Plaza Arts has a Hands On Creativity Day every fall in Nashville. I've attended for the last two years. I met a wonderful artist and teacher there. Her name is Beth Grubb. I started this collage at her booth and then completed it at home. Beth does a lot of work with handmade papers from around the world. When I took her first class, she said, "Let the paper speak to you." That was scary advice at first. Now I love that she gave us so much freedom to follow where the beautiful paper led.
The papers are Black Ink Papers and are all handmade. There is amazing freedom in having access to so many lovely types of paper to work with. Thank you, Beth!! The two birds on this piece were cut with a Sizzix die. The gold under the bottom bird is a piece of Christmas ribbon I've had for years. The background was done by layering papers of different textures and colors. I could play with this kind of paper all day.
I started my Soul Journal this week. I heard about it from Jean Parker when she did an Art Journal demo at Plaza Arts in Nashville. Click the link to learn all about Sarah Whitmire's Soul Journaling.
These are my Claiming My Journal pages. It was fun to think of all the ways to write my name and some of the variations of what I'm called by my friends.
This was the prompt for starting the armour....
I want you to think about what you need to protect and nourish your creative spirit. Think about the things that sustain you. What’s needed to shield you from outside criticism and your inner critic?
I enjoyed this prompt because I've done a lot of work on this question. I was excited to put what I'd learned in my art journal. My shield says: GIVE IT TO GOD, BE POSITIVE, SELF CARING BEHAVIOR. I usually know what nourishes me these days. I didn't for a long time. My art has changed as I learned more about who I am and have accepted myself as I am. I'm not going to paint portraits or draw an exact likeness of my dog. That is not where my talent lies and that's OK with me. I hope that I will continue to learn new things and stretch as an artist. My stretch on these pages is the eyes. I'm not so great at drawing a face but I'm getting better with eyes so for today... I added eyes. Those are my feet in my favorite Mephisto sandals. Anyone who knows me, knows I live in flip flops and sandals.
Link to Book of Days, Artist Play Room
I started my Soul Journal this week. I heard about it from Jean Parker when she did an Art Journal demo at Plaza Arts in Nashville. Click the link to learn all about Sarah Whitmire's Soul Journaling. 
This was the prompt for starting the armour....
I enjoyed this prompt because I've done a lot of work on this question. I was excited to put what I'd learned in my art journal. My shield says: GIVE IT TO GOD, BE POSITIVE, SELF CARING BEHAVIOR. I usually know what nourishes me these days. I didn't for a long time. My art has changed as I learned more about who I am and have accepted myself as I am. I'm not going to paint portraits or draw an exact likeness of my dog. That is not where my talent lies and that's OK with me. I hope that I will continue to learn new things and stretch as an artist. My stretch on these pages is the eyes. I'm not so great at drawing a face but I'm getting better with eyes so for today... I added eyes. Those are my feet in my favorite Mephisto sandals. Anyone who knows me, knows I live in flip flops and sandals.