WOYWW - Lifebook creations

Hello there from Horace on a sunny (so far) Wednesday. I can't believe it's time for another WOYWW already. If you're wondering what the acronym could possibly stand for, click the link and have a merry old time visiting desks across the world.

So, what am I up to? Well it's more Lifebook creations from me. I think Lifebook will be featuring a lot on my desk this year. So far I'm loving the classes, and I'm finding, even if you don't want to follow exactly what the teacher is doing one week, you end up creating your interpretation of the class. This was the case for me last week, when we had a class by Roben Marie Smith. She created a tag from her previously made art work, and although it was lovely, I didn't want to scan in any of my art work, instead, I took my over stuffed embellishments box and made a double sided tag, one side kicking out the old, and the other welcoming in the new.

In my case this was goodbye expectation, hello acceptance.



Anyway, you're here to see my desk this week aren't you? I'm taking another Lifebook class, this is week 2 also, but a class with Tamara Laporte, making a 'jar of awesome'. The idea is to decorate a jar, then fill it with slips of paper on which you write all the great things that happen throughout the year. These shouldn't be bigs things, this is about celebrating the small stuff. After all, that's what makes life great, isn't it?



I've chosen sheet music and old book papers to cover my jar. I'll cover that in Gesso then add something pretty to finish it off. As you can see, all my other Lifebook creations are still sitting on the desk too. I'll decant those into my 'Lifebox' later, but for now I'm enjoying seeing what I created every time I walk into the bedroom.


I'll have a little desk hop, then come back and finish off my jar.

TTFN,

With love from Horace.

A Beacon of Light

Hello again from Horace. I thought I'd show you my finished page from the Lifebook Beacon of Light class. I was so impressed with the class, Tam takes you through the stages of first sketching, then painting the whimsy girl, and she's so encouraging too, her enthusiasm and positivity rub off and when she declares she 'loves' her work it gives you 'permission' to love your own. Normally when I create I look for what's wrong in my work, this time I looked for the positives. I still found myself looking at the eyes and seeing they weren't equal but I then found myself thinking 'it's good enough'. I have np idea about shading, but I just copied Tam. Is my picture perfect? No, but you know what, I've decided not to care. One and a half years ago I could not draw at all, so I shall be happy with the progress I've made and look forward to learning more, or just having fun, or both.




On a silly note, the male human here received a fish eye lens for Christmas and I asked him to snap a picture of me



Don't I look odd? My ears have disappeared!!!

I'll be back soon with my week 2 Lifebook makes and other waffle. TTFN.

With love from Horace

WOYWW - arty exbeariments

Hello there, it's Horace here with you for the first WOYWWof the year. Click on the link to find out all about Julia's fabulous desk nosefest!

Isn't the year flying by already? I've been absorbed in my Lifebook class but managed to sneak in a page in my large Dylusions journal too. I wanted to try out all my lovely Christmas goodies, which included a rather impressive 4 sets of Dylusions stamps. Lucky lucky me. I also received a mini watercolour Moleskine journal, which I was eager to try out. I did my usual of creating two pages at once. Here's the desk post play. I like to leave the journals open for a day or two after so I can see what I've achieved.









This is the mini Moleskine book








And here's a close up of the large journal page. It always irritates me, if, when meeting people for the first time, their first question is 'what do you do?' As if your job defines you. As I don't work I'm constantly stuck for an answer. My dear friend bought me the Dylusions quotes stamps and in the set I found the perfect answer to that question ' Mostly I just sit around all day being fabulous'. I just had to use it on this page.







I also received a couple of new stencils, I was a very spoilt bear. Just look at the depth created with a bit of texture paste scraped through the stencils













I'm hoping my inspiration lasts the whole year. At the moment I want to create constantly, if only my energy matched my enthusiasm.

I'm going for a desk hop. See you soon.

With love from the Horace.

Lifebook lifebear

Hello friends. It's Horace here with you today. I haven't posted since last year (!!!) so thought it was time to come and chat. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of fun, friends and family, and of course a little bit of feasting. Ours was very quiet but lovely nonetheless.

I was very lucky to receive some wonderful presents


Especially of the sweet variety, this is from Clarissa, my love interest. I think she must be keen, don't you?


Dinner was delicious


We played Rummikub in the afternoon


And Podgy made some shortbread for afternoon tea.



I was lucky enough to get Lifebook for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, this is a year long art course, the idea being that YOUR art is good enough, that YOU are good enough. There are a zillion different teachers and a lesson every single week.

Participants can either follow the course to the letter, using art to heal, following a meditation to get started etc, or just use the art class as a guide, to make 'lovely art'. The great thing is, the classes are not at all prescriptive, and it really is up to the individual how they interpret the lessons.

I couldn't wait to get started so on 1st I created my warm up page. This is where you have fun getting messy, and also choose your 'word' for the year. Because of being unwell, and finding it hard to accept the limits of the illness, I thought I would choose the word 'enough' as in ' let whatever you do today be enough', but, as I started creating my page, The word ' accept' was floating around my furry brain. Of course, you can choose more than one word, but I decided 'accept' was perfect as my main focus.

Her's my page in splatted form, before I added my word


And here finished. The mini envelope contains my intentions for the year, not resolutions, which are easy to 'fail' at, just ideas of how I'd like to live the year, IE, relax more.


I used my lovely new Dylusions stamps for my word. I didn't want to write on my first piece as often I dislike my paw writing, although that's something I'll work on this year.


I'm now one third of the way through the main lesson for this week, creating a whimsy creature.


Only one week in and already I'm really loving this course.

Ttfn,


With love from Horace.

Podgy Bakes Christmas

Hello there, it's Podgy the baking Panda here with you today. For those of you who have been sleeping the month away, let me tell you it's Christmas Eve today. For those who didn't know that...... PANIC!!!!!!

We're all prepared and just waiting for the fat guy in the red suit here at The House of Bears. I thought I may as well indulge in some festive baking. Do you all like shortbread? We love it here. I consulted my trusty cookbooks for a recipe and found the ideal one in The Great British Book of Baking (first series)



For those who don't have the book, here's the recipe

150g unsalted butter (very soft)
40g icing sugar
200g plain flour
50g corn flour
Caster sugar for sprinkling.

I whizzed up the icing sugar with the cubed butter in the Kenwood, until it was soft and creamy looking. I then sifted the flours on top and whizzed until the mix came together as a firm dough.

Then came the hard work, rolling out the dough, pheweee, I'll have huge muscles after this.


I wanted shaped biscuits, so pressed some out, in my own inimitable style


I re rolled my dough, whilst gathering flour on my fur!!


Then pressed more festive shapes. I think I'll need a thorough licking down after all this!


I baked my biscuits at 180c / gas 4, for 18 minutes, left them on the tray to firm up for a few minutes, then decanted them to the cooling tray.


Goodness, there's enough here for a hug of hungry bears.


I think I'll start with this one.


Wishing you all a safe, happy Christmas. We hope it's all you would wish for, and for those facing troubles, we wish you peace and better times to come.

With love from the bears

Impatience is My Virtue

Hullo there. Did you know it's 5 days until Chritstmas? As requested by one of our dear followers, we took a festive photo by the tree. I hope you like it.


Anyhoo, I decided to write a post mainly to show my finished page from the WOYWW post. I left you watching paint ( or rather, distress stains) drying. My page was all to do with my frustration waiting for our pawly fridge freezer to be fixed. I hate waiting, and I get stressed when things go wrong and are beyond my control. We waited 17 days from the fridge/ freezer breaking to being fixed, and it seemed a very long 17 days indeed. As usual, I journalled my emotions.

On top of distress stains I layered texture paste through a harlequin stencil, then once this was dry I added more distress stains, some alcohol inks, more distress stains, even more distress stains........

I then added my image, which was stamped on tissue paper, which disappears once glued onto the page with Mod Podgy. I stamped my sentiment in the same way. I had some very gluey paws after that feat, let me tell you!!

The end page was quite pleasing though, a play on words to suit my pawsonality. I think it says it all.


The fridge freezer is working now, humming along nicely and full of delicious cheeses and party foods, ready for a feast fit for a bear on Christmas Day. In case we don't post again, we wish all our followers a Very Merry Christmas, a safe and Happy New Year and peace and happiness to all.

See you in the New Year for more bear antics.

With love from the bears

WOYWW - Merry Artmess

Hello there. Wednesday again? Wow, isn't December steaming on? I've been busy wrapping Christmas presents for my love, Clarissa. I hope she likes what's inside, I made her a paw made book.



I've not really indulged in any Christmas themed crafts this year. I didn't even make all of the Christmas cards, but resorted to buying charity cards instead. Podgy has baked a few Christmassy treats, but with the fridge freezer being out of action the last two weeks, even that's been difficult. Still, it's being fixed today so hopefully he'll fill it with mince pies and other delights.

Now, the real reason I'm blogging is the wonderful world of WOYWW. If you're confused by the acronym, click on the link and see what it's all about. Join in and share your desky delights with the world, like me.

Here's my Wednesday mess for this week, the bright beginnings of an art journal page, plus a smaller art journal that I added texture paste to whilst I was decorating the larger journal. Sometimes it's easier to work on two pages at once, especially for the stuff that takes ages to dry.




Anyway, my page is all to do with the fridge freezer breaking ( see about two posts below for the boring story) and how I hate to wait for people to come to the house; you spend the day constantly looking out the window, wondering if every little noise is a van drawing up, dashing to the bathroom and imagining you hear a van pull away at that moment.... I guess I am just an impatient little bear at heart, and this page will reflect that.

As you can see it's a bright page, I used my much maligned distress stains, first adding Gesso to my page, then smearing the distress stains randomly over the page. I added a spritz of water and let the colours run into each other a little, leaving to dry thoroughly before adding more colour. I then went mad adding drops of alcohol ink in complementary colours. Texture paste scraped on through a stencil added some depth. I'll glue the image on once everything is properly dry. I've stamped it on tissue paper, and if I add enough Mod Podgy to the page,the tissue paper will magically disappear, leaving the image behind.

As you can see, I'm still at the watching paint dry stage right now, always such an interesting pastime, I think!!


While I'm waiting, I'll go and peruse some other WOWYW desks. TTFN for now, I hope no one is too stressed with Christmas preparations. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate the occassion. Xxx

With love from the bears