Gifts of Imperfection - Cultivating meaningful work

The course is over but we have a few weeks to finish up our work so I am working on my Gifts of Imperfection E course by Brene Brown this weekend.  Week Four's lesson is about identifying our "Superpower" so we can apply it/them to doing meaningful work.  Meaningful work feeds our spirit and makes a difference in the world - we are very fortunate if it also pays the bills.  If not, then it is beneficial for us to find a way - volunteering, a side business or a part time job that will do it for us.  Our Kryptonite is how this same quality can become a detriment if we abuse it.

I started both of these pages with watercolour crayons - the SU Bold and Bright & Regals sets!!
These are wonderful crayons that are rich and creamy and are very versatile because they can be used in so many ways.  I scribbled all around the pages with the crayons and then just ran a wet brush over them - they melt into a puddle of colour which you can distribute as you wish.  To add texture I applied several colours of  watercolour to a back ground stamp by just rubbing the crayons over the rubber surface, spritzing it with water and stamping it onto my page!! I love the way it came out.   I added my hand lettering and the borders with a fine tipped Sharpie once the pages were dry!!
One more lesson to go!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Healing of calm and stillness

 Another couple of pages for my Ecourse  by Brene Brown called the Gifts of Imperfection.
We were tasked with discover what made us feel calm and then finding a photo or photos of those things so this page in our journal would always be a reminder of what we need to do to when we are out of control, exhausted or anxious.  For me, nature does it every time, so I found this green forest photo on line and printed it along with the shadowed words.  I added my other items in the green space.

This page is about the process of creating calm for ourselves.  We could either create a map or use a real one and add our process.  I have a stash of maps and found this one had lots of room for writing which was perfect for adding my path to calm.

It is always good when you can identify a process which you can use to deal with the hectic days and bring yourself back to being calm.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Rest and Play

Another few pages for my Ecourse with Brene Brown called the Gift of Imperfection.  In this lesson, we worked on recognizing that being exhausted is not a badge of honour and productivity is not equivalent to our self worth.   Rest and play are both basic needs of every person!!  When we do not honour ourselves we lose!!
Here I hand lettered "PLAY" (Thanks, Yogi, for examplar) using a fine tip Sharpie marker and added my numbers and a doodle.  I added watercolour afterwards.  Love those Kersal letters!!

 For this page I watercoloured the page first and then added my lettering.  I used my Creative Lettering book by Jenny Doh to add some interest to my title. I love the book - lots of great lettering inspiration!!

For this page, I hand lettered block letters and filled them in with glittery gel pens!!  They needed a bit of something so I added the dots with the marker and a bit of shadowing using a black pencil crayon.

I hope you all can find some time for rest and play in your life.  It will create joy and meaning for you  All so crucial for balance.

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Cultivating Creativity

I am playing serious catch up with my online Ecourse by Brene Brown called the Gifts of Imperfection.  I managed to get these pages created before my last meeting but am just uploading them today.
This is the beginning of Part 2 and the lesson for the first week as Cultivating Creativity.  This lesson was not difficult for me as I recognize that I am a creative being and am often engaged in creative activities.  For my page I decided to use a piece of paper I created when I was working on  this Bee Attitudes book project.

I created block letters and doodled inside them except for the word creative which I hand lettered cursively. I added a funky border and I like the way it goes with the watercolour resist paper.
For my second page I needed to record my art scars.  I had to look pretty hard to find any.  I expect it was because art was not offered in junior or high school - those years where we are most susceptible to scarring  - so I was spared the judgement of art teachers or my peers.

This page was a self portrait.  I have to admit that I did not follow the rules - we were supposed to use only crayons.  I did a basic pencil sketch before adding colour with my crayons.  One of the girls with whom I am doing the course followed the rules and did a much more effective job of her self portrait.  I need to work on being free and be willing to fail and begin again.

I am really appreciating the lessons of this course!

Therese

Square anniversary card with doily

This month's card swap on AFTCM is to make a square card that includes hearts and a doily.  Again, I went looking in my stash to find the doilies I knew should be there.  Yeah! I found them in the second box I looked in!!
I cut the paper doily in half and found the background paper on my desk.  It is a colour printed background I created when I was working on these wedding cards.  I found some cardstock that coordinated and cut it to 5.5" x 8.5", scored it at 5.5" and folded it.  I cut a scrap from the other piece, laid it butting against the back flap, placed double sided tape over the joint and added a square of white on the inside for writing on.  I trimmed the decorative paper to 5.25" square and glued it to the front of my card after I had sponged the edges just a bit.  I sponged the edge of the paper doily as well and used double sided tape to adhere it over the decorative paper.   I found a piece of grosgrain ribbon in my stash that was the right colour, flagged the ends by folding it in half and snipping diagonally from the fold to the corner and adhered it in place over the edge of the doily using double sided tape.  I punched two hearts (SU), sponged their edges and embossed them with a vintage floral embossing folder (SU). They seemed too plain so I went looking into my "hearts bin" and found these printed hearts (3peas font) that would be perfect.  I trimmed them to their edges, watercoloured them with pink Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet) and glued them to the embossed hearts.  Much better!!  I adhered the two hearts over the ribbon using 3D foam tape.  I sponged the punchie greeting (SU Large Oval) and layered it over an oval I cut with a small oval Nestibility.  I like that it is an uneven layer below the greeting.  I added the layered greeting to my card front with 3D foam tape.
Very happy with the way this card worked out!!  I don't often think to use paper doilies. I have the other half on my desk and should make a point of incorporating it into another card soon!!

Therese