Positive Affirmation mixed media tags - Sherry Canino Creative Team Thursday

Hi Creative friends!  Sherry Canino here for the Jessica Sporn Designs Creative Team.  For those who know me you know I just love to create tags.  Tags are a fun way to make a “mini” art piece especially when you don’t have lots of time.  Plus, creating tags gives me an opportunity to have something to “giveaway” (one lucky commenter will win these 3 tags details at the end of the post).

I have chosen to create some positive affirmation tags this week in my video tutorial, because we can all use some positive inspiration in our lives.  So come along with me and let’s create some uplifting tags together.

Stencils used in this project are:
Cascading Leaves
Sacred Words and Marks 

Stamps used:
Whimsy Butterflies

To win the tags:

• Comment on this post  
• Don’t forget to Include your email address and 
• Share this post somewhere on social media - lets spread positive inspiration everywhere together friends!! 

Winner will be drawn at random.  Comments close June 4th, 2017 6pm EST.  Winner will be posted in the comment below on June 5th at 11am EST as well as on my personal blog and Facebook page which you can find in the links below.  Good Luck friends and spread that happiness!!

XO - Sherry

Sherry Canino, a former accountant, is a self taught mixed media artist and owner of Canino’s Artistic Café. She also works as an art therapist for a local organization.  Her style is whimsical, colorful and inspirational and has been featured in Syracuse Women’s Magazine.  She offers local as well as private art classes in her Liverpool Studio, and art journal or art therapy classes on location for businesses and schools.  Find Sherry on Facebook , Instagram, Etsy and on her blog.

THANK YOU SHERRY!  To see all of the Creative Team posts, click here! 

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

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Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

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Thank You!

How To: See the Divine in Everything

Stencil Girl recently released seven new designs of mine! Over the next few weeks, I will be showing you how I used them.

Today, I'm sharing the Love is for Everyone Script, and See the Divine in Everything stencils, that were inspired by insights I've had in meditation.

I designed them so that you could mix and match the words to make different phrases, besides the obvious, such as:

everything is Divine

I am Divine

I see the Divine

Love is Divine

Love is meant to lift us up

lift up out of the darkness

see Love in the darkness

I am in Love 

Love is everything

lift up the Divine in everything

Love everyone and everything

lift everyone up in Love

You get the idea! I am sure there are many more!

Of course, you can also use each stencil on its own, like this:

You can also watch "Divine in everything" on YouTube here.  

I hope my videos and tutorials spark your creativity. If you use any of my stencils or stamps, or are inspired by techniques I share, please let me know so I can feature you!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

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Free Download - Art Affirmations

On Tuesday, December 27, a long-time friend of mine went into sudden cardiac arrest during the cool-down in her daily exercise class.  My friend, Lynne, was in great shape, ate sensibly and moderately, never smoked, only drank socially, and had no warning signs that she might experience such an event.

So consider this a personal public service announcement😊

Sudden Cardiac Arrest, or SCA, is different than a heart attack.  A heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart is blocked, causing muscular failure to that area of the heart. SCA is a shut down of the heart due to erratic beating.  Our internal circuit breaker flips, the heart immediately stops beating, stops sending oxygen to the brain and rest of the body.  Seconds later, a person loses consciousness and has no pulse.  If the victim does not receive treatment within minutes, death occurs.  In fact, there is only an 8% survival rate.

My friend was in a cool down in her class when the person next to her noticed that she wasn't moving and that her body was spasmed in an awkward position.  The studio did not have an AED machine - which would have given her the best chance of resuscitation.  However, her instructor was trained in CPR, and there were two nurses waiting for the next class.

Within minutes, the three of them began working on her while waiting for the EMTs to survive.  She had no pulse and had begun to turn blue.  When the EMT's arrived, they had to shock her 3 times before they got a pulse.  However, Lynne did not regain consciousness.

The cardiologist at the hospital recommended that she be put in an induced hypothermic coma for 48 hours, lowering her body temperature to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, to protect her brain from any further injury than might have been caused by oxygen deprivation while her heart was stopped.

A fact that her family and I had to accept while we waited for three long days is that the majority of cardiac arrest survivors have some degree of brain injury and impaired consciousness.  Some stay in a persistent vegetative state.  Therefore, after they warmed her and gradually reduced her sedation, we had no way of knowing whether the Lynne we knew would come back to us.

After Lynne regained consciousness (on the 30th), it was not clear whether her movements were purposeful, and whether her eyes were focused on anything in particular.  However, on New Year's Eve, she began to nod yes and no in a plainly purposeful way.  The doctors recommended against getting overly optimistic, yet were thrilled that there was purposeful consciousness.

Two weeks later, I am thrilled to say that Lynne is back.  While time might indicate lingering effects, she is attacking her physical therapy with gusto, and her speech, memory and cognition seem unimpaired.  She has defied all the odds so far, and I have no doubt she will continue to do so.

Every day that I sat by Lynne, I drew words of affirmation in stars and hearts.  These kept my hands busy and my mind calm.  It was great art therapy for me, and I have made her a garland of these little prayers to decorate her hospital room.  Here they all are on one document.  Please feel free to download them for your personal use (by clicking and saving, or dragging the image to your desktop) and give them to anyone who needs to be lifted up.

TAKEAWAYS:
Please - make sure that any exercise studio you frequent has an AED machine, and that ALL of the instructors are trained in CPR.  This will make a difference in life or death, should you or someone around you suffer a SCA.



As illustrated in this video, if you are a bystander to someone who collapses from SCA, call 911 and then push hard and fast in the center of the chest to the beat of any tune that is 100 to 120 beats per minute, such as the classic disco song "Stayin' Alive." Immediate CPR can double or even triple a person's chances of survival.  You can do this without any training.  Your actions can ONLY HELP.

My best wishes for a happy and healthy 2017!

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

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Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

Unlock and Burst Through

I've been creating these stars as I manifest prayers and blessings for a very dear friend of mine who went into the hospital over the holidays.   So I apologize for not having new content to kick off 2017...

It was a rough weekend.  Emotions ran high; it was stressful.  It's almost like I could have written the following blog today, but this a throwback to 2012.  My daughter is grown up now, my mom older, I'm older... but the same self-talk rears its ugly head from time to time.  Funny how we continue to have the same struggles pop up over the years.  I hope this will encourage you to unlock and burst through moments like these.

"Today, I finished this art journal page, which is very inspired by the amazing e-class I am taking, Bloom True.  It says, "I will unlock, burst through or shatter the containers I have made with my mind."  I don't know if it's a little depression from closing the lake house or the transition into the school year and all the "to dos" that are cropping up, but I have had a very negative soundtrack running in my head.  It goes something like this:

• I'm a bad mother - I am often irritable and critical of Samy (my 11 year old).   I don't bake, do crafts with her, and so much of the time I just "vant to be alone," to quote Greta Garbo.   Is it horrible that what I really want to do is spend time alone painting?
• I'm a bad daughter - I am so often short-tempered with my mom.  I don't cut her any slack at all.  I feel bad about that, because really -- we're so much alike (which is probably why...)
• I'm a bad friend - I forget birthdays.  I don't stay in touch or reach out enough.  Is it horrible that what I really want to do is spend time alone painting?
• I'm not a "real" artist.  So much of my work is commercial - I don't trust my process, my intuition, my materials.  I'm not original...

Wow - just writing and re-reading this makes me gag a little!  When do I feel best?  When I am actively engaged in helping others -- like in our volunteer work in Guatemala, or when I am lost in my artwork.  Clearly, to be indulging in all this self-criticism, I have too much time on my hands.   ENOUGH!  As my friend Marcie would say, get out and walk the dog!  Burst through this container of self doubt and judgment and find some joy in nature!

Two good quotes for today:

"Life does not accommodate you.  It shatters you.  It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better.  Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition." (from ThinkExist.com -- no attribution)

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."  Peter Marshall

Question:  Do you have a negative soundtrack?  How do you turn it off once it starts playing?

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

InLinkz.com

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you are entering a GIVEAWAY, please add your email address in the event I need to contact you.

To avoid SPAM, please write it like this: jessicasporndesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You!

A Free Holiday Download

 May all beings on our beautiful planet...

be happy and free from suffering and its causes...

 

and may our thoughts, words and actions

contribute to this happiness and to peace on earth.

Please feel free to download and use this for your personal use.  It is my gift to and wish for you.

Blessings of the season.

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

InLinkz.com

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you are entering a GIVEAWAY, please add your email address in the event I need to contact you.

To avoid SPAM, please write it like this: jessicasporndesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You!