What do you want to blossom?

Another ten minute page. I'm busy on a bigger project at the moment so journalling is fitting in the gaps. The background was just from wiping off a brayer while doing gelli-prints. I added a stencilled flower which made me think about blossom. 

What do I want to blossom in my life this season? 

I need to know, because if I don't know what I want to grow, I won't know what seeds to plant. If I don't deliberately plant seeds, weeds will take over - I know because I've seen what happens in my garden :) 

How much more so if I'm not deliberate about growing my character? 

Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #23

This prompt is challengers. Who challenges you? Who pushes and provokes you?

For me there are two sorts of people in my life who challenge me - those I find difficult, and those who love me and want me to be the best I can be.

Both of them cause me to grow.

The ones who want me to be the best I can be cause me to grow by showing love to me. They call me out when I should be better. They don't let me get away with giving less than I can. They challenge me to try new things, to reach that little bit higher, to take risks.

The others, the ones I find difficult and a challenge to be with, cause me to grow because I have to be deliberate about showing love to them. It doesn't come naturally. I have to work at it - the patience, the grace, the mercy and forgiveness that are necessary. The holding of my tongue when I want to lash out.

I need both sets of people in my life.

I need to be challenged.

I need to grow.

Attention!

This page started out with some stencil play. I wanted to use some of the gelli-printed tape I'd made, so a piece of that went on there. My husband has recently been back to England. He flew Emirates and brought back the stickers they give out. They were sitting on my desk and the pink one was calling out. The page sat there for a while. 

Then I looked at the words on the sticker - do not disturb. 

I started thinking about when I might want to put up a do not disturb sign. What takes up my attention to such an extent that I don't want to be dragged away? What captures me? What tugs at my heart?

There are times when I just get on a roll with some art I'm doing, really digging deep and discovering, then life kicks in and I have to leave it to go and make the dinner or bring in the washing because it's raining, or any one of a hundred other things. Sometimes you just wish you could stop time and work in the gaps, undisturbed, fully focussed.

When do you want to stick a big do not disturb sign on your life? 

Letting all the bad stuff go

There comes a time when you have to let things go - those dreams that just aren't going to come true, the fears that are holding you back, the hurts that are still exerting a hold many years on. 

And the bad stuff is not necessarily bad in and of itself. It's just the stuff that, if you hold on to it, will stop you from moving forward to where you're supposed to go. You don't want to waste your time hankering in the wrong direction.

So open your hands and let the 'bad' stuff go.

And once your hands are open, be prepared for God to fill them with all that you're made to be.

Grasp on to that with both hands.

Linking up with Creative Dare for October - Let it Go

Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #21

This week's prompt is Inspirations and Nudges.

Inspiration can be found everywhere if you're open to it. Just breathe it in and let it percolate. 

Then there are those people who are an inspiration to us, who keep us growing, who nudge us ever upwards. The trick is to keep on growing, to never stop learning, to take each and every moment and suck out all you can. 

I love to see inspiration strike someone. The best is when my daughter suddenly has an idea for a story she is writing. You can see the inspiration move across her face, her eyes light up, you can almost see the thoughts flashing across her brain. Then she scurries off to her laptop, or rummages in her handbag for the notebook she always carries. 

So breathe in, be lit from within, inspire and be inspired today.

One Little Word

Over at One Little Word the word for the month is colour. 

This page started out with a piece of paper that I'd used to catch the drips from doing other pages. There were all sorts of colours on it so I just went with it, adding bits and pieces from my desk in all sorts of colours. The orange rectangles down the left are pieces of tape patterned on a gelli-plate (see the tutorial here) and the door is from the backing paper of a transfer. I also added bits of tape, and then some journalling. 

Adding colour to the world could be as simple as smiling at someone, holding the door open for them, paying for the car behind you on the toll road, allowing someone to go in front of you at the checkout, leaving guerilla art messages of affirmation in public places. Add colour by small acts of kindness and brighten someone's day.

How are you going to colour your world today?

Circle journal

Well, the end of September saw the first posting out of all the journals in the circle journal/round robin. And we've had our first casualty - a journal that lost its way between Canada and Australia :(

Nevertheless, we are soldiering on, having come up with a solution, so here is my take on the doors and windows theme. We each have two goes in each journal and each journal has a different theme.

The door on the left is a postcard of artwork by Kim Nelson. The door on the right may be familiar to some of you from a previous post. It is from Wakehurst Place in West Sussex, UK. This is a transfer of the photo using transfer artist paper. I did some journalling under the postcard.

My second take on the theme I wanted to do something on windows, having done doors. The phrase kept going through my head so I went with it. When I'd painted the face I felt there was something missing - the eyes weren't highlighted enough, so I put a 'window' around them. 

This journal will be travelling to Monique in the Netherlands next. 

I will be linking with Artists in Blogland (button in the sidebar) for their new Scavenger Hunt Challenge which is also doors and windows.

Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #21

This prompt was Connections, Misconnections, Disconnections. 

I connected, misconnected, and disconnected with this page as I made it :)
It looked very different when I finished it the first time. And I really was not pleased with it. So much so that I gelli-printed over the top of the whole thing and started again. I'm more pleased with it now, but still not loving it.

Those things and people that we connect, mis-connect, or disconnect with or from all have an effect on us. There are some people we just don't 'click' with. For some reason we never quite connect. We're just not on the same wavelength. We may interact with those people but it is only ever on a very shallow, passing level.

Other people are in our lives for a while, but then, for whatever reason, we disconnect. But they leave their mark for good or ill. 

Then there are those people we connect with. We share our lives and have a big impact on each other. We celebrate together. We grieve together. We encourage and rebuke as necessary. And we need those people.

Life is shaped by connections, mis-connections, and disconnections 

A little humility

I found myself thinking over the last few weeks about a post I saw over at Mary Brack's blog. She has been making a book of lists and one of them was 'What makes me cry' which is the one that had me thinking. I find myself crying when I read news items or see films where people honour one another, serve one another, and act for the good of each other. 

I come back to the passage in Philippians 2 that talks about looking not only to our own interests and counting others as more significant than ourselves. I worked out that when I see this happening in the world, that's what makes me cry: seeing small snippets of the world how it is meant to be. Small acts of selflessness, service, and humility. 

The world could use more humility.

Here Comes Summer

While most of the blogs that I visit are talking about the colours of autumn (or fall) here we are looking at the approaching summer. Though today is grey and rainy again, yesterday the temperature was in the mid 30s C, a taste of things to come. 

We get some golds and browns, though - when the lawn dies off :) I do look forward to not having to mow. It gives me a chance to get the garden under some sort of control after its mad growth spurt over the cool wet winter. 

Art Journal Journey and October Gelli Print Party

I have to admit that I have bought a gelli-plate. Yes, I made one for myself quite a few months ago and loved it. Unfortunately, it started to go mouldy. I don't know why. It had been going along just fine. Maybe it was the old book I printed into. Perhaps it had some mildew, I don't know. Anyway, I revisited the idea of buying one. Last time I looked they were horrendously priced here in Australia. But I managed to find an 8 x 10in one for $40 inc p&p at Blue Bazaar. Bargain!

So here is my page for the October Gelli-Print Party using one of my hand-cut stencils. I loved it so much I just added a phrase and deemed it finished :) 

It's October and my northern hemisphere brain thinks the trees should be turning red and yellow and dropping their leaves. They're not as it's spring. Not that you get the whole 'springing into life' thing either. I feel a little cheated as there only seem to be two seasons here - the hot dry one and the cool wet one. 

And over at Art Journal Journey the theme for this month is SHE-art. This page came about after I did an exercise from Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists by Carla Sonheim. It involves making faces with ink in a dropper. You lose some of the control and the lines end up blobby, but that's part of the fun. I did a few on index cards and this was the one I liked best, even though it was only partial. 

I'm sure there are lots of us who wish our bodies were still only 25. But I actually like the wisdom of age. So, yes, there are more wrinkles and more white hairs in the mirror now, but inside I feel more comfortable with who I am, more sure of myself, more confident. I also have the reassurance that I am loved, no matter what the outside looks like, because the inside is what is important.

Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #20

This week's prompt was turn up like magic.

It reminded me of the many times that this has happened to me. There'll be a niggling thought - go and see so-and-so. Now, at this point I can either ignore the niggle, or go with it. Usually there is nothing stopping me from going with it. And when I do, I usually find that there is a very good reason. For example, there was the time my husband and I turned up on the doorstep of a friend who promptly announced, 'I'm so glad you're here!' She had just had a large delivery of newspapers arrive but found that she was allergic to the ink and was having trouble breathing while sorting them all out with the various inserts they needed. We set to work and got the job done.

Now for our friend we were literally an answer to prayer. She had cried out for help and we were the solution. If we had ignored the seemingly random thought, we would have missed out on being that answer. So when those niggles happen, indulge them and 'turn up like magic'. You never know when you might be an answer to prayer.

One Little Word

Over at One Little Word the word for this month is DO. 

I made a time-lapse video of making this page. One of those things where you just have to get on and DO because there is no pause button on this little camera. Sometimes the pressure is good for you :)

I have to admit that I am one of those people who find it hard to cover up bits of background that I like, so this page was a challenge for me. I decided that if I just throw everything down on the page and make a big mess (which is what it feels like when I have so much going on on the page) then I'll find it easier to cover some of it up. Still, I managed to lose some bits I like, but hey, I just DID it.

Sometimes you have to stop planning and start DOing.

Running

Our family watched Jack the Giant Slayer the other day. A jolly good romp. Something that the princess said near the beginning stayed with me. She said, "Why do you think I'm running away? Couldn't I be running towards something?" (Or words to that effect.)

It makes you think, doesn't it? If I am running away from something, that is usually fuelled by fear. There is no thought of where I'm going. The priority is simply to get away from where the danger is.

But if I am running towards something, there is a goal in mind, a direction to travel in. There is purpose and intention.

Wouldn't you rather run towards something?

So kick fear in the teeth and run full-pelt towards your dreams!