First fabric book

Dear friends,
I want to do a fabric journal and have finally started. I found this old piece of cross stitch that I did years ago and am using this as the cover. I have already started my first pages and will post them when they are finished.
lots of love from susan in australia

Tidying the garden

Dear friends,
Here is my latest sketch when I was tidying the garden. Just the bin and broom and pot and the chimes. It looked so inviting to sketch and makes a nice everydaymatters sketch.
lots of love from susan in australia

Clay heads

Dear friends,
I did a couple of clay heads in pink and yellow and added feathers and then glued to my artist pages. I added a dash of paint and another two pages finished with my usual simplicity.
lots of love from susan in australia

Little clay heads

Map of home

Dear friends,
I was inspired to do a map of my area where I go down the beach and do short walks. Even found a new area of uncharted territory which was fun. It was nice to draw and to see the trees, neighbours and places I celebrate most days. Have you ever done a map of your area?
lots of love from susan in australia

Perfume challenge

Dear friends,
This is a favourite perfume of mine Anais anais. I had to do a drawing for a challenge with the group everydaymatters
I enjoyed doing it.
lots of love from susan in australia

Polka dot challenge

Dear friends,
I did this artist journal page of my visualisation board and meditation table. I did polka dots in the background. Today there was a prompt on http://twitter.com/Sarah_Whitmire to do polka dots so here it is.
lots of love from susan in australia

I love it when

Dear friends,
This is the response to a prompt called "I love it when". I used fabric with fairies on it and wrote about my times with my grandmother and our love of fairies at the bottom of the garden. i then wrote over the two pages all the things I love when...like I love it when it rains like now.
lots of love from susan in australia

Inspire me Thursday...tags

Dear friends,
This is my first response to Inspire me Thursday. They are tags and I just mucked around with felt pens and some dress tags that I gessoed.
lots of love from susan in australia

Something for free drawing challenge

Dear friends,
Doing the weekly challenge at everydaymatters and this week was to do something i got for free. These ear rings were a gift from a dear friend who spoils me a lot. She loves jewelery making and I have a lot of her creations. These are the latest and have crystals inserted ...the blue color and crystals hanging from the blue part.
I love the way nature is free and would have liked to have drawn some nature.
lots of love from susan in australia

Hangman challenge

Dear friends, This is the response to a prompt to include a hangman game on my artist journal page. My friend guessed what the word was really easily and only had two wrong answers. She plays the game well. It was great to do this challenge as it had my friend asking about my journals and art and I shared my artist journal with her.
lots of love from susan in australia

Coffee pot challenge

Dear friends,
Another challenge from the yahoo group everydaymatters This week was a coffee pot. I rarely use this coffee pot as I usually have instant coffee to save my nerves. Strong coffee is dreadful for my nerves. I love frothing milk in this coffee maker to put on top of milky coffee.
See you next week.
lots of love from susan in australia

Photo inspiration..rocks

Dear friends,
I used some photos of some interesting rocks in my neighbourhood to inspire a background. I used grays, beige, greens and black inspired by the rocks and used a massage brush and toothbrush to add the paints.
Have you ever used a photo to inspire your work?
lots of love from susan in australia

Windows to the senses

Dear friends,
This is the response to a prompt to look at how we experience our senses. I did smelling the roses, tasting chocolate, feeling the touch of a butterfly wings, see the words of books and emails and hearing the crash of waves. Doing the prompt put me in touch with my senses. I did it quickly which a lot of my responses to prompts are.
lots of love from susan in australia

Attaching fabric challenge

Dear friends,
This is the response to a challenge to attach some fabric to my artist journal page in a new way. I have never used a brad to attach fabric before so I did that and did some journaling about a Jane Austen fashion exhibition held in Melbourne, Australia.
lots of love from susan in australia

Lock challenge

Dear friends,
This is a drawing challenge from the yahoo group everydaymatters . I had to draw a lock and found these two locks linked together. I haven't a clue where the key is or where they come from. It was quick and simple to draw.
lots of love from susan in australia

Three ways to write a word prompt

Dear friends,
This ATC is the result of a prompt where I had to write a word in three styles of writing. I chose the word nature and this is the result.
lots of love from susan in australia

Up, up and away

Dear friends, This is a response to a challenge to do some art relating to going on a balloon trip. I'm headed for NY and will visit old and new friends there, Central Park and the MET. What fun.
lots of love from susan in australia

Beach sketch

Dear friends,
i have just got a new sketch pad to take on my walks so here is a sketch of the beach and the happy people at the beach here in spring.
lots of love from susan in australia

Retreat workshop online

Dear friends,
Here is the results so far for the online course I am doing on retreats. Do you go on retreats? How do you celebrate a retreat? What do you take with you?
lots of love from susan in australia

Music or quiet

Dear friends,
This was done as a challenge where I had to play some music while I did some art. i am so used to the silence that I turned the music off. I contrasted a photo of a crowded garden exhibition with that of a photo of a peaceful forest and thought of the contrast of music and stillness.
lots of love from susan in australia

Glove doodle

Dear friends,
Another challenge from everydaymatters this time to do a glove. This was another challenge I had to do with doodling and I made the doodle into a glove. I love doodling and I love gloves.
lots of love from susan in australia

October challenge

Dear friends,
Latest challenge from the drawing group everydaymatters The challenge was to do something that reminds you of October. October is my birthday month so birthday celebrations are definitely on my mind in October.
lots of love from susan in australia

Oldest thing in my frig

Dear friends, Had a drawing challenge to do the oldest thing in my frig. Here is a temperature gauge that is still in its wrapping. I wanted to see if my frig was cold enough a few years ago and I have left the gauge in there.
lots of love from susan in australia

Words for Robyn

Dear friends, This is some art as a response to a friends Robyn's blog where she talks about the importance of words and text and writing. This was fun to do.
lots of love from susan in australia

For Robyn

Dear friends, When I visit my friend Robyn's blog I am inspired by her entries to do some art work. Here is a response to her October 2nd post.
lots of love from susan in australia

Garden at Carnegie

Dear friends, This is some art work celebrating my old garden in Carnegie. It was a huge overgrown garden full of fragrant shrubs and trees and plants. There were fruit trees and vegetable beds. It was a paradise for me. I now display some of the photos in this way.
lots of love from susan in australia

Dreaming and spots

Dear friends, This artist journal page is a response to a dreamer poem prompt from Kathryn's soul journaling yahoo site and also the spots are a response to a friends blog about spots.
Lots of love from susan in australia

Bucha

Dear friends, Couldn't resist doing a simple sketch of my neighbours cat Bucha who often visits me and gives me cuddles and curls up on my bed or couch and enjoys a visit. I love him to pieces particularly since my cat Sooty died.
lots of love from susan in australia

Retreat workshop online

Dear friends,
I am doing an online workshop about retreats....true north
This is the first page to a little artist journal I am going to keep about the course.
Lots of love from susan in australia

Soul journaling prompts

Dear friends, Todays artwork is a response to the prompts from the yahoo group soul journaling.
Below is the artwork for the prompt...The most valuable thing I have learned........which is to keep on healing and believing and trusting in God. I find pink very healing



The piece below is for the prompt...I am afraid if I start dreaming I will.... and I journaled on the two pages.
The flowers are some printing I did with lino prints


lots of love from susan in australia
PS I will try and do bigger pictures next time. i am getting to know my new computer program

The new gift and coffee shop

Dear friends, I visited my new gift and coffee shop and did sketches of some children's toys. I will go back there and do more sketches again. I really enjoyed the experience. I don't have coffee out much but will frequent this new shop. It is a magical place and full of wonderful things to see and sketch. I asked the owner if I could sketch many of their things and he is happy about that.
lots of love from susan in australia

Back into drawing

Dear friends,
Yippee I am back doing my weekly sketching and here is my first one from the challenges. I haven't done a challenge for over two years. It is great to be back.
Lots of love from susan in australia

For Kelly

Dear friends, I was inspired the other day by a lovely lady Kelly to do a collage where the words make a sentence and also a lady with wind in her hair and this is the result. I had a lot of fun with these and sent them to Kelly as well. I love the way we all inspire each other.
lots of love from susan in australia

winter memories 2009

Dear friends, This was a challenge to journal and collage my memories of winter 2009.
lots of love from susan in australia

Pennant challenge

Dear friends,
Had to make a pennant as part of a challenge on celebration. I am celebrating returning to church on Sundays after a long break. Church is like a wonderful family to me. I am celebrating.
lots of love from susan in australia

Altered book pages

Dear friends,
Here are some simple pages from my first altered book. I am loving to do them. I find my art is quite simple which is a contrast to my busy complex mind.
lots of love from susan in australia

Be still

Dear friends,
As part of online course had to choose make a vision card of one of our dreams. One of mine is to be as healthy as I can be and this art work is the result. I wrote on the little card Keep flying which is what the instructor Kathryn suggested in the class.
I combined it with another challenge from the onthewing ning group where we had to select some favourite writings from our favourite book. My favourite book would be the bible and one of my favourite passages is from the psalms.....Be still and know that I am God. This is my response.
lots of love from susan in australia

Week 3 and 4 of online course

Dear friends, Week three and four of my online course was on "I am the key to change in my life" and I had to do vision cards that clearly stated the goal. I did "I am adventurous" "I am healthy".
Here is some art I put on the front of a book of adventurous activities to do which is written by Julia Cameron. It has all her artist date ideas in it.
Lots of love from susan in australia

Favourite numbers

Dear friends,
This art is a response to a challenge on the onthewing.ning.com group artist prompts. We had to do some art for our favourite numbers and journal on the page. I love 5 and 8.
Lots of love from susan in australia

Core values

Dear friends, I've finished week two of my online course and it is about core values. Some of my core values are
God's will not mine, inner peace, self esteem, integrity, friendship, creativity, adventure, health and family not in that order.
Had to list some of the qualities I admire in my friends. They would be hope, encouragement, positiveness, helpful, friendly, faithful, inspiring and I have another 16 and I could still keep on going. I am blessed with some wonderful friends.
I made some little cards with my core values on and I keep them on my meditation table and meditate on one at a time.
Lots of love from susan in australia

Relaxation

Dear friends, I am doing an online course with Kathryn Antyr....check out her site.....http://collagediva.typepad.com
We had to find an image that was relaxation and serenity and I chose a lady blowing bubbles...such a relaxing thing to do. We then had to make some little cards with inspiring words on them... I chose "go with the flow", "one day at a time" "living in the moment" and also did a prompt card for my home to be calm and organized.
Kathryn asked what we do for relaxation.....I love being with my friends and family, resting in bed before the day begins, TV and videos and DVDs, going to the beach, walking and all my creativity activities like art, craft, photography, gardening and cooking. I have a lot of relaxing in my life looking at this list
I am working on lesson 2 today. I am quite behind but Kathryn said we can take as long as we like.
lots of love from susan in australia