Material Mondays - Looking back on 2013 and changes for 2014

I have been spending time over the past few days with family and there have been quite a few late nights.  I am trying to get my body clock back to getting up early, so that I can catch the house when it is quiet and get on with a few things before everyone wakes up.

I have been trying to set myself some schedules, planning my learning for 2014, which starts today with Soul Food.  I feel that it is important to ensure that you do something for your self-development.  I will also be taking a few other courses including Life Book in January and Bloom True which starts in February.  

I am really pushing my learning next year and also intend to learn about quilting, book binding and photo shop.  I am intending on using them as ways to capture stories, my mums, mine and my role as her daughter and carer.  I hope to develop some creative activities that others will be able to use and be inspired to use with those they care for who have dementia.  I will be sharing my journey on the courses and recommend that you take a look at some of them as you think about your own learning for 2014.

I will be changing my posting schedule to make room for the courses and to be able to share what I've been learning and all the new art work that will be produced.  Material Mondays, Tutorial Tuesdays and Recycled Projects will all be posted once a month. I thought I would share with you the projects I have made so far with Material Mondays and put a link so that you can go and take a look.

I started Material Mondays as a way to show some of the creative work that I had done with textiles and crochet.  As I progress in my mixed media walk it is really enabling me to explore and experiment with all the techniques and equipment that I have always wanted to try.  I may find that as I progress there are some that I will not be trying at all, but the main thing is that I will have a taste of many of the techniques then decide if I want to incorporate it within my mixed media work.

I started sharing around October this year and have been posting pretty much every week, here is what I have created so far, if you want to take a closer look click on the image and it will take you to the post:

Crochet Choker

Crochet Necklace

Painted Recycled Fabric

Painted Fabric with Stitching added 

Recycled Bag Journal

Chunky button Fabric Journal

Crochet Neck warmers

Crochet Baby Hat

Chunky Wrist Cuff

Fabric Journal

Crochet Owl

Reusable Crochet Journal Cover

I am quite proud of myself for keeping up with creating and look forward to seeing the projects I make next year, one of which I hope to be a crochet bag and doll that you can keep inspiring messages in.  I hope you do continue to join me in my creative travels.  I am looking forward to the growth and expansion that will come from stepping out and not worrying about what you are creating but enjoying the process. Blessings and much love!

Recycled Projects - Looking back at the Creative projects

I thought that I would look back on some of the projects that I have done over the past few months.  I had been making quite a few things in my studio and once I began to share them I found that I began to have a bit more direction in what I was making.  I have quite a few favorites with the things that I have made so far, I have been quite taken with the mini wall hangings and have been experimenting with a few varieties, which I will be sharing in the new year and showing a tutorial of the process.  Click on the image to take you to the post that gives you a better look at them.  To see how they were made you need to go to the Tutorial Tuesdays posts.

These were great to make, you can use most of the scraps of paper you have in your stash, create little toppers and make some really encouraging wall hangings.  Because the foundation is cardboard they are fairly light in weight.

Mini Wall Hangings

The mini necklaces again use cardboard as their base, with the addition of the seeds or quinoa it adds some weight.  These were topped with air drying and fimo clay pieces.

Mini Necklaces

What do you do with the teabag box when you finished with it - make a treasure box, these can hold trinkets or even the teabag treasures below if you made any

Teabag Boxes Treasure 

These mini toppers are made from the out of date teabags that got lost at the back of my cupboard.  After emptying the contents the bags were decorated and I have used them as part of other projects.

Teabag Treasures

Chunky journals, the basis for these were toilet rolls and cardboard from packaging to make the front and back covers.  The tags were made from recycled card and paper scraps.

Chunky A6 Journal

This was also a favourite making the stamps.  There are so many designs and layouts that you can be inspired by and you can take elements of the designs and create your own one of a kind stamps for use in your journals or artwork.  The stamps were created using the foam from a sleeping bag mat.

Handmade Stamps

Every few months we seem to be getting new phone directory through the mail box, I found a creative use for them and made these journals.

Directories Journals

Another chunky toilet roll journal, these one is quite thick in size, and I made quite a few tags to go with it.

Chunky Toilet Roll Journal

Capturing moments journals are made from card and while they are bound require no stitching.  I really enjoyed making these!

Capturing Moments Mini Journals

Cereal bag journal takes the bag of your favorite cereal and allows you to add different enclosures before sealing with an iron.

Cereal Bag Journal

I hope to continue to find creative ways to recycle and up-cycle the things that we have in our every day life and can quite easily throw away and to see some of your ideas and things that you make, do share things that you have found or been inspired by that you either create for yourself, or give away. What has been your favorite recycled project in the ones above.  Blessings!

Gratitude's and Celebration - Week 25 - The Future

The Future is waiting for you...

....don't be afraid to live in your present

What will define your day for you, how differently will you go about your day from yesterday?  We can sometimes get stuck like a record in what should have happened, what someone should have done, or the other hand finds us making plans for what we do when the kids grow up and leave home or we retire.

We forget to live with the day we have today, right now. I am not one to say not plan, but don't stop yourself from doing something - if you have a book to write, start it, break it down to what you can fit in whether it is 5 minutes or 1 hour or 1 day.

With the rush of Christmas over, and the New Year ahead I am grateful that the coming year holds so much promise.  We have an opportunity to be more than we were, see more than we have seen. I also celebrate the many lives that I may get to be a blessing to next year.

What does your future hold, how can you make a difference, where will it take you.  Remember one small change over a period of time can make the difference. 

I would love to hear from you and share what you will be tackling next.  Blessings!

As this week draws to a close have a blessed weekend! If you want to see how I made the journal (click here)

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