Catalyst Ninety-Three is What’s something you really look forward to? (It can be something you look forward to every day, week or just one thing that you’re really looking forward to.)
I look forward to December all year long. Not just Christmas, which I do love, but the whole month. The lights, the festivities, the joy, the generosity, the jolly spirit – they all make me really happy. Thanks to Ali Edwards and Shimelle Laine, I’ve been doing a December-long minibook for three years in a row and it is my favorite project each year. I love spending more time with my family. Winding down. Snuggling indoors and doing craft projects, watching movies, baking, and just being together. It is, by far, my favorite time of the year.
This week’s catalyst is: If you had to pick one single thing you wanted to do or accomplish before your next birthday, what would it be? What’s stopping you from doing it?
The one thing I’d like to accomplish before my next birthday is to find a way to feel more peaceful inside. To choose peace and joy. To let go of worry and feel a little lighter, look at the world in a more positive manner. My life is really full and beautiful and I would like to be peacefully blissful. So I stitched this dove and created a little olive branch out of wire and beads. This would, by far, be the greatest gift I can give myself.
This week’s question is: “What’s something you do over and over again?”
This was easy for me. Photos. I take photos over and over and over again. I love taking photos. I love capturing my family.
One of the few items on my list that I hadn’t done yet was using rubons on a tag. Just rubons. So I picked this beautiful Jenni Bowlin rubon which was so apt. I rubbed it on and then inked the tag. I love the way the silver makes it look embossed. I then put a tiny camera sticker just for me.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Weekly tags are posted every Thursday, you can see all of them by clicking here.
Catalyst ninety-one is: Create art around someone you wish you got along better with.
I am not always very good to myself. I don’t appreciate all that I have and I might even go as far to say that there are periods where I really dislike myself. I know that if I were someone else, I’d be giving myself the benefit of the doubt. Yet, I cut myself so little slack. I criticize and judge myself so harshly. So I made this art to remind myself that I need to get along better with myself. Love all of me.
Catalyst ninety is: What’s something that embarrasses you?
My words:
I have a hard time accepting compliments. When someone says something nice, I am immediately embarrassed and start saying that it wasn’t that hard, or it’s not that great, or it looks better than it is. Anything. I’ll say anything to take the focus away from me and from the gratitude someone is showing me. One time, a friend to me to stop doing that and just to say thank you. I’m working on it.
I wanted to create a bouquet of flowers (like someone presenting flowers to me.) with wire and beads. I learned this technique from the amazing Rebecca Sower. She inspires me endlessly.
This week’s question is: “When you think back to your childhood, what moment first comes to mind?”
The first childhood memory I have is of my sister teaching me how to read. By far, the best memory I have. This was the biggest gift anyone ever gave me. Thank you, Yona!
I covered the back of the tag with a page from a Dickens novel. I inked around it. Added a butterfly wing to show how reading gave me wings. Another button with words on it and a little flower and that’s it for this tag. I gave a big of a sparkle with some Stickles around the edge.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Weekly tags are posted every Thursday, you can see all of them by clicking here.
Catalyst eighty-nine is: Tell us about a time when you realized you had the answer to something you were struggling with where you least expected.
my words:
As I’ve written about several times before, in 2002, I quit my job on Wall St. to become a teacher for Teach for America. Relatively soon after I began teaching, I started having serious doubts about my ability to do this job justice. It was a very turbulent time in my life and I still struggle with it from time to time.
One of the things I did at the time was to take a course in the hopes that it would help me decide whether I was ready to quit the job or not. At the end of this intensive three day course, I had many answers to many other issues in my life but I still didn’t know if I should walk away.
A few weeks later, I was telling someone why I had originally chosen to go into the computer field (so I could work from home one day when I had kids) and then why I had quit the wall street career for a more altruistic one (so that what I did with my time away from my kids would be for a worthwhile cause). In talking to this person, I realized that I had made many significant decisions in my life on behalf of children I didn’t yet have. I also recognized that I had managed to setup my life such that I was working way too many hours to actually make room to have any kids.
As soon as I realized this, I quit my job, encouraged my unhappy husband to do the same (and pursue his dreams) and we moved across the country to setup a new life and within a year of moving we were expecting our first baby. I know that if it weren’t for the course, and for the struggles with my teaching job, I might have never stepped back enough to observe my life and notice how misaligned it was with my priorities.
Sometimes an unfortunate circumstance can be the catalyst to something wonderful and amazing.
This week’s question is: “What makes you glow?”
The first thing that came to my mind was laughter. Laughter and love make me glow.
Simple one this time, I pulled all my scraps, a bunch of border punches and just had fun. Simple but I still love it.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Weekly tags are posted every Thursday, you can see all of them by clicking here.
Catalyst eighty eight is: What’s the best relationship you’ve had so far? It can be a romantic one, a family member, or a friendship. Why is it so special?
Here’s my journaling
These three men in my life have taught me what it means to love and to be loved. They are the reason I wake up in the morning and the reason I go to bed at night and feel happy and blessed every moment in between. Until I met Jake I didn’t know what it meant to be with someone who can love me just the way I am and who can make me feel whole. Until I had my boys, I didn’t know what it meant to love so much that it pysically hurt my heart. These men make me feel whole. They make me feel thankful and blessed and lucky. So so lucky.
I don’t know what I did to deserve this but I am not taking it for granted for one single moment. I hold them and kiss them and hug them as many times a day I can. Thank you, my boys.
All of the beautiful digital elements here are by Anna Aspnes.
This week’s question is: “Which song do you have on repeat right now?”
I’ve been stuck on the Google Android song. Each time I see the commercial, it makes me happy. It’s “If you want to Sing out, sing out” by Cat Stevens. Wonderful song. So many simple but amazing lyrics.
Simple tag this time. I covered it with a music sheet. Inked edges. Made a little birdie from fabric, stitched around it. Put it on a brown “branch” made out of ribbon lace. And wrote the song title.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Weekly tags are posted every Thursday, you can see all of them by clicking here.
First of all, thank you for all your plethora of suggestions about what to sell on my etsy store. I think there are some awesome ideas and I will try most of them, slowly.
Last week, I was lying in bed when the idea for this book came to me. I loved making my december daily book and recently I was looking at creative therapy catalyst book and realizing that it was my art journal for the year and I loved it so much. So I decided to make those for my store. My word for 2010 is LOVED and I love the idea of having an art journal dedicated to my word of the year. I love how beckoning this cover is for me. How it already makes me feel loved.
So I decided to make custom journals. Covers. The inside pages are for you to fill. If you really want one with inside pages, let me know and we can discuss. I really enjoy making these and thought maybe people will like having them.
So, here they are: custom word of the year journals. More detailed photos there.
Hope you like them.
Catalyst eighty-seven is: If money weren’t an issue what would you do with your time? (career or otherwise.)
If I had all the extra time in the world and my kids and husband were sleeping, I would spend most of it reading. The joy I get from getting lost in a novel is unparalleled. And Dickens is one of my favorites.
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projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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