Gratitude Garland Day 1

This is the first day of a thirty day program about gratitude. In this course, you'll make a "Gratitude Garland™" created of 30 decorated strips of paper. You'll create each strip as a miniature art journal of gratitude, one per day. It's a ritual that is simple enough for anyone to do (including kids!) and quick enough for anyone to STICK to. At the end of the 30 days, you'll have a beautiful garland to use as a decoration or give as a special gratitude gift.
In addition to 30 days of thought-provoking, yet simple-to-follow, prompts to inspire your garland-making, you can download a workbook that includes instructions to begin your garland, templates for the strips, and over 150 "ThanksClippings", which are fantastic images, organized by theme, pre-sized and ready to print out and cut and paste onto your daily slips!
By utilizing the powerful combination of words and art, your creative expressions will instantly gain a special impact that enables you to take your feelings of gratitude to new levels. You'll also be re-awakening your creativity and your playful sense of artful experimentation, as you work with the "ThanksClippings™" and the inspiring prompts posted every day on this blog.

Your main goal for today is PREPARATION. If you get everything in place for your daily garland-making, the process will be much easier to stay with! Remember that this is a ritual, and will be most effective and exciting if you engage in it every single day for the next 30 days.

To this end, the mission for today is to accomplish the following:

1. Download the WORKBOOK by going to this PAGE and scroll down to the bottom and click on the Gratitude Garland Workbook to open the PDF.

2. Read page 2 of the workbook, which covers the background and instructions.

3. Print out 4 copies of page 3 (OR make 30 1" x 6" slips of paper). Feel free to print on colored, or patterned, paper.

4. Print out the pages of "ThanksClippings", so you have them handy when you are ready to work. You can even go ahead and cut them out, if you like.

5. Determine where your garland-making space will be. This needn't be anything fancy -- it could be a TV tray in the corner of your dining room. But if you have a specific place where you will make your slip each day, the process will be much easier!

6. Gather basic supplies and put them in your space. Tape, glue, markers, and scissors are top priorities. You can also have things like ribbons, paint, papers for collage with, fancy pens, magazines for cutting out images, 3-dimensional ephemera, and more. Again, having all your supplies together will make your garland-making easy and accessible.

7. Determine WHEN you will do your garland-making every day. Like any ritual, it is easier to keep up with this course if you plan to make your garland at a certain time each day. I like working at the end of the day, before bed. But you may find that you like to take some time each morning, or at lunch, or when the kids are napping. Whatever works for you is GREAT! Of course, if you can't make your daily "appointment" with yourself, don't worry – just try to schedule it in later. Remember, your daily link needn't take more than 5 minutes...or it can take as long as you'd like to explore a particular topic.

With these preparations in place, you are ready for your first chain, which you'll create tomorrow. Remember to gather everything together so that when you get your lesson, you can simply move to your creation space and PLAY!

Material copyrighted by Marney Makridakis of Artella.com. Used with permission by license.