One Little Word - Lost

Over at One Little Word, the word for the month is lost. I can fully embrace this word at the moment,  being in a transition period between one church and another. We are only moving across the city, but being a ministry family, when there is a new post, there is a new house, new church, new set of people.

Everything changes.

And there is a period in between when you are detaching from one place but haven't yet moved on to the next.

Summer of Colo(u)r - week 2

About a month ago I was delighted to find that I had won a random prize on One Little Word. This week the goodies arrived - stencils, papers, washi tape, shiny bits and pieces, and a designer camera strap!

I immediately used some of my haul to enter the second week of the Summer of Colo(u)r challenge, where the colours are teal and coral with a pop, splash, or smudge of white. This page also fits for the One Little Word challenge this month which is light.

When things feel dark, I take comfort in the fact that the smallest bit of light fights back the darkness.

One Little Word - Will

The word for the month on One Little Word is will. 

Will is one of those fun words that can be used as a noun or a verb.

We have the faculty by which a person decides on or initiates action, and intend, desire, or wish to happen. So if I will, I have an intention or desire to initiate action.

In this case, to make this page work!

It really wasn't coming together for me until I put a layer of gesso across everything, stuck on the circles, and outlined the shapes with a green aquatone pencil. Then it started to work better. I started to feel as if I was getting back on track.

Do you sometimes have to be very deliberate about imposing your will on your pages?

One Little Word - Adventure

One Little Word has a new challenge, open until May 15th, and the word is adventure.

I do not like adrenalin.
I don't find adventure in extreme sports or foreign travel.
For me life is an adventure in itself.
The journey into the unknown each day is enough adventure for me.

One Little Word - Dream

There are two words for One Little Word this month - and four prizes! Go take a look at the wonderful works created around the words 'calm' and 'dream' and add your own here. You have until the 14th April to enter.

This is my entry for 'dream' - my dream of a studio to teach in and hold retreats. It's still just in my head at the moment, but one day…

See my entry for 'calm' here along with a time-lapse video of how it was made.

One Little Word - Calm

One Little Word is back this month with two little words, calm and dream. I pulled out the time-lapse camera and did a little something for 'calm'.

A small stack of patterned circles gave me plenty of texture and interest in the background. A layer of gesso evened the whole thing out. Then I had fun with colour - sprays and acrylics applied with a palette knife to give a nice loose look.

My nifty circle-cutter provided a mask for the black spray - which if you look carefully also went all over my fingers :)

All it needed now was some journalling: 'When all around is darkness, stay calm and look within yourself and beyond yourself for the light that is surely there.'

Staying calm helps you to keep a clear head. When your head is clear, you can find the light that is inside that pushes back the darkness. You can also look beyond your present circumstances to the light at the end of the tunnel. The darkness won't last forever and if we can focus on the coming light we can endure.

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?

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.