A Creative Life

Creating and Christmas

Trying to get back into the swing of blogging again, trying to do another post before an entire month is up!! Trying, but I have had this tab open for a couple of weeks now and have not completed this post!!   There are so many things competing for my time and as usual the blog comes a distant 5th or something like that!

So what should have I been doing lately other than caring for the family, which does take priority, in my spare (cough, cough!) time?  Class projects are always at the front of that list, but this month I managed to get all of those done early on in the month and then my Prima box for CHA creating was late, so I have a whole week of time that could be used to play, just for me.  What did I choose to do in that time..... Take a Bloom Girl Online Workshop with Jamie Dougherty!  Now if any of you know me, you will know that it has been a deep seated desire to be able to draw, specifically a face so this workshop was a step in that direction.  What I didn't anticipate was how it would change my creative outlook!!

You may wonder how a workshop can change your creative outlook, but it did through one main thing...Jamie taught me how to draw a side profile face and from that one accomplishment.... I now have the confidence to draw more and I am going to admit that I have stunned myself, yes, stunned as I truly didn't think I could draw, but now, with practice I believe I have that capability.

Here is a quick look at the progression of drawing my face for the Bloom Girl Workshop.  You can see in the first of the images all the guidelines I have drawn, just as suggested in the workshop to ensure the proportions are correct, through to refining the details and finally colouring and shading.

and then the finished product.  I added some of my own mixed media elements to the background.  She now is framed and sitting in my bedroom.  Can't part with her as she is the beginning of a new era of creativity for me, with huge thanks to Jamie for her wonderful online workshop.

 

After completing this girl I then decided it was time to put some of the techniques to good use and see if I could manage a front facing portrait....

she then turned into this canvas....

and then the challenge became to draw different styles of faces, even more whimsical (I know my limits, and creating anything realistic is my limit so lets just go with whimsical as I figure I can have more success with that! LOL!)

You can see on the left hand edge I quite literally drew her on the scrap left over from cutting out the previous face.  Still a frugal girl at heart!  I also had a very distinct idea in my head for the canvas background for this forlorn face.  I wanted it all kind of dripping downward like rain on a window.

and the moment you know you have become truly obsessed is when you take your pencils and paper to the school closing excersizes and sit in the back row sketching away!  Yep, I did that!  Naughty me! :) but I did sketch the girl that later became this piece which I gave to my niece for Christmas.

As you can see I can be a little full on when I discover something new.  I have 3 more sketches in my journal, ready to be created into canvases.  However I now have to do some CHA creating!  Oh and create some classes now for February as well.  I swear it never, ever ends!! LOL!  Speaking of classes.... 

I didn't teach any card classes for a couple of months but a few of the regular girls were asking for another card class and there was also a desire it be a masculine one!  Well, that is always a challenge at the best of times!  I created these cards and I would like to point out, not a flower in sight!  That is a first! 

I used the Prima All Stars range for these and I have to say there are enough text style papers in this range for it to feel more vintage masculine than just sporty.  It was really easy to work with and if you want to incorporate the sporty aspect you can.  I will also say I am in LOVE with Prima's stitched shape stamps!  They are fabulous for both cards and pages alike.  I have the rectangles and the squares, now I just have to get my hands on the circles!!

There was also a canvas class.  Only a little 6x6 canvas, but so much fun to create and really quite easy.  All the ladies had a lot of fun making theirs.  The other benefit, I need a teacher gift.... sorted!  I hope the teacher likes it!

 

So there really has been a great deal of creativity happening in this household!  Really wish I had my own little studio at times as I quite literally cant walk down one side of the bedroom from all the scrap/art supplies that are in boxes on the floor as I have run out of room to store it all.  Hubby suggested I get rid of some of it... I gave him the glare of the century and informed him I needed it all!  Quite protective of the stash, I must say!!

Finally, Christmas has come and gone in the house!  It was made extra special this year, as my Brother and his family flew in for a few days.  It had been almost 4 years since we had seen them last!  I had seen them a couple of years ago when I was up in Brisbane to teach and caught the train down to the Gold Coast to spend the night at their place, but they hadn't seen the kids in that time.  Bit of a surprise to go from seeing my eldest as an 11 year old to seeing him again as a 15 year old.  He now stands almost eye to eye with his Uncle now.

 

My brother Stirling and I, and my SIL, Deidrie.

Then just as they were about to leave on Christmas Day we remembered we needed to take a photo of all the cousins together! So glad we got the picture.

 

Just for comparison, this is the last time the cousins saw each other back in August 2010.  Yeah, they have grown up a bit since then!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Now I had better get off the computer and go and finish cleaning up the house after it saw over 30 people through it's doors yesterday!!




 

I decided that I have to do a blog update!!  Can't leave it for months and months on end like I did last time! Most of my time is taken up with creating class samples and then teaching them.  In fact it is beginning to feel like I am a hampster on the creating/teaching wheel!  The hardest part of that is always trying to find new and fun techniques to teach, or maybe just rehashing techniques I have done before in a slightly new way.  This blog post is merely an excuse to procrastinate about creating more class samples. LOL!!

So here are some of my class samples that I have taught over the last coule of months.  I have really been enjoying creating 2 part classes.  First class is about creating tags and then the next class is using those tags on a layout.  These tags use the Divine collection, which is so aptly named.

I picked up that fabulous green lace from the Prima Outlet store while I was in the US.  Nothing like having a whole roll of something so delicious!!   Below is the layout created using the tags.

That was my October class of tags and layout and in November I went for a very teal, distress ink technique based class for these tags!  The kit was so funny as it was just some Prima tags, a sheet of white cardstock and a set of Prima stamps and a few Prima flowers.  Those attending the class must have wondered where all the Prima paper was!  Usually their kits are so full of Prima papers!

I only used 2 different colours of Ranger Distress Inks on these tags, Peacock Feathers and Peeled Paint.  It is quite amazing the results you can achieve with a few differnt techniques and 2 inks!  This was so much fun to teach and hopefully a lot of fun for those creating them.  And of course, the layout from one of these tags.

Now this month I have gone for a Christmas feel for my class!  I am not much of a Christmas kind of girl, but I know others like a little bit of Christmas whimsy, so I created these tags for my December classes.

I seem to have developed a love affair with stamping on my tags lately!  You relly can do so much with stamping when creating your projects.  Love my stamps!

I had a lot of fun with the background on the layout.  Really wanted to incorporate some of the resist canvas as this is just so much fun to play with.  Totally in love with all the masks that Finn released with Prima.  I may have purchased every single one of them!  

So enough with the scrappy stuff and a little about what is going on at home!!  The eldest two boys have now finished high school for another year!  They both achieved their MPL's (Motivational Performance Learning - basically they are set a % target for each subject and if they achieve them throughout the year they don't have to sit exams) so school is out for them!  I will say I am VERY surprised that Cameron made his since we had to have a behaviour managment plan put into place at the beginning of 4th term!!  He is a bit too social in class and has wonderful leadership tendancies at leading others astray!  SIGH!!  The plan worked and his grades were greatly improved in 4th term and if he decided that he is going to start messing around again next year I will be calling the deputy principal and getting another plan put in place ASAP.  He is a very smart lad, but finds social interaction far more valuable than actual learning at this point in his life.  Lachan on the other hand works hard all year and has achieved his MPL's every year he has been in high school.  However this is the last year he can get MPL's as all year 11's have to sit their exams.  I can't believe I will have a child in year 11 next year!!  How did my boy grow up so quickly??  And by association, how did I get so middle aged! LOL!!

So finally, I will leave you with some pictures!  I found the files of the US trip! I had transferred them to my hard drive but didn't rename the folder I had put them into!  Silly Me!!  Here is some proof that Paul and I went to Disneyland!

 

Paul took this cute picture of Pom (owner of Prima Marketing) and myslef on the last day before we flew back home.  Pom is so so lovely and we stayed with her while in the US.

It has also been quite a while since I shared any pictures I have taken of the kids here as well.  I realised that I have not taken that many pictures this year!  Naughty me!  I guess running around like a headless chicken can have that affect on the process of getting a camera out and taking family pictures.  Must try and remember to take more pics next year.  However the eldest lad in the family is becoming highly unco-operative in the picture taking scenario!  I guess it was bound to happen.

See I can do a blog update!! YAY!!  However my procrastination time has come to an end and I must once again head back to the scrapping table to create a layout.  No rest for the wicked they say and I get the feeling I may have been a very wicked girl and never knew it!