Build your creative business

On June 1st I shall be taking part in an online course which will help me to build my creative business - Wholly Creative.

The course is run by Nana Campana and you can access the course by clicking on the 'Click here for more details' under the Creative Biz logo on the lefthandside of this page.

Click on the link, sign up and join me in this exciting new adventure.  Here's a sneak peek of what is on offer:

The Creative Biz Tool-Kit is a series of daily lessons meant to ignite in you the

• BOLDNESS you crave
• PASSION you have been quenching
• PURPOSE you have been given
• REVOLUTION you were meant to bring
• DISCIPLINE you need
• ACCOUNTABILITY you want

The program is made up of 4 weeks of short daily lessons available to you in a unique online classroom AND 2 phone calls a week.  There you will find:

• PRACTICAL WORKSHEETS and tools to walk you from where you are at, to where you want to be
• COMMUNITY of like-minded creatives that will support your dreams AND help you spread them into the world
• TIPS & TRICKS to make your dreams of starting a creative business, a ministry, a blog, or just about anything you have desired to do

Spare room

We are slowly going to declutter the house and generally rescue it from its tired state.  The small spare room had this problem:

And so we thought we had better start here in case when the wallpaper was pulled off all the plaster came with it.

Fortunately that's as bad as it got and now looks like this:

The rest of the room has had lining paper and paint on the walls and one wall has had the leftover wallpaper that I found when we cleared out the room.  It's left over from another bedroom.

I had thought about having new carpet and curtains in this room but Roger couldn't see the point so I saved the money.   And to make it look a bit different from before used the duvet cover from another bedroom.

I'm really pleased with the result.  The next room is the study but that has sooooooo much stuff in it I can hardly bear to think about starting it. 

And anyway the weather is much too warm for decluttering!

Enjoy a challenge?

See what we're up to next week at heART&soul

Aperture Priority

One of my goals this year was to use my camera in the Manual setting rather than keeping it on Automatic.  Sadly that hasn't happened.

However today I thought I would try using it on Aperture Priority and here are the results just from the back garden.

Giveaway winner

Thanks to Sheena, Julie, Angela, Helen, Kaere, Sandie, Julie and Carmen for Stopping By and leaving a comment.

I wrote out your names on pieces of paper.

Folded them up

 

 And the winner of this pack of goodies

chosen by Mr Random Generator (aka my husband!) is

 

So Angela please send me your mailing address.

 Thanks again everyone

Bernice

Weekly Walks

Each week this year I have been on a long walk - sometimes on my own but mostly with Roger.

Lately I have been looking at who I am as a creative person and as woman of faith.  I have mostly kept these two areas compartmentalised but through conversations with Pattie Ann Hale have come to realise that I am a creative woman of faith.

I love to take photographs and often take photos of what some people may think of as odd - usually patterns, or rusty bits ~ hardly ever 'normal' photos of people or events.  I used to use these sort of photos to inform my art or my textile work and only recently realised that I still take the same sort of photos as I always did but rarely use them to inspire me.

This evening I have put together photos from each of the 20 walks.  They show God's creation in a variety of ways. 

Sadly the music soundtrack is less than inspiring and if anyone has a link to a really good source of copyright free music please let me know.

Thanks

Bernice

Alphabetical

On Going Postal today Julie used a stamped alphabet background and it inspired me to do the next two pages in my Art Every Day Journal.

I used some Dylusions stamps to stamp some alphabets and numbers randomly across the pages and then put some Peacock Feather Distress Ink over the whole lot.  I used some more Dylusions stamps to stamp the border using Adirondack ink.

I don't have any acrylic blocks long enough for these stamps but found that my Tim Holtz ruler worked really well.

Here's a close up of the right hand side page.

Then I completed my journal entries for the last 4 days.  As you can tell I don't always journal every day despite the title of the journal!

Don't forget to leave a comment on yesterday's post if you want to be included in the giveaway.

Thanks
Bernice

Stopping By

On Going Postal today, Julie talks about blogging and the purpose of her blog.  And the question about whether Bloggers share too much, too little or just the right amount.

Some Bloggers have series such as Technique Tuesdays or Photo Fridays.  I saw a new one yesterday I might 'steal' - Wordless Wednesdays.  Some people share all their innermost struggles.  Or their faith.  Or their art.

I blog now and then. When I've got something to share.

But it has got me thinking.  Why do I blog?  

And then the question arose - why do people read my blog?  I've got 84 followers according to Blogger and I'm not sure whether that includes any people who follow on Google Reader.

So dear Readers.  Why do you stop by Newly Creative?  What do you like to read about here?  What would you like to see more of here?

Leave me some lovely answers to the questions above and any other questions I haven't asked and I will enter you into a draw for some blog candy.

Wouldn't you like this through the post?

Set of unmounted rubber stamps, 5 Prismacolor Pencils, a Ranger ink pad and a Silkies Pearlescent Paint

Leave a reply by Sunday 20th May and I will choose a winner on Monday morning.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Bernice

Going Postal: Wedding Anniversary Card

Julie Kirk  is running a series on her blog this week called Going Postal.  Why not go and take a look.

Today, May 14th, is our 29th Wedding Anniversary.

(Sorry about the quality of the photo, it was scanned from the original.)

And last year I gave Roger a really lovely card.  By now you may be thinking 'what does this have to do with Going Postal?' - well hang in there!

After Roger had opened it I realised that actually the card would have been really apt for our son and daughter-in-law whose wedding anniversary is May 9th.   So I went out and bought another card and put it away safely until I could send it this year.

Here they are on May 9th 2009

Andy had proposed to Naomi on the headland on the right of this photo.

Stay with  me, nearly at the postal bit!

So, having saved the card since last May ready for this May I put it in the post to Australia on April 19th.  Apparently it only takes 8 days to get from the UK to Sydney so it should have been there in plenty of time for May 9th.

Sadly it never arrived.

Now if you've ever visited my house you would know I hardly throw anything away and I had searched and searched for the card I gave to Roger in 2011 so that I could at least scan it and email last week.  But could I find it, NO!

Today, in one last ditch attempt I looked in a box I hadn't looked in before, and there it was.  And when you see the next photo you'll know why it was important to me that Andy & Naomi received THIS particular card.

Finding Fun week 3

Carolyn's challenges for this week at Finding Fun are based on The Kitchen.

But as I told her

I know... I know.... I know....

I said I wouldn't do any more technique classes.  However who could resist a class by Roben-Marie Smith called: Collage, Construct & Affirm.

Well I couldn't!

I am taking part in an online book study called 'Unlocking the Heart of the Artist' and the questions for homework are really hard.  So I procrastinated. (Where have we heard this before?)

However I procrastinated creatively for once and started watching the videos and collaging and painting my canvas.  I was supposed to be using canvas paper but I didn't have any so used canvas on a roll.

Here are two pieces of the canvas.

And here's the third piece cut up and creased ready to make into journal covers.

And the homework still awaits!!!

Scrapbook Life in April

I am following along with Scrapbook Life Journal organised by Stephanie Ackerman.  She is a talented artist and you can follow her blog at Homegrown Hospitality. 

At the beginning we were told to cut 80+ pages of scrapbook paper to fit our journal.  Mine 9x9" and full of papers I didn't like.  I'm glad I'm using them rather than throwing them away but sometimes I find stick other things onto the page is quite difficult.  Still it's good for silencing my inner critic!

I'm pleased to say that I have kept up with my weekly walks and record these in the Scrapbook Journal.

So without further ado here are my April pages.

The theme this month was to make Random Acts of Art.  We had to make a folder to keep the art in and this is mine.  The art is made up of random bits left over from a workshop I did with Anneliese.

This piece was about making your own Washi tape.   However I have so much (every one!) of the Tim Holtz tissue tape that I thought I would use that instead.   I put a piece of tissue tape from each roll side by side on my mat and then randomly inked and stamped it.  I too strips randomly from the mat and stuck them to a piece of backing paper and cut it square.  I cut up what was left over to make tiny strips which I attached to the paper.  I stamped the quote on a piece of plain cardstock and used a punch around the edges.

Stephanie asked us to grab a photo of ourselves and a variety of letters without giving it much thought - whatever came to hand - and to put these phrases around the photo.

The next two pages are  collages of photos taken at when we were in Derbyshire at the heART&soul retreat.

And lastly walk 17.