WOIW Gratefulness: Tree of Gratitude

The word this week to inspire us to create a piece of art in the Kraafters Kommunity is Gratefulness. Perhaps it is not entirely by coincidence that this week is also Thanksgiving in the US. I rushed this project, because I really wanted to publish it today to say Happy Thanksgiving to all my American crafty friends on G+. I'm ever so grateful for each one of you!

The quote I chose today is one that I truly believe is true:

"It is not happy people who are thankful. It is thankful people who are happy."

What being thankful really means is that you are content. Contentment translates into happiness. It's as simple as that. Instead of continually thinking about what you don't have, stop for a second and think about all the blessings in your life that we tend to take for granted. Usually, these are the most important things as well: family/friends, health, love, security. Anything else is secondary.

The other day my 10-year-old son asked me if there's anything in the world that doesn't cost any money. I immediately mentioned the old cliche "the best things in life are free". So we thought about some of the things that are free. The air, for example. When was the last time you felt grateful for being able to take a breath of fresh air? It's true, you can't live on air alone, but sure enough you can't live longer than a couple of minutes without it, either.  I reminded my son that love is free as well, so we spent a little time hugging each other. If you learn to appreciate these little things, you're on the right track of finding happiness.

The page I created in my WOIW art journal is titled Tree of Gratitude. I started out with a layer of gesso as usual and when it was dry I added a layer of bright green acrylics. I randomly stamped with archival ink all over the page using various BoBunny stamps. When this was dry I added a layer of blue (a lighter and a darker shade) but removed most of it with a kitchen towel, so the underlying layers remained visible. 

At this point I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. I wanted to use the silhouette of a tree but I haven't got a stencil and I didn't like the idea of using a diecut shape. There was only one thing for it: I had to paint one myself! This freaked me out, I'll tell you. But I took a deep breath and just did the best I could. Once I had the tree done it was plain sailing. I added the quote, which I laser printed on top of a gelli print. I used the same print to cut circles to make some simplistic flowers to counterbalance the top and the bottom of my page. Unfortunately, I forgot to shade these and after adding the while doodles, it was too late to do anything else with them. Oh, well, something to keep in mind for next time. As an afterthought, I added some Stickles glitter glue in the tree to brighten the black colour. It sparkles in the light! I'm quite happy with it!  Here are some photos of the finished product:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!