Mystery Messengers: Tarot-Inspired Dolls for the Season of Wonder

Key Points

• Artist and expressive-arts mentor Dr. Minette Riordan invites readers to explore the magic of the unknown through her Mystery Messengers project—Tarot-inspired paper dolls designed to embody intuition, wonder, and gratitude.
• Each handmade “messenger” becomes a symbolic reflection of the archetypes found in Tarot—the High Priestess, The Fool, The Star—encouraging creators to weave personal insight into collage, journaling, and sacred play.
• Experts in mindful creativity say tactile rituals like paper doll making help access deeper intuition and calm, transforming self-expression into a spiritual practice. The project blends art, gratitude, and mysticism—offering women in midlife a soulful way to connect with mystery and the season of wonder.

Youtube Video

Transcript

[0:01] : Good morning, my creative friends, and welcome to Painting in Your PJs with Manette. I am Dr. Minette Riordan. I am
[0:08] : not in my PJs this morning because I wanted to share with you one of our new
[0:14] : t-shirts from our new merchandise store that you can find the link to on our
[0:20] : website at manetteordan.com. And this one says, "Queen, my own damn
[0:26] : story." Super proud of this one. And this one's actually going to inspire the theme and creative for where I go next
[0:32] : year with my YouTube story. So, more to come about that. But it is Black Friday. We are having a huge sale on our website
[0:40] : of products, courses, digital downloads, as well as brand new merchandise, which
[0:46] : is freaking exciting. And I'm so incredibly grateful to my husband
[0:51] : for all the tech wizardry and just energy he has put into making this all
[0:58] : possible. We've been hard at work on all kinds of goodies. So I would love it if
[1:04] : you would go check it out at my website and manette.com. There's a link in the comments below as
[1:11] : well. And today is going to be sorry having some allergies today. Today is going to
[1:18] : be the final Hang on just a second.
[1:25] : Today is going to be the final video in our gratitude goddess work from the last
[1:33] : month or so. Next week is Thanksgiving here in the United States. So, I will be
[1:38] : taking next week off to play cook, one of my favorite things. It's all good,
[1:46] : Anna. Just happy to see you here today. Welcome. And uh so this will be the last one in the paper doll goddess series,
[1:53] : our gratitude series, so that I can enjoy my family next week. And from my
[1:59] : family to yours, wishing those of you who celebrate a very happy Thanksgiving holiday next week as well.
[2:08] : And today, so our theme for the final week of the gratitude goddesses is all
[2:15] : about connecting to mystery and having gratitude for mystery. She is Anna. She
[2:23] : sent me a nice email this week letting me know that she was traveling. But hi Lorraine
[2:29] : and I know you'll watch the replay and uh wishing you just a happy travels and journey and envious that you're hanging
[2:36] : out in Spain this week. One of my favorite places I wanted to do something
[2:42] : different this week in this connecting to the mystery connecting to spirit
[2:48] : connecting to that deeper aspect of ourselves. And I don't know that we always pause to express gratitude for
[2:57] : this aspect of our lives that is the mystery or another word for that is
[3:02] : wonder and connecting to wonder and awe
[3:07] : invites us to pause be a little bit more mindful to really check in not just with
[3:13] : ourselves but with the world around us to stand outside and look up at the night sky or
[3:21] : to notice how the seasons are impacting your landscape right outside your front
[3:27] : door. So, I thought it would be fun to integrate something that I really love,
[3:32] : which is tarot and oracle cards. I'm going to be playing with an oracle card deck today, but I encourage you to grab
[3:40] : any deck that you have. And if you don't have a deck, don't worry. You can be
[3:46] : inspired by whatever it is that I draw today and take that as inspiration for
[3:52] : all of us. It's also a new moon today and this is a new moon in Scorpio. So
[3:59] : there's a lot of intensity of emotion of opportunity not just to plant new seeds
[4:06] : for what's coming but also to release anything that you don't want to hold on
[4:11] : to so that we step in. Good morning, Ann. So that we step into winter's deep
[4:18] : rest and reflection with a more thoughtful energy and being
[4:24] : connected to spirit. So I have no idea what I'm going to create my doll with today. I'm going to change my camera. Um
[4:32] : or, you know, what she's going to end up looking like. I took one of our our templates and I just made her a little
[4:39] : bit bigger because I wanted to have a little space to play with and I grabbed
[4:44] : one of my favorite tarot decks. This is the Gian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbear
[4:50] : or Colbert, not sure how you say it. This is the brand new edition of this
[4:56] : second edition of this gorgeous, very feminine tarot deck about healing the
[5:02] : earth and healing ourselves. and it felt very appropriate to pull from this deck today. And my
[5:10] : question as I approach the deck, and I'm still pretty new to tarot, so I'm going to have to look up what things mean for
[5:16] : the most part. Um, so the the question today is, what helps keep me connected
[5:24] : or grateful for the mystery of life? what helps me be connected
[5:32] : and grateful for the mystery of my life, right? Because life does have a lot of
[5:39] : mystery in it. And this is I'll show you some of these cards. And I loved one of
[5:46] : my my friend Tamara. Let me refocus here. Hang on just a second.
[5:53] : knows the author and creator of this deck. And all of the paintings in this deck
[6:00] : are of people that Joanna Powell Colbert knows, right? She invited friends to
[6:06] : pose for all of these different portraits. And I absolutely love the art
[6:14] : on these. They're from She lives in the Pacific Northwest. So you really see the
[6:20] : influence of her landscape there. So just absolutely beautiful cards and
[6:27] : they just really to me represent that connection to mystery. So I am going to
[6:36] : simply ask my question and I love before I do that. I love working with tarot in my
[6:45] : art and connecting to play like this for a few different reasons. We can
[6:52] : sometimes feel really stuck and not know what to create or what direction
[6:58] : to start. We might feel like with a topic like, you know, um, gratitude for
[7:04] : mystery, you're like, "What the heck, man? I don't even know what that means." And there's some great journal prompts
[7:09] : for you in the original video, handout, and blog post. And all we can use to
[7:17] : tarot to for two or three different ways in our art. One, we can be inspired by
[7:24] : the colors of the card. We can be inspired by the symbols on the card and
[7:29] : we can be inspired by the message and meaning of the card. So, it's a great
[7:35] : way to create a set of dolls. And with any kind of 30-day project like this
[7:42] : gratitude goddess paper doll chain, it's easy to get bored. Now, some of you may
[7:48] : have created at the beginning of the month, we created a whole bunch of dolls. Some people have
[7:53] : created all 30 of their dolls and are doing daily journaling, which was what I recommended. I did that for the first
[8:00] : couple of weeks, and then I'm like, okay, I want a little something different and special for this week. So,
[8:07] : I'm actually going to draw three cards. All right, that one wants to come out
[8:17] : for different ways that I'm connected.
[8:23] : and grateful for the great mystery that is our life and our world. And I drew
[8:30] : three rather than one because there might be one that in inspires
[8:36] : you in particular. And so let's see what we ended up with.
[8:42] : Look at that beautiful, beautiful painting. So this one was first. Oh,
[8:47] : she's beautiful. So we got the guardian of water. We're going to have to look up what all these mean because I am not
[8:52] : 100% certain, but we're going to learn together here today. Let me see. Those
[8:57] : are just going to be a little bit blurry. So, we have the guardian of water. We have the two of earth with a
[9:06] : parent holding two babies. So, we have water element, earth
[9:11] : element. And interesting as we're going into Thanksgiving, right? I'm thinking about food and feast. And there's all
[9:18] : those they're standing in front of a bunch of vegetables there. And then we
[9:23] : have some fire magic here. The six of fire with women drumming and dancing
[9:30] : around a fire. Beautiful, beautiful cards. And again, so this silly focus
[9:36] : drives me crazy. One of these days we'll have Brad will get down here with his
[9:42] : magic and figure all of that out. So, let's see what the Guardian of Water has
[9:48] : to teach us today. And another fun way if you have a deck of tarot cards to
[9:53] : work with paper dolls related to tarot. Oh my gosh, I just gave myself an idea
[9:59] : for a really fun class or just a personal project would be to work with a major arcana of the tarot. There's 22
[10:06] : cards and make a doll for each of those cards, which would be a really fun
[10:12] : project. All right. She has an interesting
[10:18] : orientation in her deck. So, I always have to remember how to find them. So, the guardian of water is calling us to
[10:25] : open our hearts to compassion, intuition, and deep love. She overflows
[10:32] : with forgiveness, peace, and cleansing for a troubled world, pouring out the waters of mercy.
[10:38] : She is kind, gracious, and caring, and has great empathy for those in need. Her
[10:43] : love and compassion seem boundless, and she welcomes all who long for emotional comfort and mothering. So, I really love
[10:51] : I'm not going to read all of this, but just love her. So, this is so
[10:56] : appropriate for our month of gratitude here. And we can express gratitude
[11:03] : better when we're in that energy of compassion, intuition, and deep love.
[11:09] : And I would say love for self as well as love and empathy for others. So
[11:15] : beautiful, beautiful card. Gratitude for the the mystery of love and compassion
[11:21] : today. Let's see. Two of Earth. This is a young father balancing his baby sons as he
[11:28] : shops for a meal. One baby is placid and
[11:33] : the other is howling. And the symbol on his shirt is a West African symbol, an
[11:39] : adra, a crocodile, signifying the adaptability of living in water while
[11:45] : breathing the air. And this card is about balance. Balancing more than one
[11:50] : thing at a time and adapting to a potentially chaotic situation. So that
[11:56] : one isn't particularly resonating with me. But maybe for those of you that are listening today, that card is for you
[12:04] : and you want to really focus on trying to do one thing
[12:09] : at a time instead of juggling or multi-tasking. So this is a card about maybe there are
[12:17] : too many demands or attention. Maybe you're not asking for support. And when
[12:22] : we express gratitude for the mystery in the context of this card about balance
[12:29] : for me, this is also as we go into the busy holiday season to come. This is
[12:35] : also about asking for support, not trying to do it all yourself or do it all at once. And then finally, this
[12:43] : beautiful six of fire card. I really love the image of this woman dancing
[12:50] : around the fire. So, let's find this one. And this is
[12:57] : it's festival time. The energy builds creative and erotic power
[13:04] : fanning the flames of the sacred fire. So, that's kind of what we're seeing. And this card is all about raising
[13:11] : energy with others for magic healing and transformation. And for me, this one is about being part
[13:20] : of the sacred circle, not a part from it. Again, it is the collective
[13:26] : celebration that makes things really meaningful. And magic, I always say
[13:32] : magic happens where women gather. And so this energetic gathering of creativity,
[13:39] : healing, and magic is really really a beautiful card for this time of year to
[13:44] : remind us, you know, we think about gratitude for the mystery. We have deep connection with others that can feel
[13:51] : like a mystery at times. And maybe sometimes what we're missing is that
[13:56] : collective dance around the fire as opposed to a more solitary
[14:02] : sitting around the fire. So I love all of these. They're so beautiful and I can
[14:08] : see myself creating goddess or in this case perhaps a god card to represent the energies of the
[14:17] : mystery of again compassion, balance and creative power in community.
[14:25] : So three very different energies today but I feel super called to this gorgeous
[14:32] : guardian of water here. And there's fish and turtle. And she's holding a seashell.
[14:38] : So, I want to use the color inspiration here. I'm feeling drawn to the turtle
[14:46] : magic here today and think about how can I create this
[14:53] : goddess gratitude paper doll today that represents compassion, empathy, love,
[15:00] : and healing for all, especially the planet. and the environment. So, she's
[15:05] : my inspiration there. And I need to decide if I want to paint, if I want to
[15:11] : collage. So, I pulled out I bought for uh retreat these beautiful
[15:20] : books by Tashen. Um this one the theme was witchcraft and I have one maybe it's
[15:27] : going to be this plant magic one. And I bought these with the intention to tear
[15:33] : them up for collage imagery. I love that beautiful earth card there.
[15:40] : So, I'm going to flip through here and see if there's something that has that kind of watery
[15:48] : magical energy. Well, she's very cool.
[15:53] : This has some very funky images in it. It's all about plant
[15:59] : medicine and different ways that people use plants and herbs. But what I love
[16:05] : about this whole series of books is
[16:11] : not seeing a lot of watery ones in here, but this whole series of books is full of art from throughout the ages that
[16:19] : represents all these different stories. So I'm looking. So if I let go of
[16:24] : attachment to it needs to be watery and think about it more as
[16:31] : I'm creating a goddess of compassion today and connecting to the that deeper
[16:41] : mystery and wonder that is love. What might that feel like? And I'm
[16:48] : feeling all of these opening of flowers sort of pulling me in. So there's really
[16:54] : fabulous fabulous imagery. I kind of like this
[17:01] : waterfall here. And yes, I am tearing up this book.
[17:08] : Right. That's it was bought with the intention to use it. If there's images
[17:13] : that I really love or get attached to, then I will um make photocopies of them
[17:21] : so that I can use them over and over.
[17:27] : This one has that same energy of the fire dancing around the fire.
[17:36] : And I always pull out more images than I need for these, you know, little small
[17:43] : dolls. Let's see if there's anything kind of magical, watery in here.
[17:53] : This one is a great book if you're doing any shadow work in your collage. It has
[17:59] : a really a lot of more shadow images. And this
[18:04] : one was divided according to the elements. So where is our
[18:11] : water element?
[18:20] : Of course, there's the black cat in there.
[18:26] : Definitely feels like air. Maybe water's in the beginning here.
[18:34] : Funny, I intuitively grabbed these two books, but not uh being drawn really to
[18:42] : images from either of them,
[18:50] : but I probably have enough with just these two images that I drew. So, I was
[18:56] : drawn to this one because the colors are resonant and I love the energy of, you
[19:01] : know, when we practice self-compassion and that compassion, we have more compassion for others as
[19:09] : well. And let's see. I'm thinking
[19:18] : I kind of like this piece as well. Maybe this is going to be kind of the
[19:24] : background piece. So, let me go ahead and cut her out. So, this was one of our original
[19:30] : templates for this month, and I just blew it up a little bit on my printer, printed it out on card stock.
[19:46] : And when I think about this idea of
[19:54] : the energy of this beautiful guardian of the water.
[20:00] : And I can think about gratitude for the mystery of how things
[20:07] : ripple out from us. We're often the source
[20:14] : and how we are feeling or you know what we model or how we show up for others
[20:22] : always ripples out from us for the good or the bad.
[20:32] : That would be a a fun mask for another project there. I love that. I kind of
[20:38] : actually can use that to kind of help me see
[20:45] : where I'm going. Oh, that's actually really cool. I love that.
[20:52] : Zoom back out a little again. So, that was an I wasn't looking at creating her
[20:57] : this way, but I kind of love that idea of that sort of mystery popping through
[21:04] : almost. It's as if the doll herself becomes a portal. So, I'm wondering if
[21:10] : there's going to be some different layers to this doll that I hadn't
[21:16] : anticipated or perhaps she's going to be double-sided, but I love the way this
[21:23] : looks underneath. And this would be really cool in an art journal, right,
[21:29] : Ann? It just like is perfect on there. And this would be a beautiful page in an
[21:35] : art journal to do this cutout inside of an art
[21:40] : journal and then to have journal writing around her.
[21:46] : Oh, I love her. Talk about gratitude
[21:52] : for the mystery of nature. And the more deeply connected we are to
[21:58] : mist my mystery, the deeper appreciation we have for nature as well. And I had
[22:06] : all my little word cutouts and I left them on my other table over there. It feels like she needs some words on or
[22:13] : around her. So, this is super cool and I'm not sure the direction I want to go
[22:18] : with it. So, I'm gonna set that one aside for a moment.
[22:25] : And I'm gonna come back over here.
[22:33] : When I put it in the the sort of frame like that, it feels more like it's a
[22:38] : reflection, like a mirror image or reflection, which I really appreciate.
[22:50] : And I definitely there's something about this flower here
[23:00] : and this opening of our hearts, right? this opening of our hearts
[23:14] : and to not feel like when you're using tarot or oracle cards as inspiration
[23:22] : for your art making that you have to capture every aspect or element of the
[23:29] : card but to remember the card is simply there as inspiration to get started. It
[23:35] : might inspire your journaling. It might simply
[23:41] : be a color palette that you play with. So, I'm not trying to create
[23:49] : a mimic or, you know, a direct representation here.
[24:02] : And I think this feels to me like that heart opening and expanding in love and
[24:08] : gratitude. And what if that is like overflowing?
[24:15] : Oh, there it is. Overflowing the edges of herself. Okay, this one's going to turn out being a whole piece that feels
[24:23] : really beautiful and is going to live perhaps on my desk for a while where I
[24:30] : can really see her. This one won't end up being part of the paper doll chain,
[24:40] : but this is such a good example of just always like
[24:46] : following the mystery of our creative process. Yes, she does. Anna look like
[24:53] : mother earth. Follow your own intuition, your own process. Let yourself be
[24:58] : guided. by the experience rather than the need
[25:04] : to be predictive or have it all figured out. I love these the little red flowers
[25:12] : here. And this to me all of a sudden it feels
[25:18] : like she's overflowing with compassion and love for Earth and the environment.
[25:25] : She doesn't even need a face. I had pulled out some of our faces from
[25:33] : this month and just really loved this space, but this one feels like this is
[25:39] : an energetic sharing. Hi, Lorraine.
[25:45] : Anna was telling me you're still in Spain. I hope you're having a wonderful trip. Lovely that you could pop in for
[25:53] : just a moment. And if you're just joining me, we are
[25:59] : creating paper dolls or in this case, I think it's going to end up being an art
[26:05] : journal or standalone image inspired by a tarot card. And for the last week of
[26:11] : November, our theme is gratitude for the mystery. Gratitude for the mystery.
[26:19] : And what I love about this is this. All this white
[26:27] : space
[26:33] : is part of that mystery, but it also feels like it could have a beautiful watery wash to kind of pull in this
[26:42] : guardian of the water. And maybe the the turtle is going to be over here as well.
[26:50] : My gosh, I'm loving this. Fun to do something a little bit different. So, I
[26:57] : am going to I don't have any tape right here. So, I
[27:04] : am going to take a piece of scrap paper
[27:13] : and I'm just going to You could do this with tape if you had
[27:18] : tape, but it would be an adventure to go find some tape. So, I am going to just
[27:25] : put this here to hold the parts of this mask together.
[27:33] : This is one of those happy accidents.
[27:43] : And now I am going to I happen to have my watercolors. I'm
[27:49] : going to grab my watercolors and I'm going to get some color down on this
[27:54] : background image. Move those out of the way.
[27:59] : Move these out of the way. So I'm not getting water and paint all over everything.
[28:11] : And we'll see how the watercolor does on this. Oh, maybe I can use these
[28:16] : beautiful handmade watercolors today. Move that away from my
[28:22] : monitor so I'm not totally spraying my monitor with water.
[28:29] : And I have these gorgeous handmade watercolors from Cosmic Creations.
[28:35] : I found her first on Facebook Marketplace and then on Etsy. She's a a Colorado creator.
[28:46] : And so I am just going to get some color down
[28:52] : on here. That was a little more purple maybe than I was thinking.
[28:58] : and letting go of perfection. Letting go of perfection. Heyon, good morning. Good
[29:04] : morning. Good morning. And if you weren't here at the beginning, this will be our last live
[29:10] : for November. I will take next week off
[29:15] : to for some rest and connection with
[29:20] : family. For those of you that celebrate here in the United States, wishing you
[29:26] : and your families a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday
[29:36] : and to take next week to catch up on your gratitude dolls
[29:44] : or to just make a doll, remembering it doesn't have to be 30 dolls.
[29:55] : See what else we got in here.
[30:02] : So, I've got some sparkles in here. When I think about the ocean, you know, when
[30:07] : we look at the ocean, sometimes we just glance out or any body of water and we
[30:13] : just see, oh, it's blue. But when you get up close and you really look and
[30:18] : Lorraine, I'm sure this is true in in Spain and in Malta, right? It's like you really see the the layers of so many
[30:27] : different colors in the water and it changes color depending on
[30:35] : the depth of the water, the light of the sun.
[30:44] : And this is making me happy. The simplicity of this is making me happy. I
[30:50] : love when things go in unexpected directions and
[30:57] : just trusting the the flow of that direction. I'm not trying to get this
[31:04] : right and you know it's taking me away from what I've done in the previous
[31:09] : weeks. And that is OK2.
[31:18] : I love watercolor for really simple mindful play. I could sit here and just,
[31:24] : you know, color pages of watercolor day after day.
[31:34] : I love this green. That one has just a little bit of sparkle. sparkle in it.
[31:41] : And I'm wondering if somewhere I have an image of a turtle.
[31:56] : And again, we're creating inspired by
[32:02] : either tarot or oracle cards today.
[32:07] : And I don't have my dryer sitting right here. And I don't want this to all get
[32:14] : wet. So I'm gonna set this aside for a few minutes
[32:21] : and see if it can get a little bit drier so I can put things together towards the
[32:27] : end of our time. And then I'm going to come back over here to my paper doll and
[32:33] : I want to look at the other card that we drew, the six of fire. And that
[32:42] : sort of empowering creativity, fiery energy, the movement of the dance, the
[32:50] : sensuality of moving our bodies freely to the beat of drums to gathering in
[32:57] : connection with a circle of women is always so empowering. And fire to me always holds
[33:05] : a lot of mystery as we're thinking about gratitude for the mystery today.
[33:12] : And so I'm going to work on a second doll while the other one dries here.
[33:20] : Making sure I'm not losing all my little pieces that belong over there. And I
[33:25] : love the colors. So this is lots of purples and sort of that burnt umber and
[33:32] : some deep blues. Definitely the colors of the fire coming out. So we can also,
[33:40] : you know, play with the inspiration of the colors and the symbolism in this
[33:47] : card to remind us of our own creative magic. And oftentimes it seems to flow
[33:54] : from mystery and not from the scene or the known.
[34:03] : So let's see if we can find something fire feeling.
[34:10] : So this is a a fun book about witchcraft that I bought with the intention of
[34:15] : cutting up and using for collage.
[34:22] : And it has art from throughout the ages. This publisher, Tashen, T A S C Hen,
[34:31] : makes the most amazing art books. I love the Black Kitty.
[34:41] : And this one had, you know, some There's a lot in the history. Oh, that
[34:47] : one feels like fire. um in the history and the dance, right? There's lots of movement and swirling
[34:54] : energy and people. So, this one shows a lot of the beliefs
[34:59] : about witchcraft and the ups and downs through history.
[35:06] : This one, somebody cut it out, but it was a there's a cauldron here, a flaming
[35:12] : cauldron. There's a beautiful candle which would represent that inner fire,
[35:20] : right? Like the dancing around the fire is not something that we often have the
[35:26] : opportunity to do in our daily lives, but it doesn't mean that we can't
[35:31] : imagine that's happening or simply light a candle to help us feel connected to
[35:37] : our own creative fire. I love this beautiful image.
[35:48] : All right. So, with her,
[35:53] : I want just the colors, not necessarily the the people energy, but just that
[36:00] : representation of my own inner creative fire.
[36:07] : So, I'm just gonna see if I can trace her. So, this is our goddess
[36:13] : template that we started the or the doll template we started the month with. I
[36:19] : just blew it up on my printer. Felt like I wanted a little bit bigger surface to
[36:26] : play with today.
[36:39] : And then we're working with the mystery, right? The mystery feels a little bit larger, a little unknown. We can
[36:46] : definitely tap into that. But maybe these two larger images are kind of holding space
[36:53] : and intention for this whole month of gratitude that we have been working on.
[37:02] : And as I'm working on this, I think about, you know, the intensity of fire
[37:09] : may feel a little Let me give her some sleeves here. A little intimidating
[37:16] : or scary. I think I've shared before that my house
[37:21] : burnt down when I was in seventh grade.
[37:27] : And fire can be a very scary thing. I've lived both in California and here in
[37:34] : Colorado, places where fires have Isn't it beautiful, Ivonne? So beautiful. Um
[37:40] : the whole series is beautiful. And if you watch online, you can sometimes
[37:46] : um find them used copies like on on sale, right? So definitely keep an eye
[37:53] : out for those.
[38:00] : And we think about fire as being about devastation, but it's also about
[38:07] : clearing. It's about survival, right? It made such a difference when we
[38:14] : humans discovered fire and were able to stay warm and cook food, right? Like
[38:21] : fire has so many benefits. And I don't know about you, it brings
[38:27] : about memories of dancing around the fire as a child.
[38:35] : Maybe she's going to have these darker parts for her arms and hands over
[38:44] : here.
[38:51] : So think about your relationship to power, right? Fire is often a symbol of
[38:58] : power. How do you express or own your
[39:05] : creative power in healthy and nurturing ways?
[39:12] : Power also can get a bad wrap, but it's necessary for our thriving.
[39:20] : Looks like she has big oven mitts on.
[39:31] : I love all these swirly bits here.
[39:59] : And when I look at that circle of women, that idea of, you know, just dancing
[40:05] : freely without worry or concern or self- judgment, but just being in that really
[40:13] : beautiful, this is going to be some crazy fiery hair up here. Although it
[40:20] : could be the the face. It's hard to see, but there is a face in there.
[40:27] : I just finished reading this absolutely fantastic book. Oh, maybe these this is
[40:34] : going to be her face here called How to be Enough. And uh talking about, you
[40:41] : know, all the ways that we stop ourselves
[40:46] : It's the perfect book for perfectionists and people that are overly
[40:52] : self-critical. I like the image on the back side of
[40:57] : this, too. And she talks about how, you know, our
[41:03] : our fear of looking bad or being judged by others stops us from having fun,
[41:11] : right? or letting letting go and relaxing,
[41:17] : right? I think she needs some little boots. So, she is very very fiery energy
[41:23] : for sure.
[41:30] : That face is too small. So, I I want to remember that my my fire and my creative
[41:36] : power are good things. That they're healing and nurturing things.
[41:42] : that they don't have to subsume me or anyone else.
[41:50] : So, this beautiful compassionate smile feels like appropriate. This is one of
[41:57] : the faces I shared earlier this month in your Paper Doll
[42:02] : Chronicles emails.
[42:21] : So, it feels like we have a good base down on this one. And it feels like this
[42:28] : is like the undercurrent of what's happening inside of her, but she doesn't
[42:33] : feel finished. But I'm also almost thinking that she needs some flowy
[42:39] : fabric or some tulle. I want to be able to still see what's
[42:44] : underneath.
[42:56] : And like the other one, there's something about, you know, connecting to that energy of the fire that feels
[43:03] : important. just like connecting to the energy of love and compassion.
[43:15] : Something about these feathers that feel really fun.
[43:22] : More cats. I keep being drawn to black cats. So, I'm going to go ahead and cut
[43:28] : this little kitty out. It seems to want to be part of the
[43:33] : story.
[43:40] : Little kitty familiar here showing up.
[43:57] : And it feels like it needs some of this other color to kind of like
[44:03] : not calm the fire down, but to just kind of um I don't know, something here that
[44:11] : there wants to be more than just the red of the of the flames.
[44:20] : though. I do love this little piece of this cauldron here.
[44:35] : I think it was just from a creative perspective, it needed a little a little balance, right? It needed something to
[44:42] : kind of pull the eye out and uh bring things back together. So maybe Okay,
[44:50] : she wants to have some green boots.
[45:03] : So, both of these two dolls today feel very different, very potent.
[45:11] : They are two that I will definitely make time to really
[45:17] : sit with and do some journaling with, really look
[45:23] : at. And I'm going to go and grab those prompts for this week and see how the
[45:30] : prompts help me to understand what's showing up here
[45:38] : in these dolls for me. What is it about my own gratitude for mystery that is
[45:44] : being sparked and inspired?
[46:01] : Trying to see if I can keep those all as one piece, but we'll see. Ah, close enough.
[46:31] : She has some green boots and this is going to be somehow her part
[46:38] : of her dress. Hola Blanca, how are you? Fun to see you here today.
[47:23] : Glad to have you visiting. I'm glad you're doing well. How's the grandbaby or the little one?
[47:30] : Because I think you have more than one. All right. I love this. feels like that
[47:37] : fire is being transmuted and flowing up and out from her so that she's sharing
[47:44] : that creative energy, not holding on to it or feeling consumed
[47:50] : by it.
[47:57] : I love working this way with intuitive collage. As most of you know, this isn't
[48:03] : about making something that is
[48:09] : aesthetically beautiful, but instead making something that is deeply
[48:14] : meaningful as we complete our month of gratitude
[48:21] : goddesses. And that little kitty is there to show
[48:27] : his support. Okay, that little bit of green
[48:33] : definitely helped. Still feeling like she needs some
[48:39] : texture or something kind of flowy. Let me see what I have
[48:46] : over here. Oh, look here. We have some lace. I was
[48:52] : playing with a jelly plate the other day and playing with and oh, and I think
[48:59] : this was paint and maybe some acrylic inks. Oh, here's the more of those
[49:06] : colors. That one's not long enough
[49:13] : unless I do two layers. Yeah, it's what she needed texture. something about the
[49:20] : the texture and the dancing, right? When we looked at the this six of fire,
[49:27] : they're all there's lots of movement and like movement in the fire, movement of
[49:32] : the dancers and the drummers. And so, this needed some of that flowy
[49:40] : energy. All right. And yes, I'm going to cover up what's underneath, but I know that
[49:47] : it's there, right? That is the magic of this kind of work is just being willing
[49:54] : to let go. No one needs to see those layers. I know that they're there.
[50:06] : So maybe she needs some multiple layers
[50:15] : where she feels more flowy and like she is ready for the dance.
[50:29] : Just cut a little bit of this off so we don't have to wrap so much around.
[50:35] : Might
[50:48] : trim even a little more of that off to fit. And then let's see. Do we want some
[50:53] : of this as well? Yeah, it feels like
[50:59] : lots of layers. It feels like she wants to be lots of layers. And it also feels like maybe
[51:05] : Some of this wants to come up here as well instead of this.
[51:15] : It's like she's being crowned queen of the fire.
[51:24] : Well, that feels fun. All right. So, I am going to
[51:34] : trim off a little more of these bottom parts.
[51:43] : But just as I would with a paper doll, I'm kind of gonna leave the tabs of
[51:49] : fabric at the top so I can just wrap that around easily and either glue stick
[51:55] : it or staple it.
[52:01] : Putting the acrylic paint on to the lace made it a little
[52:06] : bit stiffer, which actually makes it perfect for using in collage. So it's not quite so
[52:14] : flimsy and all those little pieces will get
[52:19] : saved for some other project. Thank you, Blanca.
[52:26] : Or maybe I don't know. I kind of like her how she is too.
[52:33] : So, as with traditional paper dolls, maybe her skirt needs to be removable so
[52:41] : that she can remember to return to center and to her
[52:49] : core, right? that sometimes it's easy to cover up those external
[52:58] : beliefs, clothes, stories,
[53:03] : and hide our authentic selves right behind
[53:12] : maybe a shawl of lace. Maybe that's what she needs. Yeah, because it feels like
[53:18] : she needs to stay connected to this inner fire.
[53:24] : So, she could just have a shaw of lace.
[53:32] : Now she feels like a Spanish lady with her shaw of lace. Okay. Not sure. So,
[53:40] : I'm going to let it rest for now. So, this is where when you get stuck to
[53:46] : remind yourself to take a break, walk away
[53:52] : because she's pretty stinking cute the way she is right now and representing
[53:57] : that energy of creative fire, so I don't need to keep adding to her.
[54:05] : But she might need some different outfits to
[54:11] : put on at one time or another. But for right now, I think she's fine. Let me
[54:17] : grab my watercolor that we painted up earlier. So, still a little damp. So,
[54:26] : this was our guardian of water. This was our card that was all about
[54:38] : compassion, love, healing energy
[54:43] : for self, for the world, for the environment, for others.
[54:48] : And this was the one that ended up being this fun, happy accident when I was
[54:54] : cutting out the doll. And she is going to live in
[55:00] : this beautiful energy of water here.
[55:14] : And I think this is the one out of all the ones that I've made so far that is
[55:19] : going to linger on my desk for a while.
[55:35] : And I love the the two of them together because we have this
[55:43] : fire and water energy.
[55:49] : So we have the cooling, healing, compassionate flow of water and the
[55:55] : magic and energy of creative fire. So they're fun together.
[56:02] : This feels like that opening of the heart space, the heart chakra, right?
[56:07] : That opening of the center of compassion and letting that flow up and over and
[56:14] : out.
[56:21] : And I think why I needed this little bit of red in here was it felt like this uh
[56:28] : almost like that little bit of little bit of fire and little bit of color
[56:35] : contrast
[56:44] : growing up and out. We have the beautiful flow of water. So it feels like allowing
[56:51] : that compassionate self to grow and express itself. So two things that ended
[56:58] : up being completely different and unexpected today inspired by tarot cards
[57:06] : from the Gian Tarot. I love love love this deck. This is the fool card, I
[57:14] : think, or maybe the hanging card. Um, her artwork is beautiful. The stories
[57:21] : and the meanings of the cards are beautiful. Where's our little guardian of six of
[57:27] : fire here? So just a fun different way to connect to our gratitude for mystery
[57:35] : both through the creative process through the inspiration of the oracle
[57:41] : cards and as I said now I look forward to going back to our list of journal
[57:48] : prompts and connecting even more to these figures that have
[57:54] : shown up right here to be my guides and supporters on the path today.
[58:04] : Thank you, Blanca. Thanks everyone for joining me today. Thanks for joining me
[58:09] : live. Thanks for catching the replay and I'd love to see the ways that you let
[58:17] : tarot and oracle cards influence your paper doll making this week. Have a good
[58:22] : one. Wishing all of you a very happy holiday next week and I will see you
[58:29] : guys all in December for our last project with our year of paper dolls.
[58:35] : Have a good one everybody. Bye-bye.
[58:44] : That just uh those cards are so glary.