closing thoughts on shine.

...I hope I'm not the only one who was surprised to find that the last time I posted about my 2012 one little word - shine - was june 17. oh my. really?! oh my yes.

the good news (for me at least) is that I kept up with ali's videos in my journal and made notes about each prompt. love that the thoughts I've recorded are "current" even though the pages weren't created until months after [note to self - don't let this set a precedent!]

I picked up photos from costco last night...the last piece to pull together these last SIX (yikes, six?? really, yes!!) prompts...and today I trimmed and inked and stapled. and now it's done. well, my album pages anyway. more than any word I've chosen, this is a word that's going to stay with me. for all the good things it's taught me...and brought me.

SHINE.

the soundtrack. july's prompt. it took me almost the whole month to find six lyrics to supplement the three bible verses. regular readers know I love amazing grace, and billy joel and lady antebellum so really, it was only three "new"...thanks to zumba and XM highway for those last three!

august. note to self. thank you iPhone (I think - whoa it's grainy...maybe that's good!)

september. celebrate. the notes in my journal about everything surrounding these two things....it's overwhelming. I hadn't imagined, let alone planned, anything so big...so shine...and yet...they happened.

...the prayer shawl ministry is on my goals for 2013. I really (really) want to make that happen this year!

I included this photo to get the pages to work out right. and I'll admit here that it took me a few hours to find that photo and the accompanying blog post because I thought they were september...but with my sporadic blogging this past fall I wasn't quite sure...so worth the time - those words about home are some of the best I've written. SHINE. 

and now to october - another nine photo spread. the first one - can you make out the cross between the leaves? - is the only one I took on purpose for this project. the others...I think my october was a great canvas.

november and getting ready to wind down the year. six prompts and three of those "free" spots. I filled those spots in this morning. (and then I packed away the SHINE papers :-) 

and finally december. closing thoughts. I wrote these words last weekend. and experienced that same surprised delight gratitude wonder all over again.

my word for 2013 is grace. I look forward to seeing where that it takes me. I hope it's as meaningful as this one.

one little word. june.

...it's mostly been a good thing that this is my second year doing ali's one little word class. I'm comfortable with the process and know that the end result will be more than worth the effort. but I wasn't looking forward to june. june is the "get creative and get messy prompt". the one I opted out of last year. I've actually been dreading it. but a few weeks ago, I saw julie balzer's watercolor cards and thought those might be very cool for illustrating my word shine. that simmered for a bit and I found myself starting to get excited about watercolor. and my word. and getting messy.

so this morning, I made time to watch the videos. the first ten minutes was a great introduction. ali closed with a parting thought to "take a creative risk and step outside [my] comfort zone". (well duh, anything that involves paint is outside my comfort zone!)

I finished the second video at 5:15 this evening - parting comment from my journal "I'm going to DO THIS NOW!"

...and I did. I chose yellow as my color, along with white, and cream and a very pretty pearl white (one of several happy surprises in the bins and boxes that comprise my "scrapbook stash").

I cut nine 2-1/2 by 3-1/2 inch squares.

and painted. and gesso'd. with stamps. just like ali showed. and about 30 minutes later I had nine little canvasses ready to dry.

while they dried, I practiced watercolor on the pages of my journal. and realized I had no idea how to make those cool drips. or really anything that remotely resembled those cool julie balzer cards. I embarked on plan B. do like ali.

I added ink. and white rub-ons. and words. and embellishments. all stuff I'd been hoarding (it was very fun to use it!).

and then I had a happy accident. I boo-boo'd one of the cards. what the heck, it was ruined already, so I scribbled on it with my watercolor marker. and then stepped over to the sink to spray it with water. oh my. I had drips. and lovely soft colors. I then scribbled with intent - as in layering colors.

using stampin up watercolor markers in the bold brights  - yellow, orange and hot pink

spray. drip. dry.

love how the texture from the paint shows through

the cards are still propped up to dry completely and I plan to stamp them tomorrow when they're dry. simple words to add another plane of dimension. grace, giving, peace, sharing.


...to my one little word. shine.

shine. photos and one little action.

...february's prompt is a photo collage.  it really helps that I'm taking a photo a day (and that I have three cameras to use!) so I had plenty to choose from. here are the ones that told my "shine" story last month.

the steeple at church shining against the bright february sky (I took this photo on february 1; loved starting out the month with this image); starbucks love; an early morning rainbow; my saturday lace class; welcoming marc home on valentine's day; valentine's day roses; lights shining at summerour (the venue for katie's wedding); prayer shawl signup at last week's ministry fair (I collected six new names!); month of letters (serendipity to have a great way to connect and share with so many people).

...and now it's on to march. march's prompt is to take one little action.

this year, I am inviting grace, giving, serving others, spiritual growth, sharing, joy and peace. my one little action is to volunteer (along with other women from my church) at the foster cares support distribution center. I've wanted to do this for a while, but it's a tuesday morning and that's when I work. last sunday it occurred to me I could probably switch shifts - it's just one day a month. so I signed up. now I have to make it happen. because I really want to see where this takes me.

one little word. shine.

...when I shared my one little word for 2012 way back on january 6, I never thought it would take me nearly two weeks to finish the january prompt. but it did (and not just because I've been knitting :-)

I did the work to create all the cards last week...and then waited days for the sun to come out. because the album opens with a portrait. and I really wanted the sunshine to feature prominently in this one.

yesterday we finally saw the sun.

thank you martha for taking the photo!

so this morning I spent 2+ hours sorting through my tremendous stash of pretty papers and embellishments to create a supply box just for this project. yellow papers, gold stickers, bits of ribbons and lace, and bling! and finally, I'm ready to share.

I'm using the gray printable from ali's downloads...and hopefully I'll use up lots and lots of those supplies!

I am really excited about this word. it found me as I was compiling my fifty for 50 list and many of the items I included are part of what I'm inviting this year...giving, serving others, spiritual growth and sharing.
 
it's going to be good - bring on the shine!

the cover page (the welcome photo posted above is on the back), with the january prompt behind it