WOYWW ~ What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday

Been back home (we're Americans living in Ukraine) for just over two weeks from being a month in California.  It's been a big adjustment from the warm sunshine to our deep snow.  Jet-lag is always an issue, but after two weeks I'm getting almost full nights sleep.  So today is actually the first arting I've done in two weeks plus the month I was gone.  Too long to go, but it is what it is.  Hope you like it.

The picture of Mr. 007 was cut out of a magazine and glued to cardboard so it will hold up for a while as a stencil.  Thanks for visiting and commenting.  Sure appreciate it.

FLOWERS ARE FUN ~ MIRACULOUS MOSQUITO

This is so fun.  If you like to doodle you're going to love this flower.  As I started the video to watch I had to stop and go get my pencil and paper so I could work right along with the it.  You'll probably want to do the same.  Enjoy!

Botanic Journal Page ~ Ukraine

"She who has beautiful roses in her garden, must have beautiful roses in her heart."  A journal page I did.  The fern and rose petals are dried material from my yard.  The rose tickets at the bottom are from the Botanical Garden in Kiev, Ukraine near where we live.  We enjoyed a visit there this past summer.  I used stamping, sprays and paints to do my background.  Hope you like it.  Let me know what you think.

"GONE FROM MY SIGHT"

I am standing upon the seashore.  A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.  She is an object of beauty and strength.  I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says:  "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight.  That is all.  She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear the load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in  her.  And just at the moment when someone at my side says:  "There, she is gone!"  There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad should:  "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.


~ Henry Van Dyke

FAUX GEL PRINTING

Jennibellie does it again.  She has such fun ideas for creating papers.  See here what she does with a craft mat and paints to make pretty papers for collage and mixed-media.

FOR YOUR LITTLE GIRL

I thought this was such a cute idea for a little girl.  It could be done in place of a Christmas stocking or even as ornaments on a tree.  These are done my Maria Vitalina.  You can see more of her lovely work on her Facebook site:  https://www.facebook.com/MariaVitalinaPorFlaviaPegado

ALTERED ART WORK

Wanted to share these beautiful chairs with you for ideas on what to do with that old chair you have sitting somewhere.  We all have them.  We don't do anything with them and yet we don't want to throw them out.  I have just such a heavy oak chair.  Now if I can be brave enough to paint it.

CALIFORNIA FLOWERS AND HOSPICE

I am now entering my third week in California where my family lives.  I got an emergency call just one night after returning home from the country of Georgia (south of Russia).  I left the next morning.  My father, who is less than two months short of his 90th year had a brain bleed and they didn't expect he would live.  He rallied, we thought he was going to make it and now he is not.  We thank God for all the years he has had.

He is now enrolled in the hospice program and we have support in his dying process.  Though it is hard to loose a family member, we know that God has "numbered our days" and we trust him for that.  I am grateful that I can be here as a support for my step-mom and my two sisters.  I would greatly appreciate your prayers for them.  These two beautiful flower pictures are actually some I took in 2010 while here in winter.  Just as the flowers, we are each and all here for a "season," so be sure to tell your loved ones what they mean to you.

Julie Burstein: 4 lessons in creativity

WASHI TAPE ~ HOMEMADE BY JENNIBELLIE

ABANDONED ART ~ A CAN IS BORN

My Dog Sighs - A Can is Born from Strong Island Media on Vimeo.

JULIE BALZER ~ ART JOURNALING

I love what she does here.  Posting this so I can watch it again and again.  So many good ideas.

Art Journaling Fast Forward featuring matching stamps & stencils from Julie Balzer on Vimeo.

UKRAINE GARDEN DELIGHT

Already we have had several freezes in Ukraine so the flowers have been gone now for a bit, but I wanted to show you this pretty little corner of my garden because in the cold and bitterness of winter it is a delight for the soul to see something lovely.  Therefore as winter goes on I shall occasionally post some beautiful little tidbit from the summer display.  Like my art, the garden is one of my areas of pleasure.  It really is simply another expression of art using the medium of the garden.

When we moved to this home 15 years ago the yard was nothing more than a wild forest.  It was chest high in  "maleena" (wild raspberries)  and an abundant crop of "krapeeva" (stinging nettle).  I never had a plan to necessarily do the whole yard, but little by little, year after year I would plant more and it just grew.  Many of the sweet people of Ukraine gave me things from their gardens to get a start.  From that time I've transplanted and added.  This tiny teapot above has been in the garden since we moved here.  Winter after winter it survives through the season and moves from one spot to another.  As you can see here I do have a few little figurines in the garden that some have given me, but you can rest assured there are no elves or gnomes lurking around in the tall plantings.  Both of these pictures are shots of my rock garden.  It started out as a small clay hill in one corner of the yard in which I knew not a lot would grow so rock garden seemed like the thing to do.  Hope you like this little peek into my garden.

VINTAGE TAGS

"Life is like a bowl of cherries."

"Keep moving forward, don't look back."

"Live everyday up to your expectations, not others."

HOLLY PHILLIPS ~ JOURNAL ARTISTA

Here's a very fun and simple stencil technique that I'm really wanting to try.  Just another twist on stencils, but I'd have not thought of it had I not seen it.  Give it a try.

WHIMISICAL WORKSPACES BY RHOMANY

 Get your workshop in order so you can be more productive and more creative.

FREE WORKSHOP with Rhomany
(Self study)
"Forget 'decluttering', 'minimalism' & 'organisation strategies'. Join me for a month-long nurturing of your creative space."
Watch the video, then access the workshop from below it.

Jennibellie ~ Flowers from Scraps

These are the cutest flowers ever and you'll love how simple they are.  A great way to use up those scraps we always have so many left over.



And if you still need more flower making ideas then go to my Pinterest board called "Crafting Flowers" for lots more tutorials:  www.pinterest.com/coleenfranks

ALTERED ART

I just love old things and this leather suitcase was in our attic for years.  Someone gave it to us almost 20 years ago when we came to the mission field to pack our things in.  Sometimes I just wish there would be a history we could hear.  I just wonder the places this old suitcase has traveled before it even got to us.  I wonder if the first owners are even still living and how interesting it would be for them to see what's happened to it.  Along with my love of old things and history, a number of these pictures are relatives of friends of mine..  The flowers and colors are from napkins.  Yet to be done is the other side.  Hope you like it.  Let me know what you think.

FEEL BETTER FOODS/ACTIVITIES

20 FUN FALL ARTS AND CRAFTS

http://www.lilsugar.com/Fall-Arts-Crafts-Kids-25276701