Coming up for Christmas

Well this year I managed to get a few decorations out around the house - better than last year when I didn't bother with anything. At least the place looks a little bit festive.

At work, it's always a mad rush before the holiday break to get as much done as possible, and of course, libraries want as many books & dvds as we can process. In consequence, I am working longer hours just so that I don't end up with a backlog to come back to next year!

I've added a new gadget on the left hand side of this blog showing the books that I have recently read, together with a link so you can see what the book is about. It's not all fiction - I often borrow nonfiction from the library or buy books about art, pattern, travel, etc.

On the art front, I've kept up with Colour Me Positive and done the December Mission, but have done nothing for Journal 52 since my last post - just not getting any inspiration from the prompts. Anyway, here is what I have done since last time...

Colour Me Positive Week 48 - Community

Still under the thrall of mandalas, I thought I would try an off-centre circle mandala showing some of the qualities needed by this community of artists. The paint was applied with an old credit card then stencilled over. My journaling is done with a grey marker so that it does not show up clearly.

Colour Me Positive Week 49 - New Beginnings

Lulu Art which runs Colour Me Positive has been sold and we will have someone new doing the prompts from now on. This page was an experiment with some inks which did not work as it should have. The page had been gessoed so the inks had nowhere to soak in to and just sat on top of the paper. Not my best effort!

Colour Me Positive Week 50 - Bloom

A flower mandala was perfect for this challenge and did not take long, once I had decided on the concept. The outline is done with a 0.8mm Unipin fineline pen, the colours with the cheap marker set that I bought, and I used some gold highlights.

Colour Me Positive Week 51 - Creativity

This page was also done quickly - fingerpainting with phthalo green, magenta, and naples yellow. I used a baby wipe with the stencil to bring out the decorative detail and added more paint including burnt umber to try and grunge it up a little.

Mission Inspiration - December 2016

I saw this photo in a magazine and knew immediately that I wanted to use it. For step 3, I used a christmas tree and a holly stencil and for step 5, decorated the tree with coloured hole punch waste. I think it needs something on the bottom, but I can't decide what to use.

I hope you all get some time off over the holiday season, have a lovely day with your family (no matter what you celebrate), and keep safe. I am celebrating Christmas by having lunch at my brother's house with his family, my sister and her family and my sister-in-law's mother. According to the weather bureau it will be warm, so we are having a BBQ and salads - but there will be traditional Christmas pudding for afters.

All the very best wishes for the Season and if I don't blog before then, have a safe and prosperous New Year. CHEERS!!