Gratitude for Nature | Creating Forest Fairies from Paper, Color & Ephemera

Key Points

1. Expressive arts mentor Dr. Minette Riordan continues her Gratitude Goddesses creative ritual, guiding participants to bring their paper dolls to life by adding hair, faces, and texture.
2. The project blends gratitude practice with hands-on creativity, encouraging women to connect with mindfulness through simple materials—like lace, yarn, fabric scraps, and found objects.
3. Experts in art journaling and creative well-being say that tactile rituals like this foster emotional grounding, joy, and self-expression. By infusing gratitude into each doll, participants create a visual reminder of appreciation and belonging throughout the season of wonder.

Gratitude for Nature – The Wild and Sacred

We're stepping further into the Gratitude Goddesses journey—where we turn our hearts toward the natural world and all she offers us. 🌳

In this video, we’re creating Forest Fairies—tiny guardians of the earth—using paper templates, vibrant Neocolor II crayons, flower petals, leaves, and found ephemera.

We talk about:

• Why expressing gratitude for nature is essential to our healing and wholeness
• How nature reflects our own seasons of rest, growth, and surrender
• How to use simple materials to craft joy-filled, nature-honoring art

🌸 Supplies

• Paper fairy templates (feel free to draw your own!)
• Caran D’Ache Neocolor II crayons or any water-soluble pastels
• Glue stick or Mod Podge
• Artificial flowers, dried flowers or fun stickers
• Magazine scraps
• washi tape
• tissue paper
• Scissors
• water brush or small paintbrush

Youtube Video

Transcript

[0:01] : Good morning and welcome to Painting in Your PJ. Can't talk this morning. Good morning
[0:07] : and welcome to Painting in Your PJs with Minette. Um I am in my PJs. I even got
[0:14] : some new fun cute winter themed PJs and it's a little chilly this morning. So I
[0:23] : am trying to stay warm and super excited about making some forest fairies this morning. So, if you're brand new to
[0:28] : painting in your PJs, you get me exactly as I am. This is live and this is me
[0:37] : exactly as I am when I wake up. I've been up for a couple hours already. I'm very much an early bird. Painting in
[0:43] : your PJs is all about using expressive and creative arts as really
[0:49] : fun and transform transformational tools for personal
[0:54] : growth and self-discovery. And all year long we have been making paper dolls. I
[1:00] : can't wait to do a retrospective and reflect back on all the different types
[1:05] : of dolls that I have made this year. I have this huge envelope that I've been keeping them all in. But for the month
[1:12] : of November, we've been making paper doll chains or fabric doll chains.
[1:18] : This is the fourth video in the series. And week two of our gratitude prompts is
[1:24] : all about gratitude for nature. And I think it's so important to pause and
[1:29] : give thanks to nature that nourishes us and sustains us in so many different
[1:36] : ways. So, I'm going to dive right in. I'm going to change my camera over here
[1:41] : and I am going to get started. I am using
[1:46] : fun little templates this morning. When you're doing some type of a 30-day
[1:53] : challenge or a 30-day project like this gratitude project, the
[2:00] : secret to keeping it going is one uh diversity,
[2:06] : changing it up on a regular basis so that you don't get bored. working small,
[2:12] : using templates, and not making the project take more than
[2:20] : about 30 minutes a day because otherwise we get busy. We forget.
[2:25] : And I also really wanted this year. So, I do a gratitude project every year. I
[2:30] : think I'm going to paint her up first and then cut her out. And I'm going to do a series of these so they can become
[2:37] : part of the paper doll chain. So, I don't know if I'll do seven of these fairies, but I'll definitely do a few to
[2:44] : integrate into my paper doll chain. And
[2:50] : I wanted to really deepen my gratitude practice this year in a different way to
[2:55] : have some deeper prompts, not just a list of things that I'm grateful for, but to really kind of focus in on what
[3:04] : matters and why it matters. So, if you're just stopping in for the first
[3:10] : time to our Forest Fairy lesson, you'll see a link to a blog post in the
[3:15] : description of this video that has the original paper doll templates as well as
[3:22] : a list of prompts to guide you. And this week is all about and then last week we
[3:28] : also added these words. So this week is all about this idea of gratitude for
[3:33] : nature, connecting to the wild and the sacred. Let me do a little focus work
[3:39] : here. Good morning Tori. Good to see you, my friend.
[3:47] : Little better. So reading words on this screen. You don't need to read the words, but this is one of the resources
[3:53] : I created because I felt like in addition to the more substantial journaling that I wanted each of my
[3:59] : dolls to have a word. And when I looked back at these words for this week and
[4:05] : started to think about what do I want to do and what do I want to create that these felt some of them moonouched wild
[4:12] : beauty earth blessing wind and wonder tree whisper as fairy names which gave
[4:19] : me the idea of how can I connect visually to nature through my paper dolls but also connect practically to my
[4:28] : deep gratitude for nature for something that is such an important part of my
[4:33] : life. In fact, as soon as I get off of this call with all of you, I will be
[4:39] : headed out for a beautiful walk, trying to take advantage of some of the warm
[4:47] : weather before it changes. And I pulled out a few different things to play with
[4:52] : some artificial flowers that I have. I still I have all this rick rack floating
[4:58] : around. But then I realized I also have this huge
[5:03] : Thank you, Tori. Yeah, you definitely, if you stick around here, you get to see my crazy creative uh process and how my
[5:12] : creative brain goes everywhere. And I have this Oh, look at those. I have this
[5:18] : fun box of paper flowers. If you're anything like me, you have, you know, stashes. Oh, and look at those pretty
[5:26] : ferns. You have stashes of ephemera and leftover bits from different projects.
[5:33] : Right. So, I'm thinking those sunflowers are going to inspire one of the the
[5:39] : dolls for sure. Look, there's even a Oh, that's a handmade bead that kind of
[5:44] : looks like a fun little wand or perhaps
[5:49] : um like a little umbrella. Maybe maybe we're going to have a pink one and a yellow one. And then I also
[5:58] : have just a abundant box of and I those are very shiny of different stickers of
[6:05] : all kinds left from retreats and events. Oh, and my forest fairy definitely is
[6:11] : going to need some little animal companions here. So, I encourage you to
[6:16] : just kind of look through your stash and see what you have on hand because even
[6:22] : though I'm starting with someone else's drawing of a fairy. So, this was a image
[6:28] : from Canva that I found. And I love the vintage look and feel of her. And I love
[6:35] : her little sort of um chubby shape here as well that kind of matches with our
[6:44] : little gratitude goddess shape that I have been working with. And so I think,
[6:49] : you know, she'll she'll tuck right in nicely with some of the other ones that I've been creating, right? And I love
[6:57] : seeing them all come together. And so now we're gonna change it up a little
[7:03] : bit, right? And I also as I was continuing to work on some of the fabric
[7:09] : ones and then last week working on paper that I really love working on paper for
[7:15] : paper dolls. The fabric was a fun um attempt and uh I would
[7:22] : stick with paper I think for some of the rest of these. So I'm going to come in with some car ash neocolor twos. These
[7:30] : are wateroluble crayons. You could use colored pencil, Derwent, inktense,
[7:37] : whatever you have on hand. And I'm just going to get some color on her. You can see I didn't cut her out, which means I
[7:44] : can color outside the lines just like a little kid would. Super fun. And um get
[7:52] : uh give her some character here.
[7:58] : These I love these for coloring. This is I'm just working. I
[8:04] : printed the fairies out on some card stock.
[8:11] : So, I'm going to get some color down and then we'll paint her up a little bit.
[8:18] : Some brown hair. And notice I'm not going all the way to
[8:25] : the edges because when I add I'm g and I'm going to activate the color with
[8:31] : matte medium to seal that color in instead of with water and it'll make a
[8:37] : better surface for adding other collage images and things as well. So I have
[8:43] : just some Liquitex matte medium. Love their brand of
[8:48] : matte medium. It's good enough. I know other people like Golden. I've tried
[8:53] : lots of different brands and this one is affordable and um it's good enough
[9:00] : quality for most of the projects that I'm working on. And I am going to use
[9:08] : brushes with my matte medium, but I want to use kind of like this is an old frayed brush. This one's kind of all
[9:14] : bristly. Don't use your good brushes with your matte medium because that glue or make sure you wash them immediately
[9:22] : because that glue will stick. I love that little curly queue of hair
[9:29] : sticking up there. And I was that kid who loved stories,
[9:36] : all kind of fantasy fiction, love stories of fairies.
[9:44] : And again, it just felt like if I didn't do something new and different this week, I was going to get bored, right?
[9:50] : And if I get bored, then I don't want to continue the project. So, I always look
[9:56] : for fun ways to change it up. And like Tori, I know that you've made your
[10:01] : background dolls already, but maybe a couple of them need some wings. And by
[10:09] : the end of this, I will have made so many different dolls. I will probably have more than
[10:15] : 30 dolls for November to add to my paper chain, which is fine. You may only end
[10:23] : up making one doll or three or four dolls. And not to
[10:30] : judge yourself, but if you make even one doll and spend one day connecting to
[10:36] : what it is that you're most grateful for this month in this season,
[10:41] : it will have a positive impact when we
[10:47] : focus on gratitude even when things in our lives are
[10:52] : difficult and challenging. If we can get her hair a little bit
[10:57] : darker, it gives you a moment of lift and it helps us just remember that yes, even
[11:05] : when things are hard,
[11:10] : we can always find something to be grateful for. Even if it's not in our own lives, it
[11:16] : might be in nature. I'm so grateful we had the most beautiful fall season and some of the trees are
[11:24] : still holding on to their fall leaves.
[11:30] : I know many people got to see the northern lights here two nights ago
[11:36] : and uh hoping the last night was cloudy so we couldn't see them. Like so many
[11:43] : special things. because I went for a walk a couple of mornings ago and had just
[11:50] : the sweetest little cheeky encounter with a very chubby squirrel. In fact, I
[11:56] : took a cute picture and I need to get it posted on Instagram and there was a deer
[12:01] : in my neighborhood. We don't see deer a ton in our neighborhood. So, that felt
[12:07] : like it was a young buck. So that felt like this really special treat to see
[12:16] : a buck just walking down the sidewalk in my neighborhood.
[12:22] : And so I'm going to
[12:28] : pull one of these out because I want this to kind of be my color inspiration
[12:36] : for this. Tori that I love that you're going to add. I mean, look what how cute that is to put that on there. So, we can
[12:43] : use that for some color. And I'm going to
[12:49] : get these fun leaves. Okay. Once these things all come out, they're never going to go back in there, but that's okay.
[12:56] : And there's all kinds of fun stuff in here. These were all tucked behind the flowers. I didn't even know all these
[13:03] : leaves were in there. Oh, and I love this. It's almost she
[13:11] : might have like a little leaf on her head, like a little flower
[13:16] : fairy. Not sure.
[13:25] : And she might maybe she's peeking out from holding a little
[13:31] : bouquet here.
[13:40] : I like that with her kind of peeking out sort of shily from behind. Right. So,
[13:47] : there's some fun ideas for directions. But again, you know, I'm looking Oh, and
[13:54] : look at that. She needs a little little sunflower in her hair. Using this for some fun inspiration.
[14:06] : And again, I love taking just a simple little coloring page or illustration
[14:12] : like this and working to add color and then, you know, it up with the things I
[14:18] : have on hand so that it becomes
[14:24] : more my own and I didn't spend a ton of time drawing.
[14:29] : templates are our friends and the intention of our paper doll making is to
[14:35] : focus on the doll making and the gratitude. So the quicker we can make
[14:40] : the doll itself then the more fun we can have adding to it.
[14:51] : And that glue has a lot of texture. So I'm just letting that texture kind of
[14:56] : build up there. And I want to get the color down. I think she's going to need some
[15:02] : contrast here
[15:09] : and add to the doll. I also This is a nice big uh size of doll. There's going
[15:15] : to be lots of room on the back of her for adding my journaling
[15:22] : prompts as well. And I really appreciated the prompts
[15:28] : about nature. I've done a lot of the writing already, but haven't had as much
[15:35] : time to work on the dolls themselves.
[15:41] : Okay. I think she's going to be pink and green and that'll give us some nice
[15:48] : compliments and a little bit of contrast to our
[15:54] : sunflowers. So, you know, I'm sort of loosely thinking about colors and themes, not getting too caught up in any
[16:02] : of it this morning.
[16:09] : Noticing there's still some some of that yellow in my brush. Just letting that
[16:14] : mix in here.
[16:20] : Love all these little rows of flowers.
[16:26] : And she definitely feels like she's gonna
[16:31] : have lots of um texture to her, which I've been really loving playing with
[16:38] : texture lately
[16:45] : and adding dimension to things. been doing lots of stitching projects,
[16:55] : but it also feels like it would be really fun to do a second version that
[17:01] : is uh decorated with all those sparkly stickers. Like I can totally feel my
[17:07] : little inner child going stickers, stickers. So, think about what feels
[17:14] : fun, right? and what would best describe
[17:19] : or illustrate your personal connection to nature as well. So, let's
[17:27] : see. Most of these greens that I want to use are a more sgy green.
[18:04] : And I love with these how the color changes and intensifies
[18:11] : when you add the matte medium almost even more than the adding water to them.
[18:19] : There's something about the matte medium that really pulls that pigment out.
[18:53] : And I love how fast, right? So, she came together. She would be cute just like
[18:59] : this. Even if I didn't add anything else at all to her, she would be fine just as
[19:07] : she is. Super cute. So when it comes again to accumulating, you know, 30 days
[19:14] : of a project like this, like don't get caught up in making them over
[19:22] : complicated. Add a little bit of that
[19:28] : pink up in there to just give her wings.
[19:34] : I'm even thinking I might want different wings on the other one. And I might cut those wings
[19:40] : away and add something different for the wings. I'm thinking how fun it would be
[19:45] : to bring some tulle. This is a a tiny piece, but to bring, you know, give her
[19:52] : a little sparkle sparkle by bringing in some of that tulle, which I'm sure I
[19:58] : have some more of this pink tulle somewhere. But for this one,
[20:08] : looking for I had a whole bunch of rick rack and lace.
[20:15] : Here's a little bit of Maybe she needs just
[20:21] : a little bit of lace on there. Nope, it does not. It's too white. So, this is
[20:27] : the fun part where we start to try things on for size.
[20:37] : And I think I'm going to stick with the sunflowers even though I love all of this other stuff. I'm going to just dip
[20:43] : that right in that matte medium. And she's going to have one on her head.
[20:48] : Oh, already. She's so stinking cute. And then I do I like this idea of she's
[20:57] : maybe a little shy or maybe just taking a lovely
[21:04] : bouquet of flowers to a friend.
[21:10] : And she's just, you know, that personification of nature itself.
[21:25] : What I did not bring over here was wire snips. So, don't cut wire like this with your
[21:33] : good scissors. Right. I can't tell you how many scissors I have dulled doing
[21:40] : that. Yes, she is super cute, isn't she? And it feels like she needs, you know, a
[21:46] : little bit of more yellow on the bottom of her dress here to kind of just
[21:53] : pull it all together. So all of a sudden, right, like my top
[21:59] : and my bottom don't feel disconnected, but they feel like they're cohesive and
[22:05] : part of the same design. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and cut her
[22:10] : out. And then I'm going to figure out how I want to add these other things.
[22:18] : And I'm going to pick a word to go on her as well.
[22:24] : I think I'm gonna soften up some of that. I love this is one of my favorite colors
[22:31] : of the Neo colors. It's deceptive. It looks like this bright orange and it's
[22:39] : called orange, but when it gets activated with water, it makes that gorgeous sort of almost like a gold
[22:46] : color. Might need to bring some like I'm like,
[22:51] : do I have any glitter glue? I don't think I have any glitter glue, but she I think would really love some glitter
[22:58] : glue. Oh, there's the I have this.
[23:03] : I don't know why the paper dolls have been really fun to
[23:08] : just add the rick rack to. Maybe because it's it's simple. It adds that texture.
[23:15] : It's a little decorative. Just continuing to build up those
[23:21] : layers. Going to just use that matte medium to stick everything down today.
[23:30] : Okay, that's cute. She just needed a little That's not the quite the right
[23:37] : pink, but I'm sure I have something.
[23:42] : Felt like she just needed a little belt there around her
[23:48] : sweet little waist. Okay, let's cut her out and see what happens.
[23:55] : And as I'm looking at these words again, the one that really struck me this
[24:02] : morning was wild beauty. Like she definitely has that sense of that wild
[24:09] : beauty. And it's an apt description of living in the Rocky Mountains or in our
[24:18] : case at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Like there is a very wild and rugged
[24:24] : beauty to the mountains here. And I love going for a walk every day
[24:30] : and looking up at my beloved Longs Peak, which is
[24:36] : one of the tallest peaks. There's I think it is the tallest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.
[24:43] : And it changes every day. It makes its own weather.
[24:49] : It looks incredibly rocky and barren when there's no snow on it.
[24:59] : Oops, that's totally blurry, isn't looking up. So, silly camera does not
[25:04] : autofocus. So, let me hold that down a little bit and fast forward through this
[25:10] : part of me doing the fussy cutting.
[25:21] : And when a few years ago, Brad and I were deciding where to move, we knew it was
[25:28] : time to leave California and move on. And the it
[25:36] : was really hard to leave the beach. We lived in Galita, just outside Santa
[25:41] : Barbara. And I never thought that I would get him to to leave the the ocean. And the
[25:48] : requirement for us has always been to have easy access to nature. And I feel
[25:56] : like we've done that in a really great way in
[26:02] : Colorado overall, but also in just in our neighborhood, right? And two
[26:10] : weekends ago, we went to a little town called Manitou
[26:16] : Springs, which is right outside of Pikes Peak, one of the other biggest and most dramatic peaks in
[26:23] : Colorado, right outside of Colorado Springs and had so much fun exploring. I
[26:30] : am hosting a retreat next spring.
[26:35] : When are you guys coming again, Tori, to visit? Probably not till after winter. Um,
[26:44] : and Manitu is known for people moved there originally for its healing waters.
[26:50] : It had all these natural sparkling water, cold springs, and it also had
[26:58] : cute shops, cute restaurants, and my friend Dena bought the local apothecary
[27:04] : there. So, we are hosting I can't wait to see you. October seems
[27:10] : like a really long time away to get to see you. And um Dena and I are hosting a
[27:16] : retreat in her home in Manitou next June
[27:22] : called Elemental Wisdom where we will be working with the wisdom of nature with
[27:28] : the feminine archetypes of mother maiden crone wise woman and uh we'll be doing
[27:35] : some dimensional doll making watercolor illustration botanical drawings. So, it
[27:43] : was so good to be able to get down there and see her store in person.
[27:50] : Um, do I have some double stick tape and see where we're going to hold the retreat and of course to visit all the
[27:57] : coffee shops and um, as someone who is gluten-free, you know, it can be hard to
[28:03] : kind of find special treats or things I miss like bagels, but
[28:10] : they had a a beautiful bagel shop there with good coffee and they um made
[28:18] : homemade made regular bagels, but also incredible gluten-free bagels. And I we
[28:25] : ended up eating there twice. It was such a treat to have delicious bagels.
[28:31] : And we walked a ton. We drove out into the mountains and it was like our
[28:37] : favorite kind of trip. We did some business planning and dreaming for next
[28:42] : year. There are going to be some fun changes coming that we'll be announcing
[28:47] : soon. Dreaming, we have a huge Black Friday
[28:53] : sale. So, if you are not on our email list, we are launching some wonderful
[28:59] : new bundles the next couple of days. I'm working on a brand new signature course
[29:04] : called Who Am I Now? We have a fun uh virtual live event coming in
[29:13] : January of next year that's going to be all about picking your goddess of the
[29:19] : year. Like what goddess are you becoming and stepping into in the year? So my
[29:26] : favorite kind of archetypal work.
[29:32] : All right, that one's going to need a little bit more than just glue. Good morning, Ann. So, make sure you're
[29:38] : paying attention to our email list because we have some juicy goodies coming. And I think the one of the most
[29:45] : exciting things, and my husband Brad has been working so hard on this, we're launching a
[29:52] : um line of t-shirts and mugs with some of my favorite sayings. If you have
[29:58] : followed me on YouTube for a while, especially through my art journaling
[30:05] : projects, one of my favorite things that I say all the time is everything is paint paint overable. I truly believe
[30:11] : that everything is paint overable. The story can always change and evolve. So
[30:17] : that will be on t-shirts and mugs and journals. So it's pretty exciting. We've been hard at work behind the scenes on
[30:25] : all kinds of projects. So, I'm looking at this little cutie and thinking she's
[30:31] : probably finished. I love how quickly she came together. And I'm going to come
[30:37] : back to my list of words here
[30:43] : and think about what do I want to be on the list
[30:51] : or on here. I'm drawn to she feels like a wild beauty, but I also like I am part
[30:58] : of nature and that moon touched. Maybe the next one will be more nighttime colors or
[31:07] : blossoming. Oh, blossoming still. Like even at 60, right? Looking at blossoming
[31:15] : still.
[31:23] : And again, the I emailed out these cute little fairy
[31:28] : templates yesterday to the paper doll email list. And
[31:34] : last week, we emailed out the list of words. So, lots of great resources again
[31:41] : to keep the project simple, right? Like, you know, we don't need to over complicate
[31:48] : the project. The making of the paper dolls is the fun, but the benefit and the value is really in
[31:56] : sitting with the gratitude prompts. Really looking at why am I so grateful
[32:02] : for nature? What is it about nature that I'm grateful for that makes me feel
[32:08] : alive? That is healing for me.
[32:23] : Just feel like maybe a little bit more.
[32:40] : Just a little bit of shading in there to give her a little bit of dimension.
[32:46] : And I'm fussing at this point, right? Because this is the the part where we can have fun fussing.
[32:58] : All right, there is my first paper doll fairy. She's so stinking cute with all
[33:04] : of her texture and her flowers and a little bit shy. and she's here to remind
[33:12] : me and nature reminds me that I'm blossoming still, right? We're going
[33:17] : into winter, a time of hibernation and reflection and spring will return,
[33:24] : right? And that I really feel like this second half of life has been about blossoming even more than the first half
[33:33] : of life in a different very different way. And um I love her. Love her. Love
[33:39] : her. Okay. So, I'm going to do another one, but I want her to look really different
[33:47] : than this one to have a different essence. And I'm kind of loving that
[33:52] : moonouched idea. So, if I were a
[33:58] : kindergartener, you know, my fairies could be absolutely
[34:04] : any color.
[34:12] : So maybe we'll make her a little more imaginable, a little less cherabic.
[34:26] : And I have no idea what all these colors are going to do when they mix together, but you know, we're gonna find out
[34:33] : because it's all about play and experimentation. But I want her to have that kind of
[34:39] : deeper, darker. Like I'm feeling like she's going to have a lot of blues, shades of blue and shimmery. And she
[34:46] : definitely needs some tulle, which is on the other side of the studio. So after
[34:52] : class, I will find some blue hopefully some blue sparkly tulle
[34:59] : or some layers of tulle and make her a sweet little sparkly skirt.
[35:09] : And if you just joined us, I'm using Karna Ash Neocolor Twos
[35:15] : activated by Matte Medium to add colors to my little fairies.
[35:23] : Just a fast, easy way and a permanent way to get some color down.
[35:31] : Now she's making me think about Alphaba and uh
[35:38] : Wicked, right? who was green
[35:45] : green skinned
[35:54] : and I love already just by you know coloring her that different color it's
[35:59] : like completely different look and feel
[36:04] : and I think her hair might stay white or a little bit of gray like she has
[36:11] : some kind of, you know, magic silver hair.
[36:26] : And I think I want her to have some different shape of wings as well. So,
[36:32] : I'm going to cut these wings off. So, I just added just a tiny little bit of
[36:38] : color there.
[36:45] : And I'm going to start to come in and just do like I did before that same just
[36:54] : multi-hued color in her dress.
[37:11] : This is one of my favorite colors in the crayons, but in paint as well as that
[37:17] : kind of teal turquoise color. One of my favorite colors to wear also.
[37:39] : as I'm looking at her and I was thinking, oh, she needs some tulle, but maybe what she really needs is some
[37:45] : sparkly sparkly flowers. Okay, let's bring in some of those darker blues
[37:54] : into her skirt.
[38:01] : Yeah, it's like she needs some nighttime shimmer here for this little
[38:07] : sweet forest fairy. And I'm thinking she may maybe she will be holding a moon or
[38:15] : maybe there will be a full moon behind her head there.
[38:41] : What I love about using the matte medium, if you just joined us, it just seals that color in
[38:49] : so that if I accidentally spill water on this, right, the color
[38:55] : doesn't activate, but becomes permanent on there. I also
[39:00] : love that by adding the matte medium to a water soluble
[39:06] : tool like this, I can also paint over the top with
[39:13] : acrylic paint, right? So then I can mix my supplies. So matte medium is kind of a great equalizer.
[39:25] : And I don't care about painting outside the edges. I'm letting it be a little messy
[39:30] : here because I am going to cut her out. And as I said that, I thought, oh, I
[39:36] : could actually paint her hair silver and maybe even put a little silver
[39:43] : shimmer into her dress here. Feels like she needs some
[39:50] : pops of purple or pink to brighten her up. So, let's come in and maybe add
[40:01] : to her flowers here. Maybe she needs a little bit of purple
[40:07] : in her hair. Oh, that's better.
[40:12] : Just some little purple tips.
[40:19] : Some little purple cheeks. So, let your imagination
[40:27] : come out to play here, right? We're not trying to create something that is realistic, but truly
[40:35] : imagininal, something magical of nature. When Brad and I were in Manitou Springs
[40:44] : a couple of weeks ago, we drove out into the woods and the hills to just go explore
[40:52] : like we often do. And uh we pulled into this campground right on the side of a
[40:59] : river. It was really beautiful and we wanted to get down closer to the water and no one was camping. Oh, look at
[41:06] : that. There's still some yellow in there. Let's try that again. And um
[41:12] : this flash of red flew in front of the car and Brad's like, "Oh my gosh, that's
[41:18] : a vermilion fly catcher." And if you didn't know, we are he's much more into
[41:24] : bird watching than I am, but I am always kind of along for the ride. And uh so of
[41:30] : course we had to stop and take pictures and there was no internet, so you know, he couldn't look it up. But I got some
[41:36] : really good pictures of this sweet little bird and then he got to share it
[41:42] : in, you know, with rare bird sightings and other people came to the place to
[41:48] : see the bird and it was a whole fun thing. And it's part of that
[41:55] : connection to nature that he and I both feel so deeply and is such an important part of our lives. But it's also about
[42:02] : bringing more mindfulness and gratitude to the beauty around us to every moment
[42:09] : of the day. Yesterday we had a bunch of birds at our feeder outside our kitchen
[42:14] : window. And it's just taking time to slow down, to notice,
[42:22] : to breathe, to look up right from the TV, the
[42:28] : computer, the art project, the work, the chores, whatever it is that you're doing, and just truly notice the beauty
[42:38] : all around.
[42:43] : And I think spending this whole week, you know, really reminding ourselves of that is so important.
[42:52] : All right. Got a little bit of silver paint here.
[42:57] : When you're working with metallic paints in acrylics, they tend
[43:04] : to be very transparent. They don't have a lot of opacity.
[43:11] : As you can see, it's almost even hard to see that that's going on here. But what
[43:16] : I love about using them is they add fun shimmer. You can just see that in the
[43:23] : light. They add fun shimmer to things and still allow you to see the magical
[43:30] : color underneath. So, even though you may not see what it is that I'm
[43:36] : putting down here,
[43:48] : the effect will be fun. And even if I add some of that tulle
[44:01] : I'll still have that nice shimmer and sparkle underneath, which makes me
[44:07] : think, speaking of, you know, the Wicked or Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz in the
[44:14] : original story, Dorothy was eight years old. She was a very young child. And the
[44:22] : magic slippers were silver, not red. But they didn't think the red would or the
[44:27] : silver would show as well on the the movie screen. So they
[44:33] : took creative liberties and changed the the story that way. Okay, she is
[44:39] : stinking cute. And I'm going to cut her out and then look at adding some
[44:47] : stickers and maybe some words to our little moonouched fairy.
[44:58] : And my second retreat next year and both of our retreats are still on sale on our
[45:03] : website for the early bird pricing. That's good through
[45:09] : definitely through the end of November, maybe through the end of the year.
[45:16] : I think that little piece there is sleeve. I might come back and recolor that. Um, and we are Tori is coming. I'm
[45:25] : very excited to help me with that retreat and we are going to be it's
[45:30] : called Moonwise and we are going to be creating with the phases of the moon
[45:37] : talking about connecting to the energy and the magic of the moon. It's a
[45:43] : practice that's become very important to me in my sort of post-menopausal,
[45:49] : you know, looking to connect to different aspects of nature,
[45:56] : different rhythms of the seasons.
[46:02] : And each phase of the moon also connects to a particular feminine archetype. So,
[46:08] : we will be doing some archetypal work
[46:16] : and uh both retreats are already half full.
[46:21] : So, if you'd love to come and meet me in person, I want to encourage you to go check out my website minuteardan.com
[46:32] : retreats to see what is going on. And starting next week, we'll be uh letting
[46:40] : you know about some of the awesome Black Friday deals that we've got coming. We've been hard at work behind the the
[46:45] : scenes with all kinds of awesome new creative projects that I
[46:51] : cannot wait to share. Oh my gosh, look at her. And they're fun little I'm so
[46:57] : excited too, Tori, and so grateful for you, my friend. Um I love how different
[47:04] : they are, right? like they have kind of the same energy but just using the
[47:10] : different colors. Let's make that part of her dress there.
[47:17] : Right. They each hold uh a different magic and different energy to them. I do
[47:23] : kind of feel like maybe I like the under color on her face, but
[47:29] : I'd like her face to stand out just a little bit more from the rest.
[47:40] : A little That's better.
[47:46] : Oh my gosh. So stinking cute. All right, so she needs some big wings.
[47:53] : and some sparkly stickers. So, let me grab my
[48:00] : giant box of stickers here. And I don't know if there's any
[48:06] : butterflies in here or not. So, I'm zoom out a little bit. This plastic is going
[48:13] : to make it hard to see. Oh, and she definitely needs a little a little fairy
[48:18] : friend. There's some actual dried flowers,
[48:26] : some small butterflies, but I think these are all Oh, there we go. That's what she needs.
[48:32] : She needs some sparkly flowers and maybe some big sparkly wings. I don't know if
[48:37] : I have any. Wonder if I could
[48:43] : make some wings. I thought I might have some bigger butterflies in here,
[48:49] : but what if maybe she doesn't have wings that she has flowers behind her instead?
[48:57] : So, digging through your ephmera is such a great way to get inspired. I was talking to one of my clients the other
[49:04] : day and we were talking about, you know, how to get reconnected to your own
[49:09] : creative practice. You know, especially if you have like a whole studio full of
[49:16] : supplies that have been lying untouched or you're not, you know, sure.
[49:22] : She may need some sparkly stickers, too. not sure what to do with them or you've kind of lost touch just to go touch them
[49:29] : all, right? To go spend some time
[49:36] : just looking and sorting and cleaning, maybe a little purging if it feels good.
[49:45] : Like just flipping through here, it's like, oh my gosh, there's so much fun stuff in here. And I haven't touched
[49:50] : this box in months. Thought I saw something else in here.
[50:02] : Oh, that one actually has a a sweet little fairy friend on it. That's so
[50:08] : cute. Okay, I have more than I need.
[50:42] : under a beautiful flower bush.
[50:55] : lost her little cheek there. And I love this.
[51:01] : So, I think maybe she needs a little dragonfly.
[51:07] : Okay, that's coming together nicely. Let me see if she wants some of these.
[51:17] : Oh, she does. She just needs a little sparkle sparkle on here, too.
[51:23] : And do I have any scotch tape? Let's see if I can use a piece of the double stick
[51:28] : tape. Oh, thanks Tori.
[51:33] : I probably leaned on the microphone, but I'm glad it came back.
[51:52] : And it holds the end of those other ones down and just adds that
[51:58] : little sparkle. Sparkle. And fairies definitely need their sparkle. Look,
[52:03] : that one even has a sweet little butterfly.
[52:10] : And I'm having that moment of but I'm coloring covering up all the coloring that I did. Well, you know, everything
[52:16] : is paint overable, right? You got to learn to let it go to get to the best
[52:22] : version of your art. Maybe that other little butterfly wants
[52:28] : to hang out up there. Oh, that feels cute. I'm just going to stick a little double
[52:34] : stick tape on the back of that.
[52:45] : fun. Just feels like she's growing just a little bit more. And she might actually even just stand up a little
[52:52] : bit. Okay. Little sparkle. Sparkle makes everything better.
[52:59] : And let's see.
[53:06] : All right, that feels fun. So, I'm going to stick these all together
[53:15] : and then I will stick her to them. And I'm just using my favorite score
[53:22] : tape. The tape says souk weighing on it, but the on Amazon they sell it as score
[53:31] : tape and it is the best double stick tape ever. Oh, look at her little
[53:38] : sweetie pie.
[53:43] : Super strong. It doesn't take a lot of it to adhere to things. Great for
[53:52] : projects like this, mixed media projects. Great for book making.
[54:06] : My gosh, look at these sweet little forest.
[54:14] : You are so welcome, Veil. Thanks for stopping by to say hi.
[54:20] : All right. I think she probably needs some of these pretty irises on here.
[54:29] : And these things are an absolute pain to get off.
[54:38] : See if we can. This one I might have to cut apart.
[55:08] : There we go. Some little blooming irises on there.
[55:14] : And I love the color is going to kind of just disappear in there with the color of her skirt. And we're just going to be
[55:21] : left Oh, hi Blanca. Good to see you. Um, left with the sparkles on there.
[55:33] : And I think maybe this nice tall one here.
[56:05] : as if she is part of the forest herself is kind of how that feels to me.
[56:15] : Let's see. Does she want that big maybe one more big one layered over
[56:20] : there and then I think she'll be good. And this is our sweet little moonouched
[56:26] : fairy. When I created the the list of words, I wasn't thinking
[56:32] : of them as names, but more just, you know, descriptions for
[56:40] : how I feel in relation, right, to my gratitude for nature. Such an important
[56:46] : part of my my life and Brad and I's life together and how we raised our kids. has
[56:51] : always been so so important.
[56:56] : And yet when I looked at the list this morning, I'm like, "Oh, they feel like sweet little fairy names."
[57:03] : Now she looks like she has this sweet little embroidered
[57:09] : skirt on. I love the dimension of this one. And I'm wondering if I've got one something
[57:16] : something here that she could have a little fairy hat
[57:22] : or a little flower in her hair to finish her off as well.
[57:28] : Or a couple of them. That's what she needs.
[57:34] : Just a little bit in there to kind of pull her all together. Let's see. I
[57:41] : think no purple butterflies in there. There were blue butterflies. Oh, there's orange butterflies.
[57:52] : Again, remembering just to go search around your stash, right? And just see
[57:59] : what is on hand. So, these the sticky things didn't stick very well. It feels
[58:07] : like she needs a little companion there. We'll use a little bit of that matte
[58:14] : medium. Stick those little flowers down. And that little orange butterfly just adds a
[58:20] : fun little nice pop of contrast there. Oh, that's what she needed.
[58:28] : You don't know until you try, right? I pulled out all different kinds of things this morning to play with, not knowing,
[58:36] : you know, what would stick or stay or what would get used, but super happy
[58:44] : with my all my flowers away here.
[58:52] : Oh, look, that one's cute, too. H fun little turquoisey green butterfly
[58:58] : hanging out in the bottom of the box and it's got it sticky stuff in the
[59:05] : wrong place.
[59:13] : They feel like little gardens all on their own, right? Like just little
[59:20] : blooming beauties. And I'm just getting some double stick
[59:26] : tape. My fingers are so sticky. The tape is sticking to me.
[59:32] : Sticking that down.
[59:38] : That's too much. All right, let's give her her little
[59:47] : moon touched. And that makes me think about what does it mean to me to be moonouched? Just
[59:56] : like I talked about, you know, at almost 61, right? I'm still blooming, right?
[1:00:03] : And moon touched, I'm more connected than ever to the phases of the moon and
[1:00:11] : how that influences my emotions, my creativity,
[1:00:17] : my sort of natural rhythm and flow. in a way that I haven't been attached to
[1:00:23] : that before. Okay, this is so much fun. And now I
[1:00:28] : just want to sit here for the rest of the day and make little forest fairies,
[1:00:34] : but that is not in the cards today. So happy to have this hour here with those
[1:00:41] : of you who join me live. Thanks for being here live. If you're catching the replay, I hope you have a blast. I'd
[1:00:48] : love to see pictures of your fairies. Always fun hanging with each and every
[1:00:53] : one of you, too. It really helps me if you click the thumbs up button and like the video to let other people know this
[1:01:00] : is a video worth watching. And let me know if you caught the replay. And on
[1:01:05] : Instagram, use the hashtagg gratitude goddesses and let me know what you're up
[1:01:10] : to. Have a beautiful rest of your day, my friends, and I look forward to seeing you next week. Bye, everybody.