Creative Dreams for 2017

You can do ANYTHING, 

but you can't do EVERYTHING!

While I normally start a new year with big plans and a long list of projects that may seem impossible to achieve, I usually end my year with a "Ta Da!" list that never would have happened without the long list.... you've got to have a dream don't you?!
I know that creating is something that makes me SHINE so I'm making sure there's plenty of support for that! But be kind and realistic about what's possible for you. I was going to call this post creative goals, but changed it to dreams cos I usually have to review my expectations mid year and get a bit more realistic! January is dream time for me ♥ Everything seems possible....

ART JOURNALING
+ I am definitely IN with Effy Wild's Book of Days class for the year (link will take you to buying a full-year or first session option) Session One will take place between January 1 & April 1st. We will break in April, and Session Two will take place between May 1 & August 1. We will break in August and resume for Session Three which will run between September 1 & December 1. I find her style of teaching inspiring, and I adore her Facing Forward II class. The breaks will let me catch up and focus on other projects as well.

Effy's also co-host of Journal 52 (free weekly prompts for the year)
+ Documenting Life - I've had daily journals in the past, often in the form of a calendar journal, but in 2016 I just decided to include some memory keeping as part of my art journal.  I'm ready to go back to a separate journal for this purpose again and I'm going to follow the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. More about that journal soon....

+ I really enjoyed doing Life Book again last year. In 2016 I managed to complete 30 pieces of art from the lessons on offer, and In 2015 I completed 23 pieces of art. I went through a phase of feeling really disappointed that I wasn't getting to the lessons but now I've decided I'm not going to take on Life Book 2017, but will attempt to complete more of the lessons I've saved from 2015 and 2016 - plenty to keep me going ;-)

 + My Word of the year is SHINE - read about that in my previous post. I'm doing Ali Edwards' One Little Word again to keep my on track 

+ I also have Spirit Wings by Kelly Rae Roberts  (purchased because I just couldn't resist the bargain from her 10 Year anniversary sale...class now available for $99 lifetime access)

and Grateful HeART journal by Alisa Burke because I love her stuff and I got it on sale!

If you need some cheap and FREE online art class ideas check out my list HERE.
FABRIC and STITCH PROJECTS
+ I was gifted Sue Spargo's embroidery class on Craftsy 

+ More quilts to be made I hope - this one is waiting to be finished : 

+ Mixed Media fabric art projects - like my banner

As well, I hope I get the opportunity to teach again this year - I'll be taking craft club at school again at the very least. 

You can do ANYTHING, but you can't do EVERYTHING! On reading over this post I'm obviously going to try though...if I get half of this done by the end of the year I'll be doing well! Are your creative dreams as big as mine? ♥

Daily journaling

We are in high summer here in New Zealand - sunny days - hot temperatures - sometimes a bit much humidity, but mostly I love it, especially when there is time for swimming in the pool :-) Seemed appropriate to start with hot pink in my background and had to include some screen shots of our weather forecasts. All true except we don't seem to have had much of the cloud and no rain this past couple of weeks (Click on the photo to see it larger)

A few things to celebrate this past fortnight. In October of last year, I completed a Life Book lesson called Inner Warrior Princess - see my process HERE. 

Last week I received a message on FB from the teacher of that class, Andrea Gomoll, asking if she could feature my art to promote the class which is now being offered as a mini online class. I replied that I was thrilled and flattered to be asked, and she has said she will add a photo of my project when she next updates! 
As a side note for you, Tam has announced the release of 5 of her classes from Life Book 2015, now available as mini classes HERE. 

While I didn't do the two in the top line, my versions of the other classes are linked here : Fly High, Beacon of Light, Seeds of Love. For all of the lessons I did, I linked to the artist, so if you're interested in checking to see if anyone else now has lessons available, you can get to them via my posts about Life Book 2015 HERE.
Now we're in February, we have a new creative prompt for our One Little Word class with Ali Edwards. 

This month we're focusing on the concept of "Practice", and we're picking one single thing to focus on every day in February. It's an idea used with the permission of Elise Joy - the creator of the daily goal tracker. I am finding it motivating, encouraging, and helpful to be concentrating on just one practice for the month...may make this a monthly habit :-)
Monday 8th was a day off for us (Waitangi Day) and I spent some of it creating my Quirky Bird for Life Book 2016 - shared in my previous post.

The next best thing to being in the pool is lying on my bed with all the doors and windows open, and devouring this : 

And loving that I can make these daily journal pages whatever I want. After our lovely long weekend, Tuesday to Friday this week was mainly : get kids to school, go to the gym, go to work, come home and get in the pool to cool down, do jobs....so I just had a bit of fun with some found words and left out the boring details of those days and that's fine with me :-)

And I celebrated my 500th visit to the gym today!! 

It's been a good 2 weeks : 

Hope you have a great weekend with some creative time.
You can see my Flickr album with all my daily journaling spreads HERE.

The End of Life Book 2015

We've reached the end of Life Book 2015. It was my first year at this, and I am so happy with what I've achieved.

In the last lesson, Tam provides instruction for different ways to bind all your loose pages into a book. I bound loose pages when I did my stitched paper daily art journal last year, and was going to use my same method of making book page hinges

Read about my whole process HERE. However, when it came to it, I decided that it's nice to keep the loose pages together in the fabric folder that I made to hold them at the beginning of the year.

This means I can still take them out and display them for inspiration

and the full folder fits just fine on my shelf of completed journals.

I created a Flickr album for all this year's projects HERE. This photo mosaic gives you a preview (make your own photo mosaic HERE) 

Go HERE to read all my posts about Life Book 2015.
It's been fabulous. A year of creative development and joy, as well as personal growth. I am so looking forward to what Life Book 2016 has in store - go HERE to find out more

....might see you there :-)

LB2015 : Sunshine and roses

I wanted to complete this lesson by Effy before I called Life Book 2015 finished for the year. It contained within a lovely way to honour and reflect on what I've accomplished in 2015, and to see what I want to celebrate and bring forward into the coming new year. Effy's project included the rose border and the words, but the face is my own addition. Thought I would just post photos of how this one evolved ::

Click on any photo to see it larger, or go HERE to see the completed art in my Flickr album of all my Life Book projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book HERE.

LB2015 : You are Wise

I've not had time to do any Life Book projects this month until now. Have been happy to have kept up with Documented Life weekly, to have made my Christmas cards and the bookmarks were a bonus. But yesterday (Boxing day) and this morning, we've had some time relaxing at home, and I was able to find time to make art. With a few project choices, I rolled the dice again. Another lesson created by Tam, this one was looking at some of our 'limiting beliefs' : those deep rooted beliefs we have that stop us from moving forward, or that hinder our progress and growth in life. We looked at how we can 'be present' to these thoughts, really become more aware of them and try and transform your thinking to liberating beliefs. I started sketching my figure. 

She is supposed to be soaring above a hill (which becomes a symbol for your liberating beliefs) but as I did her face, and pencilled in some swirl curls framing her face, I got the feeling she's my wise guardian angel - reminding me to rise above - to be strong - that I CAN...I added some colour to her face, and rather than starting to draw a hill, I found I wanted her floating above a garden (click on any photo to see it larger). 

Next step in the process was to add some collage, and before I knew it, I was channeling the botanical theme and applying some of my favourite serviette to her dress, and adding some floral tape....happily whilst looking for some text for another project, I recently found my word of the year again (in a large print book) - it feels right to include this somewhere in what could be my last Life Book project for the year since I'm about to start the process of choosing a new word for 2016. Time to add colour - I am loving her face and hair

Next was applying modeling paste with a spatula through stencils

I love the textural effect, and decided to keep mine white to add nice contrast to the colour behind

Hanging from her dress, a list of liberating beliefs to carry me into 2016

And I felt the need to add glitter - my word for 2015 overlays her heart

I noticed that at some point her face had some purple transferred to her cheek - I've left it there because it looks a bit like freckles, and I like the imperfect charm it adds

I enjoyed adding detail to the flowers

And here's my page complete : 

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

LB2014 : free lesson

In August 2014, Tam offered for a FREE Life book lesson from earlier that year. The instructions are all still available at that link if you are inspired to have a go yourself. This is her lovely inky spray portrait :

I've always loved the look of all that gorgeous inky juicy colour and decided that next I could try this or one of 3 other lessons I've not done so far in LB2015. I wrote down the numbers of the lessons (32, 43, 45, and 14 for this lesson) and then I threw a dice to decide which one I would do. I find this is a great way to find out what your heart really wants....First number I got was 5 which immediately made me wish that the 2014 lesson had come up, so that made the decision easy!
Here's how she happened :

I used Dylusions ink sprays here. If you're not clear about what inks go well together without making mud, there's an excellent video by Dyan Reaveley HERE which explains her colour mixing with her inks.

Love how that pink frames her face. Adding more inky lusciousness :

And I love how her curls turned out. I had sooo much fun with this project and I feel so very happy when I look at her finished :-)

You can click on the photo to see her larger, or see her in the  Flickr album for all my Life Book projects HERE. See all my posts about Life Book HERE. She'll be bound in with my 2015 projects at the end of the year.