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Here’s this week’s card:
It says: you are not alone, not ever. This card uses the Love Birds template by Dina Wakley for The Crafter’s Workshop (as well as a few others.). Gratitude PostCards is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and the postcards I use here. In 2011, I did a weeklong daily art journal project that I loved. In 2012, I did a collage project that I loved. So this year, I decided to sort of combine the two and add the element of gratitude and celebration. I bought myself an A4 Moleskine Sketchbook and decided to use the right side pages only. My goal is to create some art on each page each week. Some might be collage-y and some will be more like art journaling. Whatever my heart desires. And then the goal is to update the page throughout the week to add 2 gratitudes each day from me, one from david and finally 3 things to celebrate for each of my family members for the week. Since I post these on Mondays, each page will go from Sunday to Saturday. Like most of my projects, I am not exactly sure how it’s going to work but I am open to playing along and letting it morph to what it needs to be. Here’s my first before page, I figured it’s best to start the year with my word:
and here’s what the page looks like with all the gratitudes and celebrations:
There we go. Just another excuse to create art and remember the present that is my life. As we approached 2013, I knew that I wanted to continue to do art journaling. I’ve really enjoyed making art each week and wanted to make sure I created an excuse to give me time to create regularly. However, I have a tough time keeping all the art I’m creating. My books are becoming bulky and this year I am trying to focus on learning to let go and share. I’ve had people occasionally approach me to ask if I sell my art. So I decided to combine the two and create this project. I call it SixBySix because I cut up my watercolor paper in a small square (it’s actually about 5.5″ by 5.5″ so it can fit into a 6×6 envelope to mail.) and I create my art on that paper. I will then sell each piece. There will only be one each week. The price will be the same no matter where you live (unless this becomes really costly, in which case I might add a shipping cost for outside the US.) Assuming I can find my scanner and am not too lazy (which is a big assumption) I might at some point offer prints too, but I am not holding my breath on that. Please remember, this is personal and hand-made and thus imperfect. If you want perfect art, do not buy mine. Also one more reminder that these are pretty small. 5.5inches by 5.5inches. That’s about 14×14 centimeters). You will just get the original piece of watercolor paper with my art and signature in the back. No mounting, no frame. I don’t want to misrepresent anything. I will put a paypal button under each (you can pay with credit card or paypal.) the button doesn’t update so you will have to click through to see if it’s sold out. I will try to update them as quickly as I can and remove the button if it’s gone, but just in case. Each piece will be $35. That’s US dollars. If you have questions please leave a comment and I will reply as fast as I can. Since it’s for sale, I will not copy any artist’s art. I will use stencils sometimes and create my own other times but each piece will be my own unique creation and idea. If I use a quote, I will make sure to attribute. If you find something that looks like a copy, it’s unintentional and please notify me so I can attribute, remove, or do whatever’s necessary. I’ve never sold art before and have mixed feelings about it. Depending on how things go, I might change my mind and not sell them or whatever. Either way, I will aim to create 52 pieces of 5.5×5.5 art this year. With that here’s my first one:
This one has some gold paint so here’s a slanted view too:
It reads: You already have what it takes to make your wishes come true. here’s an example of what it looks like in an 8×8 frame.
Here’s to hoping for more art in 2013. This year, I decided that I wanted to focus strongly on gratitude. I did a lot of gratitude-focused work in 2010 and 2011 but I feel like it sort of declined in 2012, so my plan is to bring it back front and center this year. I’ve created a few projects around it. The first one is Gratitude PostCards. When I was looking for a project for David and me for 2013, I ran across these watercolor postcards and decided they would be fun to do art on and send out to people with notes of gratitude. After I talked to David, he liked the idea, too. Then I decided that I also wanted to make my own cards and send them out to people for whom I am grateful. People who make my life so much better. And thus the Gratitude PostCard project was born. The watercolor paper quality in the postcards isn’t perfect (at least not to my personal liking) and I am still learning how to use it. But the goal here is not to create perfect art. It’s just to couple something I love to do (art) with something that will give me joy (gratitude) and hopefully show someone how much they mean to me. I will share the art part of the cards here with you so you can see what I’ve done. Since I am not selling these cards, this will be my opportunity to use mediums I haven’t tried, create similar art to what I might want to learn from, use my templates, and just have fun. Some will be great, some not so much. That’s just how things go. My goal is to keep them simple. With that here’s the first card I created:
it says: celebrate every single day. not my favorite one, but it’s the first one I created. Here’s to celebrating gratitude in 2013.
David says: I liked the part about Feather Island and how he ran into his old pet bird, Flute. I thought King Can’s story was interesting and I liked that they dug up the treasure and all the things they found in it. It was nice of the King to give some of it to Elmer and to the dragon and even to Flute. I thought it was nice of Elmer to give some presents to Flute. I liked that when they got home the dragon gave the watch to Elmer so he could give it to his mom, My favorite part was that Elmer made it home safely and gave presents to his dad and his mom and even played the harmonica for his father. And that the dragon is going home. It was a very happy ending! Reading a book a week with my six-year-old son David is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
David says: I liked the part where Akimbo ran into the ranger camp in the middle of the night so he could get his dad and the rangers to catch the poachers. His plan was sneaky. I like that he stole the ivory because with it he was able to trick the bad guy into joining their gang. I liked his plan of joining in with them so he could follow exactly where they went. It was scary that the rhino almost charged at him and the lion roared at him. It was very brave of him to scare the elephants so he could make sure to save them. The best part was in the end when he saw that the little elephant was taken care of and when all the poachers were caught. Reading a book a week with my six-year-old son David is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
Another day that I decided to keep things low. And it worked great. I spent most of today reading and watching TV and resting. We did take some family shots:
even though the light was bad:
so we kept it to a minium and went right into tickle time:
which was, of course, super-fun:
but we kept that short, too.
Then Nathaniel showed David where to put the tripod back:
and watched as he did it.
then it was nap time for him, sketch time for me. I sketched, wrote my weeklong journal and then redid the blog. So now you have a new schedule: Mondays – Scrapbook pages/minis/posts So I will attempt to fold the Daily Diary into the Us Right now Posts which means those will get really big with photos from the whole week. I don’t know if I will like this new format or not so I might go back. I still want to give it a try. I have created a new sideblog for the gratitude journal cause I do want to continue that. You can now find it on the left side of the blog under my badge. I am hoping to do more, longer posts daily or at least a few times a week talking about some of my thoughts, some details about my process, etc. This blog used to have a lot more of my thoughts and I liked that so I want to bring it back. We’ll try this for a while and see how it works. Feel free to comment on what you think, too. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
David says: I liked the part where the bird took him but he was clever enough to bite him just when he was over the water. And how he read the story in the paper and was able to warn all the other animals in time so they could escape. I loved that he started reading to all the other animals and how much they liked it. And how he became friends with all the other animals so they watched out for him and looked for Robbie for him. I also really liked the ending how Pee-Wee actually realized he was so free now and had a good friend like Lexi and was living a better life and how he saw that Robbie, too, had gotten his wish and had a puppy now so it was happy for both of them. Another recommendation from our librarian. What a sweet little tale. I know there are sequals to this one and I think we will likely check those out, too since it was so delightful. Reading a book a week with my six-year-old son David is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
The plan for today was to do absolutely nothing. Only the exercise but none of the other regular tasks I do. And nothing else on my todo list either. Welll…. I started out well. I watched TV, read my books, and just did nothing. But then as the day wore on I got itchy. I saw a photo I loved and I had to sketch it. Then I wrote my weeklong journal while David played Wii. The little one woke up and they played together.
even though the light is terrible, I just love the photo.
I then decided to run to the art store and bought some paper and a tiny gouache set. And I started to do another sketch. As I sketched, Nathaniel sat and played with his legos.
David did the same, too, but up in his room.
Jake was at the doctor’s getting his eyes checked and Nathaniel kept waiting for him.
he gave me a quick smile.
and went back on his daddy-watch.
and there we go. I didn’t do an art journal page but I did make a tag for a project so I am not sure this counts as a full day off but I did watch a lot of TV (watching some now) and felt a lot less self-pressure. So I guess it counts! Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
I had planned for today to be a super-restful and super-productive day. But you know what happens when you make plans, right…? It started out just fine but quietly went downhill. The best part was this boy who was super-excited about his playdate:
and this boy who found a fork and decided to jab it in his brother.
So he could eat him. He jabbed gently, then brought the fork to his mouth and made eating sounds.
which made both of them laugh so much. He did it to me and to David again and again.
and then he asked for the lens cap.
which also made him laugh and laugh and laugh.
the joys of my life. Tonight I learned again that I should be careful when I agree to do things. For some reason I seem to have to relearn this lesson again and again and again. Sigh. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
and here we are. almost the end of the week and almost the end of the month. I still haven’t written the newsletter which is rare for me. but i’ve been so overwhelmed and busy lately that things are definitely reaching the edges of their due date lately. i took Nathaniel back to the doctor today but he’s all good thankfully and he played happily most of the day.
David came home from school in a good mood. He has a playdate tomorrow.
David spent some time on the computer. Maybe it’s because I am a computer programmer but I love seeing him on the computer. How he uses it and the dexterity of his fingers.
Nathaniel read for a while
and then joined his brother.
I loved how they snuggled up together. The plan for tonight is to do nothing. I am tired. I will just watch TV. That’s that. And maybe I can write the newsletter tomorrow. Let’s hope. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For:
today started super-hectic for me. I dropped the kids off and then drove to work. I had a meeting and several things to pick up all over the building. Then I rushed back home and took Nathaniel to the doctor and we came back home for the nap.He woke up rested and cranky.
then I worked worked worked. And David came home so I got some photos.
I will never have enough of those blue eyes.
here he is writing his gratitude book.
Nathaniel wanted photos too of course.
I tried to entertain him with the lens cap.
which he wanted, too.
so I gave him and he loved it.
then david played on the new computer a bit and nathaniel watched (and bugged) him.
now i am off to do some art before I go out to meet a few friends. whirlwind of a day here and still suffering from allergies and perpetually behind everything at this point. Three Things I’m Grateful For: Three Things David’s Grateful For: |
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