I Got da Creative in Me!

So, I thought it was time I wrote another overdue post.

We have had a houseful the last few days. It’s been sweet tho bc my brother has a new girlfriend and she is so lovely. So not only has she been here, but so has Preston and his gf... and Preston has cooked tea for each EVERY single night. I feel spoilt -. Talk about a houseful.

And in amongst all that and also for the last almost 4 weeks, I’ve had the most erratic sleeping patterns that I’ve ever had. I know I’m an insomniac but this is outa control.

Bc of the lack of sleep – or sleep at the wrong times, I’ve tried to keep my mind and body busy with creative stuff which has been unsuccessful…. But one thing it has led me to think of is how blessed I am in this area.

While trying to be creative, I would sit down at my craft table to scrap something, only to find, it just hasn’t been working. So I thought I’d do some art journaling. Nuh! Not in the mood. How about some photography? Mmmm… no!

Well, what DO I feel like? Maybe I could write some more of my memoirs? Tried that, got nowhere. Or how about I practice my face painting? Can’t find my face paints.

Well maybe I can practice my drawing? I definitely haven’t mastered that yet….. Buuuut not in the mood. Or how about make some jewelry? But that hurts my hands so nah!

Hmph! WHY is nothing catching my interest? It’s rare that something creative doesn’t suck me in…. and as I went through the list of creative hobbies I do, I realized that it’s quite a list:

Scrapbooking

Mixed Media/Art Journaling

Zentangle doodles

Smash Booking

Drawing/Sketching

Photography

Writing

Jewelry Making/Beading

Photography

Digital Photo Editing

Face Painting

Wow, that really IS a list to be mighty proud of!

Why do I have so many interests? It’s not that I get bored or can’t do these things. But I am someone who thrives on challenge. Someone asked me recently if I still do scrapbooking – if I even *like* scrapbooking anymore. My answer was I still loved scrapping but it’s not a huge challenge for me anymore. (Mind you, I think the fact I have used so much of my supplies and can’t replenish them atm accounts for my lack of scrapping and art journaling).

But for me, my mind NEEDS to be engaged in something that is moderately challenging for me.

I’m a sponge. I love to learn. I NEED the challenge. I THRIVE on the challenge.

Most of the creative things I’ve done are self-taught/youtube-taught like my face painting for example. I try to teach my brother that you can achieve most things – it might take some money, but you can learn almost anything. You just need to do ur research. And the resources God puts in ur life – like people, shops, classes etc. The scrap/mixed media stuff I learnt from Youtube and Paper Flourish – the wonderful shop most of you know I rave about.

My latest challenging thing is to draw. It’s something that I just couldn’t do in high school even tho my year 12 art teacher forced me to do two terms of it, sitting in his office drawing my face over and over. I know every single feature of my face now days, lol. It hasn’t changed, only got rounder, lol.

So I was keen to reattempt drawing 20 years (oh my, THAT many years???) down the track when fellow scrapper/artist Janine Kozwara (of Prima fame) introduced me to Jamie Lynn Dougherty and her Bloom Girls.  So thus begins another love affair. I’ll never be as good as Jamie and I truly think that this might be my first arty thing that I will never master, but at least it’s something I can still strive for and practice. And it’s fun to do so.

So, you can see that even in the midst of a creative downspot, and much sleeplessness, I still got to learn something positive about myself and found that I actually have been richly blessed in creative artsy-ness and even tho I might not sell my work or have it recognized the world wide over, I’m so super glad to call myself an artist.

Love yas

L xoxo

PS Here are some examples of some of my arty work. I cant exactly include my writing here - as I hope to one day get some published. But I hope u enjoy the pics - even if you HAVE seen them on FB already, lol.

Scrap Layouts

 Canvases

 Art Journalling