Two Final Challenges This Year

  I knew that once Christmas eve passed I'd again find more time for art. My last two challenges for this year are for the Fall fearless and Fly Challenge #6 and the 2012 366 Calendar Challenge.

  Here are the prompts for the Fall Fearless and Fly Challenge hosted by Jessica Sporn and Carolyn Dube:

Headline Prompt: Divided by God: What does “God” mean to you? How do you access”God” or the divine or the sacred in your life?
Color Prompt: Metallics - gold, silver, copper, bronze, or all of them!
Quote Prompt: “This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart, is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” The Dalai Lama

  I chose to work with the color prompt and the quote prompt (which I seem to have been doing with each challenge so far-a theme within a theme I guess). Just added some thoughts on the headline prompt too.

  I created these masks/stencils out of cardstock. Usually I use a manila folder but this scrap was convenient.

  Here is my finished page:

  Drops of Payne's Grey Golden fluid acrylic, Metallic Plum Folk Art acrylic, and Stewart Gill Byzantia jewel tone metallic paint were randomly applied on the page and sponged around to cover. I painted a rectangle shape in Lumiere Metallic gold using the temple shape as a mask for the center. The yoga pose was cut from white cardstock, edges sponged with black ink and glued down. I "sloppy" wrote the quote in the figure. The temple was decorated with a red paint marker and a rubber stamp painted with orange acrylic. I then drew stars using both a gold leafing and silver leafing pens. The main star and letters are grungeboard I filled in with silver leafing pen. Glitter glue was added to the star. I finished the page by giving the figure a pink sparkly heart sticker.

  In answer to the headline prompt, what I can say for myself is that I access the divine sacred into my life thru nature, thru worship, thru meditation. I have had the privilege of visiting a local Hindu Temple several times, attended Catholic services, Protestant services, a Greek Orthodox service and have been honored to attend a service presented by the Dalai Lama. In all  of these places I have felt a divine presence. I feel that no matter where you are, if your heart is truly open to it, you will feel it.

  I look forward to next week's challenge where the guest artist will be JoAnne Sharpe. Feel free to join us anytime-and you'll also have the chance to win some great prizes too!


  I have participated in Kate Crane's calendar project since the  beginning of January this year. I really am thrilled to have a whole year of little notes to look back on. It's a project I'm continuing for 2013 too so here is January:

  I added drops of Folk Art acrylics over the pages in Light Blue, Icy White, Purple Lilac and Amish Blue then used a credit card to spread the paint. I added some marks with sequin waste and Mustard Staz-On ink, and two different sized bottle caps with black and red acrylic. I used foam letters (Making Memories) which I finger painted with some red, black and white acrylic paints. The foam numbers (Stamper's Anonymous) were stamped with Jet Black Staz-On ink.

  And now it's ready for the New Year! I used white cardstock for the regular squares along with a snowflake-like die(which is actually a doily) using my Grand Calibur die cutting machine. The bird on branch image at the upper left is from Retro Café Art and the image on the bottom rt. page is from ARTchix Studio.
Those yellow sticky tabs you can see at the top right are pages earmarked for each month this year :) I plan on adding a quote next to the bird but I'm going to wait until something jumps at me.

  Before I go I'll share a pic of the two trees I put up this year (please keep in mind I am not a photographer :), along with a photo of Annie-who was thrilled with her new toy hedghog and apple treats:

This little tree is adorned solely with handmade ornaments I have received these last few years from the friends I have met thru art (sorry, except for the plug which I keep up on the table lest our dog gets into it and brings down the tree). I can't tell you the joy it brings me and what it does for my heart. Even that sweet topper was handmade by my friend Cat Dodt-Ellis with it's beautiful handfelted acorns . Thank you all!

 

  And this is our main tree. We used to have a floor to ceiling one but now that it's just DH and I we downsized. This year I added mostly gold and red- silk poinsettias, fruit sprigs, cardinals and my gorgeous peacock which I have used as a topper since receiving it as a gift a few years back. I LOVE that peacock! Simple, but pretty nonetheless.

 

   Annie, patiently waiting for yet another apple treat!

 I'm linking up to Fall fearless and Fly, Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Everyday , The Kathryn Wheel, and Show and Tell Saturday #32 at Artists in Blogland.

 Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year. May 2013 be filled with abundance and creativity and whatever else brings you joy. Thank you all for making my first not quite year yet blogging experience the best!! XO

  "Be a good human being, a warm-hearted affectionate person. That is my fundamental belief. Having a sense of caring, a feeling of compassion will bring happiness or peace of mind to oneself and automattically create a positive atmosphere." Dalai Lama