New Year Affirmation Cards

Hello Lovelies!

Today I am sharing my first 2 New Year Affirmation Cards. They are postcard sized (4x6") and I am participating in Sunday Postcard Art's Flourish or Swirl theme with them.

This first card turned out 95% like I'd envisioned. I used stamps to make everything on it. It has a water colored background and I've colored the yoga girl with my Zig markers. So many different stamps it would take me a year to hunt them all down to list so just know that most of them are older than dirt and it doesn't matter anyway if they're no longer for sale, right? Heat embossing only on the top and bottom borders.

Now, this one didn't turn out at ALL like I thought. I did some things wrong, but you know what? I like it just fine the way it did turn out. Live and learn. The main thing I did wrong on this one was that I heat embossed everything, and the butterfly woman in particular was not a good choice for heat embossing. I used products without regard to their permanence and had a few smudges where I didn't want them but I lived. I completely screwed up her eyes but salvaged them ok as long as you don't look at them too closely lol. And yet, I really like the background's sooty look I achieved with Neocolor II crayons on a Chartreuse layer of water color.

A few more detail shots to show the shine of the heat embossing...

And I think I did well and had fun choosing the color combos for each card. Let me explain this project because you will be seeing 4 more cards this size plus some ATC-sized. You know my little art corner? I wanted to make it a shrine to my New Year resolutions for January and possibly the year if I can score another metal tree for my seasonal decorating. So, I decided to capture my goals for the coming year with simple descriptions and make cards to hang and display in my corner. The postcard-sized ones are the big picture resolutions (ie, healthy habits) and I will have smaller ones that convey the details (ie, yoga, protein, walk, sleep, etc.), hanging on my metal tree. I kept visualizing me coming to my corner and touching my cards and reading them, and that gave me energy and motivation, which is why I'm trying this out. May not work at all, but hey, gotta try to know. And so far, I am having fun making them.

I used to be big on resolutions growing up and back in the day but for many years I poo poo'd them. What goes around comes around, I guess, because I am into them again. What's your take on them? Have you ever included them in your art?