Moonshine : Moon Mandala

It's been full moon and that's a time for celebration and release, for course correction and gratitude. I already talked about course correction HERE and my intention for April is to rest and recharge. I decided a mandala would be a great way to celebrate the learnings I'm receiving from this class. This is a crossover lesson because it's also inspired from our last Book of Days lesson for Session 1 before Hiatus - see Effy's HERE. Making art in the round is a meditative process so it was both fun and restful. I began with a couple of stencils at my centre

And built out from there with white gel pen, moonlight pens (appropriate I think ♥) and other metallics

My inky background represents our shortening days and I wanted to include autumnal colours - leaves are turning but there is still plenty of green and sunshine. 

I love to include words in my art - sometimes as affirmations

- sometimes as a reminder of where I am right now

I love this face at the centre - imperfect, soft

And my completed page makes me very happy

You can sign up for this and other classes by Effy Wild HERE. See my Flickr album of all art work inspired by Effy's classes HERE.

April brings...

So we're a quarter of the way through the year! We are heading into Autumn in New Zealand and this is an extra-long Easter weekend for my family (we are off Tuesday as well). I use school holiday times and changes of season to 'course correct' - to consider where I am in my creative journey and what is still serving me. 
I am tired....and while others are talking about new daily challenges, I am feeling called to rest and really attend to self-care. Maybe it's part of the cycle of seasons. I'm sure it's partly my grief process as well. Just took a break from writing this to check my emails and read this from Brave Girls' Club : 

Recharge, rest, restore, and renew. Fill yourself back up so that you can keep shining that beautiful radiant life of yours.
Taking it as a sign from the universe ♥ SHINE is my word of the year. 
After quite a bit of thought, here's my course correction for April : 

• I am NOT making a checklist of projects to complete for this month.
• I have set up a place to write and I want to do more journaling in my Inner Work Journal.
  
• I REALLY want to stitch more
  
• I need to complete my clearing spaces to spark joy and am looking forward to changing out my wardrobe for cooler weather towards the end of the month
• I am taking a break from my #52stamps challenge for April
• Hopefully I'll still be creating things to blog about

Happy Easter to you. I'd love to hear how the change of season is affecting you.

Looking forward : Spark joy

My word for this year is SHINE. February was hard but I'm heading into March with a positive outlook and some new things to think about and be inspired by. I am still enjoying writing and planning in my Inner Work Journal. I always keep a record of what I've been reading and watching during the month - it's a bit eclectic since some of the watching is dictated by what we want to watch as a family (teenage boys in mine) and sometimes the reading includes books that I am trying out to share in my job as school librarian. This was Feb : 

I wanted to share this because I highly recommend "Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine" and "The Orphan's Tale". "Paddington" movie is also charming - must try and see the second which I've been told is even better! 
At the end of each month I do a bit of a review and a look ahead, based around some prompts from Susannah Conway about checking in with your word.

One of the prompts asks "How can I bring more SHINE into my home?" so I've been reading this book from our lovely library

and am feeling really enthusiastic to try some clearing in my home and also in my studio. I like that the title aligns with "Shine" for me ♥ This is a nice review of the kinds of results I hope to get out of this process. If you want to take it even further, Brave Girls have a course currently running called Soul Shaker

It's about decluttering all aspects of your life, and you can join the free FB group to get some insights without joining the paid course.
In Effy's Moonshine class we are exploring Origins and Oracles this months and I thought you might like to see some FREE offerings that have been shared in our group. I considered  making my own oracle deck. I don't think I am up to that this month but have saved this free class for later. 

If you are wanting to inject some more magic/woo woo into your life, there's this 30 day challenge which you can access HERE (and do any time)

and Effy has created a YouTube of how she's approaching that for this month HERE. 
For those of us in transition for whatever reason/s, this is available to buy or for free printable download

New stencils always make me happy = cheap from Warehouse Stationery

and special ones from Etsy Wonderstrumpet 

AND I have just started drawing mandalas inspired by Andrea Schroeder which also spark joy ♥ "It's about the process, not the product"

Happy March to you. 

Gratitude journal pages

One of the things I want to do this year is work on uncompleted classes I've purchased previously.  One of these is the Grateful HeART Journal with Alisa Burke.

 

While I don't want to create another journal this year, one of my supporting words for SHINE is gratitude

I thought it would be cool to do some pages in my Inner Work Journal inspired by some of the class prompts. Grateful Heart Journal is structured in 30 small but inspiring posts. The concept is that you have one simple idea, prompt, inspiration, technique to work through each day for 30 days
The first demo was of a heart and I decided to do that in my large journal as it also fit the prompt for Week 1 : Journal52. You can see that post HERE.

The next prompt was done in my Inner work journal - thinking about what I was grateful for that day and creating a word mandala - note I included my magic stamp ♥

It inspired quite a lot of written journaling as a result which was also helpful.
Then I needed the space of my large journal again. I was feeling a bit down and found it really calming and positive to lay down lovely colours to lift my spirits

Next up some mark making with black and white, and purple seemed a wise choice ♥ It was a meditative process

Then I added my inspirational quote with co-ordinating butterfly = LOVE 

Another simple prompt but the effect of the process helped me change my feelings. 
I am finding this class wonderful - prompts that are easy to respond to and get me creating at times when I don't feel like I have it in me. I am grateful I haven't used this class until now. I need it now more than I did at the time of purchase... You can still purchase the Grateful HeART Journal class HERE. Keep an eye out for when she offers classes on special. 

Daily Journaling Week 12

It's only been a week since I've posted but I feel like I haven't talked to you for much longer than that.... how are you? I've had a week of being unwell - migraines to start last Monday and that progressed to days of a heavy head cold to finish it, but at least today I can share with you what micro-movements of 5-10 minutes a day can do....
I'm following the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. Week 12 : Cut up a magazine, add! And from the blog for Life Documented 2017 : Mandalas by Francisca Nunes. Her Prompt : doodle and use bloom Mandalas
Technique : play with washes and drips of watercolors
Even though I've not been feeling my best, I've been able to manage little bits of art time which have added up to a whole spread for my Daily Journaling last week. These photos show my small daily progress. Day 1 all I could do was add spray to paper (loving that turquoise from another project - it later informs my colour choices)

Day 2 - added another flap and then drippage - first from the tape end dripping down to make the horizontal lines for journaling

Then drippage for vertical interest on the inner spread

Day 3 Mandala doodling

Day 4 More mandala doodling

Day 5 - needed a bit more background interest with my drips so added some 'mandala-like' stencil shapes with spray and printed too

gorgeous gold shimmer

Day 6 I wanted a large mandala in the centre spread but wanted a short-cut this week, so I printed off a free colouring mandala shape from Alisa Burke (get yours HERE) and traced over some of it on carbon paper to transfer some outlines to my page

Then I went over it with Posca pen and added my own swirls for journaling spots

Day 7 added colour and lines to the mandala in my own style and glued down some of the mandalas I'd doodled on paper earlier

Day 8 Finishing touches - plenty of mandalas but I also needed to "cut up a magazine and add" - I had always intended to add found words, but as I flicked through some magazines to find them, I decided this clock face would fit well with my week of using little bits of time to create a beautiful whole. So here's the completed spread with flap closed

and open

You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE. I'm on the mend so hoping there'll be more time and energy to create this week and that I'll see you again soon.

LB2016 : Mandala Girl with Renata Loree

Been wanting to have some time to attempt this May Life Book 2016 lesson from Renata Loree. She actually demonstrated 2 options of women with Mandalas as the focal, and I thought I might attempt both. With that in mind I started by adding my watercolours to 2 pieces of watercolour paper - since I am working in a recycled book this year, I need to do these pieces separately to get the lovely watercolour effect, and then they will be glued in to my book on completion.

Next was to add the mandalas - since I don't have a mandala stencil as such, I used a couple of different stencil options, with gesso followed by a layer of spray on top. 

First up was to make my sprayed area look more like a mandala. I added some green gold paint to the mandala and some touches in the background, and you can see I've already added some gesso to the area her face will be. Click on any photo to see it larger.

I started sketching the face, and this young girl appeared

At this point I decided to add some more stencils for background interest and inky paper for some extra variety

White and gel pens add important details to her face, hair, and on the mandala

Because my watercolour paper was smaller than my book page, I was able to machine stitch around the outside to add a bit more texture and add my chosen words directly to the background page

before gluing her in completed

Click on the photo to see it larger, or go HERE to see my Flickr album of all my Life Book 2016 projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book this year HERE.