Finger Pointing – December 22nd. {Holiday Edition-Part 1}

Hello hello!!!! Hope you are all as well as possible in this crazy world of ours that keeps getting crazier, hope you are all able to look around and see how lucky we are, if we are online and enjoying our passion for the digital arts and story-telling, recording of family history or feelings or moments…. means we have a roof over our heads and a computer and a net connection…… even if we can’t make it to be with our families, we are blessed with communities that bring beauty, love, connections and even that great power of transforming the sometimes very ugly events into the most beautiful pages, a little piece of digital (or hybrid) art. We are definitely luckier, better of than many others.

As I have mentioned many (many many!) times, all of us here are fueled by love. Unlike being part of a Creative Team in our industry, we do not get absolutely anything in return, well, no, actually, we do get the most wonderful, priceless gift that is being able to make your day at least a little bit better, showing fantastic pieces of life beautifully put together, sometimes sharing experiences with journals that make us connect in a unique way, filling our own hearts with love and admiration and often learning in the process, and being inspired by many styles and the most awesome creations.

This week, as I have done in previous years, I would like to share and highlight the talent of these super amazing ladies that are the GSO team, these women with huge hearts that make time to keep the essence of our art/craft alive, especially in times like this, and when many of them have full time jobs, full on families and a busy Creative Team schedule too. So, this is why I will be here this week, to honor these amazing ladies, share a tiny bit of their fabulous talent.

A special mention needed for our Jan aka Intense Magic for being the organizer extraordinaire, producing the month schedule for the posts is NOT an easy task, with completely different time zones and, even with the pandemic, busy lives. Apart from that, in no particular order, I give you a tiny piece of each of these amazing, talented ladies that keep giving life to the GSO. 🙂

As always, remember : you can get to the original galleries by clicking in the highlighted name of the page and author, it will open in another window or tab, please take a minute or two to leave them some love, we all know how good it feels and how much it can change a gray day into a brighter one!!!!

DYD-2020-Day-10 by IntenseMagic  I remember, 10 years ago, how my first thought was: “oh how cool is that nickname? she must be amazing!” and, well, yes, she is!!!! 🙂 You know I will be going on and on on how difficult it is to pick ONE page on the sea of marvels that are these ladies galleries…. but this caught my attention the most… a more than wonderful sunset, the way the colors and textures are almost split in stages with the fire of the sky, the warm feeling of the wooden desk, those books almost invisible until we come closer to pay more attention…and OHHHhhhhh that knitted pattern that not just I love to this day to wear, but in the way the photo angle presents it, gives an overall warmth, completed by her other  choices, as always, intensely elegant, the grungey feel of the card, the perfection of minimizing the elements to make the photo shine…. and those shadows, and the stitching…. and I could be here for another day. Absolutely awesome.

Parallel Universe by lizziet5  is such a powerful creation when you pair the superb, gorgeous image [which gains even more power by the way Liz composed for the page] with the strong, straight forward reality of the journaling that has a little humor twist, as it had to be, Liz being a fellow Brit!!! – OK, I am adopted, but after 30 years I can call myself a Brit…right? And isn’t just that, the photo, technique and journaling… in a very clean cut style, she has managed here to create a superb work of art, there is detail that creates deeper meaning with the text and brackets that echo the intention of the fragments of the photo, the beautifully composed title work, and even the subtle go with the paint brush in the background giving erratic movement…..if I ever saw a page that describes the intention, the feeling, the subject it documents made to perfection…this is it. I know I learned a lot about representation in documenting in my time at Get It Scrapped, but had never been able to translate the general subject as wonderfully as Liz has here. I know we are in troubled waters right now in the UK, I know I have the same concerns and my heart hurts since late March and I agree with Liz’s every word…to the “there is still beauty” True. Especially here with this being Wales. my most favorite place in the whole world. I would like to invite you also, if you haven’t yet done so, to visit her gallery as it is full of gems of life documented, I was a bit torn in between some of her pocket pages, some amazing soft color management….until I got to this  and, the world in the state it is…it HAD to be this. But you should check her entire gallery. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that flair, the little masked smiley, which brings the present even more present in the whole. absolutely marvelous page!!!

A Dash of Magic by myssp is coming to confirm the previous statement, yes, most definitely, there is still [so much!] beauty.  And with so much talent Rachael here displays a rescued feeling of the month, and, here again, it was a hugely difficult task to choose just one of her pages in the midst of so, so much awesome she creates….. her talent is beyond words!!! I think this one caught my heart as it seems like a window in which we can loose ourselves , all that shine and the warmth set by the gorgeous wooden background, continued in the perfection of the layering, so beautifully chosen elements, some of the tiny details that are actually big part of the composition, the whole thing comes together in that feeling of home and then some more with her clever “wrapping” of the pieces with the twine, the perfection of those staples , so many textures and perfectly achieved the casual look of it all. To seal it, a gorgeous piece of word art (or a wonderfully composed title!) with the string of stars…. more than enough to fill the heart with the festive feeling! Also check Rachael’s whole gallery, it is full of perfection in every way possible!

ME by DivaMom96, another fabulous talent in our team, another gallery full of gems to inspire, here radiating so much beauty and goodness from her beautiful self, with that super positive energy and the elegance that comes through all of her pages. The choice of background gives balance to the strength of the photo, brings it even more to the eye and the continuation of soft, almost neutral colors in the cluster keep the beauty flowing, and the inclusion of the photo as part of the card  -instead of having a cut through- makes more of an impact. Love the discovering little bits and pieces layered in the left hand cluster, and the simple flower with the sequins on the right, together with the uneven stitching an the perfection of the shadows all over, keeps in harmony with the strength of those word strips that are in perfect harmony too, with that beautiful, amazing feel of her heart and talent, something you will see reflected in all of Deborrah’s  pages: elegance, beauty, wisdom, strength, in each and every page!

Keeping the beautiful faces of our amazing sisters shining a beautiful, amazing light into their pages is 46.9 by Seattle Sheri. I am so, so delighted in  finding her as the center and sole protagonist of her page here, I had been following her amazing talent for producing layers of element greatness (which makes my element hoarder’s heart sing loud!) for years before she joined us here, so it is so great now, getting to know her a bit more beyond her pages, just confirms her talent. Love the choice of background here, as above, the soft color with the added of a very, very subtle pattern and some stamps casually thrown around, all make a perfect base for the array of layers with so many different textures, an amazing arrangement of nature colors that reflect the light of that smile, the detail of the addition of the metal golden stars is perfection, the composition of the lower right hand corner with those super awesome shadows highlighting the numbers without taking attention from the centered composition as a whole is done to perfection, and I keep finding bits and pieces like stamps, letters, text and painted flowers and leaves that make my heart sing!

My last (but never ever least!) show for today is {so very appropriately named!} 2020 What a Year! by cutiejo1. Every time I see Joanna’s pages I fall in love again and again with her talent, another one that appeals to  my passion for layers and layers of elements and the mastering of making beauty of everyday life. When I come across her pages, the dilemma is not if to pick, but which page of all the gems she has posted on the day. Today wasn’t different, but I thought this reflects so much what most of us have in our hearts, our account of events, our fears and insecurities, the making history through a world wide pandemic, living on the uncertainty of things like some of our leaders that aren’t exactly leading, to the surreal fact of the whole world running out of……yeah, what???? from everything the human race can try to hoard in chaotic times…toilette paper?  Well, as we are in the art/craft of making beautiful things out of not so beautiful and sometimes down right ugly events, looking at this page gives me that feeling again and again. Awesome, amazing, wonderful, fabulous and more of the praising adjectives you can think of (non native English speaker here) this is one of those. With Joanna’s amazing heart, this is a more than perfect rendition of the year we are still getting through,  original in the cut of the text/journaling area, absolutely marvelous layering, all those elements ranging from the cutest with the word art title to the more realistic elements and the perfection of the placement, and the text, the journaling… I know is a poem by someone, not Jo’s, but my very old sight plus no sleep for over 48 hours no matter the amount of zooming I did can’t read the name- but- kudos to the author and Thank YOU Jo for bringing it to your already amazing page, making it even more so. Brilliant.

This is all from me tonight, I will be back tomorrow with more, but I would like to take the last words of the poem (and probably keep them on repeat) to say good night to you all : “If we lean on each other, I know we can cope” And yes, we do, we can. 🙂 Lets keep in our communities that feeling that is not found often in other hobbies/arts/crafts ones, the heart connection and the very special support and understanding of others, regarding of all and any differences, We can cope. And we will get over this one too.

And please, this week more than any other time of the year, I ask you PLEASE, please, to take a minute or two to click on the highlighted names of the pages and authors to get to their original galleries, and thank these AWESOME, talented women for the love and dedication they keep all year in highlighting yours 🙂

See you tomorrow!