Mixed Media « karenika

Gratitude PostCards – Week 3

Here’s this week’s card:

It says: take time to stop and smell the flowers. you deserve it.

This card uses the Flower Garden template by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer 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.

Gratitude Journal – Week 2

Here’s this week’s gratitudes and celebrations:

Before:

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.

Gratitude Journal is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here.

Before this week’s art here’s the important reminder: 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.

With that here’s this week’s art:

it reads: take time to capture the good moments of your life so you can live them again and again.

sold thank you

SixBySix is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here.

Gratitude PostCards – Week 2

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.

Gratitude Journal Project – Intro and Week 1

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.

SixBySix Project – Intro and Week 1

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.

Sold- thank you

Here’s to hoping for more art in 2013.

Gratitude PostCards – Intro and Week 1

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: