Book of Trees

I know! I said I wouldn't do any more online classes but anything about making books has my name on it!  I signed up for Roxanne Evans Stout's 'Book of Trees'.

I put pieces of fabric on each of these torn pages made of watercolour paper.

And put paper on the other side.

I added gesso in places on the pages and then went around the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I spread the ink using a wet wipe.

I started this in mid-November and this is as far as I had managed to do.  Life got in the way for a bit and so in the past couple of months I have done a little bit to a page every now and again and joy of joys it's finished.

Well, when I say finished - any of the pages could quite easily take more words and images.  So let's say it's finished for now!

The book is approximately A5.

 

To bind it, I used twine.  Sadly I couldn't find the brown twine (in a safe place somewhere) so I used green.  I used a twig on the front

and a coffee stirrer on the back because I was too lazy to look for another twig!

 I am pleased with it. I love how the colours have turned out.  If I do it again I think I will make a smaller book - maybe A6.


 Thanks for joining me today
 Bernice

Know Your Why

You may remember that my One Little Word for 2016 is Purpose.   I wrote about in this blog post: Purpose.  I had great intentions of getting to grips with the word via various books, videos and studies and apart from the one of the exercises in the Reflections class I have done none of it.

And then this week, this video turned up on my Facebook newsfeed.

And it started me thinking.

Do I know my why?  Do I know my what?   If my what currently is mixed media and textile art then why am I doing it?

I believe we have seasons - not the four seasons in the year - but times for certain things to happen.  There is a famous passage in the Bible about this:  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven -

A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.

A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.

I think that our purpose has seasons - we have times where our activities fulfil a certain purpose and then we move on to something else.

I believe that there are some purposes in my life that are on going:
To be the best wife that I can be
To be the best mother that I can be
To be the best friend that I can be

However I also think there are other purposes or plans that God has for me now and in the future - although currently I don't know what they are.  I trust God to reveal them in his timing which is never the same as mine!

But I wonder whether sometimes I am doing the what without seeking the why first.

This month's assignment for One Little Word was to make a vision board.  So I cut out words and pictures from magazines that 'spoke' to me and collaged them together.

I enjoyed putting it together but sadly it didn't help with the why!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Telling my story

I am doing a class with Jeanne Oliver called Reflections: Paint your story.  You can join in if you wish.

One of the exercises was to cut out words and phrases from magazines that stood out to you and make them into a poem.  I painted the background first then stuck the words on.

In another exercise we were asked to collect together lots of photographs of our lives plus bits and pieces about things we like and create a storyboard.

I used the back of the dining room door to put this together.  I had a lot more photos than this to choose from but they didn't make it to the door.  Plus there are thousands of other photos that I didn't even look through.

When it was finished I looked at it and realised vast swathes of my life are missing from the storyboard.  There's nothing up there about my education or my working life.   So what is there?  Some family and various elements of my creativity - art, textiles and photography.

The photos didn't last long on the back of the door - some of them were pulling other ones off so I took them down and put them into the groups they seemed to belong to.

It is very interesting to me to look at these photos and ponder on why I chose them and what they represent.  And how much was left out and why.

And then from this storyboard I painted a timeline picture.  If you want more details on how I did that you will need to sign up for the Jeanne Oliver class.

Here's how I started.

 And here's the finished piece.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Purpose

Last week I wrote about the background to my choice of one word for 2016: Purpose although I didn't really spell it out and maybe at the end of the blog post you were wondering the connection between what you had read and my choice of word.

When I stood down from the Foundation Team at His Kingdom Come I felt a real peace about it but also a sense of loss.  The formation and running of HKC had been my focus and purpose for over 12 months.  And as I said in my post introducing my word: 'But giving up something that is successful without God saying what is next is bittersweet and I'm not good at just resting or not knowing what is coming next.'

I felt that I needed a purpose or a vision for what is coming next.  And I seriously thought about having Vision as my word.   'Where there is no vision, the people perish ..' Proverbs 29:18

But Purpose kept coming back into my mind.  I also prayed about it.

And various books and articles kept showing up which helped confirm the right choice.

I looked online for a dictionary definition of purpose
• : the reason why something is done or used : the aim or intention of something
• : the feeling of being determined to do or achieve something
• : the aim or goal of a person : what a person is trying to do, become, etc.

A friend posted a link on Facebook to a website which also led me to a book: Chazown - the book and the website

In May, Mary wrote some devotions for His Kingdom Come based on self-care and I intend to return to those and to look at the links Mary provided:

• Personality test resources: I (Mary) personally prefer the Myers-Briggs personality assessment. It is very in-depth and used by many churches and employers.   16 Personalities   or  Typefinder Personality test
• Spiritual gifts test resources:
• Saddleback Church, home of pastor Rick Warren has a great tool called SHAPE to help understand how you are wired.

I have signed up for One Little Word and downloaded the ebook from logos365 and will use the ideas from both to combine to make my own exploration of Purpose throughout 2016.

Listen to the words of this song.

I want to dig down into what makes me the person I am and to tell my story.  To get that going I signed up for a class from Jeanne Oliver: Reflections.

I much prefer to choose a word for the year - something that I want to see more of in my life.  Do you choose a word for the year?  If so, why not share it in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

What have you signed up to do in 2016?

If you've been reading my blog for a long while you will know that I had/have the tendency to sign up for online classes.  I tried very hard this year not to do too many because

1. I was rather busy with other things and
2. I hardly ever finish the classes

I am currently doing a class called Creative+Practice and today is the start of week 6 of 8 weeks and I am totally up to date.

At the beginning of the class we were asked to write our intentions for the class and I wrote 'I intend to finish the class'.  I'm patting myself on the back that I have got this far - I've got beyond the point where I normally give up.

So maybe that's the key thing when starting a new online class - commit to finishing it!   Sometimes with me it's even the case that I need to commit to starting it.

Currently I have signed up to do several classes in 2016 but maybe I'll just hold a watching brief over some of them and do my own thing rather than follow slavishly along and then feel bad when I fall by the wayside.

So what is on offer?  There's Take Me Deeper-DNA and Logos365 on His Kingdom Come.  Both of these are free and I will probably amalgamate them with other things that I might do.  Fortnightly on TMD-DNA there is a technique prompt and an I Am statement which I hope to play along with.  (For my US readers - fortnight means 2 weeks).

In January I am planning to follow a free bible study and a short art journaling course from Jeanne Oliver.   The Bible study, Listening:Finding the Quiet, is a four week study all about finding the quiet in each day and hearing the voice of God.  The art journaling course, Reflections, is a 'two week art journaling online course all about unraveling your own story and creating authentic art that only you can tell'.

Fortunately the art journaling class starts the week after Creative+Practice finishes.

Also in January I've signed up for Creative Jumpstart.   This isn't really a class as such.  There are 25 downloadable videos with various teachers showing techniques.  You can keep the videos as a reference library for when you are stuck for an idea.

So that brings me to the year long classes or workshops that I've signed up for.   I really like learning techniques and learning about different products so Wanderlust was a must for me.

One Little Word is a monthly class from Ali Edwards which I have done in previous years and will probably combine with Logos365.

I'm going to dip in and out of Documented Life Project - the unplanner.  I enjoyed parts of Documented Life Project in 2014 especially the fact that I combined my one little word with it.

And finally starting on January 6th, there's Glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament - a Bible Study that I am working on with Simon Clay from Jubilee Church.  This is a free weekly bible study with optional creative responses.

Have I taken on too much?  Probably.

Will I complete it all?  Possibly not.

Will I enjoy it?  Definitely.

What have you committed to doing in 2016?

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice