The Power of One*

"With great power, comes great responsibility." ~Uncle Ben, Spiderman

"Never underestimate the speed, reach or impact of the ripple you create." (me)

I have mentioned before I was a SU! demo for five years, and during that time I had less than 5 people (on average) attending my once-a-month workshops! (and it was pretty much always those same people! God bless them!!) I was always so much more interested in making art than money by trying to find new customers and hostesses for workshops, so my business never really grew without that networking piece. Staying at my stamp table in my room allowed me to develop my craft, but didn't give me an audience. Until I started my blog, that is.

Having a blog that people visit gives a person a lot of power. By "power" I'm not talking about the"I'm so much better than YOU!" kind of power! The power we ALL have to share information, about anything, with everyone in our network and beyond as fast as you can send an email or link someone! Working with Gina K who gives back in SO many ways, receiving emails from all over each day from people sharing their stories about why they visit this blog, and watching the hit counter rapidly rise makes me aware of the power and platform I have now to share something more than my crafting tips and stamps when I can.**

I don't thin I've ever been so excited to check my email (and it's always exciting!) as I have been the past few days to see messages coming from people both familiar and new to me ready to roll up their sleeves and help! WE are up to over 60 people participating in the Make Someone's day!! The WE is what's important here! Many that have written have said I have such a big heart for doing this, but I would argue differently, the credit goes to you! Please remember I am sending one card; the other 59 come from YOU. I'm asking you to help a person whose story has moved me, but you are signing up to help someone unknown to you because you already know how good it feels to give!! (If I were as generous as some of you might think, I wouldn't have that BIG basket of hoarded cards, remember?!!! LOL! But I'm working to change that!! and I couldn't do it with your help!) Your generosity inspires me to want to do more (and in this case, all I did this time was ASK a favor. Handing out a blog candy to one of you for this is a very small price to pay for the joy it is bringing me and the person who is receiving your artwork.) And it's gotten me thinking about even more things to do! I'm excited for what's coming next, and for everyone who joins me for the ride!

*The terrific writing and unforgettable characters make the book "The Power of One" a must read (although I have to admit I didn't like the last few pages, but only because I was liking it SO MUCH up until that! (You may feel differently, I won't give anything away! When you'll recommend a book you don't even like the ending for you really must think there's something in there worthwhile LOL!

**I want to be very clear I in no way think that bloggers NEED/SHOULD FEEL OBLIGATED to give away candys, arrange RAK requests, donate, or use their blogs for anything other personal enjoyment! Blogs are an outlet for people to enjoy creating in any way they want, reporting on anything they want, to any audience of any size they want. I've just been blessed in SO many ways this past year, many of which have come through the blogging process(connecting with peope I may have never met, learnign about things I might never have discovered), my cup is now running over, and I feel I'm being led to serve. Simply put, the reasons I had for starting a blog, (helping to market my stamps) have evolved. Now that so many more people are tuning in to what I have to say/think/can offer than I ever imagined would listen/be interested, I want to imagine something bigger than I ever imagined being able to do by myself for others. (Not to mention that I have the most amazing captive audience anyone could wish for! I've always said stampers/crafters are the nicest people!) :)

Thank you again! Have a great weekend!!!

PS: I almost forgot about the card! I've been meaning to make a quickie card with the Just So Hippy and Just So Hoppy using NO ANIMALS!! (Maybe not everyone wants to "say it with animals" ALL the time,) so how about a simple balloon-o-gram? I finally dipped into the odorless mineral spirits and Prismas for this! (They really do seem to glow, took a little more time than watercolor crayons, but the effect is VERY NICE!) These balloons are really fun to color, I find a large open, rounded space is one of the simplest things for ME to color/shade (probably because a sphere is the first 3 object I learned to shade/create in art classes, so I'm really comfortable with where the shadows are supposed to go!! LOL! This uses one balloon from each set, masked to give it a layered look. I'll be back with a tutorial of how I did the tin from yesterday, it just has a LOT of photos, haven't finished yet.