a bit of this and that

It's been a funny kind of week. After my last post, I just couldn't seem to find my groove and wandered a bit - literally and mentally. I'm putting it down to the lack of sleep and the wild dream, although I have slept a bit better since. It's a kind of unsettled feeling, as if I'm in limbo and not sure of where to head. Is my love affair with solitude coming to an end? Part of me screams 'Not Yet Please' while another part whispers 'Yes it's time to look outside again'.

But 'outside' is not the same anymore and I unsure how to navigate this new world. So I'll just stay home a little longer and try for a return to the contentment I felt during the last few months. I wonder if we are all a little at a loss about how to move into this new way of life? Surely I'm not alone in my bewilderment?

I started last week with a little watercolour sketch of some backyard roses my oldest granddaughter brought me. There aren't many flowers to be had at this time of year here, so these were much appreciated. I'm a bit of a dabbler in many types of arty pursuits but there's something simple and childlike in watercolours and I always feel soothed after an hour of splashing pretty colours on paper! 

It's getting very frosty in the morning's and way too chilly at night...which means it's hottie time!! I made this one out of an old blanket for my daughter last year and borrowed it to trace the pattern. So far that's all I've done and my own water bottle is still wrapped in an old jumper. I have hopes of actually being motivated to make one for me in the next few days. Or so. 

Then later in the week I gathered some op-shopped fabrics (and an old sweatshirt of mine) to cobble together some pyjama's for the two granddaughters. Ugh, I couldn't find right sized patterns so had to make do and add length and minus width - which I really dislike doing. Simple, straightforward and quick is my motto! I managed with minimal gnashing of teeth and they happily went home with a pyjama bottom each - the tops will get done another day. I hope ;o)

 I also started to shorten a shirt that Stuy had brought back from India a few years ago. He's hardly worn it and since I'm not a fan of the long length, I suggested I cut it off to make a tucked in shirt. I got as far as unpicking the pockets and then folded it neatly back onto the to-do pile. Like I said, not much motivation this week.

 This thrifted skirt did actually get a complete makeover!! Yay! I like my skirts above the knee and wear them with tights, so I'm always excited when I see one at the op-shop that fits and just needs a trim! This one is nice and swirly and I'm sorry now that I haven't got a photo of me wearing it. Oh well, you'll have to use your Minds Eye!

And I feel I need to mention that yes, I do all my cutting out on the floor. No tables here that are big enough to use for cutting since the only one we have has the sewing machine and my art stuff on it. Anyway, I tell myself that all the crawling around on the floor (but not the swearing) is good for my swerves! Although the swearing helps!!

Which brings me to today. After a gnarly start, my day just seemed to get worse until I finally just gave up and sat down to paint. And then I got inspired....and made a delicious dinner....and then more inspiration for this blog post! Amazing what a bit of art can do!!

Thankyou so much to all who commented on my sleepless night. As Regula said 'It's comforting to know that there are women all over the world not being able to sleep on occasion'. I agree. Women just like you and me. I hope you all have a wonderful sleep tonight - or a beautiful day!!

Thanks for stopping by xx

my creative station

Also known as a work desk although putting 'work' in that description is not really correct. This space is where I create delightful things such as art in journals or on canvas, collage in repurposed magazines, hand carved stamps, watercolour flowers in my nature journal, handmade books and planners and more. This desk mostly looks like this and sometimes worse and I constantly feel I "should clean up" but you know?.....creativity is messy and when the muse strikes its difficult to stop pulling out more hoarded treasures to use, more paint to splash or another book to cut up! All these things are certainly not work and in fact have been a life saver for the past few years, when I needed to process and sift  through lots of inner turmoil and some rage. I believe its personal therapy. And its opened up a whole new world for me, one which I am hoping to share with others some time in the future because I believe All Of Us Need To Express Ourselves With Paint! Or Pens! Or Paper and Glue!

On that note, Ive been busy making my diary/planner for this year. It's based on a Midori travellers notebook, also called a Fauxdori when they are home made - here is a basic tutorial but there are many more on Youtube, in all different arrangements and uses. I originally made mine two years ago and just bought small notebooks to use inside, dating them every time I added a new one but this year I wanted blank pages so I could do a bit of drawing and doodling as well as planning! So I just folded A4 sheets of heavy weight copy paper in half and stacked enough together, making a booklet for two months at a time. The days of the week are stamps that my youngest daughter and I carved and I'll just doodle, stencil or stamp the numbers, one booklet at a time. I can fit 3 in the cover, which is 6 months and they can just be taken out when one is finished, shuffled to the front and the new one added at the end. The Midori is a very clever idea but a bit out of my price range and besides, I like to make things!!!

For the last few years I've also been using Leonie Dawsons Brilliant Life Workbook (mostly because its just so prettily colourful) but also because I like to spend a chunk of time in January looking back over the previous year and writing down goals and possibilities for the new one...........and, well..... I just like to write and make lists! I've also been ruminating over my 'One Little Word' for 2017 - this is the fourth or maybe fifth year that I've used one word as a lodestone for the year and its always a gentle reminder of how I want to grow and what I want to focus on. I'll share a bit more about that in another post (perhaps).

I'm off to coax Miss Bliss to carve me some more numbers stamps - which might inspire me to clear my creative space! Is it worth it, do you think??!!!

Sending painterly hugs your way, Evi

thoughts on thursday

Thank you all for your kind thoughts on my last post. I'm still not quite sure of how much to share about my state of mind, so for now I'll just share a few interesting books, websites and classes that I've stumbled across in my search for 'peace of mind'!

Have I mentioned that last October I participated in a SoulCollage facilitator course? Maybe I have and I'm having a seniors moment but I'll tell you again anyway. I first came across Soul Collage on a women's forum that I'd joined in 2013 and was interested enough to find out more. Without too much searching I found the main web page and was instantly excited…soul work and creativity all in one!! Wow! I was instantly engrossed, watched the two short videos, read through lots of interesting information and tucked it all away for later. Fast forward to mid 2014 and a fortnight visit to NSW, where I spent one wonderful weekend with my heart-sister totally immersed in cutting, pasting and admiring a whole bunch of newly made cards. It was fabulous and when we discovered that there was a facilitator weekend happening in Melbourne, we took the plunge and signed up! For my friend J it was another healing modality to add to her Transpersonal Counselling diploma that she is studying, but for me it seemed like a (scary) opportunity to learn a new skill and perhaps teach others how to dialogue with their inner voices. In theory it was a great idea. In reality I've been too afraid of….well…..lots of things….
….what if I forget something.
….I can't do that properly.
….Im just a mum.
….I'm not good enough.

You get the idea.
And thats still the case. However, I was prodded by an acquaintance to give her and two of her friends a free 'test run' class. And it went really well - they were happy, I felt great and I even printed some flyers for another class, but then…..nothing. So here I am, still scared, still worrying and still confused. Sigh.

Amongst all this angst regarding SoulCollage though, I have been doing various other self empowerment classes, reading books and doing a lot of journaling, drawing and creating art. I've joined with many empowering, positive thinking, artistic, creative and womens business websites this past year; I've even paid for some mentoring but the fear of failure is still there and over winter when the weather draws in and the light is dim, I struggle with what could be and what is.

So, in case you are interested in anything I've just unburdened myself with, I've put together a list of websites that I've found either useful or interesting. Some I just read; some send me lovely emails each week which I sometimes read or sometimes delete; others are sites that interest me and that I will perhaps look into a bit more when I'm ready. These are just a random selection and I have no affiliation with any of them (as in, making money!!)

Jamie Ridler Studios - Jamie has the most soothing voice and lovely manner and I really enjoy listening to her varied and encouraging podcasts. I have an iPhone and use an app called Podcasts - Jamies channel is called Creative Living with Jamie. (Just for interests sake, here is a comparison list of the top ten podcast apps) Jamie also sends me a lovely email once a week with all sorts of interesting and creative ideas.

And while we are on the topic of podcasts, Shann Vander Leek has some great ones too. Her podcasts are called Divine Feminine Spotlight.

Sounds True also have great speakers and LOTS of cd's to buy! Once or twice a year they have a sale and the prices are remarkably cheap. I have rather a big collection of Clarissa Pinkola Estes work (author of Women who run with the Wolves) ……finding time to listen is my dilemma!

Somewhere in my web travels, I came across Holding Womanspace and was very tempted to join in with their 'Birthing Ourselves into Being' year long course. I love the look of their web home and through their sporadic newsletter I found this great article written by a woman here in Australia….scroll right to the bottom and watch the video - so beautiful.

Just recently I took the time to look up Byron Katie, someone I'd heard about here and there. Check out her free The Work program. 

On a more creative note, Kathryn Costa, The Collage Diva has a fantastic year of Mandalas happening right now. Loads of inspiration, a lovely newsletter and the chance to send in your own mandalas for publication.

Tamara Laporte at Willowing Arts has an awesome free painting tutorial; Jennibellie from the UK has more inspiration and a free ning site with loads more inspiration; The Documented Life Project from the girls at Art to the 5th is also free with a new arty prompt every week.

Now there are many more that I either haven't remembered or haven't time to link to right now! I hope you have some fun following the links and maybe making some arty mayhem of your own. No doubt you will find many rabbit trails to follow!
I'm heading off to spend another wonderful 2 weeks with my heart-sister in NSW (on the plane in about 3 hours actually, which why I must stop sharing now!) We are celebrating Spring Equinox by the river, having a mamas sleep over gathering and spending loads of time catching up with those bits of each others lives that slipped by this past 5 months.

Wishing you all a lovely slide into Spring - I'll be back soon

Much love to you all xx

really junky journals

Sometimes I feel a little snowed under with responsibilities, to do lists and other peoples needs and desires. My days are often a whirl of car trips to ballet or homeschool meetings or airport pickups for various family members. Then theres meals, washing to dry before the fire due to the wet weather, visits from daughters, babies and boyfriends and a huge plethora of other random happenings that occur when theres a large family living in close proximity.
Lately, I've also been trying to create more hand made repurposed books for a market stall I'm aiming to have in spring as well as some classes for journal making and SoulCollage®. Although I'm a licensed SoulCollage® facilitator, having trained in Melbourne last year, I've yet to be brave enough to give a class. With little quiet time to get my thoughts sorted enough to plan them out, all of these things have taken a backseat and I've been struggling just to get basic household jobs done……like feeding everyone a healthy meal on time or changing their sheets.

For me, creating something is almost as necessary as breathing. When I don't have the time to think, plan and move forward on my myriad ideas and dreams, I tend to fall in a very messy heap, so I've learned to go with my strong creative drive and just Do It! With a very stressful and busy week behind me last week, and nothing achieved on all the items that I had planned to do, I just needed to create SOMETHING!! Something that would lull my logical left brain into a state of somnolence, yet feed my creative right brain with hearty, arty fodder! These messy junk journals were just right!    

I had started these about 6 months ago but they were put aside while life moved along at its usual fast pace. The green one was created first, from something I saw online, probably someones blog. I tend to do that, just see something and think I can make that, and then try it! So I made the green one and almost finished it back then but really wanted to know how to Make Them Properly! Last weekend, after following a rabbit trail, I found Mary Ann Moss from Dispatch from LA blog and her Remains of the Day Journal class. She is the funniest thing and writes hilariously as well as sketches beautifully. And oh yes, she rounded off my attempts very nicely and the lovely pink journal came into being! 

Both of them are made almost entirely from random bits of leftovers. There are quite a few heavy weight, brown shopping bags in there and a lovely scrunchy bag that came all the way from Bolivia with organic quinoa! Theres old book pages, pages from an old music book, an antiques magazine and an old poetry book. An out of date atlas, some pages from Frankie magazine and lots of lovely envelopes with windows to peep through, as well as offcuts from the repurposed books I make. The covers are VitaBrits boxes for stiffness and some of the many, many thrifted fabrics, fabric offcuts and doilies that I have in my stash! My sewing machine was put to a different use, sewing up paper scraps and it was certainly lovely to be quite haphazard about placement and hanging threads! 

Some embellishments with my hand carved stamps, a new to me bookbinding technique, a length of fabric for a closure and they were done. One each to my two oldest girls. Which means of course that I now must create two more for the younger two…..and then theres a daughter in law or two…..and a few friends…..and what about me???

Yes, all the frenzied creating was just what I needed. My tiny loft bedroom/studio is now covered with lots of threads and snippety bits of fabric and paper but my heart is satisfied. All the other items on my to do list are still there too. Waiting. And thats ok. They can wait a little longer. My busy brain had a little rest and my spirit has been replenished. For now.


I've joined in with Nicole at Frontier Dreams today. She has a great link up to all sorts of creative crafting called Keep Calm Craft On….which I thought was rather apt for my post today!!

And I've also shared this with Linda at Natural Suburbia on her Creative Friday post. She has some of the cutest knitting patterns over there too - do have a look!

stamping for fun

Is there anyone else out there who loves to learn new creative things? I do wonder about this sometimes because I have such a desire to constantly learn another style of what ever artistic tangent I'm on! During my main child raising years, I sewed. That wasn't anything new because I'd been sewing doll clothes and embroidering fabric scraps since I was 5 years old! My mother is a tailor (and yes I do so love that great 'House of the Rising Sun' song!!) so there were always bits of fabric to play with as well as the great example of seeing her cut, stitch and create most of our clothing…….yes, even knickers! I was fortunate enough to be in Primary School when knitting, crochet and embroidery were still being taught, although I'm sure not all my fellow classmates shared my enthusiasm! And now, that I think about it, I wonder what the boys were doing while we girls stitched?
I took Sewing and Design as an elective in High School and can still remember learning about the different ways that wool, cotton or synthetic fabrics reacted when burnt with a match. Oh and trying to draw pictures that resembled those on the front of bought sewing patterns! After school I started working in and eventually managed, a large chain of fabric shops selling dress fabrics, curtains and haberdashery - a bit like Spotlight without the extra junk! And I sewed. Close proximity to loads of gorgeous fabrics and bunches of deleted dress patterns meant that I was always trying out new styles as well as learning new techniques and methods. I loved it all and worked there for 8 years until I had our first child.

Then a whole new world of sewing opened up for me - baby sewing! I sewed, smocked and crocheted my way through each and every type of children's apparel and accessory and my babies were mostly dressed in some sort of mama made (or Oma made) clothing! Of course, even then I was always wanting to learn something new, so I attended a class on how to make a patchwork Christmas wall hanging. Yep, I was hooked! The children's clothing went on hold while I immersed myself in cutting boards, fat quarters and cotton wadding. Oh the glory, the sheer bliss, of another new creative outlet!! Every evening after the children were safely tucked in, I headed into the spare room to cut large pieces of either new or thrifted fabrics into bundles of tiny squares, triangles and strips, which were then sewn together to make beautiful cosy coverings for my loved ones.
An item of beauty and warm, soul-nourishing usefulness is something that has always been dear to my heart. Now when I look at those quilts I am reminded not only of those years that were often a struggle with many mouths to feed and little time to myself, but also of the delight of sweet smelling babes and sturdy young bodies covered in a blanket of love.

Since moving to Tasmania, my creative life has undergone a large change - firstly, for a number of years I was unable to sew due to our house being so tiny and secondly most of my sewing paraphernalia was still in storage on the mainland. I struggled, I really did and the result of that lack of creative space was the beginning of this blog! I began taking a greater interest in photography and wanted to share my pics and thoughts just as so many others were doing, so my creativity shifted slightly to something perhaps less useful from a practical viewpoint to something very useful for my Soul.
And that brings me to my art. It seems that art journaling is the new personal growth mantra and everywhere on the inter web you will find ecourses, classes and retreats dedicated to finding your inner artist. And I did. I revived mine. The one which had lain dormant since I was in my teens and which has now reared its ravenous paint splattered head to roar loudly 'Feed Me'!!!

Sorry, I've digressed in a big way from what I was meaning to tell you. Which was - I love to learn. I need to know. Therefore whenever I see another web site or another ecourse or maybe even just another idea, I want to try it NOW! There are so many ideas in my mind waiting to be birthed and while I'm not excellent at coming up with completely new, new ideas, I am very good at being sparked by others and creating something artistic from that foundation.

And thats how I came to be making stamps! While prowling around I discovered that cutting my own stamps could give a whole new dimension to making art in a journal, so my Fairy and I spent a couple of days drawing, cutting and testing out a bundle of pretty designs. Its a bit like doing embroidery, quite soothing and therapeutic, using just half the brain and leaving the rest to waft off on flights of fancy! I purchased some stamp rubber and the lino cutters from a local art supply store but would dearly love to buy a Speedball cutting tool which has much finer tips to allow for more detailed prints. The inks are good quality archival ink but if your children were making stamps and using them, you could possibly use a cheaper water based pad.
We stamped our way through old book pages, music pages and an old trotting guide and were absolutely delighted with our days work!! We have now run out of stamping rubber but intend to remedy that when we go to town this week! If you are looking for something to give your older children to do, set them up with some of this and await the awesome results…..they will love it!

painting pinecones pretty!

Being an Oma has its perks. I like to create, yet while sewing or knitting seem to have useful functions with the end result being quite wearable, painting does not have quite the same appeal to other members of my family. They roll their eyes slightly and give their sibling an unobtrusive nudge as if to say 'lets humour mum and agree its time well spent'. So having a grandchild, gives me any number of reasons to pull out paint, brushes and paper and spend several hours in a blissful state of colour with an equally enthusiastic fellow artist!

I often have our Small Elf here for extended 'visits' and as often as we have time for, we paint.* Of course, this gives me a valid reason to spend the afternoon playing with colour too and if possible, I always say YES to her request! She has been painting with me for over 12 months now and its become a bit of a tradition we do together whenever she stays. She started off with a cheap spiral bound art journal type book, which she has nicely filled up with lots of thick pages of brightly coloured painted masterpieces! We have since moved on to large pieces of butchers paper and an old credit card to move the paint around and just last week she came with a new idea……lets paint pinecones pretty!

There are quite a few old pine trees on our land, so the usual size pine cones are easy to come by. The Small Elf brought along some sweet little pine cones from a Douglas fir in the local park, so we prettied up a few of each, using cheap student grade acrylic paint. Its amazing the difference a bit of colour makes to an otherwise drab object and although student grade paints are not super pigment rich, they still give a nice splash of 'bright' and loads of satisfaction to the little one….and even to a visiting friend! While she was busy with hers, I sketched and water coloured some of the small cones in my lovely new journal and feel quite pleased with the result.

If you are in Australia, try finding a supplier of Mont Marte art products. Their acrylics are cheap (I buy mine from one of those junk shops), they last a long time and the pigment is not too bad. And its such a great way for children to express their creativity because anything goes!

* her mama isn't always enthused with our art dates because sometimes we forget to change from 'good' clothes to paint clothes…oops!

29 faces - 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15

Whew!! I've been feeling a little like this Picasso-esque lady - slightly off kilter and with permanent bad hair days! Ballet and karate lessons have resumed in full swing along with our weekly Home-Ed get togethers….. as well as ongoing trips to visit various healing type folk who will hopefully fix a stuck jaw dilemma that my 17 year old daughter has. And on top of all that, she needs to be taken to and occasionally picked up from college…… and its no wonder I'm probably even looking like that horror with the blotchy skin!! 

So, of course I'm waaaayy behind with my 29 faces, sigh…… although the positive thing is that I've had to be a bit more inventive about where I draw! I now draw in the car by the seaside, on the desk in the waiting room at the Bowen therapist and scariest of all, in a cafe!!!! 

Never mind, I shall try my hardest to catch up!

In the meantime, here are a few of the latest - the last four are all really quick and the photos are rather dark but I am just wanting to document them and feel the satisfaction!!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by here and having a look at my sporadic rambling.

29 faces - 7, 8 and 9

Busy, busy here so all I've managed is a few pencil sketches. I suppose its all practice but I would have liked to have a bit more time to do some painted faces.
The faces at the top were done after watching a tutorial from Tam at willowing.org and are a lot of fun because they can look childlike and naive and not at all realistic. The two bottom ones are meant to look a little more realistic than they do but lets just pretend that I was aiming for delicate, narrow boned faery-like creatures, ok?

I am very much enjoying this 29 Faces Challenge but it does add a tad of stress to my life - I mean, I do want to do art every day but when other tasks arise it poses just a teeny quandary……how long can I leave the tasks that must be done for the one single 'task' I want to do??!!

Have a look at some of the other blogs in the challenge, there are just so many fabulous artists hiding out there!

29 faces - 4, 5 and 6

A couple of days ago, I felt and looked (in the kids eyes, at least) like this ^. 

Yesterday, I was more like this……melancholy and despondant ^. 

Today, I look like this. 

Well, okay, I wish I looked like this. 

Calm, serene and beautifully groomed. 

Joining in again with the 29 Faces Challenge. Do have a look at what others are doing. 

29 faces - 1, 2 and 3

Another new project on my list of New Things to Try! I recently stumbled upon a few blogs that mentioned a 29 Faces Challenge in February……... and fortunately I didn't have to wait too long since it was already January! But I did forget until yesterday and so I have to also tell you that I did all three of these faces in the one evening using a new technique that I also discovered in my blog hops.
No, I don't spend all my days on the internet, blog hopping and the like, but I do spend an hour each night (very late, ahem) just after I've done my own artsy stuff and just before I turn off the lights, reading my fave arty blogs and gaining inspiration and motivation. Of course, sometimes I do follow leads and links and then find all sorts of new ideas that I really must try……!!!

So, having 29 Faces in mind and having seen this method of drawing, I decided I'd give it a try using a YouTube tutorial. I used this one which was the first good one I came across and thought she did a great job of explaining the method. The blue man at the top was the first one I tried and its actually from a photo of my dad, although the only similarity are the blue of the eyes! The gorgeous rainbow woman was the second attempt and she was from a large picture of a model in a glossy magazine and I am very happy with how she turned out.

For this one on the left, I used another magazine pic which was only half a head and once again I'm happy with her. But the thin head on the right was my attempt to draw the corresponding side without having one to copy and it turned out rather lean and elongated! Oh well, I like three out of four so thats not too bad!

When I first saw this style of drawing I thought it would be quite difficult and while it does take some thinking about, and if you don't mind extra facial lines here and there, its not as hard as it looks. I really enjoyed the process and have plans to try a few more in the next few days - I'll keep you posted!!

Thanks for stopping by!

a teeny confession

I have a confession to make. No, no its nothing really sinister, such as perhaps, a former life as a can-can dancer (which I have been, ahem) or a clanking family skeleton hiding from the light of day (which I'm not aware of). Nothing like that. Really. None the less, this secret that I try to keep from friends and family (less successfully from family, I might add!) is an ever growing dilemma…..and its threatening to become a chronic illness. 

Come closer. Im going to whisper to you now, ok?

I'm a hoarder.   

Right. So you didn't hear me? I'll say it louder then - I'M A HOARDER! Yes, yes I am indeed! There, I feel better now having got that off my chest! So, are you still my friend? 

But hang on, let me explain. I'm not as bad as those poor people from that TV show which I can't remember the name of right now - you know, the one with the nice Greek psychologist who says,  "Theres a little hoarder inside all of us". I only hoard most things useful stuff and I sometimes mostly use it. For example, look at that photo above. I collate an order for bulk whole foods every two months, and there, see what comes wrapped around the shampoo bottles? Long lengths of paper towels. Ooh, can't throw that away because I have the perfect use for it and anyway, what a waste - lets repurpose that. 

And then there are the toilet rolls and the longer cardboard rolls from inside waxed lunch wrap….and the odd bottle top (just the occasional one, I do not have boxes of them stashed under my bed, just for the sake of keeping them, alright?) They both make great circles when dipped in paint and applied to journal pages. Old paint chips come in handy for adding a pop of colour and the thicker type of junk mail make great paint palettes. Bubble wrap for making pattern, gyprocking tape for added texture, used gift wrap, old paper dress patterns, styrofoam trays, old credit cards for spreading paint and the list goes on…..

Then theres the lovely array of mini mags that come inside the slightly more useful magazines I buy or pick up second hand. Some of them are small and cute and have nice thick pages and, if I don't cut out the nice images, I use them to make a quick, small journal……its far easier to paint over an image or bit of writing thats already there on a piece of junk mail, than it is to face a blank white page in an expensive journal! It matters not if I make a mess!

Heres an example of a mini mag journal. I think it was from a furniture shop called Domayne? Not sure, but I do like it a whole lot better now!

How about old book pages? One of my children made one of those secret cavity books out of a very fat Australian Trotting Stud manual and I couldn't bear to just throw out all that lovely printed paper. So now, it comes in handy to do quick sketches or to paste as backgrounds for journal pages. Once again, it doesn't matter if I muck up a drawing - its only junk paper! Yep, lets repurpose that too!

Lately we have been eating a lot of Vita Brits for breakfast (yeah I know, but the kids actually like them) and now I have a lot of Vita Brits packets. They are nice and sturdy and since I've been adding them to my collection of other nice sturdy cardboard packets and have quite a large amount, I decided I'd use them for painting and playing. A coat of gesso and then whatever paint or paper takes my fancy and another 'masterpiece' is born!!!

What about those little bits of 'junk' that pass through our lives? Make art!!!! This one was for a Journal52 prompt, 'Recycled Art' and I used words from newspapers and magazines, old stamps, some of the many business envelopes I hoard collect and other bits of ephemera. I think it needs something else done to it but my mantra is "It doesn't have to be perfect and it only has to please me" so for now I'm pleased with it.

Now that I have bared my soul to the world (huh, wishful thinking!) I wonder if you can relate?