WOYWW #691: August Round-Up

Today is the last day of the meteorological summer! How on earth did that happen so fast? I won't miss that intense heat though and we might still have a nice quiet Indian summer to look forward to if we're lucky. Today's also my last chance to recap the month of August here on my blog and join WOYWW for my monthly check-in. I've been quite busy with numerous challenges on Instagram, which keep my art-making motivated and focused. But first off, a picture of my desk - it's a total tip - probably the worst it's ever been. I've been planning to tidy up for weeks and never got around to it. I will - one day when I feel like it! (and yes, I'm ashamed of it - I'm just trying to desk-shame myself into taking action)

Let's go backwards and start with that little journal in the middle of my desk. That's a spread I completed for the recurring Ugly Art Challenge #tuac5minchallenge. This challenge gives you five minutes to create a piece of art - this time we had some prompts as well in the form of tabs, which I added to my journal pages. I created this shabby little journal especially for the 15 prompts of the challenge. I won't post all of the pages here, just a few to give you an idea and we still have a few more days to go:

Before this (in-between challenges) I had some free play in a notebook journal (I keep starting new journals LOL!) I have several on the go simultaneously! 

And then there was the weekly Mixed Media Scavenger Hunt #seekgathercreate, where we had to gather 5 things to fit the prompts to create a piece of art. It's so fun! Here are just two of the examples. 

What else? Oh yeah, There was also the reelsforartistschallenge run by Roben-Marie Smith. I've created several reels inspired by this challenge. I think this was my favourite, though not the most successful in terms of likes and views - you can see all of my reels HERE. 

I'm also sharing my "completed" ecodyed journal from last month for the #flowersmagicchallenge. I don't think it will ever be truly completed - I can go on sticking random bits in it for ever and I still have that sidekick journal to fill (a journal within the journal)! 

That's it folks! A busy month for me in August - I'm actually off work this week, just taking it easy before the mad rush back to school next week. Early mornings again when I got so used to sleeping in until 9.00 - 9.30 on my days off - I have a lot of sleep to catch up on since January as you know! Such a relief that I can sleep again!

Sending you all hugs! I'm not sure yet if I can make it to the crop in October - but I'll try! xx

WOYWW #657: Happy New Year - ugly art club challenge completed!

Happy New Year everyone! Who else has their Christmas deco still up? Back to the drudgery tomorrow for me and I have some errands to run this afternoon but I'll make time to visit as many desks as I can before that and the rest later on. I have decided to blog less often - maybe once a month - just to keep my blog going, as much for my own records as for anything else, and of course to keep in touch with  WOYWW and the handful of other blogger friends who follow me. It's nice to look back on my blog as a sort of diary but it's so much easier to post on Instagram. Should you miss me (I don't see why you would, but if you do) just visit my Instagram profile for updates. 

My desk shot from yesterday taken in rare daylight: 

I've completed the 2-week ugly art challenge and started two other January challenges. They are not too demanding as the #creativeunfold2022 runs weekly and the #happyyouin22 every other day. I find these challenges very inspiring as we cheer each other along, otherwise I tend to get a bit lazy and aimless.

Here are the remaining pieces from the #tuac5minchallenge: they were supposed to be 5-minute projects, but some of them took longer - I don't think it matters. These have all been created on brown paper packaging and they all have collaged teabags. I like to work in series, though there's always a danger that the pieces begin to look too similar to each other using the same materials. 

I've also made this reel showing all 14 pieces together in quick succession (reels can only be max 30 seconds in length):  

I have a couple of pieces for the January challenges completed as well but I'll post them all together next time. Until then, cheerio! xx  

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