Creative space clearing and preparation for 2018

I'm on holiday this week. My Christmas shopping is done and I'm all ready except for the groceries and cooking preparation for the day when my family descends. Today I had an afternoon free and decided to spend it in my studio. I am so very lucky to have a room where I can store supplies, create, and enjoy my art. I share the space with my husband's musical instruments, but I seem to now have about 3/4 of the room! .... I use it more than 3/4 of the time though. I call it "My Studio" ♥

As part of our preparation for my online Moonshine class with Effy Wild, we were encouraged to clear space for the new year, and to find a spot for a studio altar. My studio was a bomb site before I started - lots of things dumped without having time to find the right place to store them properly

As well as that, the shelves and sills above my work tables were functional rather than inspiring....

I've never had a studio altar - I wasn't really sure what it meant. In our first handout it just talked about finding a spot where you can keep "a few sacred objects". Still a bit unsure, I did a big of googling and came across a nice explanation from Adele Wayman HERE - My intent is to show that an artist’s altar is a place to make explicit that which is often implicit in an artist’s work – that making art is a sacred practice. This fits well with what the Moonshine class is about I think.
I really like what Bridget Conn has to say HERE - We make altars without realizing it. It starts by simply organizing a space. Perhaps the objects placed there have something in common – although this may be only through an intuitive response at first. Then perhaps, given time, we start to make some conscious connections between items, and begin to unravel their significance...To sum up a bit easier, this work is about the sacredness of objects...I like objects that hold stories, objects that people hold dear. 
And with all that in mind, whether you call it an alter or not, I've always liked to gather things that inspire me, and to hold special people/objects close. As I cleared my space, I consiously moved the functional away from a couple of areas, and created some places where objects of significance and joy to me are visible and make me feel both happy and inspired.

The shelf above my computer - fabric banner (made with my Grandmother's serviettes - a fav mixed media piece), my inspiration project jars, Celebrate Angel by Kelly Rae Roberts (gifted for my 50th by special friends), see the Garden Accordian book HERE. 
I cleared space in my wire basket stack by tossing some stuff and moving more books and magazines on my shelves

and used the basket stack instead for my stash of pretty papers that used to be stored on the shelves above my sewing desk, with the top basket for waiting projects and mending 

And then I was able to extend my lovely gatherings on my shelves

and the desk only has my current "She Blooms" gatherings and large art journal on it ♥

I love the clear space - all ready to create more busy creative mess ;-) And this was my window desk view before

and after

I've moved my more functional things to each side, and used the middle window space (framed with hearts ♥) for gathering together favourite objects. I've used Effy's suggestion of including a candle, shell, feather and stone to represent the elements. These were all on my sill before, but now they are placed where I can give them more appreciation and attention.

I also added some affirmation glass squares, and special gifted objects resting on some of my great grandmother's lace 

I'm not sure that I've made altars, but I've cleared space, and gathered special objects and my studio space inspires me again. Views from my desk as I type here : 

I hope you're managing to find some time for creativity and space clearing. It's such a great feeling.
You can enrol for Moonshine HERE - special discounted pricing at present, and even cheaper if you buy the bundle of this and Book of Days 2018.

Christmas cards

I've got in the habit of making an annual batch of Christmas cards. I don't usually know when I start what I'm going to do, and this year was even more serendipitous since I did a base page in my art journal and had some excess paint which I decided to scrape off onto card bases with an old credit card. I was surprised at how many that gave me! 

Gorgeous iridescent gold glow to these - perfect for the festive season. Then I took these bases with me to my recent happy creative weekend away at the beach and added some bits of Christmas serviettes and then stencils as took my fancy.

I love the wee angel girls on horseback and have used up all my serviettes with this image now. Came home and added stitch and stamped words to finish them off

Not long now....Merry Merry ♥

Daily Journaling Week 50

This week the prompts on the blog for Life Documented 2017 HERE were: 

Prompt: Baby, it's cold outside

Technique: Use some thread (or fabric)

Anything but cold at my house, but thought I could do something with collaged papers layered with fabric and thread to give a bit of a December Daily flavour. I'm so busy both at work and socially I thought I'd create space for some more traditional daily journaling again to start my spread this week

Then I did a simple background on the facing page and worked on a piece of cardstock.

Used gold staples for the heart

and a variety of collage, stencils, tape and thread/stitch elements

Although I vowed to keep it simple and missed that mark (!) I like how it turned out

You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE.