A Time of Change

The last three months have seen some fairly radical changes to our lives as a family so I must apologise for being missing in action so to speak.

Time to craft has been hard to come by but I have managed to snatch time occasionally to create.  Above is a paint chip decorated cover of a new journal and the first page of the same journal.

Radical I guess only just begins to describe the life less ordinary we are creating for ourselves. Earlier this year we moved back to the rental we vacated a year earlier to lower our living costs. Two months ago we made the decision to become a single income family and we have begun to shed the trappings which we'd begun to take for granted - things like cable tv,  a high speed internet connection, convenience food and national calling.

We've started doing simple things like baking our own bread, meal planning and cooking meals from scratch, op shopping, borrowing books/cds/dvds from the library and whenever possible walking. All things we did prior to becoming a double income family and we are all feeling the better for it.

Deep Breaths....

Another attitude of gratitude journal page

Attitude Of Gratitude Journal Pages

Above are three pages which have evolved over the past month (I often start a page and then leave it part way through coming back to it when I have time and inclination). Each of them is in my Attitude Of Gratitude (AOG) journal.

New Journal - Yummy Goodness

This gorgeous journal came into my work amongst a bunch of books for clearance and I just couldn't help buying it (infact I managed to find three in the end so my daughters could have one each as well). 

The first page sums up what I intend to put in this journal which is now being carried around in my purse, I intend to use it as a gluebook for positive thoughts, inspiring pictures, quotes etc... 

The above page was made up from my copy of That's Life magazine, the photo caught my attention as I love photography and I thought the quote very apt as it would have taken incredible perseverance to catch something that cute.

Productive 2011/2012

Happy New Year!!!

Speaking of the new year, below are four pages which now grace my 2012 journal, I have decided that this year is going to be a year of creativity for me and in that spirit I am decorating pages in my journal as and when the urge strikes ;0)

Recycling envelopes & art

Imagine my delight when opening mail at work I finally discovered that the inside of most of the envelopes had interesting patterns (I've been in admin for over 10 years now and had no idea about security patterns - go figure). Me being me my first thought was 'wow, cool, free art resource!' so I diligently cut out as many different patterns as possible over the next few weeks and brought them home where they leant themselves to being made into flower shapes.

Crazy about ....

Anyone whose been following my blog will know that I've recently found a new interest in Yurts, below is a painted pencil sketch and the original pencil sketch I have spent a few hours doing this weekend.

Joy & hand stitched butterfly

Using a page as a starting point that I'm sure I found at www.jenniferinspired.com (however I went back to make sure I had the correct reference and found that her blog is currently being reworked so I cannot be sure)  I created the above page using recycled paper, loved creating the butterfly and stitching around it.

Tea for Two & Life Happens

I haven't had alot of time to get any art done of late but above are two pages I have managed to get done :)

The teapot I made using card and a template from pieceofcakeparties, the tea cup template came from houseofstirfry and the cupcakes I made using a template from melstampz. Had hours of fun putting the embellishments together, I would love to be able to make more and varied types of embellishments, if you have any ideas I'd love to her them!

Fibromyalgia Journal Page

Some time ago I put together this page about fibromyalgia, a dis-ease that  many suffer from and that I have. The focus is on what I need to do to keep my fibromyalgia under control. Pain medication, healthy food, gentle exercise, keeping a positive frame of mind etc...(I do want to add here that these things do not necessarily work for everyone with fibromyalgia - they are just what I have found to work for me)  I no doubt will keep adding to this page as time goes by.

Art Journal Pages x 2

A new page

Adore

Ingredients: metallic pencils, gel pens, metallic oil pastels & watercolour pencils, hours of fun!

Butterflies

I've been busy with tissues, purple paint, a butterfly (re-purposed from a wall frieze I brought some years ago), purple DMC thread, an apt saying and recycled paper of differing hues. I'm really pleased with this page came out.

Fact of Life

They call it a fact of life, getting the common cold that is, and I have one for the past 3 1/2 days, but I'm pleased to say that I've put this time to good use and created a banner for this blog and art journalled a page about winter as it is that time of the year over here in New Zealand. Oh and a chocolate fish if you can spot the spelling mistake that my daughters pointed out to me ;)

The banner is a little bit different to how I imagined it and will no doubt evolve over time, but for now I'm happy :)

Purples & Pinks Oh My!

Not finished by any stretch of the imagination at this stage, but I'm not sure what else it needs.... if you have any suggestions let me know :)

Inspiration

I think I may be getting the hang of this!

You see inspiration keeps hitting me everywhere I go and with every webpage/blog/website I visit I come away with even more ideas and/or knowledge.

I can't believe I look forward to the junk mail being delivered just so that I can rat through and look for images/words which I can cut out. I happily spend my evenings cutting out the images/words or splattering paints onto pages, then waiting patiently for the paint to dry or glue to take so that I can get on with creating.

I don't always like the results, but I do enjoy the process. What I don't like I come back to later and try something else. Silhouettes, colours, words/test, prompts, paints, stencils, pencils, gel pens, fonts, stamps, glitter, inks, photos, pictures,  threads, patterns, doilies, textures, serviettes, pencils.... I could go on.... and on.

Often I make notes in my diary at work during lunchtime when ideas come out of no where so that I don't forget them and I'm going to get a small journal for my bedside table for when inspiration hits at 3am as it's beginning to.

Plain and simple I think (but don't tell anyone) that I may just be Addicted to Art!

From.... To.....

The other night I used left over paint to and gel pens to put together a page.

Then yesterday I sat down with water colour pencils, water and a brush

Today I felt it needed more 'zing' and using metallic pastels I went over yesterdays efforts :) I am now happy with this page and I've enjoyed every minute of it

Busy Night Last Night

I had an awesomely creative and productive night last night and just had to share

Using a scrunched up oven bag (of all things) I stamped a really pretty pink over top of cream which I'd painted over the white that was there.

This page just came out of nowhere, the background of orange and yellow morphed into the finished product - I love it!

If Music Be The Food of Love... Play On

Not finished yet but I just had to share what I've been working on....