Helping out after Harvey

As many of you know I live in the Houston area and we’re dealing with a lot right now. The devastation left after Hurricane Harvey is so much more than anticipated — ever. My family and I were some of the very lucky ones that came out on the dry side. Many of our friends and neighbors were not.

I’m about to head out for another day of helping with the aftermath. But, before I do, I wanted to finally post my latest project that I got started when the storm was raging overhead.

During one of the nights of the worst part of the storm, I couldn’t sleep after what seemed like endless rain and so many tornado warnings blaring on our cell phones. I think it was day three of the storm. I lost count. The days keep getting blurred one into another. So, I got up and did what I do to relax — I started drawing. I don’t remember why but I decided to look up which is the Texas state bird. I didn’t know that it’s the Northern Mockingbird — a bird I see almost every day — makes sense. This is the illustration that I drew that night (I used an iPad Pro and then added some watercolor textures in Illustrator). It’s the inspiration for the Northern Mockingbird Gift Set that is now available in the shop.

 

I didn’t think much after finishing it. It was something to keep my mind at ease (it worked). But as the tragedy of this last week became more apparent and I realized that we were in it for the long haul I want to contribute a little bit of what I do to help out. While I’m physically doing something to help out our friends and neighbors, you can help me in my efforts and get something fun to make in the process.

I’ve been working on this a little bit every night after running around during the day. This project has helped me unwind in the evenings. I’m at that point that I’m so tired I can’t fall asleep right away. Being crafty comes to the rescue — again!

 

As I put together the artwork and the cards I realized that I was missing a third shade of the color of paper I was using. Since running out to my nearest craft store isn’t an option right now (either it’s not open or it’s flooded — I’m not sure which at this point), it occurred to me to use a colored pencil to darken the bottom half of the leaves to get that third shade I needed. It worked. The background paper and the bottom halves of the leaves are the same colored paper. By adding the extra shade of teal with a colored pencil I darkened it and made the texture of the paper stand out in the process. I need to keep this little technique in mind for future projects.

Another little note: If I would’ve had my way I would’ve used a slightly lighter tone of gray for the top layer of the bird. But again, I was limited to using what I have on hand.

 

So, here’s the part where you can help me out. While I’m out running around I hope that this little set sells like crazy because I will donate 100% of the proceeds to the Houston Food Bank. Right now every little bit helps.

Paper crafting has always been a fun and therapeutic thing for me to do, so why not make it a great way to contribute to a good cause too? Are you with me?

If you have prayers and thoughts that you can forward to Houston and all our surrounding towns I’d appreciate that too. So many people need them.

Thank you and have an awesome and creative week!

XO – Patricia
PS – One last idea: Enlarge the artwork for the cards to a size that you can frame but instead of using card stock for the background use handmade paper or a watercolor sheet painted with the same color of teal that I use here. It would look closer to the original that I made. Have fun with it!

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UPDATE
Thank you SO much to all of you that ordered this set. Thanks to your support we were all able to make a donation that was larger than I thought this effort would add up to. $5 x many friends added up to a little more than $300. Thank you, thank you! 🙂