Creating Blooms......

I am having fun with the first week of Regina's e-course Birds, Blooms and Butterflies.  Here is one of the exercises we did this week using watercolour paint and ink.....

 

Next week we work on BIRDS -  cant wait for that!!!!!!!  

wishing you all a happy creative weekend .   

much love
Angella

"Give crayons.  Adults are disturbingly impoverished of these magical dream sticks"
-Dr. S. Wolf-

Fun with Regina again....

I am so excited to be taking my third e-course with the very talented Regina Lord of Creative Kismet  !!!   It  starts Sunday and I can hardly wait.....
     

 

Hop on over to Regina's blog for a chance to win one of 8 FREE spots on this e-course. http://blog.creativekismet.com/?p=8334  Her courses are always so full of fun and excitement, she is a wonderful teacher and very generous!  You are sure to enjoy every lesson!!!

 You still have time to sign up too before Sunday!  Yay!    http://www.creativekismet.com/birds-blooms-butterflies/

lots and lots of creative love
Angella.

So Very Dry.....

We are in the midst of a drought here in Kwazulu Natal , South Africa.  Several of my favourite plants have died and many more are looking very sad indeed.  It is so difficult to watch your plants slowly shrivel up and die.  Pray with us for a miracle .... its winter already ... so it will have to be a HUGE miracle.  Let the drought be broken.

     last barely surviving Day Lily..........

                                            favourite shrub -completely dead

    thirsty..........

And here are a few Stalwarts still blooming their hearts out:

 Shrub (cant remember the name)

    Groundcover (unknown)

    Succulents

                      Plumbago

LET IT RAIN, LET IT RAIN, LET IT RAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!

To enjoy some gorgeous gardens HOP on over to Jamie's Studio Garden Hop and you could join in the fun by sharing your garden too if you feel led to.

much love
Angella

"There is no medicine like HOPE, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow."   -Orison Swett Marden-

Joy Catcher...

This is the mandala I blogged about last week that I drew during our Art Day.  It was done on a loose piece of  300gsm watercolour paper.  I decided it would make a great ornament for my bedroom.  So I  made it into a "Joy Catcher" .  

I added silk hand-dyed yarn , wooden beads and some of my handmade paper beads , as well as some dyed feathers. On the back I attached a nice firm piece of board so that it won't buckle.

I am thrilled with how it turned out and it  hardly took an hour to jazz it up.

Wishing you a very fun-filled and creative weekend.

much love
Angella

Seek Joy !

Art Day : Mandalas

On Friday I hosted an art morning in my studio for myself and two close friends.  They had never tried mandalas before - so I had to share my passion with them.  First we went through the process of how to draw a simple mandala.  Then I shared a bit about colour theory and we were away..... creating the most delightful designs.  I was thoroughly impressed by their first attempts at  mandalas. I am sure you will be too.

Carina's design

Linell's design

My design


What a lovely morning we had, double chocolate cupcakes and carrot cake cupcakes, coffee, laughter, colours and friendship = FUN !!!!

Wishing you a creative week.
much love
Angella

"When you learn something NEW, you become something NEW"   - Leo Buscaglia-

Hi Y' Owl

Lately I haven't had much energy or time to do art but I had a yearning for doing some funky little owlies.

These were done in my watercolour sketch pad with Tombow markers (gotta love those colours!)

I have been wanting to send some surprise happy mail to a few of my overseas FB friends and I decided that hand illustrated owl cards would be fun.  So these little guys will be flying off soon to their various destinations across the sea :

And finally today I got this awesome gift in the post from a very special aunt in Australia.  Just in time for Easter weekend.  So tomorrow I think I will stay in my PJs, read my book from cover to cover, drink Chai tea and eat hot cross buns.  Yay !!!

Wishing you all a very blessed Easter time

much love
Angella

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. William James

Out with the old... In with the new....

This month our journaling theme with the Paint and Chronicle group is Simplify.  Specifically by decluttering  (oh I know - its a dirty word - but it has to be said) LOL.

I glued this quote into my journal last week:  " I give up freely what is no longer serving me.  I release it to create space for what inspires me".

And so I decluttered my bedroom (I wont post a before picture - too embarrassing - seriously!!) - four years of clutter went out - 9 cardboard boxes of "crap" went to the dump!  Why had I been living with this for so long?!!!  (I am not a hoarder (family laughs hysterically in background) - I just hate tidying stuff up, I dont have the energy for it and it causes me physical pain.  So I leave it.  I walk over it, around it, pretend its invisible....

By decluttering (as tough as it was, physically and emotionally), I freed up what was no longer serving me and I was able to create a space for what inspires me.  Quite literally.  I created a little nook in my bedroom for journaling and drawing etc, which is really very inspirational.  I am so very thrilled with it.  Judge for yourself:

much love
Angella

"Give up the idea of what life should be and just celebrate what life is"
-James Arthur Ray-

Intuitive Painting on Tags

This is last week's creative exercise, intuitive painting on manilla tags.  The idea was inspired by the artwork of Mystic Tulip on Facebook. 

First I painted the tags with a layer of white acrylic paint (in retrospect Gesso would have been a much better idea).  Then I added a background layer with gelletos and sealed that with a layer of gel medium. I then doodled some designs with a black marker:

After that I painted the backgrounds and the designs with acrylic paints, leaving some areas of the first layer to show through:

The next step was to redo the black outlines and add further doodled details with black and white pens:

Finally , I glued the tags onto co-ordinating cardstock and then machine sewed around the edges.  I also added word stickers and hand-dyed ribbon bows:

(no comments on the sewing please LOL ) 


much love
Angella
Be Open For Unexpected Pleasures
-SARK-

Let's talk about Self-Love

Self love is not selfish, in fact it is essential to nurture yourself to ensure that you are strong enough to serve others.  Our Theme for this week in the Paint and Chronicle Journal Course that I am doing with Suzi Blu is Service - with the emphasis on making others aware of the benefits of self-love.

One of my words for 2015 is "SLOW" .  I am showing myself love this year by slowing down, living mindfully and fully engaging in each moment of my life - the pleasure and the pain.
What a great gift this has proven to be already - my life is so much the richer for it.

So as one of my actions for sharing the message of the benefits self-love this week I have been posting inspirational memes and messages regarding this subject on my FB wall.

One of the messages I posted this week was:

"When you’re gentle with yourself, you’ll be gentle with others. When you're non-judgmental with yourself, you'll be non-judgmental what others. And when you give yourself the benefit of the doubt, you’ll be able to do the same for the people around you too."

SO : What are some ways you could honour yourself and YOUR needs this weekend?
I challenge you to make a list and to make it a priority to do at least 3 of those things over the weekend. 

My list:
Pick garden flowers to put in vases in the house
Work on some craft projects I really want to complete
Do some reading
Start a new journal for March
A home facial

"You only get one soul
be good to yours
listen when it whispers
nourish it's passions,
give it hugs, laughter and
sunshine,
Take it for long walks.
Treat your soul like a SOULMATE."
-K.Salmansohn- 

much love
Angella.