Let me think ...

This is my Artist Trading Card (ATC)
for The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge.

The next letter is Q.

The letter Q is always is a tough one,
especially when you are working with a theme.

Throughout this year
I am focusing on the word
Resilience
for my art projects.

One of the aspects of this is to understand
your thought patterns when you face a challenge.

When faced with a challenge, you can react in a variety of ways,

so you should train your thinking to focus on the solution,
thus reducing stress & anxiety.

Whilst you cannot control some situations or events,

you can learn to control how you react to them.

These words were cut out from an old book that I use for my art projects.

 The patterned paper is by K & Company

from their K-ology Addison range.

The image of the girl is from Lisa's Altered Art.

This ATC will have place in my Art Journal for Week 4.

Art Journal Week 3

I have followed the prompt on Colour Me Positive,
by using a Haiku I wrote last year 

Every minute counts

As time passes by so fast

Each moment matters

The background is acrylic paint,
with Distress Ink (broken china)

overlaid using a Crafters Workshop stencil.

The paper shapes are torn from an old book, adhered with Mod Podge.

There was a moment of pure delight when I noticed the words on this square.

Serendipity in action.

I am trying to keep my pages simple, but varied.

I made an ATC inspire by the snowy day we had at the weekend.

The image of the girl is from Lisa's Altered Art
& the papers are from K & Company.

The image of the clock face is from The Graphics Fairy.

I have now added another graphic to this page, from Shanty2Chic.

My Art Journal is always a work in progress ...

New Beginnings

During the first few weeks of January,
I have given much thought to how I want to spend my creative time this year
& have settled on a few ideas.

I have chosen a word to focus on during 2016, which will form the basis for my art projects.

Resilience

It is a multifaceted word which will allow me to draw inspiration
from it's many parts throughout the year.

More on that later.

I will be working in an art journal, which is the same Dylusions journal by Ranger,
that I started to use for the Documented Life Project last year.

Those pages have been removed, so that I can begin again with a fresh clean journal.

Using one page for each week, I have enough pages left to last the year.

I created a page template, which can be used four different ways 

& will bring some continuity to my pages.

The large rectangles are big enough to contain an ATC
& the smaller squares can be used for inchies.

My journal will be a way to document my year, with space to insert other projects along the way.

For Week 1,
I have used the prompt from Colour Me Positive,
together with a Truth Card from BGU.

I have also used the space to include a couple of cut-outs from a publication.

This new butterfly, which has been named after Sir David Attenborough,
is a Black-Eyed Satyr.

Hidden under the Truth Card, is something that made me laugh.

Truth Card hinged using Tissue Tape

The background was made using acrylic paint, over a textured gesso layer,
then Gelatos (Passion Fruit) through a Tim Holtz Bubble stencil
& the larger circles were made using a Faber-Castell dabber tool.
                                                                                                                                   
Week 2,
I again followed the prompt from CMP,
together with an ATC made for The Craft Barn 2016 Alpha Challenge.

ATC attached to journal using photo corners

I have decided to join in with their challenge as I thoroughly enjoyed it in 2013,
but this time I will be making ATCs rather than tags.

I grabbed an old dictionary from the bookshelf
& a part used pack of paper by K & Company
from their K-ology Addison range.

I have used a small blue gemstone for the bird's eye.

The bird image was from The Graphics Fairy,
(as was the image of the girl,
which is held in place by a strip of tissue tape from Tim Holtz).

The background was made using acrylic paint, over a textured gesso layer,
then black acrylic paint through a Tim Holtz Flourish stencil.

Both pages were edged with black acrylic paint.