I sat down in the chair of an unfamiliar kitchen. I admired the countertops and took in the view of the backgarden. I poured parts of my heart onto a lady of whom I met for the first time a few minutes ago. I believe that that moment was God-ordained.

My heart was frustrated. Still reeling from what hadn’t gone to plan this year. But I decided to be willing to listen. I didn’t want to miss out on what God was doing inside of me.

After prayer, she felt like God was saying “Nothing is wasted.” This year isn’t wasted. It’s never not for anything, He is ALWAYS working on something. I just had to look up from my own pity party and realise that it’s not just about me.

Click to enlarge

With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.

1 Corinthians 15:58 (MSG)

The process behind the madness

I created this graphic after I was all ready for bedtime. I pumped lo-fi beats into my wireless headphones and filled a wine glass with…water. #keepthatjuiceflowing. I typed into Unsplash “trash” and this was the picture I chose. I knew I wanted to utilise pictures of rubbish because that’s what I instantly think about when talking trash. I used the magnetic lasso tool to roughly outline the shape of the rubbish and copied and pasted different layers in an attempt to make them look like mountains. I knew that I wanted something to grow out of them so I picked this photo of a purple flower and did a similar process to the way I recreated the rubbish. Sometimes, we can see the dessert as a wasted space. The dryness and the barren land that looks almost lifeless isn’t what a lot of people would consider a “great use of space” but isn’t it breathtaking nonetheless? I desaturated the background of this photo and placed it behind as a textured background. Next, I downloaded the lined paper and taped collection and cut out this sized paper and placed “Nothing is wasted” in Another Typewriter font, Regular and size 12pt. For final touches I copied and pasted each flower positioning it a centimetre or so above it and lowered the opacity while making sure it was behind the original flower. I also raised the contrast on the rubbish and then exported the entire photo into Adobe Lightroom which is where I enhanced the grain, added a touch of vignette and clarity.

Et voila

There you have my crazy 12:30am creative outburst.

I hope you like it 🙂