LB2016 : Build your dream and affirmation board

Last week's Life Book lesson was inspiration again with Tam. I love trying out new techniques with faces, and there was an option to do an image transfer of yourself. Only person home to take the right kind of photo was my 11 year old son. He didn't do too bad a job although he was standing on a step beneath me 

First had to mirror-image it so it would be the right way once transferred. Easy way to do this is to open the image with "Paint" and under Rotate in the tool bar, there is an option to "Flip horizontal". Printed it out on my ordinary Canon MX726 home printer, and then decided that since it was so hot again today (loving this summer weather) I would use a heavy gel medium in the hope that it wouldn't dry out too quickly. Place the print face down on the medium, and use an old credit card to scrape over the back to make sure it is well stuck down with no bubbles. Once dry, you start to peel off the paper, leaving the ink behind. Mist with water to get more of the paper off and rub gently.

I was really pleasantly surprised with how well this worked! Definitely a great technique to use in future projects. Rubbed a bit vigorously in that top corner to start with, so peeled off more of the paper to better blend to the background. Thankfully got it right by the time I got to the face.

Now to get to work on transforming myself artfully. As one of my focuses on my word Transform, I am working on my internal spirit/soul stuff : self-compassion, being kind to myself, and exploring ways of thinking that encourage personal growth. This formed the basis for my page development. Started by laying down collage materials and some base paint layers.

Worked on my face and looking towards the next layers (probably paint through stencils)

Loving what those layers/colours add. Now it's time to add important words. Based on the size of my composition, I thought that once again found words from a large print book would work well, so went hunting for the ones I wanted. 

I stamped the word Transform like a necklace. Butterflies appear often in my work, and were perfect here as a symbol for transformation and to hold some important words.

This was a great exercise for thinking about the practices I want to nourish in myself this year (I haven't finished with Nourish from 2015). This also fits with Effy's Week #7 prompt for Journal 52 of "Self Love".
I love how the fun creative experience can also carry much deeper meaning.

Click on the photo to see it larger, or go HERE to see my Flickr album of all my Life Book 2016 projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book this year HERE.