Kasia's Advent Calendar : Days 12-14

This project is inspired by prompts from Kasia's online project (sorry no longer available for sign up). Here's how my December Daily journal looked by end of Day 11.

I'm creating on individual pages and then gluing them into my book cover. 
Day 12 : Moon. I created this page on 22nd December so instead of the Full Moon of the 12th, I'm celebrating Summer Solstice. There's still a moon

but it's most definitely more about the sun and the cycle of seasons

Day 13 : Yes. Decided I'd do some prompts on single pages to switch things up. I've been working on a full spread which is 9" x 6.5" so now I'm challenging myself with only 4.5" x 6.5". Working small is hard for me. This prompt is about whimsy - saying yes to pink stars, pink reindeer, yes to mixing paper and stitch

Yes to embracing Pink ♥ 

And although I don't know what Day 14 is going to be, I just felt I wanted to add that green doily to start the next page...

Day 14 : Random words. I LOVE using found words in my projects and have some lovely large print romance and saga novels that always turn up great words serendipitously for my projects. I decided to close my eyes and tear a page randomly for this prompt. This turned out to contain a message of great personal meaning 

It's obvious that my cover is not going to fit around all my pages by the end....just as well I have a plan for this.

Find all my posts about this project HERE or just look at the photos in my Flickr Set.

Kasia's Advent Calendar : Days 9-11

Loving this project and there is time to catch up now that I am on holiday. I have been so inspired by the mindful prompts, the thoughtful presentation by Kasia of each lesson, and what I'm learning with every spread. I am creating on separate pages so I can include stitch and then gluing them into my cover (to be altered at the end) Here's how my book looked by end of Day 8

Day 9 : Breathe. I was having a tough day when I responded to this prompt - divine timing ♥ It made me just concentrate on the process of doing something that helped me in the moment. I began with the spread I had used on the first day for cleaning off some paint

and I went straight in to draw the heart, the word Breathe, and then filled in with some watercolour before adding the the other elements that are meaningful to me. 

When upset I try and lift myself by practicing gratitude and remembering all the things I am lucky to have in my life.

Day 10 : "Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop" - Rumi. This was an exercise in releasing feelings by free-writing on the page. I have done this before and it is great, but when I saw Tree I thought Pohutukawa = our New Zealand Christmas tree.  So I headed off with my own feelings about NZ Christmas ♥ Began with a stencil and some washi tape, and then free wrote a list of my thoughts, activities, memories about NZ Christmas and this time of year. Again this page was more about process than pretty

Day 11 : The Scents = Lilies is my first thought - followed closely by roses and strawberries. Loving the textures

Once more this page shows I'm a girl from the Southern Hemisphere ♥ 

Not worried that I am "behind". Going through a tough time at the moment and art-making really helps. I will keep working and share 2-3 spreads with you at a time until done. Find all my posts about this project HERE or just look at the photos in my Flickr Set.

Christmas cards

Made some Christmas cards for work friends. I'll be making another set for a few special people, but gone are the days of making a batch of 20-30 to send out. I have an awesome bunch of work mates. Most of the women are friends outside work as well so I wanted to make some handmade cards. Begun when I sprayed through a stencil for the background for a journal page and then dabbed the ink off the top of the stencil randomly on folded card

I LOVED the white tree with modeling paste that I made for my white on white journal page so that came next

Finished with some twinkling H2O watercolour paint, a punched star and stamped words. They are fairly simple and I love their inky imperfection

Similar but each unique ♥ Click on the photo to see them really large.