PLAY - Life Book 2018

So I haven't exactly been keeping up with all the lessons in Life Book. I've got more projects "in progress" than I care to admit and several lessons I haven't even watched yet. But I have been spending time creating! In addition to getting back into digi-scrapping, here are my recently completed projects:

The Life Book lesson below was titled "Mandalas of Positive Light" with Instructor Louise Gale.  It is one of my favorite pieces to date!  You start with a very bright watercolor background and then mute it with a lot of white gesso on top - thick in some places, thinner in others to vary how much color comes through.  Mine is still very bright compared to the instructors.  Other than some circle templates (think tracing bottle caps, cups, etc.) the mandalas are all hand drawn.  They are not perfectly even and it totally doesn't matter!  I showed this picture on my phone to Deanna while we were on retreat, explained the basic concept, and next thing I knew she was cranking out mandalas like crazy!

This next lesson goes waaaaaay back - week NINE - it was titled "Friends are the Flowers in the Garden of Life" (the quote used on the Instructor's version) with Instructor Effy Wild.  Starting with a painted gold background, then adding layers of mixed media, finally topped with hand-drawn flowers.  My attempts to color in the flowers with Tombow markers was an exercise in futility - the colors wouldn't show up.  I ended up using Posca paint pens which worked beautifully!  Regular acrylics would have worked as well I think, but I wasn't being fussy about this piece - I was just enjoying the process.  If I was being fussy, I would have to totally re-do the quote because my lettering (size and spacing) was just way off the mark.

Point is, the exercise alone was so much fun, I ended up doing a second version with a copper background (not really clear in the photo, but the background is a shiny metallic):

These following two pieces aren't Life Book lessons.  I just challenged myself while on vacation to create some watercolor paintings using photos I had taken as inspiration.  I bought a little 5.5 x 8" watercolor pad that is easy to travel with.  I made a small art kit (makeup bag size) including one small set of watercolors, Tombow markers, a couple of paint brushes, 2 graphite pencils, an eraser, and black and white Posca paint pens.  It really is amazing what you can create with such a limited set of supplies!

I finally got smart enough to start marking my work with the Life Book lesson week and instructor, so I don't have to go back to figure it out!  This mandala lesson was on using opposites (circles/squares) to create a cohesive whole.  It was fun and meditative! Done while on a work trip, also in the small watercolor book, also with limited supplies.  In fact, here I only used a couple of Tombow markers and the Posca paint pens.

This isn't a Life Book lesson, but it is from Tamara LaPorte - it's a mini class called "Sacred Inner Eye"  ($22.49 to purchase on it's own) and really gets into the finer points of drawing an eye - not meant to be entirely realistic.  Fantastic lesson!  Also completed on that work trip with the supply kit mentioned above.

These lessons are really stretching me and I'm learning so much - if you want to do sketching/drawing/painting, I can highly recommend Life Book... or anything that Tamara teaches!

Creative Team Share

Remember I told you I joined a few new Creative Teams?  Here's my first post!

I was accepted on Tami Miller Designs team.  Tami's work can be found at ScrapGirls.com and MyMemories.com.  Her newest kit - "Give" - released this week:

And you can find it Here

When I played with the kit, here is what I came up with:

I also played with two of her older kits.
 "Just Breathe":

Available HERE

and "Sweet Memories":

Available HERE

 I fell in LOVE with the torn edged papers available in the Collection! 

Tami's kits use a lot of colors that I love and have a bit of that shabby chic vibe that feels so ME.  Just hoping I can keep up with her!

PLAY - Life Book 2018

Sorry to say that I'm a bit behind in this course.  I'm still creating, but I have a lot of projects in various stages of completion and haven't started anything from the most recent three weeks of classes.  But hey, I haven't given up and packed up my brushes either!  So I suspect the creativity will all come in due time, right???

Here's what I've been up to:

 This is my art for Week 15.  The teacher was Christie Dranak and she wanted us to draw a self-portrait of our super hero.  Of course, with a LOT of artistic license... here's my inner super woman... in power pose... wearing the red dress that's hanging in my closet but doesn't fit me ... just yet ... I'm working on that!

And this is my Sacred Dream Bowl from Week 13 teacher Nanda Boukes.  We were supposed to make a bowl from clay, but sculpting just isn't my thing, so I found a ceramic bowl at a thrift shop for 49 cents to use as my base.  I finished with a white pearlescent paint that muted the colors a bit more than I preferred, but for a first attempt at this kind of 3D art, I'm still happy with it!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

March has been a little nuts in my neck of the woods - not one, not two, but THREE Nor'easter storms rolled through here in the space of eleven days.  And the weather forecasters got anticipated accumulation wrong for my home town in each instance.  Winter Storm Riley on March 2nd caught us quite by surprise.  We were supposed to get a couple of inches starting AFTER the evening commute.  Instead it started around eleven a.m. and  was coming down at the rate of 2 inches per hour.  Plus very high winds. So the area surrounding my home town experienced ice, covered by slush, covered by heavy wet snow, lots of downed wires and trees, and cars and school buses full of children stuck everywhere.  I had been at the office for a meeting.  Left before 2 p.m. and it took me two hours to get home and this is how that trip ended:

Stuck at the bottom of my own driveway!  Jay left the same area 20 minutes after me and it took him three hours to get home.  I had the driveway cleared and my car moved by the time he arrived.

The storm also knocked over our back yard neighbor's fence.  We're hoping he decides to just take it down.

In total about 8" of wet heavy snow.

 The next two storms brought LESS than was forecast for our area - Winter Storm Quinn on the 7th gave us about 6" (originally forecast to be in the 10-16" band).   Luckily, we had some warning this time and all stayed home to ride it out.  Followed by Winter Storm Skylar on the 12th which only left about 2" and instead skirted to the east and north and pounded Boston.  Now that we are days away from officially being Spring, I'm hoping this nonsense will slow down!

The weather hasn't stopped me from traveling for work, or from living my word PLAY while attempting to keep up with Life Book, FIT, and One Little Word.  My most recent creative efforts:

All watercolor, except the face.  I chose excerpts from the Desiderata for the writing exercise.  Tried to use drawing gum and a calligraphy nib as a resist technique (that was the lesson).  Failed miserably, but at least I tried!  Ended up having to go over it with a white paint pen to make it legible.

I tried to make the proportions on this face a little more realistic than my first (which were not meant to be proportional but whimsical) The eyes are still huge, but I like it for the expression.

Another Life Book exercise - my Quirky Bird - designed to showcase my own unique quirks and weirdness - like how much I enjoy singing in the car, loudly, and badly, but with complete abandon because there is nobody to hear me, shush me, or squelch my joy. - and how I am naturally clumsy and have two left feet (this poor bird's awkward feet were not an accident) - and how I have a tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve...

A 6x8" mini vision board for my FIT journey.  No explanation needed.

I joined Susannah Conway's "Your Soul Speaks" class about tuning in to your intuition.  The most recent exercise was to create a vision board of what your soul looks like right now.  This is what came out for me.

And finally, another Life Book lesson - this time an intuitive abstract painting with watercolors and acrylic.  Finished with a botanical image.  The artist teaching this lesson had beautifully drawn leaves in ink.  I practiced on scratch paper and found my freehand ink skills were akin to a toddler drawing, so went with a Posca paint pen to complete this.  I used a photo of a sunset in California as my inspiration... feel like I maybe ended up with a sunset on Mars????  So entirely different from anything I would normally do!

I'm loving the time I'm spending being creative just for me.  None of these are art works, they won't be for sale, they won't end up framed or shared anywhere but here and in the classrooms.  And yet they make me so happy.

What is making you happy these days?  How are you making time to PLAY?

Hello 2018! Let's PLAY!

It has not escaped me that we are already 2 1/2 weeks into 2018.  But it has taken me a little longer to really wrap my arms about what I want and expect from this year, what my goals and dreams are and how I want to approach the year.  I'm starting to feel a little organized... not all the way yet... but getting there!

One Little Word - PLAY.  
What I know for sure is that I don't want this year to be all about work like last year was.  I'm still going to be traveling at least once a month for work, but I don't want to feel all-consumed by it. So I'm committed to MAKE time to play.  I joined Ali Edwards' One Little Word course again this year - turns out I really missed it last year although I doubt I'd have had time to keep  up anyway!
These are my initial pages for my One Little Word/ FIT album for 2018.  Not much in the way of art or decoration - I was trying to keep it simple and just get it done!

 

I also joined in Cathy Zielski's 2018 version of FIT again.  I'm carrying my theme of PLAY through the FIT exercises as well.  I want to approach fitness / wellness this year with a more lighthearted playful manner - just moving my body in ways that brings me joy and making healthy choices in what I feed my body and my soul!

I took photos and measurements but I'm keeping that private for now.  It's not about the numbers - it is all about how I FEEL this year!  Of course, I no sooner started tracking steps again and hitting my goal of 6000 steps per day than I somehow injured my foot and ended up with posterior tibial tendonitis.  But it is a temporary setback!  I'm still in a brace and probably won't get back to walking for a couple of weeks.  But I'm not letting that get me down.

In order to keep motivated to PLAY, I also joined Tamara Laporte's Life Book 2018 class.  Life Book is a year long mixed media art class that also incorporates bits of yoga, aromatherapy, mindfulness, and other wellness activities.  So far I'm thrilled with this course!  Here's a bit of what I've been making:

 This was our "warm up" exercise.  Which honestly took me an entire week because I wanted to do it justice.

This one was a week two "bonus" exercise.  Created while I was in Rockville for work.  I had only brought some neocolor II watercolor crayons and a couple of gel pens with me as supplies.  I bought the stamp and a super cheap black stamp pad at a craft store.  I used a coffee cup sleeve from my hotel room to stamp the texture.

This "compassion bear" was also a week two "bonus" exercise and created at the hotel room with very limited supplies.  I think I'd like a second go at this guy, but he'll have to do for now because I'm determined to keep up with the class!!!

What I really want to cultivate this year is a sense of lightheartedness, joy, freedom, space, and adventure.  I want to laugh more, move more, create more, and feel gratitude for all of life's little pleasures. I want to nurture my body, my soul, and my relationships.

I've chosen the hummingbird as my symbol for the year.  It is said to represent enjoyment of life and lightness of being.  That seems to sum up what I'm hoping for and working towards in 2018!