Howdy all,
Welcome to my Tuesday Talk blog post as part of Art For The Mind #AFTMBH1 Blog Hop.
So I'm a huge Supernatural fan and I promise not to over geekout on you in this post. However, part of my love for Supernatural is more than the TV show, it's the actors, the behind scenes team, their families and most importantly their fans. The Supernatural fans consider themselves not only a fandom but a family, because family doesn't end in blood. They are a truly amazing supportive group of people from all walks of life the globe over. They believe it's okay to talk about your struggles, in that You Are Not Alone and to Always Keep Fighting (your own mental battles, or challenges) as ways to keep going when times are tough or the darkness becomes overwhelming.
This group of people even spawned their own charity, Random Acts, headed by the cast member Misha Collins (Castiel). Random Act's main fundraiser is called GISH, which is an elaborate creative scavenger hunt. As I participate in GISH, it gave me the opportunity to be part of a card exchange this last holiday season. I sent 10 card to the 10 people after me on the list, and everyone else did the same. There were many hundreds of people from all over the world involved. What I love is that it gave me the opportunity to connect with 20 complete strangers who happened to be like minded creative nerds.
During the pandemic many people have been in extended periods of isolation in some truly scary times. Some have barely seen other people other than the delivery guy in months. For me, reaching out and connecting with these 20 strangers actually meant more than sending cards to close family and friends. (I try to check in more regularly with family and friends wellbeing over Covid).
When I saw the Flowering Cactus Product Medley it immediately reminded me of one of my fellow GISH card exchangers, they were from Texas and had noted that they didn't have cowboys were they were but they could see Mexico from their window. As an Australian, the idea of seeing into a whole other country from your house was absolutely amazing. So I wanted to make them a card and tell them how amazing I thought it was and more about life here. To continue the new connection, a new friendship we had made simply by sending a card.
For this card I decided to challenge myself and make it a fancy fold or fun fold. It's a variation of a reverse double gate fold based off the fabolous Patty Bennett's card. However instead of simply looking up how Patty did hers or following the lovely converted to metric design from my Team Leader Michelle Mill, I wanted to create a version of it from scratch for myself. After 3 trials, I'm really happy with this design, which also nicely fits into a normal Basic White C6 envelope.
The Flowering Cactus Product Medley and refil packs are available now in the new Jan-June Mini Catalogue. Click HERE to see what other fabulous products are available in the Mini Catalogue.
Thank you for creating this opportunity to share some art, and talk about Mental Wellness. Your card is Beyootiful!!!
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