Hi Everyone

Well I am back from the weekend at the I Can Do It in Melbourne. As with last year we were treated to lectures by some of my favourite authors including a short introduction by Louise L Hay herself, the founder of Hayhouse publishing company and author of "You Can Heal your Life"  I tell you that if I look that good and am that positive, energetic and full of life at 85 as Louise is then i will be a happy woman.

My two girlfriends and I decided to spend the whole weekend in the city instead of driving in and out each day, and it was a great decision. After attending the conference each day it was so nice to just relax and reflect on the day we just had, listening to inspiring speakers, motivating us to be the best we can be. 

So, I am back into the swing of things today and wish to share with you a page I completed before the conference when i was feeling at a bit overwhelmed by the lack of time I have at the moment to do any sort of art. I am happy to say that the conference gave me a few tools to deal with this so this weekend will hopefully be quite productive in the studio.

Anyway enough talk, let's see some art

I started with scraping on some Jo Sonja Orange and Napthol Red Light..

 The next step was using the Crafters Workshop Stencil called Flutterby in the 12x12 size. I sponged some Jo Sonja Yellow Orange over the stencil.

to end up with this...

I then used a Kaisercraft butterfly stamp and Jo Sonja Napthol Crimson to stamp randomly over the pages

 to give this...

now at this stage it was really bright and I wanted to tone it down a bit so swiped the whole spread with Distress Stain Antique Linen

 See how it sat on the stop a bit because the page was no longer porous. I let it dry like this so I could retain some of the textured pattern produced by the bubbles.

 So my next step was some background stamping. I used the Timber Brown Staz On with another Kaisercraft musical stamp

 Then with the same ink pad and a couple of flower stamps

 Plus another butterfly stamp. I think I got this off the Craft Stamper magazine.

 So here I am with the background and stamping done.

 Some ribbon and pieces of torn patterned paper were added

 and then the quote. I inked it with impress inks in Tangerine and Lemon yellow with my cut and dry foam. Highlight some words with gold gel pen....

 cut out some butterflies I had printed on photo paper from the Graphics Fairy blog. Then inked the images before sticking down to the pages...

 added some journaling in gold gel pen

and voila, here is the finished page

My journaling talks about how sometimes I feel as if I am treading water but I just have to trust and take a leap, believe that all these steps are necessary on my journey, and instead of thinking that they are setbacks or stagnation, look for the purpose in them, like time to tweak ideas, time to relax and regroup, time to just be.

Robert Holden said something poignant on the weekend

"We didn't come here to play it safe. The purpose of your life is not to arrive safely at your own death."

So what are you waiting for? Where are you playing it safe? Grab life with both hands and take that leap into the great unknown, take notice of now and just be in the moment

Have a blessed weekend everyone doing what makes your hearts sing..... 

Namaste 

Lee