Forgiveness

In honor of Valentine's month, I was thinking of incorporating a heart into my February mindfulness cards.  I had been playing with smaller chipboard hearts and chains and liked this look.  However, the die-cut hearts I had were too small for a 4 x 6 size card.  So, I cut a larger freehand heart to use on my cards.

I painted the hearts a bronze-copper color and rubbed the edges with a black ink pad for a distressed look.  I then draped a chain around the heart and connected the ends with a lock and key charms.

The background is chipboard covered with aluminum foil tape.  I used a retracted ballpoint pen to create "rivets" along the borders and seams.

The word that I zeroed in on for this month's card was "forgiveness."  I searched for a quote to put on the back of the card but in the end I decided to use just the word.  I had a set of metal alphabet stamps to deboss metal.  These worked like a charm to imprint "forgiveness" into a piece of aluminum foil tape.  To make the letters pop, I wiped black acrylic paint over the letters.

When I showed this card to a friend of mine, she said "I understand this card.  We hold onto the pain or anger to protect the heart but then we are not free."  I responded, " and forgiveness releases us from the chains that bind."  I have been trying to practice forgiveness.  It is a hard thing to do, but I am hoping it gets easier with practice.

Mini Mermaid

I picked up a few of these 2" x 3" frames a while ago and decided to create miniature alcohol ink pieces for them.  Here is a mermaid--or part of a mermaid--I made for a friend of mine who loves mermaids.  I used Citrus (body), Raspberry (tail) and of course, Mermaid (water).    The "bubbles" are created by spritzing with 91% rubbing alcohol to remove color.  I embellished the bottom outline of her tail by applying dots with a silver gel pen.

Accountable

As the new year got underway, I was talking with a friend about my chosen word for 2018.  She shared with me her word for the year:  Accountable.  

Many people choose different things to help remind them of their word throughout the year.  One idea I liked was creating a bangle with your word stamped onto it.  One year I made a small paperweight that I kept on my desk in my office (where I needed it the most!)  I thought I would make an "accountable" paperweight for my girlfriend, but when I could not find the blank paperweight, I decided to make her an ATC.

Accountable...the word brought to mind ledger paper (which I have plenty of!).  then I thought about using the letters of the words in place of numbers that would normally be found on a ledger.  The numbers in the different columns add up to the bottom line.  For my card, the letters add up to spell the word accountable.

I looked for a quote on accountability, and when I found this quote, I knew that was the one.  I typed the quote and ran it off on vellum.  Since I have an inkjet printer, I needed to spray a fixative on the vellum so it wouldn't smudge.  I adhered the vellum with spray glue.  I just know that my girlfriend will be tickled when she receives this!

Bounty

I have been kicking this idea around for awhile now.  I like the idea that feathers represent "bounty" and "abundance."  I wanted to find a way to meld these ideas into my first Mindfulness card of the New Year.

I kept seeing pictures of gold-dipped feathers all over Pinterest.  I knew I just had to try this!  Then I had to figure out how to gather a bunch of feathers in a way that I could mount them onto a 2-D card.  I had purchased some beautiful Italian papers with colorful feathers on them.  Of course, I couldn't find them when I needed them--or couldn't remember that I had already used them--either way, I wouldn't be able to use that paper for my background.

Then I remembered that my sister-in-law had gifted me with the most gorgeous marbled papers that she found while traveling in Thailand!  I found my stash and after going through all of the papers, I settled on the background you see here.  The colors are deep and earthy with a touch of gold.  I trimmed the paper down to cover the front and back sides of  my chipboard card. This palette screamed for gold-dipped black feathers.

I could have painted the tips with gold acrylic paint, but ended up spray painting them when I saw that I had a can of metallic gold spray paint on hand.  Quick and easy!  A little painter's tape to mask the bottom half of the  feathers and voila!  Gold-dipped black feathers!

I gathered a small bunch of feathers and wrapped them with very thin wire.  I tied a gold ribbon embellished with gold beads around the wire and threaded my "bounty" tag onto it.  I glued the background paper to the front of the card and then stapled the bottom layer of feathers to the card to  secure the bundle to the card.  Fortunately, I remembered NOT to glue the background paper to the back of the card until after I had finished stapling. 

I love the richness of my finished "bounty" cards

Amid the chaos, be still

So back in March, while I was in Napa for work, I attended a Mixed Media class.  We experimented with creating lots of layers:  collage with papers, paint, stencils, stamps, mark-making, etc.  I didn't set out to create a finished piece.  Rather, I wanted to create background papers that I could use one day.  Our practice piece was created on posterboard.  Our "finished" piece was created on canvas.

For my cards this month, I think I was subconsciously inspired by the busy-ness of the holidays.  December is usually harried and stressful.  In the past, my swaps will go on hiatus for the holidays and resume in the New Year.  I was going to ask the card swap group if they wanted to skip December to focus on the holiday preparations.  I for one, came to the realization that I needed  to create cards this month.  With all of the mayhem around me, I longed to set aside quiet time to create my cards.  When I posed the option of taking a break to the group, they unanimously agreed that they too, wanted--no, needed--to create cards this month.  I was so happy to hear this.  

Each of us is really relishing the idea of creating our monthly mindfulness cards.  I shared with them that I can't recall a time that I was more inspired.  I look at our list of Mindfulness Prompts and swirls of ideas and images constantly pop into my head.  I have so many ideas for cards I want to create.  It is invigorating to feel this way.  I only wish I had more time to create.  As it is, work has been quite busy, and it really takes discipline to find the time to make my cards and to mail them out at the end of every month.  But what joy this monthly exercise brings!

So, back to this month's creation.  I took my "practice" background paper and immediately felt that it represented "chaos."  Amid the chaos, I wanted to find a place of stillness.  I illustrated this by suspending a cut out circle with the words "be still" by a piece of string.  The circle can flip from front (chaos) to back (be still).

P.S.  Since creating this card, I have run across two quotes that express a similar sentiment:  "Find calm in the cacophony" and "Out of clutter, find simplicity~John Wheeler."

Something Blue...and Yellow

I attended my high school classmates' annual holiday gathering last weekend.  We always have a theme for our grab bag gift exchange.  This year's theme was Blue and/or Yellow.  Since I have been on an alcohol ink binge lately, I decided to create a sea creature series in Blue and Yellow and frame them as a set.

I can't begin to tell you how complicated the grab bag gift exchange is, but this version allows people to steal gifts that have been opened from previous recipients.  I was flattered that once my framed was opened, many people were hoping to end up with it.  Happily, our hostess for the evening is delighted to be the proud owner of my frame and I couldn't be more pleased that she already has a place in her home to display it.

Wisdom

As we work our way through the Mindfulness Prompts each month, I can't believe how many ideas I have!  As an added challenge, I am trying to use a different technique for each month's card.

For this month, I have been experimenting and playing with light modeling paste.  I love how it adds texture and dimension to a piece.  I decided to apply the paste through a stencil (so many choices!)  When I stumbled onto my bamboo stencil, that was it.  I initially associated the bamboo with "strength" and/or "flexibility."  I tried and tried to find the perfect quote to express these characteristics of the bamboo, but none of the quotes I found felt quite right.

When I found this quote about finding wisdom in emptiness, it really spoke to me.  Instead of focusing on the "strength" or "flexibility" of the bamboo, I looked to the hollow of the bamboo to  represent "wisdom."