Paper & a Deck of Cards

I saw this wonderful idea for a Valentines day gift on Pinterest called "52 reason why I love you". Using a deck of cards you put one reason on each card. But it was just words. I am such a visual person that words alone were WAY to boring for me. So beginning in January I started gathering ideas of what I wanted to use to help illustrate each of the 52 reasons why I loved GT. But as usual, time FLEW by and other projects took priority. ie. . .100 days of school, Valentine boxes for kids, Sonja coming for my birthday, MY Birthday....you get the picture. 

So ON VALENTINES day morning I got up and brushed my teeth went downstairs and got coffee, and started what I thought would take me 3 or 4 hrs to assemble. 

Kids got home from school and I was only on #25

GT came home from work around 8:30 and I still had 4 more to finish. . .

13 hrs later I was finally done.

I gave it to GT unwrapped and with out much explanation, except that I was still in my PJs because I was thinking of him ALL DAY long while making his gift! 

As he started going through each card and tears were rolling down his face, I knew he did not really care that nothing else had been done that day.  And I no longer feel guilty that I was a mess. 

Here is the finished project. And if your counting. . .there are several I left out. Some were just inside jokes that would not have made sense, and some that were just personal.

Repurposed, re-Loved!

I am inspired by many things.
But I have a special fondness for books. Old books, new books. . ALL kinds of books. I love turning a page and not knowing whether I will laugh, cry, be encouraged or convicted.
This was a gift I made for someone dear to me. I have made altered book projects before, but never one like this. I wanted it to be a more than just words in a book.
I wanted it to be a visual feast!
 I started with some of my favorite inspirations and my favorite quote and took the cover off an old book.
Next I fashioned 4 pages from cardboard

 

 The first page is Do Brave Things. As with most of my paper projects, I have a basic idea or feeling for the layout. But as I start playing with the paper and bits of ephemera, it takes on a life of its own

Dare to Dream

And something I need to be reminded of often. . . You are Loved

And the last page, Follow your Heart.

I hope you are inspired to find something old and make it new again!

Art Therapy

In an effort to “keep it real”

let me just say. . . . . some days I could use a 

therapist on speed dial!

 And lately it seems like I am having

 more of these days than not. 

So I decided it was time

 for a new kind of therapy. One that

 required much less talking, and just more 

being. And truthfully, the three days I 

was working on these pieces were 

so very calming.

This first one I did on canvas. I knew I needed to just get my brain into creative mode so I got on pinterest and found a few quotes I liked and a basic idea of what I wanted. Then I just got on the computer and printed out the lettering I knew I wanted to use.

This font is called rage, and I loved it! This is what it looked like printed out - Y O U

Then I just started sketching it in pencil and filled it in with paint. 

After I had filled everything in, I just used a fine point sharpie for the outline.

I love how it turned out!

The second one was something I made for Tyler. I found a saying that I knew was perfect!

But I did not want to use canvas. So I ripped apart a crate I was not using and recreated this wood panel. Then I printed again from the computer the words I wanted to use and just freehand painted them on. But this one proved to be very tricky……

the wood is not smooth like the canvas, so it was really hard to get a fluid line.

I still loved how this one turned out too.

But more important, so did Tyler!