April brings...

So we're a quarter of the way through the year! We are heading into Autumn in New Zealand and this is an extra-long Easter weekend for my family (we are off Tuesday as well). I use school holiday times and changes of season to 'course correct' - to consider where I am in my creative journey and what is still serving me. 
I am tired....and while others are talking about new daily challenges, I am feeling called to rest and really attend to self-care. Maybe it's part of the cycle of seasons. I'm sure it's partly my grief process as well. Just took a break from writing this to check my emails and read this from Brave Girls' Club : 

Recharge, rest, restore, and renew. Fill yourself back up so that you can keep shining that beautiful radiant life of yours.
Taking it as a sign from the universe ♥ SHINE is my word of the year. 
After quite a bit of thought, here's my course correction for April : 

• I am NOT making a checklist of projects to complete for this month.
• I have set up a place to write and I want to do more journaling in my Inner Work Journal.
  
• I REALLY want to stitch more
  
• I need to complete my clearing spaces to spark joy and am looking forward to changing out my wardrobe for cooler weather towards the end of the month
• I am taking a break from my #52stamps challenge for April
• Hopefully I'll still be creating things to blog about

Happy Easter to you. I'd love to hear how the change of season is affecting you.

Book of Days : Gratitude Garden

I've been sharing art inspired by Alisa Burke's Grateful HeART journal prompts, but this week it took me in a completely different direction. Her prompt was "Gratitude Garden" and it reminded me that I never did the lesson from last year's BOD by that same title. I was also wondering what to do with the other side of the spread which I shared here. The base was sprayed with purple adirondack colourwash and while the ink was still wet, I sprinkled with granulated sea salt. Next morning when everything was dry, I was rewarded with this deliciousness. 

Since my facing page featured a lot of the purple, I decided I could overpaint quite happily. Began with some fluro paints 

and some of my new hand-carved rubber stamps 

plus pen doodles

Next up it was time to doodle flowers and I changed up the background to make them pop

 

This is now feeling like a night garden for me so that thought led me onto use some of my moonlight pens for highlighting

and metallics too

A quote from Rumi that fits with my word SHINE

and my gratitude garden is complete

You can sign up for classes with Effy Wild HERE. See my Flickr album of all art work inspired by Effy's classes HERE.

#52stamps : Week 12

The challenge = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. 
Loved my repeating stamp design of my previous post so thought I'd have a go at a variation. This time I wanted to do something circular so it takes 4 repeats to complete. 

And of course I also carved into the opposite corners so then I had to stamp it out further to see how they look as well ♥

I am having so much fun and can see I am making progress now. I don't even care I'm not stamping them perfectly straight ♥
You can see all my posts about #52stamps HERE or you can join in on Instagram.

#52stamps : Week 11

The challenge = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. This week it was time to try carving a repeat pattern. I amazed myself with how well it turned out.

I am so loving this and will definitely be doing more ♥ 
You can see all my posts about #52stamps HERE or you can join in on Instagram.

Moonshine : expressive self-portrait

I started this spread without thought of which lesson I was going to do, I just wanted to start something....I sprayed purple adirondack colourwash and as I was doing it realised I had forgotten to tape my centre line so the spray went through to other pages. Fortunately damage was contained with quick mopping with a wet wipe, and I will worry (or not!) about the seepage on the spread that follows when I get there. While the ink was still wet, I sprinkled with granulated sea salt, and the next morning when everything was dry, I was rewarded with this deliciousness. 

Decided that rather than create an entire spread, I would use each side for recent lessons from Effy, but when I sat down, I felt called to feature some of the patterning as hair and before I knew it, this face had emerged. 

My main feeling at the moment is that I am strong and don't want to be messed with! We've been reflecting on ancestry in Moonshine this month, and my maternal line is full of strong, feisty, independent women ♥ My girl has Shine and a mind of her own. 

I felt like I wanted to add more detail, but she told me she's done!

You can sign up for this and other classes by Effy Wild HERE. See my Flickr album of all art work inspired by Effy's classes HERE.

Grateful for challenges

I ♥ Alisa Burke's prompts in her online Grateful HeART Journal class. They are an awesome kickstart to be creative in simple ways, and to process tough times using a positive framing. The following was "Grateful for challenges". I began by spritzing watercolour paper and my watercolour dyes with water, before swiping colours to the page to blend as they wanted. 

Once dry, I did free writing about recent challenges and the learnings that have come out of that. I wanted to have love at the centre - despite the tough time we've been through lately, that is always at the centre for me. I am so lucky to know that. 

This exercise was very affirming and a good addition to my Inner Work Journal.

#52stamps : Week 10

The challenge = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. This week I was inspired by a simple pattern from this book : take a peek inside via Amazon HERE

It uses the idea of repeating triangles and will be really fun as a border or background. I must admit I'm not thrilled with my effort...I got a large eraser to carve on (it had a word printed on it which is what gives the stamp the dual colouring), but I should have made the triangles larger. I got another eraser and carved some larger triangles that can fit together as a border. I like that one better.

So 2 stamps this week, and I'm sure once they are put in the drawers with the rest of my collection I'll use them well. We are our own worst critics....You can see all my posts about #52stamps HERE or you can join in on Instagram.

Looking forward : Spark joy

My word for this year is SHINE. February was hard but I'm heading into March with a positive outlook and some new things to think about and be inspired by. I am still enjoying writing and planning in my Inner Work Journal. I always keep a record of what I've been reading and watching during the month - it's a bit eclectic since some of the watching is dictated by what we want to watch as a family (teenage boys in mine) and sometimes the reading includes books that I am trying out to share in my job as school librarian. This was Feb : 

I wanted to share this because I highly recommend "Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine" and "The Orphan's Tale". "Paddington" movie is also charming - must try and see the second which I've been told is even better! 
At the end of each month I do a bit of a review and a look ahead, based around some prompts from Susannah Conway about checking in with your word.

One of the prompts asks "How can I bring more SHINE into my home?" so I've been reading this book from our lovely library

and am feeling really enthusiastic to try some clearing in my home and also in my studio. I like that the title aligns with "Shine" for me ♥ This is a nice review of the kinds of results I hope to get out of this process. If you want to take it even further, Brave Girls have a course currently running called Soul Shaker

It's about decluttering all aspects of your life, and you can join the free FB group to get some insights without joining the paid course.
In Effy's Moonshine class we are exploring Origins and Oracles this months and I thought you might like to see some FREE offerings that have been shared in our group. I considered  making my own oracle deck. I don't think I am up to that this month but have saved this free class for later. 

If you are wanting to inject some more magic/woo woo into your life, there's this 30 day challenge which you can access HERE (and do any time)

and Effy has created a YouTube of how she's approaching that for this month HERE. 
For those of us in transition for whatever reason/s, this is available to buy or for free printable download

New stencils always make me happy = cheap from Warehouse Stationery

and special ones from Etsy Wonderstrumpet 

AND I have just started drawing mandalas inspired by Andrea Schroeder which also spark joy ♥ "It's about the process, not the product"

Happy March to you. 

#52stamps : Week 9

The challenge = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. Simple is good at the moment and inspiration strikes in unexpected places. When I was brushing my teeth the other day, I thought that these tiles hanging in my bathroom could inspire some stamps

And I was right ♥

You can see all my posts about #52stamps HERE or you can join in on Instagram.

February was hard - my gorgeous Dad died and it's affected me in lots of different ways. I've felt strong, and loving, and brave, and exhausted, and unmotivated, and overwhelmed... such an event gives you a new perspective, cuts through the crap, and feels so surreal... I want to be creative, I just want to blob out in front of netflix, I want to make meaningful art, I want to crawl into bed, I can't sleep, I don't want to get up..... I want to connect with people who love me, I don't want to talk about it, it helps to be social, it's exhausting to be with others going over the same stuff.... I'm a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a sister, (the ranking changes depending on what's needed) a teacher... I am lucky and loved, I am showing up in all the ways I am best capable right now and I continue to try and shine so others are inspired to shine too. 
Right now my intention is to keep showing up here on the blog when I can - even if it's just the weekly stamp challenge. I appreciate that you're here ♥  

(Brave Girls' Club)