I am responsible for what I say and how I say it, not for what you do in response.

Just… playing

Sometimes you just need to play with no agenda whatsoever. I put on my painty shirt and had fun with a child's toy - a Twirl 'n' Paint. 

Because it is powered by pressing madly on a button to make the table go round, you don't get the even spread and flow of the country fair /electric versions, but that just makes the results more unpredictable. To start with I was using some fairly thick acrylic inks. The spread wasn't good, so I squirted on some water as well. That made things flow better.

Then I thought, What if, instead of just water to make things flow, I use a more watery paint? Well, I have some spray inks sitting on my desk, so I grabbed those and combined them with the acrylic inks I was already using. As you can see, this gave a much better colour coverage and a nice mix of light and dark colours. It even allowed me to add a spot of colour afterwards that just flowed with the watery movement of the inks before they dried. 

And here are the cards I made from them:

If you have trouble letting yourself just play, why not sign up for Carolyn Dube's Permission to Play workshop? It's free! Look out for details of it coming up on her blog. Thanks, Carolyn :)

Dare to be different

This was one of those pages where all the elements go down and then I stand looking at it to see what it is 'saying' to me. Some pages have a theme before I start; some emerge as they go on, and others, like this one, reach the stage of being finished except for the journalling.

So what was this page saying? The leaf on the right was different from the others, and standing alone. It's a different colour, shape, and size from the others. The leaves on the left look like a group - they are similar and grouped together. This could be about feeling lonely - but it isn't. It could be about feeling left out of a group - but it isn't that either. For me, this page, at this time, was saying "Dare to be different." It was saying not to worry about standing out from the crowd. In fact, to embrace it and pursue it.

And I will try to do that.

Metal or clay?

How does your heart react when the going gets hot?

Does it react like metal or clay?

Does it become soft and pliable, or hard and brittle?

There are often times in life where things feel dark. Not necessarily scary, or depressing, but the darkness of not knowing. Like something is happening, but you don't know what it is. What's next? Is this an ending or a beginning? How long will it last?

One question you can ask is: Is this darkness a womb or a tomb?

A womb is a productive darkness where something new is growing. It is in the dark because it needs to be protected until it can survive on its own. This sort of darkness is an unknowing as we wait to see what is birthed. It can feel frustrating. The growth of something new seems to happen without our active participation. This sort of darkness can feel like a time of doing nothing, but that isn't truly the case. Waiting obediently and letting God work in us is as valid as doing something more obvious and active.

So, what about the tomb? In this context, a tomb is a place where something is placed after it has died. It is a place of grieving for an ending or something that isn't to be. With a tomb, or perhaps a better word would be a mausoleum, we can choose to stay in it, holding on to the remains as they decay away, or we can take our leave after appropriate grieving, emerge into the light, and move on.

So, is this darkness about growing or grieving? And how will you deal with it?

Random thoughts

Her mind was full of random thoughts that chased each other around and around. 

Trying to get my head around it.

That feeling when your head's too full to do anything except pull out the colour and splash it around a bit. 

Prompted

Do you occasionally have a nagging thought? One which says, 'Go visit that person' or 'send a card' or 'phone so-and-so'. Listen to it. What harm can it do to reach out and touch that person's life, to let them know that they are seen, heard, and understood?

Act on the prompt.

Overwhelmed

There are seasons in life where everything feels very quiet. And then there are others where there seems to be so much going on, so much that requires prayer in your own close circle, let alone out there in the world, that it can feel overwhelming.

These are the times when I am thankful that sighing and groaning from deep within are understood as prayer; that the ache in my heart is seen and recognised and held close; that the physical distance between us is bridged by an omnipresent God.

Take every thought captive.

There is a difference between our conscience - the thoughts that remind us where we have spoken harshly, where we have been less than forgiving, where we need to seek forgiveness - and those lies that jab at us and insinuate and cause us to question those things that just happen through no fault of our own. 

Each thought needs to be weighed and considered. Is it true? If it is, what do I need to do about it? If it isn't, why am I giving it room in my mind?

Texture

I loved a particular piece of textured paper that Win sent me in the last tag swap. The colours were great, and I just kept wanting to touch it. What better to use it for than circles?

Although the texture looks rough, it is actually quite soft. It made me think about what sort of 'texture' we bring to relationships, conversations. Are we like sandpaper, all scratchy and able to draw blood if we rub up against people? Or do we bring a softness, a gentleness that makes people want to reach out and draw us in to their lives? 

Altered postcard

This is another background done with gelli-printed self-adhesive labels (yes, I made a whole pile of them). A bit of gesso over the top and some neocolor ii to plug some gaps and bring everything together. 

The leaves were on a piece of paper on my desk, another piece of gelli-printing. I cut them out and when I put them on the page they made me think of a seedling. This isn't that surprising as it is spring here and a courgette plant has just started to poke its way through the soil, the first of my veggies to germinate. 

But what is germinating in my journal? I picked up something else that was just sitting on my desk - a transfer of a brain. The seedling and the brain came together to make me think about what we allow to take root in our minds. Whose opinion matters? What do we give our thoughts to?

This must be on my mind at the moment because I did an altered postcard this week, too:

This is one of those free postcards you can pick up at the cinema or museum and suchlike. I love to use them as prompts and for inspiration so I have boxes of them. This one is called Body Parts and is by Georgia Perry. I added the black outlining on the heart, the brain transfer, and the journalling. 

Spilling

Sometimes you just need to spill out all the thoughts that are rattling round in your head, clamouring to be heard. The background to this page was very noisy. I definitely needed to blot some of it out, and the black provided a great place to just write. It always feels so much better once I've been able to name how I'm feeling and get it on to the paper where I can look at it properly and get some perspective. 

Amazing mail!

Wonderful goodies all the way from Canada. Thanks Win Dinn!

These goodies are part of a monthly tag swap I'm a part of through the Google+ group Creating and Sharing Mixed Media Art. Everyone is so generous with their art-making and with their encouragement. If you're not a part of the group yet, why not join in?