New Year's resolution.

This year, I hope to live by this quotation:


"Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment." - Sydney Smith




I believe that this will be the direction for the Give Love project this year. Not everyday will I be able to do art too, but I will definitely incorporate art into it as often as possible.

Kym's Pages

I am so remiss in keeping up with this blog. Summer hasn't been the relaxing post-school break I was anticipating! I thought it was just my pages and the finished book to show, so it slid on my priority list. However, I realized that I somehow skipped showing you two more lovely pages! Many apologies. I'm really hanging my head in shame here. But here they are... and they are fabulous.

Kym from BlissWorks sent in the lovely pages in response to my Give Love Art Journal prompts.

1. A community member that positively influenced her life.

 2. A good deed.

Again, I am so sorry they are just now being posted. I really don't know how I missed that.

Thank you Kym!!!

Rachel's Pages

The following pages are in response to a call to participate in a community art journal. You can read more about the project HERE.

The directives were simple:

1. Art journal about a community member(s) that has positively influenced your life. This can be anyone not related to you. 
2. Give love. Do one good deed to positively influence the life of another. Art journal about that.

Now on to Rachel's pages!

Rachel is beginning her journey to becoming an art therapist this fall. She has a wonderful blog full of her art and life, that I encourage you to visit.

Give Love, pay it forward, pass it on, one good deed:

Blue's Quilt.

Blue is a 7 1/2 year old on a delightful mission of her own that is all about giving love.
She is asking for sponsors to support her in making a quilt. She is aiming for $250 as her end total with each square sponsored at $10.

Why is she aiming for $250? Well because she has a huge heart. Hmmm thats a bit vague. Here are the details from her momma:

One day we saw an ad in a magazine for Smile Train, which is a program that repairs cleft lips and palates for children in developing countries who could otherwise not afford the surgery. Blue was horrified by the pictures. To show her how Smile Train helps kids, we went to their website and looked at before and after pictures. We found out it only costs $250 to provide surgery for one child, and her question for me was "Do we have $250 to send them?" I told her that we did have $250, but that it was more money than I could just send off on a moments notice. So we brainstormed ways we could get $250 to send, and came up with a plan. 

Want to know more. Please go to the source: wisecricket! They have a whole lovely post about this project. Already sold on the idea? Well then you can send an email to wisecricket@gmail.com in order to get their address to send $10 per square you would like to sponsor. 

I am loving this, because Blue is (a) being trusted to do her own quilting and it is enriching her creative spirit (b) its a good deed and she is paying it forward (c) how delightful that a young girl is already thinking of others. I say all these reasons plus the good that Smile Train does for children makes this a project well worth contributing to!

Sue's pages!

First, let me apologize. I told Sue I would have these photos up and posted forever ago. I had an issue with my scanner though and then the hard copies were on display. So I apologize for the long delay!

The following pages are in response to a call to participate in a community art journal. All the reasons behind this project are explained HERE.

The directives were simple:

1. Art journal about a community member(s) that has positively influenced your life. This can be anyone not related to you.
2. Give love. Do one good deed and art journal about that.

Now on to Sue's pages!

Please visit Sue to see more of her inspirational work. 

A community member that positively influenced her life:

Give love. Pay it forward. Pass it on. One good deed.

Sue, thank you so much for your patience AND for your participation. These pages are heavenly.

Sandra's pages

The following pages are in response to a call to participate in my community art journal. The project is incorporated into a school assignment, but I am doing it for so many more reasons, which you can read HERE.

The directives were simple:

1. Art journal about a community member(s) that has positively influenced your life. This can be anyone not related to you.
2. Give love. Do one good deed and art journal about that.

Now on to Sandra's pages!!!

Sandra is a sweet soul from the Netherlands. 

This first image was on the back of some of her pages, while she may not have intended it to be part of the project at first, now it is. I just love it, don't you?!

1. Community members that positively influenced her life:

Sandra says, "On this moment I've got so much people who are a inspiration{mystele, alisa burks, kelly rae, pam carriker } There are so many great artists, so i decided to take the first three. I always loved to be creative. But when i draw people laughed. So i did not dare to draw anymore. I did much with scrapbooking. Then i saw Suzi blu on the internet. I did the course dolls with her. That is where i got the freedom to draw. Then i saw Tam willowing she helped me to accept myself more. And Theesha Moore gave me a different way of looking to art. That is what i made in a journal page."

2. Give love, pay it forward, pass it on, do one good deed.

 Sandra says, "I walked with a client{i work with mental handicapped people} and saw flowers. I picked one. Then a bus driver stoped and asked me is that for me? I said yes and i wish for you a beautiful spring. That was my good deed."

An'Angelia's pages

The following pages are in response to a call to participate in my community art journal. The project is incorporated into a school assignment, but I am doing it for so many more reasons, which you can read in this post HERE.

The directives were simple:

1. Art journal about a community member(s) that has positively influenced your life. This can be anyone not related to you. 
2. Give love. Do one good deed and art journal about that.

Now on to An'Angelia's pages!!!

An'Angelia is an amazing artist and woman. She shares my philosophy that every interaction influences her. She states this as, "Every experience that I have eventually manifests in my creativity. Family, friends, music, poetry, food - they're all in the paintings and journals. Things that make me happy, sad, joyful, fearful, angry- they're all included too."

Please visit An'Angelia's amazing blog. There she shares tips and techniques for art journaling, and she even has daily prompts (which I LOVE! Thank you An'Angelia!). I've never left her page feeling uninspired.

1. A community member that has positively influenced her life:

Wait, that's me!

You have no idea how flattered I am. Seriously. Pages have mentioned bloggers like Willowing and have mentioned very influential people in their lives. And An'Angelia, an artist that I look up to, mentioned little 'ol me. I'm very touched. And I have to agree, the virtual community is amazing! 

2. Give love. Pay it forward. Pass it on. Do one good deed.

"Small gestures of kindness reap huge rewards!"

Thank you so much An'Angelia! Beautiful pages.

I still have more pages to post too. The finished art journal is now complete. So from now until May 6th (the day before I graduate) I have two posts a week (check back on Sundays and Thursdays). Following that I will show you hubby's pages and then my own. I will follow that up with a tour through the art journal from cover to cover! Thank you so very much to all participants for making this project a reality! I've enjoyed every step and every page!