Light book origami x

I have been sharing my One Little Word - Light with you here over the past 2 months and today I wanted to show you a creative activity I completed for my word.

I had never heard of Book origami before until I was randomly searching around on Etsy. I happened to find my self on this page called Book Origami. Nicola, the shop owner, has a wide variety of book origami patterns from numbers, hearts, baby's feet, weddings and lots more. I asked if she had a pattern for my OLW - Light and I received my instructions within 48 hours.

Now, as a scrapbooker and book lover, this is the perfect way to use a book and your bone folder to make something beautiful, from something you love.
The first port of call was the Oxfam secondhand bookshop in Wells. I dragged my poor college girlfriends with me and we found the perfect book

Yes, a book all about a lighthouse, we were so excited to find this novel, even though I'm sure the author would be slightly perturbed at how it's being used no doubt. I think it is the perfect book for creating my origami. I have kept the cover to use for something later.

Once I got it home, I had to follow the instructions carefully to figure out where to begin marking my pages. Nicola provides a full paper origami pattern with measurements, and a ruler which you print off. She also explains very clearly how to measure and then fold all the pages in your book, to achieve a perfect design.

It takes a while to mark out all the measurements correctly but I found it quite therapeutic




It took me an afternoon to measure carefully and then a couple more afternoons to fold and carefully press with my bone folder to create the design. It is really important to be accurate with your folding but the beauty of this craft is that when you make a mistake you simply unfold and refold correctly.

Here is the design coming together, it took a while for me to see the word appearing but once that happened it really spurred me on.

And here is the final book origami completed.

I may add some inking to the design probably in gold just to make it stand out more.

OLW 2015 - mood board x

Hi everyone today I thought I would share this months One Little Word 2015 prompt which was to make a mood board related to your word. If you read my previous post, my word for this year is Light.

Ali Edwards began the idea of a making a mood board a couple of years ago but to be honest I never really engaged with that idea before. However, this year I really felt that making a mood board was a brilliant idea as I had seen so many amazing and inspiring pictures and words not only on Pinterest for example, but in magazines.

Ali's idea was to use whatever things struck a chord with you and to make a mood board from them. So I sat down one afternoon with some old magazines from my mum like Good Housekeeping and also a couple I bought specifically. I bought Psychologies because I thought there would be alot of words related to light such as enlightenment, health and well being but also things related indirectly to my word. I also bought a beautiful magazine called Landscape which had incredible articles and pictures from places in the UK primarily which really called out to me.

Having made a pile of cuttings I got myself a cheap canvas from a shop, mine were £6.00 for two canvases sized 16" x 20". I also got out my decopatch glue which is not only a glue but a varnish too and I thought would therefore protect my masterpiece once completed.

I had chosen several large images of bluebell woods, beaches, a girl playing in a field and a Greek style windmill. I also found some candle images and a camera and a whole range of words to use including light, glow, health, mindfulness, twinkle and sparkle for example. I built up from my base layer of pictures and added my words and some lovely quotes onto the canvas.

And here is the result................

Above is the completed mood board in all it's glory and I really am very happy with the results. Ultimately, I have created a board with four areas of focus, which I will elaborate on below.

The top left hand corner is really focused on the word Light. I found a beautiful beach and sea picture for the background. Going to the sea makes my mood lighter and I feel young and silly again so I had to include something about that.

In the top right hand corner is the picture of the Greek windmill and the colour of the sky is perfect, it looks relaxing and warm and that makes me feel light, the central image of the lights are a variety of bulbs hanging from a tree in the forest and they just glowed hence them being sited below that word glow.

The bottom right is focused on more healthy activities for body and mind. I just loved the model running across the field with her net. This I felt brought humour into my board. I put all the words and quotes about losing, weight, focusing on a healthy mind and body onto this area too.

In the lower left hand quarter is a wonderful photograph of a path leading through a bluebell wood. I love bluebells, they remind me of my childhood. The path sort of leads of into the health focused section but that was a fluke really. I wanted to keep most of the picture clear. I added a picture of a camera as light is integral to taking great pictures, and I added the sparkle and twinkle words above.

I found the model with all the red butterflies like a hat in the Psychologies magazine. I love butterflies, they are light as a feather and the picture again was quite whimsical hence added abit of humour.

This is just a closeup of the quotes from the healthy section.

I am really very pleased with it and I know that it will fire me with inspiration for the rest of the year.


I would love to hear about your moodboards or your opinions on mine.

OLW - Light bracelet x

Everyone ready for snow then? I've checked and Somerset looks safe but I've bought 2 bags of logs for the fire to keep me warm.

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my OLW 2015 post about my word Light. It's good to know that the preparation and thought has been worth it.

Over the past 3 years, I have noticed that alot of One little worders buy themselves something to be a daily reminder of that word either a necklace, bracelet or other item. Over the years, I've made something, the first year I made an embroidered pillowed and last year a painted stone. But this year I decided to buy something small to wear everyday.

I love trawling through Etsy and this was no exception. Typing in the word Light brought up lots of beautiful pieces of art and jewellery, most outside of my price range I must say, but then I came upon Alison's page and found just the thing I was looking for. A simple bracelet with a tiny Om charm with a black thread, however it was the words on the card which called to me:

"Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light"

Yohgi Bahjan

I felt they really epitomised how I wished to live with my word this year.

I also looked up what "OM" means.................

The mantra "OM" is the name of God, the vibration of the Supreme. When taken letter by letter, A-U-M represents the divine energy (Shakti) united in its three elementary aspects: Bhrahma Shakti (creation), Vishnu Shakti (preservation) and Shiva Shakti (liberation, and/or destruction)

Wikipedia

So I made my purchase and it arrived today.

So thank you Alison for my beautiful, simple but rich in importance bracelet.

Have any other OLW participants found their perfect thing too?

OLW 2015 - LIGHT

This is my third year of doing One Little Word with Ali Edwards. My first word was ‘Be’ and last year my second word was ‘Rebuild’. In reviewing my past choices, I feel that both those words were pretty much well chosen, especially lazy year. In 2012, I had a bad Bipolar episode which really knocked me sideways so Be was simply that, it gave me the opportunity to just live with my word and be during that year. Last year, again, rebuild fitted my year perfectly as I was rebuilding a life I had had to change quite significantly, primarily from a professional perspective but also I had to move home and build a new one.

So this year I have chosen the word 

Light

Ali always gives ideas for how to approach choosing your word and places to visit and peruse. For me it is a simple process of going to Pinterest and playing around with words and meanings. This time it was a particular image which fuelled my imagination.

I love music, poetry and words in general so this jumped out at me as I looked through the pictures I’d raised in my search. When you think about light it can be internal and external.

 Internally it is the light you find in yourself and then allow to shine out like a beacon to the world a little like a lighthouse

The lighthouse shines to guide people away from danger and into safe waters. One of friends says that, for her, i am like a light that shows her what she could achieve. I would like to think that maybe in a small way i could inspire other people with mental health issues in a positive way but also to be a light for my family and friends providing love, support and encouragement to them.

Externally, the light shines onto you from others, from the sun, from candles, from love, from words, music and poetry, from creativity in general.

I am very aware of certain people’s positive influence on my own life and so I wish to build upon those experiences and learn from them so that through them I can perhaps share some of their accomplishments in a positive way to others whether that be via my blog, social media, work, private life or my faith.

As a Christian, light is used in many pieces of scripture to enlighten. Jesus is referred to as the light of the world who shines love upon us

We as God’s creations are called to be lights ourselves to spread the love of Jesus and God throughout the world. I feel that perhaps my faith has been missing from my life for the past 12 months and so I want to reconnect with that and develop my Christian life further. I was placed on this Earth to be a caring and nurturing person so I hope to find a way to use those gifts.

Light also can cast a window on your soul and for me this year I am part of a group therapy treatment related to my Bipolar so I think that this will illuminate my personal ability to cope with and live with my disorder.

My image for the year is the dragonfly as it embodies enlightenment apparently. So be prepared to see that image appearing here.

Finally I want to be light physically too. Over recent years, my weight and physical health have deteriorated and I find some things a lot more difficult to do. This year I will be fifty. Now I am never going to be a Slimcia girl as my friend Sarah used to call me, but I can try and reduce my weight, improve my health and fitness so that I am not a geriatric fifty year old woman unable to walk down the road. I know this will be a struggle because the tablets I take make weight loss harder and because I have a very strong emotional link to bad food habits. I also love sweet things so it will be a challenge, however once I set my mind to something I usually have varying degrees of success so we’ll see how it goes.

Phew this world has a lot to live up to hey?

So Light is the word for 2015 and I do hope it will be just a powerful and significant a word as my past two.