OLW - Catch up!

I have let my One Little Word fade into the background a bit these past few months. That's not to say it hasn't popped into my head every now and then - especially when I'm boiling inside and just taking a deep breath and saying "Release" helps dissipate things somehow. But the assignments from Ali have been dutifully printed off, placed into my OLW duotang and then forgotten about until the next month's assignment lands in my in-box. 12 days ago I received July's assignment which got me thinking. "Exactly how many months behind am I now?"

4.

Yup, bad me!

So the other day I got busy. I dug out my OLW binder and duotang, read through all the handouts - starting in January just to remind myself about the beginning - and sat down to do the work. It was good to remind myself of my word. Of my original intentions for my word. Of hopes I'd forgotten about. After I got caught up to June (July is still a work in progress), I took some pictures and I thought I'd share them with you now.

Title page - pre-class assignment.

January's assignment - self protrait and initial thought cards.

February's assignment - 9 images.

 

March's assigment - To Do list

This was as far as I got (except for the painting which you'll see in a bit).

April's assignment was to write a note to ourselves.

April's assignment part B - another self portrait. This photo was actually taken on July 2nd but since the assignment called for a current photo and I WAS 3 months late, I opted for this as opposed to digging out a picture of me in April (which may or may not exist to be honest!).

This is my note to myself.

While jotting down notes I realized I had more to say to myelf than would fit on the blank Ali sent so I made a card that would fit into the 5x7 pocket and then covered it in this fun Basic Grey paper.

Here is the inside of the note as well as my initial scribblings.

Here's that painting I was talking about. I originally posted about it here. It came about as a result of just having some fun with old guache paints I'd found during an organizational blitz in my scrap room.

On the backside of the painting is this layout I did for LOAD in May. I wasn't sure where to put it but it seems to fit within the parameters of my OLW personal journey.

May's assignment was to create task lists and/or write down things already accomplished and things still left to do with regard to our OLW journey. So far I have 5 and hope to add another 5 soon.

And now we arrive at June.

June's assigment was to first pick a colour and then get messy - no problem! Here's a look at the very beginning of my process.

And the finished results. 

Looking at all of them together like this makes me really happy. I wasn't sure where to begin or how to proceed but Ali encouraged us to relax and just let things evolve. I did and this is what came of it! It was so much fun to just create without any parameters beyond our chosen colour scheme and the number of little canvasses.

Here are some closeups.

Picking a colour was pretty easy as I'd already been using almost exclusively brown and pink for my embellishments.

I pulled out all my pink and brown inks, paints and glitters and then went hunting for interesting textures, stencils, stamps, you name it. The canvas on the right above was created by spraying 3 colours of mist over a laser cut piece of cardstock. Then I added round dollops of glue and sprinkled MS glitter in bronze over them. The butterfly on the left is stamped with Ranger distress ink - sorry can't remember the colour right now. 

The "me" canvas gave me a lot of problems. I initially tried to mist over the m-e to create a blocked out ME but I used too much mist and it bled under the letters. I put it aside and worked on the other canvasses while I tried to figure out what to do. The letters has so much spray on them that their original colours were completely obliterated and I liked the mottled look so I decided to paint over the card and then glue the letters to it. But the brown mists were bleeding through the pink paint and turned it a sort of sickly grey-pink colour. Ack! Then I got the idea of hiding it under strips of ribbon and tons of pink glitter and Voila!  It started off hugely disappointing but ended as one of my favourite canvasses. Go figure!

I started the "a" canvass with a similar idea to the ME one but using paint instead of mists. I really liked how the paint adhered the letter to the cardstock so I left it. Once it was dry I glued and glittered it. Simple but effective. The paint splatters are actually a stamp that I just stamped over and over with different colours. Then I stamped the "colour your world" part over top. It's not as noticable as I'd like but I have no plans to change it.

The butterflies were made by painting over a glitter butterfly die cut paper then adding a few mini butterflies I'd punched out earlier.

This pink one stumped me for the longest time. I just kept staring at this blank bit of pink painted paper and wondering what the heck to do with it! Then I was reminded that Ali had used her daughter's hand in one of hers and I went finger painting. A little flower was born and after adding a little journalling and a ribbon, it was finished. The other one is my favourite one. I used my trusty empty toilet paper holder to stamp the circles. I purposely put piles of paint on the end of the roll so the circles would have some texture to them. The circle of pattered paper I had laying out on my desk and it worked but needed something. Turns out that something was a button!

And last but not least I did more stamping. Using multiple colours again (I saw this done on a card with little birdies and now I can't remember where it was so sorry for not giving credit where it's due!) Once all the background was done I stamped the "be happy" - initially in pink but it didn't show up very well so I re-stamped it in black. Much better! And lastly I added a little butterfly and some bling.

July's assignment is to listen to our word and pick 9 songs that are our current soundtrack of our word. I must admit to being totally stumped with this one but I currently have my iTunes going so will hopefully soon be able to pick 9 songs that say "release" to me! Yikes!

Thanks for checking in. I'm hoping to get my latest Project 12 layout posted today too so stay tuned for that. Right now I must get LC up from her nap. Her escapades is "what can I paint myself in today" continue. Earlier I found her standing on top of her change table holding an open bottle of conditioner in one hand and a wipe in the other. Needless to say the "guest room goodies" basket has been permanently removed from her room!!

I am NOT going to survuve her two's!!!