Healing Art

I have been busy preparing two "beginning art journaling" journals for two teenage girls in Georgia as a personal Pay-It-Forward project.  Their mom and I have been internet friends for quite some time and the entire family has been dealing with a lot of challenging issues surrounding their 13 year old daughter, who is currently in a residential treatment facility.  The younger sister, age 12, is naturally worried about her elder sister and their parents think that writing and journaling about their experiences will help them with their recovery.  This is totally a labor of love for me.  Not only are these people my friends, when someone reaches out, we must extend our hands to help any way we can.  I am told both girls like to write and create, so art journaling may come naturally to them.  

This is a sneak peek at the eldest daughter's journal. It has turned into a rather chunky monkey, with lots of tip-ins and art space for her to draw and doodle.  I left a lot of writing/journaling space for her to work through the challenges she is facing.  

Both journals will go out in Friday's mail, along with some art supplies and some journaling prompts to get them both kick-started in this field we love so much.  Creative art and journaling have long been proven to help with the healing process, whether from emotional distress, illness, grief or any of a myriad of life's challenges. The cathartic nature of journaling helps me often, and I am so in hopes that these two journals bring a smile to the faces of these young ladies and helps them through this troubling time in their lives.  Living my life with the "sharing is caring" emphasis has brought me more blessings than I can count. 

 By paying it forward, I can only hope that one day, these girls will be able to do the same for someone.

Time Is Close for ICAD 2014 at Daisy Yellow

Wow, time is flying by, as it always seems. Blink. Christmas is over. Blink. Spring is almost over (already hot here in Texas).  Blink.  Time for ICAD at Daisy Yellow!  This is a much anticipated event for many art journalers, artists, mail art enthusiasts, and creatives of every kind and description.

If you've never had the pleasure and fun (!) of creating something new and exciting on index cards, ICAD 2014 is for you!  And those of you who have done this in the past, know the thrill of completing this 60 day project.  ICAD (Index-Card-A-Day) begins June 1st at Daisy Yellow.  It is FREE!  No "registration", No "sign up".  But you will want to join Daisy Yellow's primary Facebook group here and the ICAD Facebook Group for sharing your creations here.  ICAD is the brainchild of Tammy Garcia, a great talent, mentor and teacher. I can also recommend you visit the Daisy Yellow Website if you want to check out prior years' ICAD prompts, great journaling tips and hints and tons of other valuable, creative information.  Need more information, check out the FAQ and you can pick up a badge for your blog!

Come on over to Daisy Yellow.  Come play with us starting June 1st through July 31st.

Dion Dior: New Class & Giveaway - Watercolor Pencils

For those of you who want to learn more about this medium, this surely will be the online class for you!  Dion Dior is quite the talent and I surely want to learn from her as I love using watercolor and infrequently, my watercolor pencils.  They need a better workout for sure.  Check it out!

Dion Dior: New Class & Giveaway - Watercolor Pencils: Over the last few months, I have had so many requests, that I am very excited to finally announce that the hugely popular online class ...

Spring Is In the Air

Don't you just love spring?  Everything comes alive again--the flowers blooming, the grass is growing, the birds are singing.  A rebirth of life.  And that is the subject of my spring ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) made for a swap at Artful Mail Groupies.  I love making these little miniatures. They are always challenging and fun to make and to receive.

I recently came into a goodly supply of baseball cards and enjoy altering them for our ATC swaps.  Sometimes they are more challenging than others, depending on the mediums used.

This particular set of cards was made using a scanned and printed vintage card, sized down for the ATC and then embellished with a Signo Uniball and Sakura Gelly pen.  I felt the image surely didn't need too much embellishment as it is just too cute on its own.  I hope the intended recipients enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Following along with the goodness of spring, I made the attached greeting card, also for a swap in Artful Mail Groupies.  Our challenge/theme was 'friendship" - opening up a whole world of possibilities, quotes and emotions.  What would our lives be like if we didn't have friends?  Sad, indeed.  I have certainly been blessed to have many friends in my life and have made many lasting friendships through the internet and social media.



The base card was created on 140 pound press watercolor paper using Dylusions Spray Inks, some candy wrappers, buttons and scrapbooking paper cut outs for the stems and leaves.  These were embellished with Sakura Gelly pen.  The inside sentiment was hand lettered with my new Scarlet Lime pen and Sakura Glaze pens.  I then mounted the front to white Bristol paper and used a handy-dandy corner punch to round them out.  I hope that the intended recipient enjoys it.  I had lots of fun creating this one.