Pondered In My Heart

For All the Saints Artist Trading Card Swap 2011

On this All Hallows' Eve I am pleased to announce we will once again be hosting an Artist Trading Card swap with the theme: For All the Saints! 

One of our greatest joys as parents is teaching our children about the saints who came before us - from the earliest history to modern times, rich and poor, young and old, from all walks of life, who fought the good fight and finished the course and are enjoying their eternity with God in heaven. We share their lives and their stories and we teach our children to make friends with the saints and call upon their intercession to assist us on our own journey towards salvation.

Everyone is invited to make ATC's of their favorite saints as we celebrate the Church Triumphant.

Artist Trading Cards are tiny pieces of original artwork created for the purpose of trading with others. This will be the fourth trading card swap we are hosting here on the blog (we also swap cards of Marian artwork in May).  We have had hundreds of families participate, with artists young and old.

St. Joseph and the Child Jesus by Lydia (at age 15), pen

An ATC is precisely 2.5" x 3.5" (6.35 x 8.89 cm) in size - you can buy ready made cards at a craft or art supply store or cut your own from larger pieces of paper. Card stock, heavy watercolor paper or any sturdy paper is good. We usually cut ours from watercolor paper or bristol - a 9x12" sheet will give you ten cards. Their small size makes them fun and non-intimidating to work with.

St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes by Anna Ruth (at age 13), pen and watercolor

Artwork can be of any media or combination thereof -watercolors, acrylics, pen and ink, colored pencil, calligraphy - whatever you like.

St. Peter and St. Paul by Mary Rose (at age 10), pen and watercolor

Once again, we welcome participants of all ages in the swap, from the littlest budding artists - 

St. Therese by Kateri (at age four), pen and watercolor (oh, that spelling!)

all the way through to adults.  One of the greatest pleasures for me was seeing so many other busy moms taking time for their own creative endeavors and to see their individuality reflected in their artwork. Some participants expressed their artistic talent drawing or painting while others demonstrated their creativity through various scrapboook and papercrafting techniques. Last swap I was particularly delighted to receive lovely cards from a great grandmother learning to paint later in life.

 Parents, children, adults, teens - everyone is invited to participate. We look forward to having the repeat swappers who have traded in all of our previous swaps as well as new folks joining for the first time!

 

 watercolor by Lydia (at age 15)

The swap will work the same way as we did it previous times. Here are the details:

• Each participant will create five ATC's to mail out and will receive five different cards from five different artists in return.
• Everyone will send their cards to me. I will sort them out roughly by age group of the creator, and then mail the cards back out to their new recipients. When you mail your cards to me, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope that I can use to send your new cards to you.
• International swappers are most welcome! It's always extra fun to receive cards from a far away place. 
• The swap is open to all ages. This is the perfect opportunity to sit down and create some lovely artwork alongside your children.
• Each card should be labeled on the back with the creator's name and however much info you'd like to share - age (for the kids), date, title of the piece, media used, location, email etc. Last time some participants were looking to connect with others for possible pen pals and the like, so you are welcome to include more info if you like.
• If you are interested in participating please send me an email at kimberlee (at) beadsofmercy (dot) com, and put ATC swap in the subject, and I will send you further information. Anyone can join in and definitely the more the merrier.
• Please mail your cards to me postmarked by Friday, November 18th.

If you have a blog, please feel free to spread the word and you can grab this button if you like:

  

You can see some of last year's saint cards here: Saint Swap 2010

Please note: Trading ATC''s makes a wonderful project for a class or group, but may I suggest large classes swap amongst the members rather than sending the cards to me. I aim to have each artist receive cards from five different people. I learned in a previous swap that if I have large classes participating it can be impossible to do the trading so that people get cards back from five people who are not in their own class, so I recommend you just swap within the class rather than going through the trouble of mailing them. Thank you for your understanding.

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Happy drawing and painting For All the Saints!

the oldest and the youngest

He is really sick, but his Special Reading Nurse, as she calls her sweet five year old self, reads to him.

For over an hour she read the whole first chapter of The Hobbit aloud to her biggest brother.

Later on, when he felt a bit perkier, she asked for his help to make a list of all the dwarves and the colors of their hoods. Naturally, she added their instruments as well.

Be still, my heart.

And any prayers offered for my patient are greatly appreciated! Seems like the sick season is here early and in force.

Wordless Wednesday: Peter Rabbit in the Waiting Room

Hello Out There Daybook

Outside my window- It's a beautiful, brisk fall day. Blue sky, leaves turning, perfect.

I am hearing- Eliza reading out loud to herself, Kateri chattering as she makes a booklet of flowers, Mary Rose practicing Latin declensions, the wind rustling the trees outside.

I am wearing- I have on this Loft knit tiered skirt in a fall plummy brown color that has become my I-want-to-wear-it-every-day-because-it's-so-very-comfortable favorite, a bayleaf shirt (embellished with a few flowers, of course), a lovely thrifted hand knit cardigan of ivory wool, pomegranate Mary Janes.

I am thankful for- The big kid who has been sick for a whole week is finally better. This morning's quote: 'school is jolly when you are healthy.' Amen and Deo Gratias.

I am thinking about- I am happy to begin thinking about something other than fever and illness, thank you. My brain was really preoccupied and likewise rather useless for the past week.

I am reading- I'm just starting A Little Way of Homeschooling and greatly enjoying it already. I've also been indulging in a bit of a Miss Read binge for fun, retreating to the English countryside in stories replete with natural history tidbits, endearing characters and tea mentioned on every other page. I read some of her books a couple of decades ago, so it's kind of nostalgic for me as well as admittedly escapist.

 From the kitchen- Apples, apples, apples! We get a huge (about forty pounds) box of our favorite (and super cheap) deer apples every other week or so at the farmer's market. I've been making plenty of applesauce and last night the girls made us four galettes. We also made these applesauce cookies  (with half whole wheat flour, decreased the sugar amount and used brown, and butter) yesterday as we were out of eggs. In between apples, we eat lots of chocolate pudding (link is to my homemade mix).  

In the learning house- My three older girls have started a blog! They blog about books and birds and art and writing and all that sort of good stuff. Some of you have already wandered over there, and they always appreciate visitors! (And comments.)

Living the Liturgical Year- I hope to have a post up about the All Saints ATC swap soon! I'm sorry I'm a bit behind, but we do plan to host another saint swap.

A few plans for the rest of the week- The guys have a couple of days off of classes at the end of the week, which will be a nice little break for them and jolly fun for the rest of us who miss them every day. Hope to hit a library book sale and perhaps head back to the mountain for hawk watching, friends coming to visit on Friday. Also hope to catch up on email. We had no internet for a while, and then sickness in the house, and so I've got pile of unanswered mail to tend to.

One of my favorite things/Picture thoughts - Lovely fall weather and happy, healthy kids.