Words unleashed

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Homemade word deck - positive, inspiration
In the company of three wise and wonderful friends I made a happy little deck of words this weekend. It surprised me by being an almost unbelievably satisfying and joy inducing project. I'd hardly given it a scrap of thought in advance which I'm convinced is where part of the magic lies. I am rarely spontaneous in my creating; hopefully this will encourage me to be a little more so. I knew I'd have some great tools on hand as Kelly shares her toys very nicely indeed and I had a beautiful pack of coloured card that clearly made me buy it knowing what it wanted to be one day.

When we settled in to play I'd got the idea refined as much as knowing I wanted to create something like flash cards - flash cards of inspiring, thought provoking words. I have strong memories of sitting happily in our dining room as a child with my deck of cards, learning words, getting tested on spelling. I love to spell. I wish we'd had spelling bees instead of sports days at school. I knew I just wanted cards with words on them; something within my skills to create well and something that let the words take the centre stage. Let the words shine out. Sometimes I am too stuck in words, in thoughts and intellectualising but sometimes the perfect word can jump me off in to the happiest of feelings. I guess I knew on some level that I wanted a deck that would make that a more deliberate happy accident. Something I could trip over on purpose.

Once I started I literally found it nearly impossible to stop - from settling on 32 cards at the start the number just kept going up and up and up. Being with other word loving ladies helped ramp up the inspiration and I thought I was done as I prised myself out of the basement den with about 60 cards in my bag. That wasn't enough. I'm making them double-sided now and loving the moments when another jumps in and demands a spot. I have two simple criteria for inclusion - that they are positive and that they feel important to me in some way. They're journalling jump off points at the moment but also pretty decorations and just so much fun to have around.

Comments

Kel said…
I love that they've continued growing! I like to share my toys with lovelies who appreciate them - it's even more fun.
28 January 2015 at 13:37:00 GMT
Gerri said…
So vibrant and beautiful! Love them...
29 January 2015 at 21:41:00 GMT
Rachel said…
This is such a great idea...I love that you've been able to think of so many words! As an exercise this winter, I used 'what makes me feel amazing' as a journal prompt. I thought that I would be lucky to think of just a few things but set the timer for 10 minutes anyway as directed. A full page later and writing well after the timer went off, I was amazed by how many things I came up with. All such great stuff!!
2 February 2015 at 05:57:00 GMT
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