Finding A Place Of Trust

If this is your first visit to Wrapped Emotions, it would be helpful to read this post first.

• Read about this week's featured artist, her shop and the beautiful choice of prizes she is offering the winner of this week's random draw.

• Last week's wrap up, news and winner of the weekly draw is posted here.

• *Note* We are shifting. Monday's are just crazy at my house...how about yours? It is also a busy get-back-to-it day in the blogging world. Tell you what we're going to do. The weekly prompts are going up on Tuesdays with the opportunity to complete and post them remaining open through midnight EST each Sunday. That actually gives weekend days to work on projects, and that could benefit many. I'll post a wrap-up and the winner of each week's gift on Mondays.

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Now, about this week...

Finding a place of trust...I'm trying. Being a Christian (and this is not a push to those who are not) I know my peace within is found in God. I also know that I must learn to trust myself and to release many fears. This week's prompt is taken from Jen Lemen. Jen to me is the vision of a gentle, peaceful oasis in the center of a maddening world. I want that. Let's follow Jen's prompt this week to find A Little Ritual of Letting Go of Fear and Other Things That Weigh You Down. Go ahead, click the link and read an inspirational and deeply personal post. Jen put herself out there for all of us to see and to help us experience letting go of our personal fears and other emotions that are blocking our path to genuine peace and moving forward in our lives.

Maybe you do not have a beautiful natural wilderness in which to seclude yourself...I moved away from mine. But there is a place somewhere...a place you can pray, meditate, think and quietly face the reality of what is holding you back in life. It could be the bathroom...a corner in Starbucks...your front porch...a park bench. But go there. Quietly open up to trust. Take a pen if you feel led and, like Jen, write your fears...be honest with yourself...make them into words...see your fears.

I realize this is pretty intense, but I honestly feel that fear is blocking many of us from trusting ourselves...from being ourselves.

This week find your ritual. Experience it. This is a personal journey. Whatever you take from this, take it to your art journal. Create what you feel. No, there are no suggestions, no list of materials...this is freestyle. This is you...

What you create...be it a page of jumbled words, mingled colors, introspective images...should be intimately yours. If you are not comfortable posting your completed journal page, no problem. Write a blog post with what you are comfortable sharing. Should you find yourself trying, yet not completing this ritual, share that...it is not failure to try.

My heart hopes we will share...that we will trust ourselves...that we will uncover more of our wrapped emotions.

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Here are the specifics of weekly participation:

• Leisurely, happily create your project for the week.
• Post a photo or scan of it on your blog any time, any day Tuesday through Sunday with as many or as few words as you choose to accompany it...no words?...no problem...unless the week's prompt calls for words.
  
• If you so choose, and I love it when you choose, include the WE button in your post. If you choose not to post the button (and I will still love you), please link back to the current week's post at WE within the text of your post. Thank you. Grab the button code.
  
• Come to Wrapped Emotions and sign Mr. Linky with the direct link to your WE post for the week. Please don't make visitors scroll and search for your week's contribution by merely linking to your homepage.
  
• After signing Mr. Linky, please also leave a comment on the Mr. Linky post at WE. I will be drawing for the weekly gift from comments.
  
• Use Mr. Linky to visit the blogs of fellow participants. You have all week to pop in and out to visit. Offer words of observation, sheer delight and when called for, words of support, encouragement or comfort.
  
• Check back each Monday to see if you won the previous week's gift, which will be chosen by random.org from the comments.
  
• The new WE prompt will be posted each Tuesday.
  
• Do you have an online store? Would you like to feature it at WE?

Questions or comments about this week's prompt...please let me hear from you on this post. I love it when you talk to me.

*If you have completed your Finding A Place of Trust project, sign Mr. Linky here.

Mr. Linky ~ Finding A Place Of Trust

Bloggers participating in Wrapped Emotions' weekly prompt, Finding A Place Of Trust, please sign Mr. Linky below with the direct link to your project post. Remember to also leave a comment on this post so that you will be entered for the weekly giveaway. Thanks for sharing.

Wrapped Emotions Participants

1. Angie 2. Jess 3. Stacy 4. Julie @the Surrendered Scribe 5. Mandy 6. Melissa

7. De in Paradise 8. Lynnae @ From Under the Clutter 9. killlashandra 10. Kim @ TheBitterBall 11. EA 12. melody is slurping life

13. phyllis@imabima 14. sara 15. Childlife @ In The Life of a Child 16. Jenny is Live & in Color

Learn more about Wrapped Emotions here.
View More Wrapped Emotions Participants

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The Creations and Etsy Shop of Zuda Gay

Each week Wrapped Emotions will be featuring the shop of a craft person, artist or retailer who has generously donated their creation or product as a gift for the weekly drawing.

I am excited to have as our first featured artist, Zuda Gay. Zuda Gay's medium is polymer clay, and the two words that come to mind when I view her work are beautiful and amazing. Her love of the clay and talent are expressed in the delicate, intricate details of her pendants, brooches and ornaments. Zuda Gay's Etsy Shop is a feast for the eyes and soul. Pour yourself a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy relaxed browsing and shopping.

I asked Zuda Gay to tell us about herself...

I have been so very blessed to be raised by parents who lived creatively and raised their children to believe that they could do whatever they wanted to do. Then I married a boy who seems to think that I can do anything I put my mind to and encourages me to fulfill any creative notion that pops into my mind. I have always loved the feel of clay in my hands. I played with Play-dough like most children and was so upset when it dried and ended up with a white haze covering my beautiful sculptures. Anytime there was mud nearby, I was in it.

When our daughters were tiny and we were poor and young, I discovered making my own clay with flour, salt and water. I made Christmas ornaments, painted them and sold them at craft shows to make money to buy our babies Christmas gifts. I discovered polymer clay about 12 years ago and have pretty much been working with it ever since. I have evolved and grown, as all artists do, but it is still color and the feel of clay in my hands that move me and all of creation that inspires me.

I seem to gravitate toward flowers. I love flowers!!! I have a brown thumb and kill every living plant that comes into my possession. So, for the most part I make things with flowers on them. Flowers that don't wilt or die for lack of care.....or too much care. I believe that we are made in the image of the Creator and one of His traits that He has put within us is the desire and ability to create....something, or be creative in some way. I need to be able to use my God given creativity, and this is one of the ways we have chosen to use it.

My husband and I will celebrate our 33^rd anniversary the end of November. We have two beautiful grown daughters, two wonderful sons-in-law and six absolutely beautiful, brilliant and adorable grandkids….with number seven due January 10^th. I am abundantly blessed.

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Thanks, Zuda Gay. Your creations and your spirit are amazing.

Zuda Gay is graciously offering one of her beautiful brooches as a gift to the winner of this week's random drawing at WE. Go ahead, click and take a look. All participants in this week's WE project will be entered for a chance to win a choice of one of the five brooches.

You will find last week's wrap-up and winner of the draw here.

Binding Loose Ends Of The Week

Just binding loose ends of the week and saying thanks again for playing at Wrapped Emotions. This week's project seemed simple, but in reading your posts, apparently it was not so easy. However, the final journal covers were as creative and varied as the emotions which accompanied them. I have been impressed and inspired once more. If you have not visited this week's links, they're still there...enjoy.

• The blogroll of WE participants to date is now in the blog sidebar. You will find it under "Expressive People". If I have omitted your blog link, please let me know in the comments or by email.
  


• Monday morning will be Wrapped Emotions' first featured artist and shop. Be sure to read all about her and visit her lovely Etsy Shop. She's donating a choice of one of her gorgeous, handmade creations to the winner of the draw at the end of the coming week.
  


• The winner of this week's little gift from WE is Melissa of Enjoying Life. Melissa, you will receive the personal journal pictured below. Just email me a mailing address.

This week's prompt may be posted a little later in the day than usual on Monday. You know, life sometimes messes up schedules.

Guest Bloggers

Beginning next month each WE artist (yes, you must now call yourself "artist") will have the opportunity to be a guest blogger at WE . One week of each month I will randomly draw from the WE blogroll the name of one blogger to take over the prompt for a week. You are not required to accept the guest blogger role, but please do not let fear of failure or judgment stop you. There are no right or wrong ideas, none better than the other. I believe fresh viewpoints and voices will keep energy flowing and further encourage creativity. Plus it is an opportunity for each of you to step out of your comfort zone, and that is a big part of unleashing creativity...unleashing inhibitions.

I'll give you another week, maybe two, to roll this around in your brains a bit. Do not run and hide (no person will be forced as a guest blogger). Remain on your journey to create, connect and express yourself.

Necessary Bindings

If this is your first visit to Wrapped Emotions, welcome and thanks for coming. You should begin by reading this to learn what it's all about.

Here's the wrap on last week's project.

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This week I want to correct a mistake made when I first explained my thinking behind Wrapped Emotions...

Many of the completed projects will be in a final form that can be kept in a binder...an art journal...if you so choose. Or you may simply enjoy them for a while and disperse or dispose of them as you see fit. I have chosen to purchase a spiral bound art journal 10"x10" whose pages will serve as the base for many of my creations. Some 3-D projects will not be suitable for the journal.

There was a flaw in my thinking. Having our completed WE projects be disposable, not bound firmly in some manner, diminishes their importance...gives them no validity. So I am changing my mind because...

Loose pages can be shuffled, crumpled, lost, trashed. Loose pages can be stuffed here and there. The wind can blow them out of your hand. They are less important when disconnected.

Our WE creations should represent something substantial. A book has substance...pages bound together...like your day to day life. Your creations and thoughts deserve the same substance. The time you set aside to create, connect and express yourself should not be treated loosely. It deserves a proper binding to signify it's substance.

This week I want you to purchase or make an art journal in which to create your projects or to put photos of your creations which are not worked on paper. An art journal being a (spiral-my choice) bound book of sturdy blank pages of any dimensions you choose. You can find them at an art supply store, arts and craft store, even T*rget and W*lmart. You may construct your own book of bound, blank pages in any manner you choose.

Once you have the journal, take your first WE project (the collage) and mount it in the book. Trim it, cut it into pieces if you need to, re-collage it, but put it in there. Then from your blog print a copy of your photo and post for your last week's project and mount it in the book. Do any additional art work, embellishment or collage you choose as you add these creations to your art journal. You're creative. You can make them fit. You do not need a huge book. If this is your first week participating, wonderful. Simply purchase or construct your art journal.

Next, make the journal your own. Decorate the cover. No specific instructions. No list of materials, no specific medium.

Now snap photos of your journal's cover and the two completed pages. Post the photos on your blog. If this is your first WE project, you'll post a photo of your journal cover.

What you are creating now has substance. It is real. It is not being treated loosely. The wind cannot blow it away. As time goes by you will better understand the importance of the binding...the wrapped emotions.

Links to enjoy and inspire:

How To Collage In Your Art Journal
Teesha Moore Art Journals
Art Junk

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Here's the how-to of weekly participation:

• Leisurely, happily create your project for the week.
• Post a photo or scan of it on your blog any time, any day Monday through Saturday with as many or as few words as you choose to accompany it...no words?...no problem...unless the week's prompt calls for words.
  
• If you so choose, and I love it when you choose, include the WE button in your post. If you choose not to post the button (and I will still love you), please link back to the current week's post at WE within the text of your post. Thank you. Grab the button code.
  
• Come to Wrapped Emotions and sign Mr. Linky with the direct link to your WE post for the week. Please don't make visitors scroll and search for your week's contribution by merely linking to your homepage.
  
• After signing Mr. Linky, please also leave a comment on the Mr. Linky post at WE. I will be drawing for the weekly gift from comments.
  
• Use Mr. Linky to visit the blogs of fellow participants. You have all week to pop in and out to visit. Offer words of observation, sheer delight and when called for, words of support, encouragement or comfort.
  
• Check back each Monday for the new WE prompt and to see if you won the previous week's gift, which will be chosen by random.org from the comments. (Do you have an online store? Would you like to feature it at WE?)

Questions or comments about this week's prompt...please let me hear from you on this post. I love it when you talk to me.

*If you have completed your Necessary Bindings project, sign Mr. Linky here.

Necessary Bindings ~ Mr. Linky

Those participating in Wrapped Emotions' weekly prompt Necessary Bindings, please sign Mr. Linky below with the direct link to your project post. Remember to also leave a comment on this post so that you will be entered for the weekly giveaway. Thanks for playing.

Wrapped Emotions Participants

1. Melissa D. 2. Julie@ the Surrendered Scribe 3. Lynnae @ From Under the Clutter 4. SingForHim @ RealLife 5. EA

6. De in Paradise 7. Jenny is Live & in Color 8. Sara 9. Stacy 10. Mandy

11. Kim 12. melody is slurping life 13. phyllis@imabima 14. d@JustAnOrdinaryMommy

Learn more about Wrapped Emotions here.
View More Wrapped Emotions Participants

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Wrapping Things Up

We grew! The number of participants increased. A big THANKS to each of you. If you have not visited the Wrapped Emotions participants' blog posts of the past week, please do. There are some awesome photos and inspiring insights.

How wonderful that you, like me, flopped your bodies on the ground or floor of a public place to be ogled, offered assistance, and stepped around or upon. Several of you who participated without actually hitting the ground or floor seemed to feel that you "cheated" on this week's prompt. To you I say, "no way!" Part of being creative is taking creative license, improvising, and I was pleased to see you do so. And to you who could not bring yourself to lie about anywhere and snap photos, you were still a full-fledged participant with your honesty and revelation. Each of you took a new perspective this week. I applaud you.

This week the luck of the draw for the little gift goes to Sarah of Real Life. I'll be sending you the mini scrapbook and fall embellishments which are pictured below. Just email me with a shipping address. I promise to address and post the envelope properly so as not to have a repeat of this incident.

Additionally, during this week I will be compiling and posting the beginning of our Wrapped Emotions blogroll of participants. Next Monday, I'll lay out the plans for guest bloggers and elaborate more on merchants and crafters who will be donating gifts for upcoming weeks.

If you have a shop or website where you sell products and would like to donate a gift in exchange for being featured at Wrapped Emotions for the week, please email me at melodyspins [at] gmail [dot] com.

Finally, thank you for linking to Wrapped Emotions. It is so fun to see the WE button in the sidebar of blogs I visit. Often I have to stop and say "oh yeah, that's my blog!".

Tomorrow our new prompt will be posted. See you then.