2015 was a bizarre craft year for me.
My design teams vanished, but I must admit I was ready for the break. Ever since I started crafting, I have been on at least one design team. I was working full time and still had one child at home. I just knew that when I retired, I'd want design team work to be my "new job". Retirement afforded me freedom from responsibility and deadlines, and I soon realized I wanted that in crafting too. I decided to stop being on design teams when 2016 rolled around. Little did I know the stars were aligned because the design teams also were disbanding in 2016. (Admittedly, two pretty much had disbanded in 2015.)
My craft room became a disaster. Definition of "room":
the entire basement. Everywhere I have piles of unfinished projects. My goal for 2016 is to finish those projects. They are personal projects which is why they always were on the back burner while design team projects met their deadlines.
My artistic style floundered. With many family commitments, I found myself creating in comfort--mostly papercrafting that was familiar and therefore easy to get done. I did try a couple new things. I took a Finnebair class to learn her techniques and style. I watched some Carolyn Dube You Tube videos while experimenting with the Gelli Plate. Other than that, I bought products but didn't try them out.
2016 is my break out year. I'm breaking out those half-done projects. I'm breaking out those unopened products. I'm refilling the Copic markers that dried out from years of unuse. I'm breaking away from craft crap that has collected over the years but never gets used. I'm participating in a year-long mixed media class to help me break out from my comfort zone.
Free from Design Team Deadlines, here's what I'm attempting in 2016 (all of these being in the
no pressure, if nothing else going on category
):
Wanderlust year-long on-line mixed media class
Vera Lane Studios FaceBook group- (playing with her digital images)
Complete the unfinished personal projects
Coffee Loving Papercrafters Blog Hops
40 Bags in 40 Days (decrapifying the craft room)
Digital scrapbooking
We're in Week One of Wanderlust.
We're encouraged to keep an art journal. We'll be provided 2 prompts per month. Here is my first attempt. I think it would have been easier to do one page instead of a 2 page spread. I need to get away from thinking I need to "make a scene". I will work on abstract backgrounds. I did enjoy the doodling and scribbling so maybe there's hope for me yet.
The word "free" denotes my freedom from design team deadlines in order to pursue my craft. I found it ironic that when I finished, it looked like a "flower child" from the 60's/70's when the word "free" had another meaning. A fluke because I was experimenting with gesso and sprays on textured flowers which also seemed like a good place for the fairy to stand.
The fairy is a digital stamp from Vera Lane Studio (which I digitally colored before placing on the page).
I'm going to enter this in the STAMPlorations ARTplorations Mixed Media January challenge
HERE. You must use a stencil. I used one from the Crafter's Workshop to make those black rectangles with texture paste and the Dylusions stencil for the trees. I also used several of the background stamps from the STAMPlorations Mixed Media Grunge set.
