And A Few More Christmas Cards

 I had so much fun making these one-of-a-kind cards.  I hope each special recipient will love them as much as I do!

Book Folding Continues...

 I decided to fold a few more books to give away as Christmas or January birthday gifts.  Part of the fun is finding a book with enough pages for your chosen design with the perfect title!

I chose "The Gift" and folded a heart into the pages for a grab bag gift:

How about "Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake" with a star design to honor a New Year's Day Birthday?

I folded "Dad" into the book entitled "Q" (his nickname):

And for a classmate who follows the teachings of the Dalai Lama, I folded "Peace" into the pages of his "The Art of Happiness" book:

My Latest Obsession: Book Folding

 

What started out as an idea for a grab bag gift with a "Spark Joy" theme became my latest obsession:  Book Folding!  How fun!

I found free patterns on-line and watched a few video tutorials in order to figure out how to read a pattern, how to choose a book, how to count folds, how many pages are needed for a particular design and where to start folding!

After some trial and error, I decided to make a few others to give away as gifts.  It's a bonus to be able to match the title of the book to the folded design.  Here, I folded a heart in a book entitled "The Art of Abundance."  I folded a star in "Come Let Us Adore Him."  And for a special friend who treasures "A Walk Along the Beach" with her furry friend, a paw print.

Wish

The road to these December "Wish" Artfirmation cards was unexpected.  I had picked up this cute little gift book from my favorite thrift store called "This Little Piggy Went to Prada."  The pages have a nice weight and feel.  The book rewrites nursery rhymes with a fashionista twist.  The illustrations are drop-dead gorgeous. I just had to find a creative way to use them!

With the holidays now upon us, I pulled out my Christmas-themed dies and started making die cuts.  I had these luscious metallic tri-fold cards that were perfect.  I made lots and lots of different Christmas trees, reindeer, snowflakes and holiday words.  Before I knew it, I started to remove pages from the book and began to reimagine the illustrations in a winter/holiday setting.  I made several more cards by embellishing the pretty pages with die cuts and swarovski crystals.  I think they make festive Christmas cards! 

The American Dream

With the November election looming heavily, I began to think about things like patriotism, voting rights, women's rights, immigration, etc.  This led me to reflect on how my parents came to this country as immigrants over 60 years ago.  As I thought about the cards I would create this month, I wanted to pay homage to the countless number of individuals who decided to leave their native country in pursuit of the American Dream.  I often marvel at the courage my parents had, in their early twenties, just after completing school, to pick up and move halfway around the world to start a new life for themselves.  America was a place they had never even visited before, with a wildly different culture.  This was a truly a foreign experience for them.  They had one-way tickets to the promised land and there was never a thought of going back.  Neither of my parents came from great wealth, so not succeeding at this new life was not an option for either of them.  It was in Baltimore, Maryland that they started their life as a young, married couple.  That was where my brother and I were born.  After spending 9 years in the East Coast, however, my parents "returned" to Hawaii to settle and raise their family--a place they had seen only once before on a brief layover on their way from the Philippines to the East Coast 9 years earlier, a place that felt like their native home, but was still in America.

To start my cards, I used a selection of Tim Holtz washi tapes to create a striped background.  I had a pack of Tim Holtz Paper Dolls and chose the figures that represented different kinds of people who emigrated to America.  I adhered them with foam squares for a 3-D effect.  I used a simple black strip of cardstock to "anchor" the figures, otherwise they would look like they were just floating on the page.  In each of their faces, I see the promise of a bright future, prosperity, and the hope that in America, all of their dreams can come true. 

Halloween Cards

Having a little Halloween fun playing with spiderweb and raven thinlit dies and Tim Holtz idea-ology Halloween paper dolls and sticker book curiosities...

 

A Few More Painted Rocks

 

Still deciding whether to add these to the rock garden or to give away as gifts...

Worlds Change When Eyes Meet

 

For my October Artfirmation card, I returned to this layout I learned in my Art Journaling class to showcase this quote:  Worlds Change When Eyes Meet.  This quote also gave me the opportunity to use this "eye" stamp.

I used an old map from my background page.  However, the map wasn't quite old enough, so I "aged" it a bit more with some Distress Ink (Tea Dye).  To create some balance to the page, I added the chain of circles accent on the left border.  I stamped the "eye" on a piece of manila cardstock and hand-colored it with some new markers which really enhanced the imagery.  I was really happy with the way this turned out and hope to experiment more with with hand-coloring stamped images.  I also aged the edges of the manila cardstock with more Distress Ink (Tea Dye) to better match the look of the map.

To complete my page, I framed the quote in a decorative bookplate die-cut that I made from black cardstock and secured it with two minibrads. 

Recent Additions to the Neighborhood Rock Garden

 

This Halloween-themed set of painted rocks showed up in the rock garden the other day!  I love that people are (anonymously) adding their creations for the neighborhood to enjoy.

I added this "Rainbow Rock" to the collection in honor of Jester, who used to walk the hill with me on many mornings.  I still miss him but am reminded--every time I see a beautiful rainbow--that he is watching over me.

 I plan to add this "smiley face" rock to the garden on my next walk!

A Neighborhood Painted Rock Garden

 

I discovered a growing painted rock garden on my walk up the hill the other day.  It inspired me to create a rock of my own ("Positivity") which I plan to add on my next walk.  Yet another way to combat the negativity around us.