art journal page, a sweetie boot, & kids halloween, what a mix!

As promised, the first thing I have to show you is an art journal page (a double spread) that I made following week one's lesson of Art, Heart and Healing:

The left page was therapeutic - writing down negative thoughts and then covering them with layer on layer of prettiness, finally adding a sentence of how to use those negative thoughts positively.

My negative thoughts were all about worrying that I'm not a good enough mum, wife, friend, artist etc, because I feel I try to do too much to make any of it perfect. I decided my negative thoughts are trying to tell me that if I want to try and balance these things, then I need to stop stressing about them all being faultless. It doesn't matter if my daughter sometimes watches more TV than I'd like so that I can cook the dinner, and if I want to spend an evening watching telly with hubby then I shouldn't stress about not getting an online challenge done that I'd wanted to do. This is a message that I knew already really, but hopefully having an art journal page to remind me will help me be strong about it:

The right hand page is sort of a self-portrait - one that doesn't necessarily look like me, but is supposed to represent me. It must look like me a little bit, because when I showed it to my daughter she said 'it's mummy!'. Tam suggested we should take a word that sums up the positive move forward and write it on the portrait somewhere, so I chose 'balance' - you can just about see it between the collarbones:

I loved creating this page. The lesson was a video with Tam talking you though all the steps, and it gave me real confidence with shading and building up layers. It was also great to finally get use out of some watercolour pencils my mum bought me years ago (thanks mum!) but which had been sitting in the bottom of a cupboard. Now I want some more! If you'd like to give the class a go, you can still join up and see this lesson. The course is free, you just have to sign up to Tam's ning site (also free). Go to http://www.willowing.ning.com/.

Next up tonight is an item inspired by the Paper Variety blog - their challenge this week is to create a project that incorperates candy or other sweet treats. So I made this:

My husband lived in Germany until he was 6 years old. He doesn't remember huge amounts from living over there, just because he was quite young when the family moved back to England, but every December he reminisces about St. Nicholas Day on the 6th of December, when german children wake up to a boot stuffed with sweets, nuts or fruit. I'm not sure if this is a tradition in other countries too? I'd never heard of it before I met him anyway.

Every year I mean to make him a boot to stick some sweeties in (I certainly wouldn't want to just put sweets in his smelly shoes!), and this Paper Variety challenge has given me the push to finally make one, after 10 years together!

I made it by sticking together some loo roll inner tubes onto a base cut from a cereal packet:

And then I used modge-podge to stick xmas papers and tissue papers all over it. I chose blue papers because that's my hubby's fave colour. I also stamped and stuck on the tag saying 'St. Nick's Day' placing it so it looked a bit like a boot tongue. I used Copydex to glue silver laces on too:

Finally I used glamour dust to glitter the toe of the boot and the top rim:

Now I just have to try and remember to actually fill it with sweets and leave it for him to find on the morning of the 6th. I bet I'll be posting on the 7th of Dec saying 'arrgghh, I forgot!'. If you want to join in with the Paper Variety Challenge you can see it here.

Okay, a last couple of pics to show you (thank you if you're still with me!). This morning I read the lovely Rachel's latest blog post, with some kiddies halloween crafts she'd been making with her son. I was inspired, so today me and little miss have made these:

Fun eh? I think my daughter enjoyed making them, though she wasn't too sure about painting her hand white until I did mine first. She has a bit of a fear of getting her hands sticky. I love the faces she's created on the ghosts, especially the one with freaky green and brown pupils! Thank you Rachel for giving me the ideas!

Right, that really is it. Until tomorrow morning when I'll be back with my recipe as part of the Let's Eat Blog Hop. Sorry if you're getting sick of me! xx

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