Creativity from the Couch

This is a project done while I was relegated to the couch during my recent extended flare up of fibromyalgia and pain.

One of the things that I dreaded about flare ups was that my ability and energy for creating would drastically drop or disappear altogether. I wanted and needed a way to work around that when it happened.

I decided to organize a few supplies that I could easily access, keep near me on the couch, and use on my roughest days. I repurposed several large styrofoam meat trays - the kind you get when you buy a family pack of meat.

They work perfectly, with enough room for a few supplies, and they stack and store well in my craft closet.

The project that you see in the photos here (except for the frames) was made using the supplies on one tray. On that tray, I stored pages from a vintage book and hymnal; homemade alcohol ink sprays, brads, several colors of acrylic paint, tissue paper and thin wire.

Using the book pages, I cut each shape out by hand and then colored them with the sprays (except for the tissue paper). I followed up with assembling each flower and butterfly individually. Each day, I stored whatever I had made in small ziploc bags; partly for organization and partly to keep them out of easy reach of my grandson, lol.

For this project, I painted the backgrounds in acrylic and then layered over that with tissue paper. I used the same tissue paper in both pictures. I arranged flowers and butterflies on the background and, once I was happy with the composition, I attached them to the background. I finished up by stamping a relevant quote or saying on each one.

I have these hanging on the wall above my desk, next to the bulletin board that I posted earlier. I smile every time I look at them!

Shared for Whatever You Want Wednesday at Free Pretty Things For You
Shared for Show and Tell Saturday at Be Different Act Normal
Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans

The Element of Air

The element of air is the focus of the third week in The Elements of Art Journaling workshop at Wild.Precious.  I'm an air and water baby with very little fire or earth in my horoscope, so I really enjoyed working with the materials.  I associate a lot of positive things with air.  The following is a chart of associations that I quickly came up with.  Would you add anything to it?

 

I tossed a lot of different ideas around for my journal page, but kept returning to the words of a chant that I learned when my kids were small.  It's a beautiful chant, and one that I've used as a lullaby, as a balm during times of doubt, grief or pain, and as a prayer too.  I'll share the words here:

May we walk in beauty in a sacred way

May we walk in beauty each and every day

May the beauty of the fire

lift your spirit higher

May the beauty of the Earth

fill your heart with mirth

May the beauty of the rain

wash away your pain

May the beauty of the sky

teach your mind to fly

May we walk in beauty in a sacred way

May we walk in beauty each and every day

I chose words from the chant for my journaling page.  And dragonflies.  To me, dragonflies represent wonder, joy, gentle movement and lightness of being.  I used gesso, watercolors, alcohol inks, glitter, flower embellishments and a tiny crocheted butterfly. 

Each journaling page actually consists of two pages and it's necessary for me to scan each separately, so there are two images:

Next up will be the element of water and I'm looking forward to working with it, creating a new page and enjoying the beauty that everyone in the workshop is creating! 

I Found My Thrill...

We're all pretty tapped out financially after paying all the moving related expenses, but my daughter got creative this past weekend and gave me a gift that I'm thrilled with.  What was it? 
Simply a set of small spray bottles, a package of colored markers and a bottle of rubbing alcohol that she picked up at the dollar store.  You might shake your head and wonder "What's so thrilling about that?", lol!
And the thrill is this:  I'm going to be able to experiment with using alcohol inks!  We used this video as a reference to create our own.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6z5JgUOw3U&feature=related 

I now have six 2 oz bottles of alcohol ink (six different colors) to play with.  Ranger alcohol ink is about $3.50 for .5 oz, so my daughter saved approximately $80.00!
Next, I'm going to try making my own decorative tapes.  Here's a post about that:  http://juliekintaiwan.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/make-your-own-faux-japanese-masking-tape-tutorial/
Then on to paper flower embellishments courtesy of this post: 
http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-torn-paper-flowers.html
Oh, and maybe some shrink plastic buttons too!
http://scrapbooking.about.com/od/pagestarterideas/ss/shrinkpunches.htm
Do you have any money saving tips for creating art supplies, embellishments, etc.?