you haven't already come across this you can find it here. It's great fun. I visited so many different desks last week. Can't say I made it to all of them, but I tried!

Anyway, here are a couple of shots of my desk as it is today:

This is the pile of books I am looking through at the moment

Here is a journal page in progress. Off to the right are some glossy papers I patterned last week and as you can see I've used one of them to do some punching. In the top right corner are the finished postcards for the swap going on over at Artists in Blogland (see the button in the sidebar). Those of you with sharp eyes and good memories will notice that one of the postcards is green whereas last week they were all blue. I didn't like the third one so ditched it and started again. 

For those of you who were interested last week, here are the shirts I made for hubby - all finished now - and samples of the alphabets I carved from the pile of erasers. I managed two alphabets, one set of  numbers, and still had some left to do some border-style stamps. What fun!

Looking forward to travelling the world via your desks when Wednesday arrives with the rest of you :)

Here I am

Waiting.

Dreaming.

Surrendering.

Fall Fearless and Fly - #8

So here we are at the final Fall Fearless and Fly challenge:

Headline prompt:  Radical to Mundane and to Radical Again:  What once seemed new that now feels old and boring?  How can you see it as new again?  How do you "jump charge" creativity when you're feeling stuck?

Color:  black & neons - bold contrasts

Quote:  Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.  Bill Moyers

It took me a while to get into this one. I sat with the prompt for quite a while before I reached any inkling about what to do for it. 

The word 'radical' is to do with roots. When I get stuck and things are boring, I go back to the roots, cutting away all the extraneous stuff and heading back to basics. I might take down a techniques book and work my way through it, reminding myself of things I haven't tried out for a while. 

Or perhaps I'll open the drawers and have a look through them. Like most of us, I suppose, I tend to use the things that are easily to hand. That means there are certain things I use all the time that sit on my desk and others that I forget I have. 

If that doesn't work to bump me out of the rut, there is the box of prompt cards. Or I can look for a blog challenge :)

This time I took the colour prompt as my beginning and took out my black journal which I haven't used for a while. Now I needed something that would show up on the black. Usually I would use watercolour inks or acrylic paints. But this is all about doing something new, so I pulled out my oil pastels. Drawing around my hand seemed to be fairly basic. The hand reaches through the fog, poking holes to allow the flood of rainbow colours into the darkness below. Then I needed to put the quote on there. Again, colour on black with pens can be a problem. I found a multicoloured gel pen that I've had for ages. That along with a stencil and voila! My last Fall Fearless and Fly challenge is completed. 

Thank you to Marcia, Carolyn, and Jessica for arranging everything. It's been a blast and I've so enjoyed discovering lots of new blogs. 

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

After having been to look at these link-ups several times, I've finally got round to joining in :)

Here's what's on my desk at the moment:

I'm doing a batch of sewing at the moment - some clerical shirts for my husband who finds plain colours boring. 

Here are the postcards in progress for the postcard swap going on over at Artists in Blogland. Why not join in the fun? (see the button in the sidebar)

The stack of erasers on the right is waiting for me to carve another alphabet. Just need to decide on upper or lower case and what style...

Photoshop experiments

Been having fun playing with Photoshop. Bought Digital Art Wonderland with Christmas money and am learning all about the gazillion menus and what all the different things do. 

Not quite the same as getting your fingers dirty, but I am managing to incorporate some wip photos of journal pages. The circles in the sky of the second photo are from the Fall Fearless and Fly #7 close-up photo posted previously. It certainly makes you change the way you take photographs :)

Speaks for itself

I don't think I really need to comment on this...

And a few details of all the layers:

And my friend Heather's page from our fortnightly 'play-date'

Hope you're all enjoying the new year.

Imagination

Knowledge speaks of something known. Imagination allows you to see that which is not yet...

...but which could be.

Found this shell on the beach last night (after a 40C day a walk on the beach with the sea breeze is lovely). Can you see the eye in it?

Mobile phones

I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees a mobile phone as a bit of a double-edged sword. I have to admit that mine is permanently on silent. Those who know me know that if they leave a text or a message I will pick it up at some point during the day and respond.

I think my major problem with them is that people think that because you have one it is okay for them to call you up any time of the day or night and expect a response immediately. There seems to be a general feeling that if it rings, you have to answer it, no matter where you are or what you are in the middle of. Now, I understand that there are times when you are waiting for news, or have family members who are ill and it's necessary to check your phone. But honestly, most of the time it is for something completely mundane that could easily wait until you have finished your meal, conversation, or whatever else you're doing.

As a clergy wife I find them particularly vexing when people call on my husband's day off, late into the night, or very early in the morning, and then become frustrated when he doesn't respond immediately so they phone again. And again.

My mobile phone is my lifeline - in case I find myself in an emergency, or running late - not my tether by which you can reel me in whenever you like.

What would you like to rant about in modern life?

Fall Fearless and Fly #7

We are almost at the end of the Fall Fearless and Fly challenge (see the button in the sidebar). I have enjoyed it hugely. It has made me think, it has introduced me to lots of wonderful bloggers I would not have run across otherwise, and it has definitely been a challenge.

So here is the penultimate one:

Headline Prompt:  Future Imperfect: What is different about your life now than what you once expected it to be?  How is the way it turned out perfect or imperfect.  If your future turns out differently than you imagined in the first prompt, could it still be perfect?

Color Prompt: Yellow

Quote Prompt: "Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present."  Friedrich Nietsche

Well, there is some yellow in there, although the printing I did in yellow acrylic with bubble-wrap doesn't show up that well. It is in there, though. Honest!

I wrote 'future' with an ink dropper so it ran and was...well....imperfect :) I'm not thrilled with the way the whole page has come out, but I had fun playing anyway. I do like this bit, though:

As for the thoughts behind it, well, we are so good at making plans. Then life gets in the way. Ten years ago I had it all planned out - my daughter would start school and I would take an art course of some sort. By the time I was forty I would have some sort of career connected with creative endeavours. 

Fast forward ten years and here I am, a home-schooling mum. I thought I would be the student, not the teacher! But I have to tell you that I am loving it. I am learning so much and I am so glad not to be missing out on this time. It goes by so fast. In another three years my daughter will finish her compulsory education. I'll still be under 50 so we'll see what the future has in store when it arrives.