hello! what an incredible week hopping around YouTube!
So much inspiration and creativity from an incredible group of mixed media artists. If you missed the hop, don’t worry…the videos are still up, and you can hop around! Start here with mine at this link.
543 comments later, and I am so inspired by YOU! Thank you for leaving comments (even if it was just to win! haha!). Each comment fed my artist soul; I took notes on several, savored your sweet words, and grew even more excited about this new journey I’m on (more on that below the winners).
So, first, the most important part: Winners!
I gave away two mixed media prizes on my YouTube channel: One larger mixed media pack to a US address and one smaller mixed media ephemera pack to an international address. Here are my two winners (picked randomly by YouTube Random Comment Picker):
Alison Lake – USA
Melinda Sweetman – AUS
And, because I was so incredibly blown away by all the comments, I chose two more to receive a small happy mail surprise ephemera pack from me. They are:
Tammy VanAntwerp – USA
nominuek – UK
If you haven’t already contacted me, please get in touch via a DM on Instagram, on my contact form on this page, or via YouTube.
I also did a small giveaway on Instagram for two small mixed media envelopes! Those winners are (picked by random.org):
kkeller401
hbsquirrel.arts
And, the sponsored prize winners:
Hop (pun intended!) over to either Carisa and DeeDee ‘s blogs to see the list of winners!
Thank you to our amazing sponsors!
I’d also like to thank Carisa and DeeDee for organizing this hop. And, all the incredible artists that participated. What an amazing, talented group that worked together harmoniously to pull this hop off… for you!
Getting Personal: Art Heals
I already thanked Carisa above, but little does she know how incredible heartfelt my thank you is. Carisa is the one who asked me to participate. They had already been working on the hop, but something prompted her to invite me to participate, even after many of the artists had already joined.
Once in a while I’ll get a little personal on my blog posts. I think it’s important for me to remember moments of my journey and for me to share my story with other artists.
This hop was almost exactly two years to the day that changed much of my life. Nothing overly tragic, but a huge change in a direction that I believed was where I was supposed to be. My husband and I had served in our church for over ten years, and I also worked in an administrative, communications, advertising, and marketing capacity part-time from home. This is where we put much of our energy, serving other families and growing in our Faith. This is also where we found some purpose in our infertility. Not having kids allowed us to pour into service. However, two years ago I lost two jobs (one and the church and another one semi-related to the church), lost our church, our church family, and all the connections we had when our church merged with another. It’s a little more complicated, but I’ll keep the background info short as to not bore you… but this left me empty. I lost my purpose, my voice, my reason…as this also happened during some other difficult things going on in our life that we no longer had our church to lean on and support us.
But as the saying goes, when a door closes a window opens… after this loss (which I am still healing from) I went back to school to finish my degree, continued on my journey to fix my health (yay PCOS), and dedicated more time to art. I’m also trying very hard to make up for lost time (more on all of that my one little word post).
In the midst of this change, besides losing who I was, I lost my voice.
So, the day that I commented on Carisa’s post was huge for me. I’m working on sharing my art, finding my voice, being bold…figuring out who I am. That day I felt a kindred spirt, so I commented. We had both tried the grumbacher paper and posted to instagram and YouTube. (I found her through a hashtag!) This was also in the middle of a “bad week” for me. There are just days when I still feel sad and lost.
This comment led to Carisa contacting me, to joining the hop, to making so many new artist friends who were participating in the hop…. to reaching 500 subscribers on YouTube (now over 600!).
To quote my instagram post below:
"I share these posts not to brag at all, but to remember these milestones along this new journey for me.... and always, always with a thankful and humble heart."
So, thank you seems inadequate at times, but it’s deeply felt and said.
I’ve often heard that art heals, and I truly believe it does. Art is helping me find my voice, my purpose, my faith… and allowing me to continue. (My one little word for 2018.)
- finish my degree
- design my website/blog
- begin YouTube
- be selected for a design team
- participate in a hop
I look forward to what is next.
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
