My first dotee doll well almost.........

Dear friends,
This is my first dotee doll. My mum helped me out with design as i was sitting with her when I was making her and my mum said she needed a tuille dress! I love her heaps and she is on my bedroom door.
lots of love from susan in australia
PS A dotee doll was created by Dot of http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com
I just found out mine isn't a dotee doll! It is supposed to be between 3 and 5 inches and mine is longer. Ah well I had fun.

Butterfly I drew as a child

Dear friends,
I was clearing out the garage and discovered my childhood art work my mum gave me and here is a butterfly I did in crayons. not sure how old I was. i am interested how I used brown as I don't use brown much in my art.

lots of love from susan in australia

Flow fabric journal

Dear friends,
I chose the word "flow" to concentrate on this year and did a fabric journal to celebrate the journey. Here is the front page.
lots of love from susan in australia

Marigold

Dear friends,
This is Marigold. She took me 3 years to complete as i kept putting it off. I am hoping to do some more flower children and hopefully not so long to complete.
lots of love from susan in australia

Altered book page

Dear friends,
This is my latest altered book page to do with planets and how small we are on planet earth and there is a whole universe around us.
lots of love from susan in australia

Mastery of life on the wing

Dear friends,
I can't believe there is now a photo of me in my bathers on the net!!! I am very self conscious about my weight and have had problems with body image most of my life. This is my first art piece done on canvas and the first page to a canvas art journal. It is all about mastery of life on the wing....dragon flies.....and balance in the chaos of mental illness and feeling good about myself as who i am. i am enough just the way I am today. I am also down the beach at one of my favourite magical spots near a friends boat shed where i can sit and drink coffee and watch the ocean and go for a swim.
lots of love from susan in australia

Felt beads

Dear friends,
These are some felt beads that I made and beaded. I sent some to one of my overseas friends for a swap.
lots of love from susan in australia ♥♥

Gratitude

Dear friends,
Here is some art I did to celebrate me doing a gratitude each day on my other blog and on other sites. I am also posting it as a challenge for a prompt on love as gratitude definitely comes from love.
lots of love from susan in australia ♥♥

Scavenger hunt

Dear friends, This was a scavenger hunt challenge where I had to use purple, a leaf, beads, a ribbon, a key, something starting with r which was road......all in all a lot of fun. Thanks to my friend Teri

lots of love from susan in australia

Cross stitch roses

Dear friends,
Here at last is the epic cross stitch I did of peace roses. it took years to do each evening at my mums.
lots of love from susan in australia

Quiet time

Dear friends, This is a super simple piece of art celebrating the quiet times in my rapid cycling moods with bipolar. Life is simple and gentle when I am quiet and sometimes I feel like a blue butterfly.
lots of love from susan in australia

Stacey

Dear friends,
My friend Stacey Apeitos died of breast cancer a week ago. Check her name online and read all about her. She has been a wonderful inspiration in my life and continues to be even in her death. Her enthusiasm and love of life and her limitless energy was awesome. Love you Stacey. This is the art I did to celebrate her including things from a wonderful online friend Carol.
lots of love from susan in australia

I am magic

Dear friends,
I am magic is part of an online course called 21 secrets I am doing. it was wonderful to celebrate what a magic person I am and that we all are. The instructor gave instructions as to what to do and away I went. I have 20 more workshops to do!!!
lots of love from susan in australia

TAW C1 ...safety

Dear friends,
i was going to study The artist's way by Julia Cameron with a friends art course but it didn't work out and they are now just doing general art. I have had other commitments and abandoned the idea but will do this in future. I will make a note in my diary.
Wait and see in my next post the latest huge, huge adventure I am on with my art
lots of love from susan in australia

Life...what do you want?

Dear friends,
This is a collage exploring the fact I have done so much work on my chakras and have really got in touch with my 7th chakra and the divine. I love all the colors. I loved doing this one
lots of love from susan in australia

Success is a mind game

Dear friends,
I have had works on my computer for 3 weeks but haven't put them on. I never do it during my quiet time I always have to wait until I am zippy. I will catch up now. Not sure how many to put on.
This one is a collage I did about life and time and how it passes for me and how much of it is a game with my mind and dealing with my rapid cycling bipolar. The yacht near the edge shows how I often feel I am on the edge and not coping but the child with the lady is me taking care of my inner child. The heart is for love
Lots of love from susan in australia

First textile beads

Dear friends,
These are some of the first textile beads I made and similar ones to those that I swapped with an online friend. I am adding the yellow and red ones to a bag strap for decoration and the blue one is the beginning of a new necklace.

lots of love from susan in australia

First textile necklace

Dear friends,
This is my first textile necklace. a special thank you to a friend for sending me the beautiful textile beads which we swapped. I had to celebrate with them and made my first necklace. i would love another one made of similar beads I sent my friend. I love, love, love it and I am going to wear it to meet an online friend for the first time. How exciting making friends online. I have met one online friend so far and hope to meet another one at the end of the week. Lucky, lucky, lucky me.

lots of love from susan in australia

Altered book page celebrating 6th chakra

Dear friends,
This altered book / altered text page is celebrating winter, august and my 6th chakra. I took a tip from a friend to gesso the page add some paint and spritz with water then wipe off with a paper towel. I also did some other pages for my artist journal.
I am really enjoying doing the altered book and do a double spread each time I celebrate a new zippy time with my mental illness.
lots of love from susan in australia

Exploring quiet time

Dear friends,
I am exploring how I can cope better with my quiet time which occasionally is quite dark. I can get quite reflective and moody. i am trying to find a better way to travel these times by finding more pleasant activities than sitting. I tend not to do my art work or creative things. I am going to encourage myself to do more gardening, cooking and other varied activities.
The collage has me sitting on a seat pondering about my decisions. I want to be friends with my quiet time not just my zippy times. I want to nurture my mind, body and soul.
lots of love from susan in australia

Inner child collage

Dear friends,
This is my inner child collage where I am exploring my inner child. I love to meditate and converse with my inner child. There is some darkness for my inner child and I am journaling to work through it and with it. There is a tree of life in the work and gold paint to show the wisdom.
Thanks for your comments.
lots of love from susan in australia

Stamping

Dear friends, It has been awhile since I posted any art. I did this in my last creative, zippy time. It is where I have used a homemade flower stamp and applying glue to it and stamping on the page and letting it dry and then stamping some more with purple acrylic paint and then applying acrylic paint wash over the top. Interesting bit of play.
I have also been doing a collage about my down and quiet times and have posted it on my other blog....
susanhosken.blogspot.com
I post art when I am able and if I have anything to share.
thanks for being here with me.
lots of love from susan in australia

Flowers

Dear friends,
I did this print of flowers a while ago but just adding to my blog. I did a lino print and painted it with acrylics for the effect.
lots of love from susan in australia

Inspiration

Dear friends,
This piece of art was inspired by a checking out some art online and being inspired. It is wonderful to be inspired by the net....so wonderful.
lots of love from susan in australia

Pink

Dear friends,
Here is some pink art I did quite awhile ago to celebrate pink. I have been wearing more pink in my life which relates to the heart chakra.
i have been busy doing more photos in my travel journal, a mandela celebrating color and being a rainbow warrior and some art celebrating a new blog I have found that is so inspiring to me.
lots of love from susan in australia

Tip ins

Dear friends,
These are two tip ins I did for friends. Have been doing lots of artist journal pages and pages in my travel journal but nothing much to share here.
lots of love from susan in australia

Gratitudes

Dear friends, I did this collage on gratitude for a group prompt on one of the ning groups I belong to.
lots of love from susan in australia
srhosken.blogspot.com
susanhosken.blogspot.com

Shamanism

Dear friends,
This is a collage celebrating my interest in shamanism at the moment. i am enjoying animal spirits, time change, crystals and other things.
lots of love from susan in australia
srhosken.blogspot.com
susanhosken.blogspot.com

Rust

Dear friends, These two artist journal pages are to celebrate rust which was a discussion on my friend Robyn's blog. She explores different art and life issues and I love being inspired by her discussions.
lots of love from susan in australia

Mary Anne

Dear friends, This is Mary Anne a doll a friend asked me to make as she liked my orange power doll I made which is also on this blog. I enjoyed making Mary Anne for my friend. it is nice to share ones art.
lots of love from susan in australia

My home is my castle

Dear friends,
I had a challenge from the Milliande ning group to do "my home is my castle" and here it is. I love my home and it fulfills so many of my dreams as a child and adult. i am so blessed.
lots of love from susan in australia

First doll

Dear friends,
I found this doll recently in a drawer. I made this doll out of a lavender bag and hanky and ribbon that I was given when I was in a psychiatric hospital. It still amazes me that I made the doll for comfort in a challenging situation. It still means a lot to me and I wanted to share it here.
lots of love from susan in australia

Latest collage

Dear friends,
This is my latest collage that i have done for an online course I am doing hero's journey workshop I also did it as a response to another challenge on wisdom for another group.
lots of love from susan in australia

Tip ins

Dear friends,
I was introduced to tip ins late last year and swapped a couple and now I have swapped with two of my friends. Here they are. I like working on tip ins because they are a nice size. i also enjoy my ATCs that I do.
lots of love from susan in australia

Autumnal collage

Dear friends,
Challenged to do an autumnal collage for one of my online groups. A lot of the members are doing spring collages to celebrate spring in the northern hemisphere whereas I am doing autumn for the southern hemisphere.
lots of love from susan in australia

Collages from an online workshop

Dear friends, i am doing an online workshop on the hero's journey...hero's journey workshop and these are two of my homework collages which are a reaction to my heros journey. They both show things in my life that are important on my journey and how I see myself as a traveller.
lots of love from susan in australia

Celebrating my curves

Dear friends,
This is my latest doll which celebrates my curvy figure. I have had so many problems with my body image and weight over the years and am still working on it. I am the healthiest I can be at the moment and that means curves. I celebrate my curves.
lots of love from susan in australia

Keep a green bough....

Dear friends,
On the catalyst prompt number 98 at creative therapy someone gave the quote "Keep a green bough in your heart and the singing bird will come" I loved it and did some art to celebrate. I carved an eraser in a leaf pattern and printed the leaf into a tree and added one of my favourite black birds from my garden.
lots of love from susan in australia

lessons in life

Dear friends,
One of the prompts at creative therapy is What are the most important lessons you've learned in life? One of my best lessons was from Oprah Winfrey...when you know better you do better and here is my artist journal page using stamps and little mirrors.
lots of love from susan in australia

Mask

Dear friends,
This is a mask I made a while ago and wanted to share it with you. It is made out of an old atlas page.
lots of love from susan in australia

What does my future hold

Dear friends,
I am doing prompts from a group I have just discovered on the internet....creative therapy
The prompt is What does my future hold and I was just at the beginning of a new artist journal and so I did a cover for it with me on it and what does my future hold written on it. I used gold paper for all the gold I will find in my future and there is tissue paper to remind me to be gentle. I can't wait to see what i will fill this journal with. This is my first prompt from this group. I am so looking forward to more.
lots of love from susan in australia

Altered book...altered text

Dear friends,
Here are some more pages from my altered book with altered text. It is about enthusiasm which I love.
lots of love from susan in australia

Fabric journal pages

Dear friends,
Here are a few more pages from my first fabric journal. I haven't seen many so just did what i felt like with embellishing.
lots of love from susan in australia

Felt doll

Dear friends,
I made this doll many years ago as part of a felting workshop. I love it and it has lots of happy memories for me. She is a mermaid.
lots of love from susan in australia