Art Unto Others™ + A Giveaway

Just a little note about the gift of time today.

I had my team video chat yesterday - which is something I look forward to each week. It's a hilarious bunch of talented artists and I just love hearing what they've been up to during the week.

This week we talked about making video tutorials, and the obstacles that that can present. It rolled around in my skull for a bit and then when I worked on one of my own videos later, I felt like there were some things I should probably say.

People who give the incredible gift of many of the minutes they have to spend on earth to freely share their art and instructions are such amazing people - and they all get my utmost respect and heartfelt thanks.

Many years ago, I trademarked the phrase Art Unto Others™ because I have always had a conviction that service is a huge part of art.

You serve other artists when you share your art and your techniques, inspiring MORE art and thus making the world a better, prettier place. You serve everyone that you give your art to - especially all you cardmakers, who light up people's mailboxes and lives daily. You serve the quiet people, who learn from you purely for their own enjoyment, and who never have the courage to post their own work online. You serve the industry you work in, because you generate excitement for products someone worked hard to bring to life.

And, I believe, you serve the balance of good vs. evil, because you are adding to the good side of the scale, which is never lost time.

And adding to the good side of the scale is my mission in life.

To give you an idea of what it takes to produce a 7 minute video, I decided to document the process this weekend. Here's how it breaks down.

• 27 minutes to film and complete cards.
• 20 minutes to shoot and edit stills.
• 30 minutes to edit video and  insert stills.
• 8 minutes to record a voiceover.
• 75 minutes to edit the audio. (Note - I have asthma and so I tend to take deep breaths between sentences, and I have to edit out each of those, which is pretty time consuming. It would annoy the heck out of you to listen to it :) )
• 10 minutes to export the video.
• 20 minutes to upload the video to YouTube. 
• 50 minutes to add closed captions to the video - I have a lot of hearing impaired viewers, and the auto captions are gibberish. I'd rather have everyone be included, so this is so worth the time.
• 10 minutes to add annotations and links.
• 20 minutes to blog the card, video, upload to all the galleries I'm a part of and post to social media.

That's 270 minutes - 4.5 hours - to share a 7 minute video. And I've done a lot of them, so I know the steps and shortcuts. THIS is why it's hard for people to start sharing. Add to that people's insecurities about their hands, their accent, their workspace - and you can really appreciate the tiny percentage of people who overcome all that to share their tutorials with you.

And MOST importantly, THIS is why we need to lavish nothing but love on the people who DO invest in us and share their talent and time. I don't even know WHAT kind of work I'd be doing right now if it weren't for the tutorials people freely share, and the amazing videos I'd watch all day long every day if I didn't have to work and do super boring things like laundry and sleeping.


So I would like to do an Art Unto Others™ love bomb today. I want everyone that all of us watch regularly to know how much we appreciate them.

What I want you to do is to pick a YouTube channel that you love (or choose from one of my favorites below), and I want you to go comment on one of their videos and tell them that you love and appreciate them, their time, their quirks and their art. Then come back here and leave a link to their video in the comments so that we can all share these great people with each other.

I will do a drawing on Friday from the people who play along and I will give away my newest online class - the postal version including the PDF instructions, the Wild About Flowers stamp set and the card kit. EVERYONE WINS!!

Here are some of the people whose videos I adore:

• France Papillon - stunning art journaling, which she makes look easy.
• Mel McCarthy - she elevates everything she does. INCREDIBLE gifts in every post - you will just die if you haven't seen her stuff yet. She is a kind person and a cat lover :).
• Jennifer McGuire - incredibly approachable and generous instruction - true heart for service - how she does what she does AND be a busy mom is a bit of a mystery. I suspect magic.
• Kristina Werner - the first person who ever made me think about DESIGN - sweet and generous. She also is a fellow cat lover and an infectious giggler.
• Dawn Woleslagle - she is so gifted at watercolor it will just make you pass out.
• Brian King - he makes me laugh, which is pretty much my favorite, but his CAS design is the ultimate in class, and he is a kindhearted and generous person.
• Maureen Wong - she is a crafty engineer - she does AMAZING things with the MISTI and just has such a soothing presence on video.
• Tiffany Lovering - a completely mesmerizing Zengtangler.
• Debby Hughes - I remember when she didn't think she could do videos. She is completely awesome and just as sweet and charming IRL.
• Dina Kowal - this is my sweet friend and coworker - our Artist in Residence at Splitcoast. She is fearless, and has really helped me loosen up my approach to supplies and their use. She is a patient and kind instructor. 
• Vicky Pappaioannou - AMAZING mixed media artist - her cat cameos crack me up. She is a patient and precise instructor and her voice and accent are beautiful.
• My Serenity Crafts - another incredible art journaler - I love her because she composes on camera like I do so you get to learn along with her, which really appeals to me.

Anyway - I love everyone and could go on for days - but I want to see who YOU love, and I want them to feel loved, so share away!

I will do the drawing on Monday the 24th - that's my birthday so it's a good time to give a gift to one of you!

So onto the cards, shall we??

I wanted to send cards to my online class customers, and I wanted to do something really bright and happy and fun, so I thought I'd do a reinker background.

I feel like in the new focus on watercolor and ALL the amazing products that are out there for watercoloring, that reinkers get overlooked. I never buy an ink pad without a reinker and they are so great for watercolor techniques, I thought I'd give them the spotlight.

The cool thing about reinkers is that they are already coordinated with your paper, ink, etc. AND they are a very inexpensive medium. The pigments are very saturated and even diluted, they are quite vivid, as you can see. 

 And I've been trying hard to take +Jennifer McGuire's advice lately to just make multiples while you have your supplies out. I had prepped for my Sleigh Ride Edgelits Stamp-a-Stack so I had a lot of little strips of the Neutrals Pattern Pack DSP left and they were the PERFECT accent for these colorful cards.

The other fun thing about this background is that every one is different.

What's fun about this technique and using the MISTI for the sentiment (from Thankful Forest Friends) is that the entire process of making all these cards only took 27 minutes. We can all find 27 minutes to say thank you, right?

Here's the video - I hope you enjoy it!




Have fun spreading some love on YouTube, and good luck in my drawing! I love the class I'm giving away and I hope you do too!

Loveyameanitpayitforwardbye.