Children - Memories of Home

Happy Christmas. I hope that your day is filled with warmth as the family and friend get together. If you know that someone is going to be on their own, invite them round, visit and spread joy peace and happiness!.

Welcome to Memories of Home, if you would like to find out more information about the series, Click here

Being in a supportive environment is important to our growth as individuals, not everyone has had that opportunity and as adults we try and create an environment that will nurture and bless our children and indeed ourselves.

As children we used to get really excited at Christmas time. We helped decorate the tree and underneath the presents circled. We tried to get a peek feeling the size and whether anything shook beneath the wrapping. We had to wait though for our dad to get up and have his breakfast before we were able to open any presents and we felt as if we were going to burst because we knew that while we might not get all the items on our list we might at at least one thing. As we got older on some years our presents would be something more practical and a I remember how I felt when I unwrapped the nightey rather than the cassette player that i had my eyes on.

As we have all grown up and have children of our own we tried to hold on to some of the traditions and Christmas would be be spent in each others houses, seeing the children now filled with the excitement that we had at their age.

Our day though is singed with the loss of our brother who was an uncle, father, son, husband and friend. We take time to lift up his memory and think of the laughter, his humour, grace, understanding and love.

I hope you are having a blessed day as you remember those near and far and those who have also lost loved ones this year, do leave a comment and share what makes today special for you

Material Mondays - Blue and Cream crochet necklace

Here is another crochet offering.  A baby blue and cream choker.  This one is designed to sit on the neck and be worn as the main focus for an outfit if you are dressing up or as a casual accessory.

I really like the blue base, which is a crochet circle, made in thinner material.  I added a bead selection to the top of the choker and around the edges.

You can do a variation on the design and create matching jewelry such as a wrist cuff or earrings, which I guess might be some of my next projects with crochet.

If you are considering learning how to take part in creative activity check out Craftsy online courses, at the moment they are doing a special offer on some of their classes, and they are offering some free mini courses. Click here. Blessings!

Creating in Faith - Reflections on the Series

Since July 2012 I have been posting a weekly post called ‘Creating in Faith’.  I started out taking part in a prayer journal hosted by Mika Diaz on Motley Soul and when it finished she asked me I wanted to continue and contribute to the group.  I began to write a weekly series taking a word and writing an encouraging message and insight around it.  I had also decided that I wanted to create what I call a ‘bookmark holder’, decorate it and it would hold a bookmark that I would write my prayer requests for that week.  

Bookmark holders

Here is the post to show you how I made them.  I wasn't sure how I would put them together, but proceeded to paint on them and fill them with imagery that spoke to me.

Each Bookmark holder has a bookmark enclosed

It has been great write the posts and have really allowed me to reflect and share on many things.

Thoughts, prayers and insights are written with the bookmarks holders

Over the year each week I wrote my thoughts and prayers, and I intend to continue to add to them and will be able to look back and see what the prayers were or a specific week, what transpired, the prayers that were answered and really see what other things will come up for the year. 

Who needs a reason to create a piece of art?

It has also been great to be able to create the book mark holders and I intend binding them together.  It will be something I can add to over the year once bound.

Experimenting with materials and colours

If you want to take a closer look at each of the completed bookmark holders and posts I will be putting a tab at the top of the page that will take you to each post.

What’s next?

I am stepping out stretching myself further and in the next couple of weeks will see the start of my video series called ‘Creative Sundays’.

In the same way as the Creating in Faith, posts I hope to give you a shot of inspiration, to get you on the road to creating yourself or giving yourself the permission to create be inspired or just play.

We can often find taking that time ourselves can get increasingly difficult with the demands of balancing life, family and work commitments.

I will aim to create a weekly piece of art and show you the process from start to finish, share some prompts, scriptures, encouraging quotes and uplifting music.

I hope you join me on my next journey and also share what you get up to.  Have you come to the end of a project that you were involved in, let me know how you got on.  Blessings

Recycled Projects - Mini Wall Hangings

What do you do with all your paper and card scraps?  Why not create some mini wall hangings?

Mini wall hangings

I have wanted to make these mini wall hangings for such a long time but kept putting it off and finally got round to it.  

What delights do you have in your scrap boxes

They are a great way for recycling cardboard, scraps and odds and ends in your supplies that are too nice to throw away but are too small to be used on their own. 

Simple additions make mini pieces of art!

I have 3 containers labelled as ‘scrap’ that had come from the off cuts when I was creating other projects and I am determined before the end this year to use them up and make room for other things.

On each of the sections you can also create them and apply a selection of images of your favourite things, encouraging words, even some art work.  

You can change up the shape of the arrangement of the wall hangings....

create a variety of sizes

......depending on where your imagination takes you and the space you have to hang them, choosing to make a feature of them or use them as creative reminders.

They could make lovely presents and you can create some that the recipient can put their own photos.   

Creative reminders

Some other ideas that I might try is trying some transfer images, or making them thicker and larger in size.  Because they are made from cardboard they are also lighter in weight than if you were to make them from clay.  I really like them and look forward to seeing what you create and how many ways you can come up with the layout. 

I hope you have a blessed weekend, and allow your creativity to push back the boundaries in order to allow yourself to really soar!

Come back on Tuesday to see how I made the Wall Hangings in Tutorial Tuesday. Do share creative ways in which you have used recycled materials and leave a comment below.