WOYWW #656: Last pages in my Advent Journal 2021 and more ugly art

The last WOYWW of 2021! Christmas is pretty much done and dusted. The days are short and going fast, especially when you sleep until 10 am, like I do. I enjoy not having to get up early and dreading the return back to drudgery in January! But we're not quite there yet! Here's a shot of my desk with all my Christmas pressies staged:

Some Tim Holtz stamps and stencils (I've been wanting the Stamp Collector set for absolute ages, how did Santa know?), some mini Archivals just for using with those stamps and a very nice book that I accidentally stumbled upon. 

Also on my desk is a stack of  "ugly arts" - more about those later - but first the last three pages in my Advent Journal: 

The last page is my word for 2022: freedom. I'm looking for my creative freedom where I don't have to fuss about small details, just play and enjoy the process. I've come a long way, but I'm still not quite there yet. 

The Ugly Art Club's 5-minute challenge helps me achieve this freedom, though I must say I still spent way more than 5 minutes on some of these pieces, sometimes overworking them unnecessarily.

The Ugly Art challenge runs for only another 5 days, but fear not, there's a brand new challenge on the horizon #happyyouin22 which runs throughout January. I'm planning to take part, even though I told myself  that I wouldn't! How could I resist? These challenges give me such a creative boost and I get so much inspiration from others. 

Hope you all had a good Christmas and got lots of pressies from Santa. Here he is delivering ours a few minutes past midnight! 

Wishing every one a happy, healthy and creative 2022! 

WOYWW #655: Advent Journal 2021 Week 3 and Ugly Art Challenge

I'm terribly late today. Although I'm off work now, I woke up with a debilitating migraine. Nothing unusual, it happens all the time - and thankfully never lasts too long. I'm back to my normal cheery old self again. A quick show of my desk late last night:

That's my latest page in my advent journal - only 3 more pages to go - which means just three more days till Christmas! I'll just show you my pages for days 15-21. Some of them are double spreads. 

On Monday a new challenge kicked off by #theuglyartclub. You have 5 minutes to create something - anything - ugly or not - doesn't matter. The challenge runs for two weeks. Here are my pieces for the first two days, just using my scraps on a brown paper bag (my butterfly ban was lifted for this project!): 

I'm glad I made it today after all - I couldn't have left without wishing you all a lovely Christmas!

I plan to be back before the New Year! xx

WOYWW #652: Advent 2021

Ladies and ...erm.. ladies! In honour of December 1st, I present a tidy desk! Tada! I does happen, you know, however rarely. I've even changed my paint water! 

On the left is my completed scrap journal and on the right is my advent journal for this year. I will follow the prompts from Michelle and Tamara on Instagram. The prompts are not necessarily Christmas related - it's just a way of spending some creative time during the run-up to Christmas. 

I'll show you a before photo as well, just for good measure: 

And here are the last pages in my scrap journal. I might do a flip-through later. I've finally found an easy way to repost photos/videos from my Instagram feed to my blog. For those who are interested: you have to copy the post URL into this website and download from there. It finds all the photos and videos related to each post. By the way, butterflies, moths and dragonflies are banned from my advent journal! I think I've OD-ed on them. 

I also have a couple of photos of Oreo to share. In this one he's posing with our advent village - there are Lindt chocolates hidden in each of these little houses (ignore the clutter in the background - that's our "utility" area - the rest of the house is, of course, spotlessly clean and tidy [insert snigger]) 

And here is his "official" 2021/2022 portrait:

We've also had some snow! (this is reposted from my Instagram Stories, see if it works - I think you'll have to click it twice)

So there you have it - Happy December and Happy #652!