Midpoint

July is the midpoint of the year and I find myself looking back - in fact, I've been doing a lot of that lately..but I'll save that for another post. Right now though I find myself at a place of contentment within this year. It's had some pretty rough spots, but it has also held some places of growth and healing, and of trying new things.

I have been on a journey over the past 6-7 years to find ways to use my voice. It has felt like a deep calling from God. Art, photography, and this blog have all been ways that have enabled me to, both find and use my voice. Last week I tried using my voice in a completely new way: I preached!

I have used my voice in different small ways before in our Sunday service - leading the service, doing an announcement, even partnering with my pastor a few times when we have talked about being missional or about outreach. But this was the first time that I took a passage of Scripture and preached a full message from it. You can hear it on our church website by clicking on the picture below:

Again, in a future post, I'll write more about the journey behind the message I preached. For now I just want to touch on the experience of it. I found myself amazingly calm and at home in the midst of speaking, which totally shocks me looking back at it. I was quite nervous in the time leading up to it. I love digging into Bible study and contribute from my studying on a team at our church which  collaborates to help form our Sunday messages and service. But taking what I have studied and turning it into a 30 minute message - that made me nervous! Being vulnerable and sharing parts of myself live and in-person in front of a bunch of people - that made me nervous! Yet I also experienced growth in the midst of it. And I think, in some way I haven't totally figured out yet, it was another step in my journey to becoming whole - my word for this year.

I shared a quote in my message from this summer's Grace Table Book Club book, Rhythm's of Rest by Shelly Miller. I find I keep coming back to this quote. It is ruminating in my soul. Especially when I combine it with a quote from a message my pastor preached from Galatians 5:16-21 earlier this summer. He said:

"There are these pockets of resistance within us that we continually struggle against." ~Doug Rumschlag

Shelly Miller writes mostly about practicing Sabbath. I find that God has so much for my whole being in the topic of Sabbath and rest. You can learn more about Shelly, her book, and Sabbath on her blog www.shellymillerwriter.com. 

While I'm sending you to read blogs I'd also like to send you to Kris Camealy's recent blog post, "When It's a Slow Transfiguration". I really resonated a great deal with what Kris' wrote in it.

On the art front, today I completed my final Rolodex scrap collage card for the 100 Day Project. While the project officially ended on the 12th, I'm okay with getting done late because IT'S DONE! It was a good challenge. It challenged me to work small, to use up scraps of paper and ephemera, and to get creative almost every day. I ended it with a favorite quote from Dr. Seuss. I like to end my travel journals with this quote, and believe me, this 100 day project has been a journey!

For the last seven weeks of the 100 Day Project I combined it with the ICAD (Index-Card-A-Day) challenge, using many of their prompts. The ICAD challenge doesn't end for another nine days. I'm feeling the itch to move on to other projects, but I may keep going and finish this one since I'm so close to the end. I have posted my 100 Day Project and ICAD cards on Instagram. (Link in the right hand sidebar.)

I feel somewhat caught up now. :)

I'll be back sometime this week with more on my journey and some thoughts on Commonplace books. I recently read a blog post about them and it reminded me how much I have loved this practice in the past.

So, how are you doing midpoint in the year?

Meandering 6.30.2017

"Meandering: adjective; the act of following a winding or indirect course. 

Ramble, roam, zigzag, circuitous. A blog post about a variety of things; 

a little bit of this and a little bit of that."

It's been a while. I have these aspirations about being a regular blogger, putting up posts at least twice a week. The reality is I barely make it happen twice a month! But, I really enjoy blogging so for now I'll post when I can and keep striving for my personal goal of posting more often.

I am on day 78 of the 100 Day Project. My creative practice of choice for this project was to make collages from scraps on Rolodex cards. I combined this project with the Index-Card-A-Day (ICAD) project which began on June 1st, since Rolodex cards are included as index cards. The difference between the two projects is the 100 Day Project is totally self-led, while the ICAD project provides daily prompts. Some days I use the prompt and some days I don't. You can see all of my Rolodex art cards on Instagram (link in the sidebar on the right).

My Rolodex is filling up nicely. :)

Ever since I began this venture into making art with paper I have been drawn to collage. Lately I have been drawn to botanical collage pieces. I have come across a few collage artists whose botanical themed pieces just blow me away. One in particular, Julie Hamilton, paints her own papers to use in her collage art. I'm a sucker for painted paper!

From www.juliehamiltoncreative.com

A few other collage artists I admire for their botanical collage work are: Tiffany Calder Kingston and Jacgui Grace. Click their names and you will visit their websites.

So a few weeks ago, inspired by these artists, I painted some papers. I love to use the bookend papers from the books I take a part. This paper in older books has a great weight to it and I love how the color ages over time. With the painted papers I tried my hand at some botanical collage.

I even found myself wanting to bring home ferns and leaves from my walks in order to trace them for collage! But I didn't go that far. I used some of my stencils and used drawings from plant books to make templates. Then I used some of the painted papers to make a color wheel for my first page for the Get Messy Season of Color.

It's fun to try new techniques with art and I love combining them with my love of nature!

Creative Brainstorming

It's been said that creativity is like a muscle, the more you use it the more it improves. I continually join different classes and groups to keep my creative muscle in use and improving. Recently I joined two groups led by artists who have different styles and use different art mediums than the ones I usually lean toward. It's good to stretch my creativity out of its comfort zone and experiment with new products. 

I joined Tammy Garcia of Yellow Daisy Art to give heavy body acrylic paints a try. Her class, Groovy Grunge, is also stretching me to try new techniques and a different style. The class uses an altered book journal, which is one of my favorite types of journals. My first few pages from the class:

Some observations from the class so far: I love using the heavy body acrylics. They are thicker than the craft acrylic paints I'm used to. They are more transparent also, so more of the background shows through. There are also not as many colors to choose from so I'm getting some lessons in blending colors as well. I am following Tammy's lead and using my fingers more than a paint brush, which is always a favorite with me! I tried some writing using a paint brush and I think it needs a lot more practice.

I am keeping up (kind of) with The 100 Day Project making scrap collage on 3x5 Rolodex cards.The smaller size challenges me to get creative with a limited amount of items and words! Today is day 35 and I am through day 32. 

The other group I joined is an online art community led by Roben-Marie Smith. She offers different challenges and prompts and a place for art journalers to connect with each other. I have not done much with the prompts yet.

And finally, the first page in a new Traveler's Notebook insert. My sister and I introduced our littles to how to go to a different town and have a day of exploration and adventure. Great fun!

Are you keeping your creative muscles flexed and in use?

The 100 Day Project ~ the Beginning

It's been said that it takes 21 days to create a habit and 90 days to create a lifestyle. The 21/90 rule. I have been trying to use this mindset to create a lifestyle of health. When I learned about The 100 Day Project, I thought it might be a good way to encourage my daily art practice. And a lifestyle of art, while not quite as important as a lifestyle of healthy eating and exercise, is healthy for my emotional outlook!

So I chose to make mini collages from the scraps in my scrap box. When I think about what my favorite art medium is collage tends to come to mind immediately. Yet, I don't do it that often. So this project will stretch me to do so on a daily basis. Making them on a smaller scale is also getting me back into my Rolodex art journal. We were encouraged to make our own unique hashtag for the project. Mine is #100daysofscrapcollage.

Days 1 - 14:

2 weeks down! Let's see how I do on the long haul, :)

For the Love of Creative Energy

Last week was a week full of creative energy. It started out with a long weekend for the Easter holiday. We had Monday off as our holiday day and I took Thursday off as a vacation day since school is out this week. Working only 2 1/2 days really helped amp up the creative energy! I think having a loose schedule probably benefits most creative types.

One of the Documented Life Project (DLP) challenges was to create white-space on a pocket card (PAC). Rae Missigman had a quick little tutorial on how she used shaving cream and alcohol ink to get a bit of swirly color on her background, so I thought I would give her method a try. My results did not end up with many swirls since I tried using a small Styrofoam tray with large sheets of paper. But the background on my card didn't turn out too bad.

Last week my sister and I started a Facebook group for those who love to use vintage items in their home decor and/or art. It's a place to share resources like the new vintage section of my Etsy shop, the adventures of vintage hunting my sister and I go on, vintage shops we find online and in the Ohio/Michigan area, ideas for using and repurposing vintage items in the home and in art, etc. You can check it out here and join the conversation and adventure!

On Thursday we met in Ann Arbor and spent the day hunting vintage finds. We also visited a shop we had found online. Tamara has a Facebook group for her shop and vintage findings as well as a new website. Despite the fact that it was pouring down rain, we had a great time meeting Tamara and exploring her sweet little shabby shack shop. We picked up a metal sign I had ordered online.

We then spent the rest of the day exploring thrift shops, antique stores and simply enjoying being together. Some of my vintage finds are below. They will appear soon in my Etsy shop in one form or another!

Saturday I had a finance team meeting at church and then poked around a few thrift and vintage shops in my area. A few of the vintage finds from Saturday:

Through this wonderful vintage brick alley in downtown Maumee you find a nice store full of antiques and repurposed vintage furniture. Encore Furniture 306. Saturday was my first visit to this shop.

On Sunday we had a full breakfast room at church. Having lots of kids around always fills my heart!

After church a few of the boys went with me to watch birds at the park.

One of the ongoing art projects my sister and I have is our altered Rolodex file art journals. We love sharing this project so I am always on the look out for more Rolodex card holders and boxes. This week I came across three! They will be listed in my shop in the next few days. I made some art journal cards to display in them and will include them as a bonus with each holder.

Left side: Anne's. Right side: mine.

A week full of creative energy was good for me in so many ways! Enjoy the week ahead. :)