Creating in Faith - Relationships and your Creative Journey

How healthy are your creative relationships?

Our relationships can take many forms and we have to nurture them, how are you nurturing the relationship that you have with yourself.

We can often be faced with remnants of the negative aspects of relationships of the past and these can spill over into our adult life and then impact on other relationships that we may have.

The inner critic often gets a lot of exposure as having the biggest impact on all of our relationships, but we have to look at ways in which we can work with our inner critic

In this podcast I examine some of these relationships especially the creative ones and look at ways in which we can find harmony

Recycling a Phone Case - Art Journal

 What do you do when you have a phone case that is too big for your phone?  Make an Art Journal!!

Phone Case waiting for the magic!

Check out the video to see what I did to transform it

Here are the finished details with a lot of pattern and mark making at the front and back

The interior has been created with water color paper cut to size and then glue bound.

It is always great to have a new art journal on the go and this one fits quite tidily in my bag.  I shall be sharing some of the pages in the coming weeks and showing a few processes using both collage material and acrylic paints, so would love you to join me.

Let me know if you have recycled and repurposed an unusual journal.  

Stay blessed and be a blessing!

Arts and Wellness Café - Matters of the Heart

Come and join me in the Arts and Wellness Café today where we continue on the theme of Heartfelt started earlier this week.

Considering matters of the heart in regards to our creativity.  The things that matter most to us, our drive and purpose, why do you do the things that you do and the impact that you want to make in the world.

You can check out the podcast episode

In the video I also share other ways in which you can use creativity to impact on your health and well-being and we look at an art journal page, a sculpture and a book for the week.

Arts and Wellness Café - A continuation of Bliss

 

Have you ever thought about the word bliss and how it relates to your creative walk?  Can you see your work as a vehicle that provides the nurturing moments when you can take stock of your surroundings and feel at peace?  I continue to look at the word bliss and the way in which we can look at our creative journey and find the pockets of bliss within.  

At the end of the video I take a look into one of my art journals and share how you can create one using recycled materials.

PODCAST

Also check out the podcast recording which started us on the journey in search of our bliss!  

I look forward to hearing what things in your creative space brings you bliss.

Creating in Faith - Word for the Week - Blissful Ambition

 

The latest episodes of the words for Today on Creating in Faith is available on the podcast where the words shared are Blissful and Ambition. 

When you think about your creativity do you ever think about how it makes you feel or what you want to do with it.  Many of us find that creativity has a therapeutic effect on our health and well being and it is an integral part of their day to day.  There is also the need for many artists to look at ways in which they can earn from their creative project.

How do you see your growth and development progressing.

You can listen to the Podcast for Blissful HERE and Ambition HERE or click on the link below

100 Day Project - What will you do?

So I decided to join in with the 100 Day Project which started on the 31st January. For my project I decided to learn Embroidery stitches.  With some of the fabric pieces that I have been creating I wanted to add some new stitches, so this was an ideal time to support my daily creative practice and learn some new techniques.

I have had this book of embroidery stitches but never committed to learn any of them so it just stayed in my bag that I keep my machine threads.

I have had embroidery hoops for as long and they too just sat around as I never found the time to try them out.  These are my first embroidery stitches and you can follow me on Instagram to see which ones I complete.

I am looking forward to learning all 100 stitches and the emphasis is on learning new stitches.  I know they are not perfect but the whole thing about the 100 day project for me is the following:

• Committing to the 100 days
• Learning a new skill that I can apply in my creative work;
• Remember that I am still learning the stitches and I can't compare myself to someone who has been doing it for years;
• Showing up for myself;
• Reminding myself that it doesn't have to be perfect for me to share what I am doing;
• Congratulating myself for every day that I do show up
• Have fun!!.

So if you are up for doing a 100 day project come and join us #100dayproject

Looking forward to seeing what you decide to do, remember there is no pressure, just continue to show up for yourself, don't compare yourself and have fun!  Check out the last 100 Day project that I did a couple of years ago where I use pastels for the first time and I have created a few videos of the process - 100 Days of Pastels HERE

Stay blessed and be a blessing!

New Classes have Started - BadAss Art Journal - Sign up!

 

Welcome, well we are off!  The BADASS Art Journal 2021 online course officially started on Monday and we have some amazing classes lined up for you.  Hosted by artist Tiare Smith she has brought together 14 of us to share some of our art lessons

I am looking forward to sharing my lesson with you.  This is my fifth time teaching on this class and we always have an amazing time as the other teachers share their lessons.

I hope you can join us, don't worry about the idea of 'falling behind' you can go at your own pace and the lessons are downloadable.  Here is a sneak peak of what you will be learning in my lesson

Here are some of the supplies we will be using and making lost of lovely marks on the paper.  What ever you don't have or can't get you can substitute, the main thing is to have fun while you are creating.

We will start out be creating a background page like this one, with lots of texture, encouraging words and marks, using some of my not so often used supplies - this is a great time to incorporate the paint that you normally leave or feel uncomfortable using.  You also choose some of you favourite paints to add balance and it works.

We will then create a simple image, which encompasses the word that we want to use in the main painting to encourage ourselves as we go on our creative adventure.

It would be great to see you and you can get more information HERE  or you can sign up below for the course and join me and the other teachers who are excited to meet you too!

New on the Podcast - Realityarts

I wanted to share with you the latest posts of the podcast and ask you a couple of questions about your creative walk. In the first podcast I ask you to consider whether you are friends with yourself, are you treating yourself the way you would want to be treated - if not what are you going to do about it?

In the second recording I ask you to consider your state of comfort. Are you so comfortable that you are on the verge of becoming complacent, or are you breaking it up a bit and moving from being uncomfortable to comfort on a rotating wheel of sorts. I would love to hear what your take on it is.

Red Wall Hanging and Slow Stitching

 

In the video below I share with you some of the processes behind creating this wall hanging and you also get a look behind the motivation and thinking that went into creating this piece.

It uses a variety of elements not normally placed together and also includes areas of slow stitching and embroidery stitches.

It also has cotton that has been grown from my garden woven within it

And also includes sculptural elements and beading

Let me know what you are working on and share with me on instagram @realityarts

Stitched Meditations - Boro Shasheko Stitching

 

In this video I share with you some of the processes used for creating this wall hanging, it uses some of the techniques known as Boro Shasheko also Slow Stitching.

I created on several small pieces to begin with and then brought them together.

The pieces of material all were recycled and they have their own story to tell.  Let me know if you have ever used the stitches in your own work.

It is a very meditative piece and I also added a number of additional elements and sculptural pieces onto it.  I also used Moringa wood harvested from my garden as sculptural hangings at the base of the wall hanging.  Thank you for taking time out to watch the video.

Arts and Wellness Cafe - Hit the Ground Running - its 2021!

How have you been getting on so far with 2021 off to a start of sorts we find our self half way through the month already!

Here are two of the Arts and Wellness Videos I have shared so far and in this one I consider the season that we are in, or that you find yourself in.

I share some insights in these videos and hope that you find moments of inspiration and maybe a few ah ha moments filled with a touch of laughter here and there.

What Season are you in?

As 2021 continue have you taken a step towards knowing exactly what season creatively you are really in.

It's 2021

What plans have you made for your year ahead?

Enjoy, Stay blessed

Belief - Creating in Faith - Realityarts Podcast

 

Creating in Faith - Belief

 

Thank you for joining me.  Check out the podcast episode for today and also take a look at some of the courses linked below.  We are now in Season 3 of Creating in Faith and I would like to thank all of those over the last 2 years that took time out to listen to the different episodes, it was most appreciated.

Today's word is: Belief 

Creating In Faith Encouraging Recordings are to bless and inspire you to be the best of yourself. It can be really great to pull out your art journal/Journal and express what comes up for you either with images and colour, with words or with both. Check out the weekly and monthly videos to help you spend more time in your art journal. 

There are some courses that I want to remind you to check out that I am teaching on:  

Life Book 2021 

Life Book 7 Day Replay Sessions (FREE)

Creative Jumpstart 2021

One BADASS Art Journal

Loving Healing Creating Summit 

Check me out as well on the following:

YouTube www.youtube.com/amandatrought 

Blog - realityarts-creativity.blogspot.com Patreon Blog - www.patreon.com/realityarts Twitter - www.twitter.com/Realityarts Instagram www.instagram.com/realityarts/ Facebook www.facebook.com/realityartss/ 

Check out some encouraging boards on Pinterest @realityarts ******************************************** 

Artwork available from the title image HERE 

I also have an Arts and Health NHS Network for information on activities and organisations working in the field. You are welcome to join, it is a FREE resource and if you have any activities or want to talk about your work you are welcome to send me the information and I will see that it gets uploaded. You can create your own profile on the network and connect with others who are passionate about the arts in health too.

Loving Healing Creating Summit

 

I have been asked to be a presenter on the Loving Healing Creating Summit.  There are a great line up of presenters coming from a range of disciplines all looking at the way that creativity can impact on our health and well being.

 

Larissa Russell of Creative U invited me to join her in the online summit Loving-Healing-Creating   Larissa and I along with 24 other presenters have created an amazing online experience to push you a little further in your personal healing using different aspects of creativity.

 

Together we are sharing many different ways of healing with creativity... best advice from experts on healing with creativity all in one place… … and it’s FREE for you!

 

In the Loving-Healing-Creating Summit, you’ll find courses to support you in your healing.

 

Courses like:

• Guided Meditation Painting

• Personal Expression in an Art Journal

• Self Portrait Vision Board

• Affirmation Cards

• Movement to Inspire Creativity

• and more!

 

I am excited to share a sneak peek of my session with you which looks at ways to create layers in mixed media art and identify encouraging words that you can use in your creative adventure.

Lots of yummy colour and mark making

Hurry and register for this free event as time is limited, Free access is from February 2-14, 2020.

You can also get unlimited access for only $47 USD (early bird special until Feb 1) CLICK HERE for more information. Looking forward to having you join us.