Word Challenge and Soul Journal

On our Big Art Adventure blog Rosie challenged us to think of a defining word for 2009. I chose ........

Smile (remember my rock?)

The colours on these photos are not good, sorry. The light has been so bad over the past few days I've had problems photographing this. The girl in the middle?........Thats a school photo of me. The photographer was probably saying smile.

SOUL JOURNAL
For the Soul Journal prompt (no:16) Kathryn asked us to find our defining words, stick them onto a journal page and doodle around them. "Pull out those magazines and quickly flip through. Don't look at the images, focus rather on the words. Don't think about what you are picking out just tear or cut out words that resonate with you".
I've decided I need to let go of certain things this year so I'm also choosing the word release .
And my shoulders will be a good place to start - they've kept my ears warm for too long!!

Anyway, here's my journal page ......... thank you Kathryn for the inspiration.

I decided to do zentangle-style doodling, mainly using a black PITT artist pen.

Journal Cover

At the end of last year I subscribed to Sarah Whitmire's online Joggles class to do a journal cover. I downloaded the pdfs and decided to have a go today.
The first step was to tear pictures and papers and glue them onto the cover with a central focus. I chose the gorgeous pomegranate napkin (another gift from Jacky!), some scrapbooking paper, plus some script tissue paper which my daughter gave me (I think it was wrapped around her All Saints purchases). Next, I scraped gesso through a plastic flourish stencil from http://craftynotions.com/ and some sequin waste. This had to dry overnight.

I then applied lots of layers of paints and messed around wiping it on and off and adding LuminArte powders until I was reasonably happy with the effect.

Lastly I added some words and a metal corner decoration.

Now I'm ready to start journalling again.

I'm Back....

I wasn't sure whether to post anything today, as I haven't really got much to show you, but then I thought it might do me good.........

The past few weeks have been tough for me and my family. My dad's mental and physical health deteriorated and mum became quite poorly. She's almost 80 and has struggled to look after dad for the past 18 months - I helped as much as I could, but she's had to cope with his disabilities 24 hours a day. There have been many occasions when we've tried to persuade her to give in.

Anyway, by New Years Eve even she knew 'the time had come'.... something she had been dreading. After a visit from the doctor, Dad's social worker fetched him at 5pm and took him to a dementia care home. Maybe you can imagine how devastating this was for my mum, having to quickly put some things in a bag for him and say goodbye.

The last few days have been difficult and upsetting - especially when we went to visit him on Sunday. I can't even begin tell you what that was like......too awful.

So, I've found it difficult to concentrate on making anything but here are a few things I can show.....

On a lighter note - this is the card DH gave me for Christmas. Its so brilliant - she even looks like me!! I even wore a similar dress on Christmas day! DH wanted to know when I found the time to go and model for Quentin Blake.

Have you ever tried these gorgeous 'Mozart Chocolates' that you can buy from Aldi? They have a lovely marzipan and truffle filling. I've kept all the wrappers and used one on the charm that I made for our challenge on http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/

I've managed to make an arch for the Gothic Arch Challenge - the theme this month is New Year. At the bottom it says ..... have the courage to make a difference.

This is a collage project I've just started - its not finished yet. You may have spotted the tree making another appearance! Its from one of the napkins sent to me by my friend Jacky in Australia.

And finally.... some of my blogging friends have been discussing having a 'meaningful word' for 2009. Well I have decided to have two.....

My first is RELEASE. There are many reasons why I need to keep this word in mind but I won't bore you with all the details.

My second word is SMILE. I haven't had a lot to smile about just recently but I'm going to do it a lot more often from now on! Smiling not only makes me feel better inside - I know it makes me look better as well - I have that kind of face.

Two years ago I found this rock on a beach in Corfu .... this is exactly how I found it, it has not been altered in any way. I think its trying to tell me something .........

Its going to sit on the shelf facing me in my craft room this year. Just in case I need reminding.

Happy New Year everyone. Hope its a good one......

Chocolate Truffles

I've done a different kind of crafting today...I made whisky, ginger and chocolate truffles!
Here's the recipe:
250g plain chocolate
95g unsalted butter
95g ginger biscuits
2tbsp whisky
cocoa powder
chopped walnuts (optional)

Just melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over hot water, add the whisky, crush the biscuits in a plastic bag with a rolling pin and mix everything together!
Put the mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours before rolling small pieces into balls and dipping in cocoa powder. I also rolled some in icing sugar and chopped walnuts.
Keep them in the fridge.

Thank You Sesga!

I've met so many wonderful people since I started blogging 9 months ago and one of them is Sesga http://sesgaloves1950s.blogspot.com/

She and I started blogging at the same time; we somehow found each other and have been friends ever since.

I often tell her she's a sweetheart and she really is. Look what she sent me for Christmas.... 3 of her gorgeous peg dolls. They are so cute - and she even did them in my favourite colours.

Not only that but she sent 2 in a little parcel just for my mum.

Thank you Sesga.... we hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

JOY

Joy is one of my favourite words. Its my daughters middle name. When she was younger she used to tell me off and say mummy, its not a real name!! But now she's grown to like it.

So I shall use this tag for one of her presents. Its one of Tim's tags from last Christmas; you can find it here - go and have a look, it's rather lovely.

Here's mine....

I made the leaves for the wreath by cutting fabric with a soldering iron. (I think its organza, but I'm not certain.) I love doing this...there's an element of danger, admittedly, but just occasionally I like to live dangerously!

Anyway, it gives an interesting edge and of course, it doesn't fray.

(Yes - I know my soldering iron needs cleaning.)

Some of the leaves I stamped onto card which I had previously coloured with acrylic paints.

Going back to DD - I've bought her a box of make up for Christmas from ASOS. Its in the most gorgeous box with lots of little pull-out drawers. When you open it it plays music and there's a little twirling dancer inside! You may be thinking how old is she.....(she's 25 - but it's ok because she asked if she could have it.) Isn't it cute?

I had a horrible day yesterday......certain things were getting to me and I felt like I was sinking into a depression; I couldn't do any artwork or settle to anything. But thankfully today is better.....I've got carols playing in the background, I've wrapped most of the presents and tonight I'm going out with DH for a pizza, then a film (Quantum of Solace). I'm trying to be positive and thankful for everything good in my life. Why do we let Christmas get us down? Its supposed to be joyful, which is where I came in...........

Merry Christmas Everyone!

(This is my conservatory. Sorry it's a bit blurry but you have to hold the camera really still when it's dark and I'd probably had a couple of Chardonnays.....................)

12 tags of christmas - 6 and 8

Here are tags 6 and 8 (I wasn't keen on 7 and didn't have all that snowy stuff - sorry Tim!)

I'm not keen on the bird one, but I really like the way my baubles turned out!

I didn't have grungeboard ones so I just cut them out of card. I didn't have metallic crackle so I used glitter glue and I didn't have Tim's Christmas stamps so I just used a mixture of patterned stamps for the background. In fact - you could say mine are 'tags on a budget!!'

If you want to see Tim Holtz's proper versions, have a look here....... Merry Christmas everyone!