Random Acts of Kindness

or RAKs, are something that I only became aware of in the last year or so. Sure, I’ve always been aware of random acts of kindness, anonymous benefactors, all that kind of thing, but the concept of organising this was not something that had come up on my radar.

…until I became involved in the online planner community. This is an actual thing and Facebook groups, forums, blogs are dedicated to organising groups of people who send little parcels, or happy mail, to each other!

I’m a member of one group on facebook which is run solely for this purpose and a few others where it’s not the sole purpose of the group but people are so generous and kind so you have the option of putting your address on a spreadsheet/document to indicate that you’re happy to give and receive parcels of joy.

I’ve RAK’d and been RAK’d several times this year, and it’s always a lovely surprise. I tend to send things that I no longer need or think someone would get more use out of, particularly filofax inserts, stickers (I’m just not that type of person it turns out), samples of patterned or washi tape, all sorts. Mostly stationery but I’m hoping as I get more accomplished with my creative creations I can expand to sending mail art.

Photos below of some of the happy mail I’ve sent and received!

The Documented Life Project: challenges 1 – 4

Week One: photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door

This is a picture of our front door taken early in the morning as I left for work. The streetlights were shining over the garden wall which drew a diagonal line across it, I thought it looked kind of cool. In the winter I leave the house before sunrise, or very soon after it, and come home in the dark so it seemed appropriate to photograph it like this. I also love the way the light from inside shines out from the windows. The door came with the house when we moved in three years ago, and at first I thought it was hideous but I kind of like it now. 

Around the picture I’ve written some quotes that I like and appropriate to the challenge. The big one at the top is a quote from Lord of the Rings, inscribed on the The Doors of Durin, the West-gate of Moria. I didn’t want to attempt to draw the elvish! The other quotes are: “home is any four walls that enclose the right people”, “if opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door”, “over the horizon lies another adventure”, “we’re all mad here” (Alice in Wonderland) and ” I’m quite ready for another adventure” (LotR). 

I left it a few weeks after writing the quotes then decided to add a few doodles.

As this was the first challenge it seem appropriate to by done on the back of the monthly calendar for January. This was part of the 2014 desk calendar from the Foot and Mouth Painting Artists that I mentioned in my last post.

Week Two: Say Cheese!!! Incorporate a selfie into your planner.

The last selfie I took was on a ski slope on our last day of holiday. My happy place is in snow so I thought it appropriate! I covered the back of a postcard from Switzerland in Christmas wrapping paper, stuck the photo on with snowflake and stars washi tape and wrote in black marker. It’s a little basic but it makes me happy. 

Week Three: Add an envelope from your mailbox.

I borrowed this idea from one of the ladies on the DLP facebook group. She’d turned a business envelope inside out and used the pattern as a background – such a good idea, I’m now looking at envelopes in a whole new way!

On the window side I used all 24 of my colouring pencils to follow the triangular pattern then used a black Sigma Micro 05 pen to draw bubbles.

For the back I used the inside of the envelope flap as a starting line and used a small watercolour set (that had been sat at the bottom of my crafting drawer for years) and created a rainbow effect. Rainbows seem to be a theme that I keep coming back to – my mother created rainbow screen prints while at art school. Once the paint was dry I used the black Micron 05 pen to draw branches. I was going to add flowers but I really liked the way they turned out so I went over the lines with a Tombow Brush Pen in Redwood to make them slightly thicker.

Finally I inserted a postcard I bought in the Paperchase sale, adding a washi tape tab for easy access. I love the way the child in the picture peeks out of the window!

Week Four: Write a secret message and then paint over all but one key word

I struggled with ideas for this one, I don’t really write anything particularly secret in my diary so spent a lot of time trying to think up what to write! 

In the end I copied out the lyrics of ‘Sing’ by Gary Barlow and the Commonwealth Band. The song was written for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Gary Barlow went all over the Commonwealth to find singers and musicians to contribute. There are some really lovely lyrics (as there always are with Gary’s songs) and it’s such an uplifting song to hear. I was singing along at the top of my voice on a recent car journey! 

I wrote the lyrics in purple Sigma Micron 05 pen and then covered with Tombow Brush pens. I left two parts free of much colour, the two parts that speak the most to me. I may end up coming back and doing more as it feels slightly unfinished. 

You might have recognised the washi tape tab to the left of the card – yup, I used the postcard from week 3 for this challenge!

The Documented Life Project

One of my goals this year is to write something in my diary every day and to be more creative with my journalling. 2014 is a big year for me so i wanted to create a permanent record of it. I’d thought about art journalling to do this but felt quite anxious to try as I haven’t picked up a paint brush in years. In December someone in a Facebook group commented about the Documented Life project and I thought I’d check it out.

The Documented Life Project was thought up by five talented artists based in the US as a way to plan, journal and create all in one place. They use a Moleskine week plus notes format to create a gorgeous book with weekly prompts to inspire your art and writing. More info can be found on their website: art to the 5th.

Immediately I was drawn to it but wanted to do it in my own way. I already have a great planning system in my Midori Traveler’s Notebook and didn’t want to mess with that so decided to just combine the last two elements. I settled on using a series of A5 notebooks and filling them with something every day. At the end of the year I’ll bind them somehow so I have a big thick volume for 2014.

I’m using a leather, lizard print Filofax Flex to hold the current journal notebook plus a random selection of paper/card/postcards that can be painted/coloured/doodled on and ‘tipped in’ (stuck in with masking or washi tape from either the spine or page edge). The jotpad that came with the flex is being used to brainstorm ideas when each weekly prompt is released.

I love this set up as I can pick it up and take it anywhere, along with my trusty pencil case . Mostly I write on my desk or in bed just before going to sleep but it’s already been with me on holiday to Switzerland for new year. 

The notebook is a Clairefontaine Age Bag A5 notebook (bought from Bureau Direct). I use fountain pens with all sorts of coloured inks for most of my writing so love Clairefontaine paper for its smooth texture and lack of bleed through. I love the marbled effect on the cover so don’t want to change it too much but I’ve made it a bit more personalised by adding a few bits:

I’m currently working on TDLP challenge 5 and I’ll do a separate post for challenges 1-4 and then one for each challenge as I complete them but for now here’s a few photos of what’s in my diary.

Inside front cover (calendar plus my quote to start the year):

Diary page from ski holiday. I stuck the piste map in to show what we’d done that day:

I have a page a day desk calendar of Disney scenes so incorporate that every day if I can, either by sticking in the whole page or cutting it up. I also will stick in things from my day and doodles/tangles.

I’m also cutting up a 2013 desk calendar from the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists and will use that as some extra pages. This association is amazing and the artists produce gorgeous work: I purchase a set of their cards twice a year (general and Christmas). The calendar always comes free with the set of Christmas cards and it seems a waste to recycle the cards once a month has finished, so in they’ve gone!