Creative Deed Project

I follow Gretchen Millers, 6 Degrees of Creativity Blog. She is a fellow art therapist and is very active in field.  She sent out an email calling for participants to be a part of an Art Filled Postcard Exchange Project.
"Earlier this summer at the national art therapy conference in Baltimore, inspiration for a new creative collaboration was sparked during a 6 Degrees of Creativity meet-up, as well as a focus group I led on social media's impact on creative motivation. These initial dialogues resulted in art therapist Nancy Lautenbach and me to brainstorm ideas for a new creative collaboration. In the spirit of the Creative Deed Project launched by 6 Degrees of Creativity in 2014 and Nancy's viewing of The Big Hope Show at the American Visionary Art Museum while we were in Baltimore, we are excited to announce a postcard art exchange called "Art-filled Hope"." 6 degrees of creativity blog

I immediately jumped on board and said yes.  The goal was to create 3 hope filled inspirational postcards and then send them to the 3 participants that you were emailed which could be anywhere throughout the world.  I got my 3 mailed out in early September and then on FaceBook I saw that my friend/past art therapy supervisee was also partaking in this project. We decided to create postcards for each other and mail them.  She received all 4 of hers but I only received 3. Bummer! Oh well I still loved opening that mailbox and finding something beautiful and inspiring instead of just junk and bills!!  

Below are cards I made. Since I made an extra one I turned that into a card I sent to a friend.

These are the ones I received in the mail:

Sock Monkey Exchange

I've been wanting to participate in more art based larger community projects that come full circle. My inspiration for this was seeing my friend Joyce's collection of art journals that came from online art groups she has joined over the years. She starts her art journal then it get's sent around the world to other people that agreed to be a part of this project. At the same time they are also sending their journals around to everyone. Eventually you get your backs and have an amazing art journal from around the world.  One evening I surfed the internet for a community project like this but instead spent hours sucked into the online world checking out different art based blogs. I ended up following a few and one of those that I now follow is called "6 Degrees of Creativity".

A couple of weeks ago the facilitator put out a call for a sock monkey exchange (http://6degreesofcreativity.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/calling-sock-monkey-makers/) and I jumped in on being a part of this project. Partially because as a kid sock monkeys scared me because they looked like this:

Which reminded me for some reason of the bad monkeys from Wizard of Oz.  I've seen cuter ones these days and wanted to challenge myself in trying to make one. I also liked the idea of sending it to someone and not having any idea of the one that you will receive in return.  I searched online and found a good sock monkey tutorial blog that I used for most of it but the decorating portion was all me. Do you recognize where the tutu tule came from?

Here's pics of my sock monkey. It's being sent to a woman in NJ.  I will update with pics of the monkey I receive.

Update:  Below are some pictures of the sock monkey I received in the global trade. Mine came from Natalie Coriell from Maplewood, MO.  Thank you Natalie!