1000 Gifts Personal Challenge And A Watercolor Card Tutorial

There are times when a special book comes along.
A book like “1000 Gifts.”
The book that inspires you to take another look at your life.
And then you find the strength to begin a personal challenge.
One that may be long overdue.
A 1000 gifts personal challenge to be more thankful.
To fight for happiness once again.

1000 Gifts Personal Challenge

My friend gave me a book for my birthday.

With a pretty cover of a picture of a bird’s nest.

And a curly font that titled it, “One Thousand Gifts.”

Hmm.  I thought, I’ve been there, done that.  Then my mind trailed back, back in time.  Back to teenage working days at a boring job with too much time to think and some scary things rocking my little world.

Friends who said they didn’t need God, that youth days are party-all-out days.

Another friend brought to the edge of abyss, broken by shattered love.

I felt despair.  Is everything totally false?  Have I been living in a glass ball with unrealistic life values?

And I struggled.  And my mind searched.  My heart hoped one minute, then sizzled the next.

Which way was I going to take?

Way in the background, so far that I had forgotten they were there, my parents watched.  And prayed.  And, then, tentatively, because they knew it was my battle, they suggested ways to climb out of my rock-strewn cavern.

My mother told me to count my blessings.  All day long.  And write them down.  And do it even when I didn’t feel like it.

My boss gave me a vacation. “Go away somewhere,” she said.  She meant literally.  So I did.

Was it a miracle cure?  No.

Did anything change overnight?  No.

Did the tears dry and the smile return to my eyes?  Not right away.

Not until my feet had stepped on and slipped off more rocks than I could count.  But, then, after awhile, I realized I was not at the bottom of the cavern anymore.  I had made progress.  By taking another step onto another rock, and another, each one labeled with something I was thankful for, I was climbing.  So many rocks had to be named before I reached the top.  Some of them over and over.  And then…

I began to find Life again.

And now, years later, I opened this crisp, new book and drank in a story I could have written.  Never, ever with the same talent, but still, it shouted and echoed and then whispered.

So that begins the challenge.  This time, I’ll keep the list.  Because I know now that re-reading a list I have sweated, sighed, sang, bled, cried and flailed to create can recreate the healing.

And make me really, really thankful.

 

These are Ann’s Words…

”
That’s exactly what writing down 1000 gifts did to me. It woke me up to really living.

This dare to count a thousand gifts from His heart, it became the ultimate love dare, counting all the ways He loved me.

So this is the thing, friend: What if finding love is as simple as recording 1000 gifts?  We may be women weary. We may be women wounded. But we are women wooed. What woman doesn’t long to be loved, to be treasured, to be showered with gifts? A thousand — more!

Together, we can all list a thousand, more, and fill the world with our thanks, a thousand, endless thanks!

“

From A Letter From Ann

 

A 1000 Gifts Personal Challenge Watercolor Card

This 1000 Gifts Personal Challenge watercolor card can work two ways.

First, it can challenge you to create a project or try an art that you may not have done very often.

Then fill the inside of the card in the following days and weeks of the New Year as a personal challenge to list things to be thankful for.

The project may not make huge changes in your life, but even small moments of gratitude are a blessing.

 

 

Supplies:

• 12″ x 6″ white cardstock, folded into a square card
• 5.5″ square of heavy watercolor paper* (mine was mixed media, and it crinkled too much.)
• water for painting and rinsing brush
• Luminarte twinkling H2Os shimmering watercolors in blue zircon. Unavailable now; these* are similar.
• paper towel or cloth for blotting
• Cricut Design Space to design and cut thankyou word.

The links with asterisks are affiliate links.

 

Step 1 The Watercolor Square:

• Tape watercolor paper square onto work surface.
• Dip brush in the water, then liberally dampen the area you want to color on the watercolor paper.
• Dip wet brush in blue zircon pot and place dabs of color in the water puddle on the paper.
• Let the color move around, add more where needed.
• Get more water and color on the brush and splatter the paper.
• Let dry.  If it begins to buckle, place something heavy on it to help flatten it.
• Finally, when completely dry, adhere to the card front.

 

Step 2 The Thank You Word:

• Open Cricut Design Space and create a new project.
• Open Font and type the word “Thank You” in your desired font choice. Script fonts work best.
• Bring the letters together so they touch and make one continuous word, about 3.5″ wide. Some fonts work to bring the letters closer, and some work better to type individual letters and line them up separately. If you do that, then select all the letters and weld them together.
• Cut on white cardstock. We cut the words 3 times, and glued them on top of each other for a thicker cut out.

 

 

This is one small gift to you today
on the cusp of a New Year.
Create something
to bring peace and happiness to your life.
Take our challenge to create a list of gifts…
I wonder how many you will come up with?

 

And to help you remember this challenge in  2022,
add our pin to your “Thankful” board!