It's ok to just breathe

Today I am sharing the make of a card of which a similar one was published earlier this year in the in May. It's a bit of a personal story why I made this card and this is what I shared with the Craft Stamper's New Beginnings section of the magazine back in May:

What triggered me with this theme is the fact that to me every day is a new

beginning. With every day you can start a new and it's okay if you did "No Thing" and

just breathe. This card is designed to send someone comfort in difficult times, Like

when someone is suffering from a Burn-Out. The traditional "get well soon card" just

isn't what someone needs in that position and I am speaking from experience. The

sentiment "Just breathe, you are here" is so much kinder. It helps one to re-frame

one’s mind and begin again.

When you have suffered from a Burn-Out (like I have now 2 1/2 years ago) it is not in your healing process to receive cards like "hope you'll be your old-self soon" and "get well soon" because it actually works counter productive. Every one of us takes their own time to heal.  So I am sharing the make of this card so that in case you wanted to make something similar to someone who needs to hear this message.

I started off with covering a gelli printed ghost print with disstress inks and blended them with a blending tool. The colors I chose were pickled raspberry, wild honey and shabby shutters. I thought they made a nice blend together.

Then I did some stamping with Indigo Blue Ledger & splats, coffee rings from Tim Holtz and spatter drops by Marianne Crafts stamps with Staz-On Royal Purple.

As my focal point I chose Marsha from Stampotique Originals because I like her and she will be pointing towards the sentiment. She is stamped in black so that when I cut her out and adhere her, the details like shoe laces will be there.

I colored her in with letraset promarkers (alcohol markers) on sticker paper.

Fussy cut her out and adhered to the page.

Grounded her with washi tape and the "you are here" is also a washi tape.

I added a few more Tim Holtz texture stamps in blue and green colors in the background for more interest and then added the beautiful sentiment from Viva Las VegaStamps!

"sometimes it's okay if the only thing you did today was breathe"

As a final touch I added some color with distress crayons in the similar colors as the inks I used. 

It was a pleasure to combine stamps as focal point by my 2 fave companies I have the honor to work with, Stampotique Originals and Viva las VegaStamps! 

I really loved making this card design, it was such a calming and healing process. I hope this will also be the case for you and that you can send a card like this to someone whom needs to hear just this message. 

Have a wonderful day and thank you so much for stopping by!

Art Journal: Supernova Bear

Today I wanted to share with you a fun and quirky art journal page I made using watercolors and the "magic ink" technique combined with stencils. It's a fairly simple process but you have to work quickly like I have described in that blogpost. I used india ink and red and orange fountain pen inks. Sadly memory fails me which fountain pen inks I used, but it were samples I needed to use up, I'm sure!

The sentiment is remixed from this Viva las VegaStamps! sentiment stamp and I have made it say "Shine like the FREAKING AWESOME SPARKLY RIDICULOUS SUPERNOVA-SELF you are meant to be"  which I lined with Stabilo marks-all pencils in black and white. 

This page definitely fits the theme "Poetry in motion" over at Art Journal Journey wouldn't you agree?  Every time I look at this page it just makes me giggle :)  Hope it does the same for you! 

I am also entering this in the HLS august watercolor challenge with optional twist Bloom -

and it's a play on words as I see this as "blooming into what you are meant to be" :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and have an awesome weekend!