Elements of Art Journaling ~ Spirit Week

Finally I'm posting my about my last week in the Elements of Journaling ecourse, Spirit week.  I have to admit that Spirit week was like 3 1/2 weeks ago, but for the past few weeks I have found myself stuck, with no luster, overly worried and overwhelmed with lots of personal stuff.  It's as though I lost my joy, my creative flow.  I suppose it was my time to have some much needed "cave time", time for myself, to just be with myself, my thoughts and not have to be present in the world outside.  I try to give myself cave time at least once a month, but found that the last few months I was just going and going and going and really didn't take time to recharge sort a speak.  Sometimes when we don't listen to our bodies needs, it screams it to us in many ways.  So, I listened.  I sat and meditated, disconnected from the outside world so I could recharge, ground and be nurtured.  There I connected with myself and the Universe and got through those fears and lightened my heart.

This past weekend I was finally able to come out and be present, and was able to work through the many ways Effy taught us to journal about our elements through out the ecourse.  Spirit came to me as one of my patron Goddesses, Artemis.  A few years back I found I have both her attributes and aspects along with Aphrodite's. Which has enlightened me much, I found having to do my best to keep the balance between the two, cos' when it's off I'm not a happy camper, but that's another story.  At this moment in time Artemis was up and present...fierce protector, bringer of light, independent, strong, compassionate and healing Goddess who lends us her strength to bring us safely through our fears...and so, she is who I connected with when I did my art journal piece for Spirit week.

I find that many times in my life, whether I have had a partner or not, I've counted on myself to get me through, to push through the fear and get through to the other side.  I've always been the "strong one" the one who manages to get through and do it all on her own.  So I've come to understand that the answers are inside me and all I have to do is sit, listen and honor the Goddess in me no matter what aspects of her shows up.




And so, Artemis was a reflection of my strength, my independence, my compassion and ability to heal as I once again brought myself through my fears and back into the light.

The Elements of Art Jouranling has ended but the self paced ecourse is up and running as of September 1st.  I've not been able to swing it into my budget at this time to continue, but it's on my wish list, as Effy will be introducing 4 new lessons to the self pace course.  I've so enjoyed visiting with the elements in a different artistic way.  I've enjoyed the friendships I've made and all the wonderful things shared in the forum.  It was an interesting and wonderful growing experience.  Thanks Effy for a wonderful ecourse chuck full of love and art tips, it was a magickal artful journey!

Fire Week and the Renaissance Faire

Once again I had an interesting week in our Elements class, this week it was Fire, well Effy gave us two weeks to work on it.  Sure glad we had the extra time cos' I've been overwhelmed with lots of stuff these past two weeks, one of which is our up coming Renaissance Faire this weekend, more on that later.

So, Fire week, I though I would do great with this week since I have such a fiery personality, passionate and sometime too hot for some.  I'm not referring to love and lust, more like over powering, anger and short tempered.  It's been something I've struggled with all my life, I lack patience and I get set off easily and give my 110% to things I'm passionate about and stand for.  For the longest time I was made to feel there was something wrong with me cos I wasn't low key and "normal" as some put it.  Only recently have I learned to accept this part of me.  My passion is so strong at times, that when I give my 110% to things I believe in and stand by, I often finding that it doesn't go over well with others who are, well lets say less passionate.

So, I thought Fire, no problem.  But when it came down to it, well, maybe it's the stress I've been under and my mood wasn't right but I just had the hardest time with this page.  The fun thing was that we painted to music, no words on the paper just art.  I found myself layering and layering. Until this is what I ended up with.

Once again I love the texture this art journal produces.  And I like the vibrant colors that came through.

This is the first time I used doilies, still enjoying my Lindy Stamp Gang sprays too ;)

So on Friday we will be diving into Spirit Week...lets wee will that will take me :)


Now about the Renaissance Faire, oh, this was such a spur of the moment thing! So, we will be attending the Mancos Renaissance Faire, this weekend.  We have never done one before, and though it seems fun and exciting, I'm a little nervous.  We have to decorate our tent in period time themes, as well as dress and speak in period times.

We will be camping there over night and there's lots of planned entertainment as well.  We only rented one booth space and we will be putting out products from both our shops.  Since our Alpaca Ranch shop has a "peasant" feel to it and my jewelry shop a more "regal" feel, trying to combine the two took some serious planning.  So I came up with the idea of dressing up as a Faery and told Doug, we could just say that he's a peasant rancher who captured a Faery, LOL and so he ran with it, here's a snip bit of the fairytale he came up with and shared on his blog...

The story goes that one evening the alpaca rancher spotted a fairy creating trinkets by moonlight. He liked her work and wished she would also work for him knitting... read more...

We put up the tent this past weekend and started decorating it so get an idea how we would be pulling it all together.

I've even worked on some Faery wings...what do you think?  It was fun and challenging, I'm happy with the results, though.





Don't have much funds to spend on this whole affair, but we made due with picking up a few things and using other things we had on hand.  I'll be pulling out an old dress from my closet and adding some scarves to it and calling it good.  The boys will be wearing white T's with dark pants and a belt, with bandanas on their heads, they wanted to be pirates.  All in all it's been an adventure putting it together...soon we will see how it all goes.

I'm sure it's all going to be a fun experience, we sure are looking forward to it...especially the boys they are excited about being pirates ;)

The Elements of Art Journaling Wk 4 Water

Yet another wonderful week with Effy Wild of Wild Precious!  This week's element is water, emotions, watery emotions like Effy calls them.  Those that make you cry, verses the fire ones like anger, passion ect., those we will visit with next week ;)  So, this week we learned to "sit with it", we are still doing our clustering and the contemplative meditation, our 15 mins of free writing.  BUT we didn't use any of the words that came up in our project instead we "sat with it".  We sat with a memory where we experienced strong emotions...we felt it, honored it, and listened to our feelings around it.  We moved through them instead of filing them away, ignoring them etc .

This is why I love Art Journaling...it is such a healing art form.  I sat with and journaled a sad, painful and challenging time for me, which after 4 years I am still healing from, both physically and mentally.  The traumatic birth of my youngest son.  I have lots of emotions around it all still and though I've done a lot of healing for it, it still brings up tears and loss for me.  So...I journaled with my new Derwent Inktense pencils, which I love by the way, and then moved through those feelings honoring them, transforming them with water (infused with Lavender essential oil) thanks Effy for the idea!  Those that know me know I LOVE Lavender and essential oils.  Then we invoked the spirit of compassion, and of course Quan Yin to me is the embodiment of compassion.  So I drew another wonderful whimsy face, which I thank Tam from Willowing for teaching me how.  I still want to take her Magical Mythical Makes and World of Whimsy classes..but for now, I'm keeping my finger's crossed that I will win one of her wonderful giveaways, so I can take it sooner :p  Have you stopped by Willowing yet?  Oh, you must as I shared last week, Tam's doing a Massive Giveaway on Aug 8th, in celebration of hitting 5000 members on her Willowing site!

Okay...back to what I was saying.  Effy shared one of her wonderful girls as a drawing to use for those who wished.  While she was talking about her girl she said she scanned her into her computer, which I thought was brilliant...so I scanned  mine too and jumped on to Photoshop and added sparkles coming out of my lotus and used a printed version of it for my layout.  Before I added her though, I used two of my newest favorite toys, from Lindy Stamp Gang...spray inks with....wait for it....mica in them!  Can you say SHIMMER!  Oooo, the Tibetan Poppy Teal is gorgeous and I added some Sweet Violet Purple Teal too.  Of course, just like my glitter, it doesn't show up on my pictures...but I assure you my page shimmers like water, LOVE IT!

 

Isn't she gorgeous!  Once again the texture of the glued pages is really awesome.  I love how the paints settle in the folded cracks.  Totally enjoying this eCourse and if you missed out, no worries...soon Effy will be releasing a self paced version so you too can enjoy journeying through the Element of Art Journaling!  Have a great rest of the week ;)

The Elements of Art Journaling~Air

This week in our Elements of Art Journaling eCourse with Effy Wild from Wild Precious we are studying the element Air.  Effy gave us another wonderful writing assignment, 15 mins of writing about "What I am sure of".  I found it very interesting as I went through the process of just writing.  Once I looked it over I noticed "TIME" came up a lot.  Doesn't surprise me as I'm often struggling to find the time to get everything I want done, let alone what I need to get done on a daily basis.  A few months ago I started to create daily/weekly schedules and lists of things I need to get complete, so I can feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, week or month.  This has help me to realize that even though I don't have much TIME...I do use it wisely and do complete things for the most part ;)

While pondering what to create for an Air spread in my art journal...winged clocks came to mind...hehehe  I know it sounds silly and I'm still trying to make the connection with Air and Time...but that's what showed up for me and that's what I went with.  Here's my page...

 

As some of you know...I love faeries and sparkles, so I gave the clock faces little sparkling faerie wings!  

I wrote up an affirmation, mantra statement to help me make friends with TIME...and to remind me I do have power over it ;)

I'm loving all the associations that are coming up each week around the element of the week...am really enjoying this process.  I also am falling in love with the textures that are coming through in my backgrounds from the way we glued our pages together.  When we first created our fun journals we glued pages together to make them sturdier to support our art work, but I have to admit...at first I was resistant to the look of the pages...wrinkly instead of smooth. Now when I gesso over them it gives this wonderful texture to the background allowing the paint to adhere with unique patterns.  LOVE IT! Join me next week when we explore Water!

The Elements of Art Journaling ~Wk 2 Earth...

I am totally enjoying my time spent working on these elements.  This week is Earth and once again Effy Wild is just a fountain of inspiration.  She shares so much and in a way that veterans and beginners alike can enjoy.  We worked with an image of our body as we meditated on the earth element and listened to some wonderful music.  Effy was inspired to create a page representing of Gaia, beautiful textures and shades of green and totally inspiring.  I really enjoyed the process of layering and texturing in various ways.  After taking a picture of my body I was inspired to create my page to represent a tree of life.

 

Photos never really do art justice...I used tissue paper in the past to create texture and loved it, it was also one of Effy's suggestions.  If you could only see the gorgeous texture this put on my background, I'm loving it.  I also used gold and gold glitter but it's not showing up.  Using an image of my own body was different and wicked cool.  I'm in love with Effy's class and her way of teaching...she's real :)




Here are a few more angles to try to capture the textures, stamping and other wonderful elements on the page. 

If you are moved to, you can still journey with us in exploring the elements...registration is open til the 15th at Wild Precious, The Elements of Journaling.

The Elements of Art Journaling

Wow, I'm lovin Effy Wild's The Elements of Art Journaling class!  OMGoddess it's only the first week and I'm enjoying it so much it's so inspiring and I'm learning lots of tricks ;)  She taught us how to create our own journals for the course and not only are they fricken totally awesome, but mine is soooo me (as my girlfriend put it) ...I had a blast creating it too.

She also taught us our first Elements page layout, which was inspiring, I created my own version of it and included one of the tattoos I want to get...my dragonfly and Celtic knots, which to me represents Spirit and has deep meaning.

Water: Intuition ~ I Feel
Earth: Stability ~ I Have
Fire: Passion      ~ I Can
Air: Creativity    ~ I love
Spirit: Magick   ~ I Am


Fun, fun, fun...now I have to finish my homework and do some practice clustering in my new journal ;)  I'm sooo looking forward to week 2 :)

Here's Effy's free video on doing our first layout if you want to try out your own variation of it!



Are you inspired?  Do you want to join the fun?  There's still time so come on over to The Elements of Art Journaling and play with us!

Art Journaling...

I know Fridays are my usual art journal share days, but this Friday I'm gonna be busy! Why? Because it's the start of The Elements of Art Journaling eCourse...which I've been sooo looking forward too doing AND it's not too late to join if you too want to experience some Elemental bliss!

It's gonna be a six week journey where we will learn and use the elements, earth, air, fire, water and spirit to enrich our pages! I can't wait to start ;)

 


In the meantime I've been poking around Wild Precious and trying out different groups and their approach to art journaling.  I came across 52 pages with Darcy.  Where she gives you one word prompts through her blog Art and Soul...which seem to be challenging for me, as they make me think...but so far I have completed the first two pages.  I've also joined the Making Mandalas: Art within the Circle, it caught my eye as I recently came across Zentangles.  When I was creating my first Mandala, it sparked my piece for the 2nd week's prompt for Darcy's pages.  So I used my first Mandala as my 2nd page too.  The second Mandala I created reminded me a lot of my first expierence with Zentangles; which was awesome to say the least, after a few days of computer business stuff, unwinding a few hours with the Zentangles was enlightening.  So, I really enjoyed my 2nd Mandala.

Anyhow, I have really been enjoying all the groups and lessons Wild Precious has been offering and as I mentioned I'm way excited about tomorrow..the big day when the wonderful Elemental journaling starts!  I'll leave you with some of my art pieces to enjoy....

The Elements of Art Journaling

Okay so you know how I was introduced to Art Journaling back in April and I did the "Art, Heart, Healing" eCourse, where I drew my first Angel? Well, I have been so absorbed with business this past month and was feeling that I needed to get back into my new found love...Art Journaling, and vavoom there it was, I stumbled across another wonderful eCourse! Don't you love it when you ask, how the Universe provides...I do!

Effy from Wild Precious is a fellow Goddess Sister from Goddess Leonie's Goddess Circle that you've all heard me talk about. After finding Wild Precious, I fell in love with all the wonderfulness and energy of this group.  While browsing through it I came across the Elements of Art Journaling eCourse due to start July 1st. At that link you will find the details and be able to watched her YouTube video.  After doing so I realized not only was this cool...but I need this now in my life; since I'm at a place where I'm having yet another growth spurt in my Spiritual path.  I love the juicy way she describes your journey "We’re going to learn how to boil our experiences down to their essence so that when we journal, we’re getting the reality of our experience on the page in vivid, metaphoric, accessible, yet poetic language. And we’re going to do that by employing the classical elements of life".  Gorgeously put and totally the journey I want to be on!  So now I'm asking the Universe for some funding so I can make this happen, it's all good.

In the meantime, I joined the Wild Precious Art Journaling group on her site and once again received confirmation that this it where I needed to be.  The first journaling prompt was to incorporate Owls in some way, shape, or form in our journals.  PERFECT...ever since doing the Creative Goddess Course last year, and the Barn Owl came to me as one of my totem animals, I've been wanting to paint one, but haven't followed through.  The owl has continued to visit me in my dreams and I even had one (an owl, can't say it was a barn owl) fly over my car one evening.  These visited were so welcomed as I was going through a rough spot in my life and much needed the wisdom and magick it brought me.  So here it was, my reminder and my opportunity to create my piece of art.  Here's my creation, around the moon I wrote:  "Teach me your sacred wisdom and magickal secrets".

Isn't she beautiful!

Well, I'm off to celebrate my son's 16th birthday and enjoy the rest of the day.  Have a wonderful and blessed weekend everyone!