I finally had an excuse to pull out the 8oz green acrylic on sale for 49 cents plus 25% off ~ too bad it was the last bottle! Ended up with seven journals, ten bookmarks, seven ATC’s, five background pages, 25 coffee-stained pages and a partridge in a pear tree (sorry, couldn’t resist now that I’ve really gotten started on Christmas).
Have a wonderful week!
I just read What to Expect from Your Adopted Tween E-guide written by Judy Miller. I met Judy a couple of years ago at the Story Circle Network conference and was immediately struck by her passion for parenting and issues surrounding adoption. This passion comes through in her clear, easy to read e-guide. The information is on target and delivers not only what to expect, but what to do as well with insight, compassion and real examples. I would recommend this e-guide for anyone as the core issues and inherent loss in adoption span any age. And we are all touched by adoption. Consider these numbers taken from AdoptionFacts.org:
~Approximately 7 million Americans are adopted persons
~ Approximately 140,000 children are adopted by American families each year
~ As many as 100 million Americans have adoption in their immediate family (adopting, placing, adopted)
What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween is set for release 8/1/11.
These pictures strike me a bit of Alice in Wonderland …I can just imagine another world beneath the canopy of blooms. I am reminded of the Queen of Hearts when she says Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
I am off from work this week and found that the much needed break seemed to trigger lost enthusiasm for dreaming, writing and envisioning new projects. I may or may not see all my ideas to fruition, but half the joy is in allowing myself to explore and play in different directions.
What do you do to get your creative energy flowing? Are you giving yourself permission to believe in the impossible?
~ Another cereal box moment:) ~
I have been getting loads of promotions in my in-box recently for Christmas in July which triggered my thoughts back to last holiday season where I began in November for my handmade crafts and almost didn’t make it. Although some of my crafts were dismal failures (think misshapen soaps and freakish looking body scrubs), I was able to complete journal totes, bookmarks and prayer cards in the last hour. This summer, I decided to go ahead and get started on some recycled journals. I’m not sure why these have been calling to me more than the altered spiral bound sketch pads I was using. I definitely run out of pages quicker but I like the easy fit of these into my purse. By the way, if anyone has any ideas of some type of “sleeve” to preserve the flowers on the front please let me know.
I found the idea for using cereal boxes on YouTube and modified it. You can find instructions for the the cut of the journal cover at Girls Express. Instead of wrapping paper like my daughter did for the other blog, I tore out some music from the last church bulletin and mod-podged (do you think the manufacturers knew their product would turn into a verb?!) randomly, gessoed front and back, inside and outside, then covered with a couple of acrylic paints using a credit card. I found a picture that called to me along with some more sheet music, brads, stamps and flowers and threw it all together. I blended in some oil pastels, added some distressed ink in a few places, used bubble wrap dipped in black ink and sprayed with sealant. The back and inside folds have the same gessoed and painted layers with a stamp or two and some distressed ink. For the inside pages, I soaked some card stock in coffee, cut to fit and used jewelry cord threaded through two holes punched in the spine. Those are also randomly stamped. (You could also use background pages for the inside like those that Shona Cole demonstrates at The Artistic Life.)
Anyone else starting early?
{Shameless plug ~ Starting “Celebrate Your Journey” on-line 8/1/11 through Story Circle Network…would love to see you there!}
The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention. ~ Julia Cameron
The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. ~Thich Nhat Hanh
To be mindfully engaged is the most natural, creative state we can be in.
~Ellen Langler
Are you rushing through your moments, worried about yesterday and tomorrow or are you celebrating the moments as they come? Take a nature walk to restore balance and the practice of focusing on each moment and journal about the process.
