What has happened to 2024! Where has the time gone? It feels like summer is slipping away and Christmas… the thought of it, the get ready, the shopping, shuts m down. And as it should right now, it’s not time to think of Christmas, unless you’re a crafter or greeting card designer. lol
Right now it’s time to think about summer, vacays, cookouts, warm weather, fireflies, and one of my favorite times of the year – the 4th of July! In my hometown of Bristol, Rhode Inland, we celebrate the country’s oldest and longest parade in the country. We celebrate for an entire month with concerts, races, fireman musters, contests, a carnival, balls, pageants, and our famous red, white, and blue stripe. There are family gatherings with relatives coming from all over, the streets are busy and everyone decorates their house or storefront.
Why do we celebrate? Freedom! In some cases I think many have forgotten about why we celebrate. Our freedom is sometimes overshadowed by the parties and festivities. But when the troops are marching in parade we are quickly reminded of the MIAs and POWs, the wounded survivors and the sacrifices they and their families have made. They have made scarifies, in some cases given their lives to keep our country free.
We are free to worship in the USA. Our troops fight for religious freedom in this country and I worship The One True God who gave the ultimate sacrifice of His Son for the cleansing of our sin. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one goes to the Father but through Him, John 14:6.
As part of exercising religious freedom, download this free wallpaper for your phone or device to help you memorize scripture, just click the image and save. If you want more free wallpaper search Memorize Mondays.
Time marches on and goes by quickly. We can easily lose sight of why we celebrate the 4th of July with all the parties and decorations. Let’s not take our freedom for granted. God Bless America.
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Welcome to May 7, 2024 where only in the USA would we celebrate packaging. Well, not just packaging, packaging design. As unusual as this maybe, from an artist’s perspective, not so unusual.
The actual physical design of a package takes the mind of an engineer. I am not wired that way. But the decoration or design on the package takes an artist, a graphic designer. Back in my day they were called commercial artists. Still not my wheelhouse. The closest thing I come to making a package is for a greeting card which you can watch a video here. And if you think about the front of a greeting card, it could be considered packaging for a sentiment. It’s a stretch.
Packaging goes back to the 1800’s and they were expensive. It was mostly reserved for luxury items, like jewelry and were not disposable. Manufacturers saw an opportunity and a benefit to promote “after use”, what we call recycling today or repurpose.
The punch-cut tobacco tins originally designed by the Dixie Queen company to resemble picnic baskets, and then came the lunch boxes. Dixie Queen company was stamped on the tin and these such items were popular into the early 1900’s.
This branded consumer packaging became popular in the 1900’s and the tradition continues today. The reusable grocery bag is a good example. How many other products do we buy that the packaging is reused or repurposed. Amazon boxes don’t count. My skin care products come in a nice sturdy box with magnetic closure that I use to organize my art supplies. I like to think I get more than just product, I get organization too.
Surface Pattern Design is a huge industry and probably something we take for granted. The next time you buy wrapping paper, or a notebook with a floral pattern, someone designed that. For instance, you can find this “Bee Sweet” pattern in my Society 6 shop.
Branding plays a huge role in how consumer’s decide in making purchases, from its attractiveness to its physical design. Think about it the next time you are out shopping or have to open one of those clam shell packages. Click on the link for further reading on National Packaging Design Day.
How much does the actual design and attractiveness of an item influence your purchase?
In the last post, I shared a creative process. I made up a game called “What If…” What if I just sat down to paint? What if I just made some marks? What if I mixed green and orange together? What if I tried something new or different? So I did. I sat down to paint and play and try some new art supplies. And I surprised myself.
When I was done, I actually liked what I painted. Was it perfect? No. Could I make improvements? Of course. Then I began to think. What if? What if I took more risks, more chances? What if I was more in tuned to hearing God’s voice? What if I was and obeyed Him? I guess this is where I began to reflect on areas in my life where I am hesitant to obey, not hearing to obey or just not obeying.
My intention in my artistic exercise was to paint, to stop procrastinating and do what brings me joy. It wasn’t to make a perfect piece of art, it wasn’t for anyone it was for me. Sometimes I find it hard to find time to do just this, paint. Once I began to evaluate what I was doing with my time, I began to see pockets of time with which to create. I really need to keep time limits on scrolling social media. When scrolling takes away from what I need to do and what I enjoy doing, it becomes an issue. Now, when I find I have an idol moment, if there is nothing pressing on my to do list, I choose to do something artistic. This takes a bit of practice, training, discipline.
When it comes to obeying God I believe the same can apply. It takes training, practice, discipline. I first need to actually recognize His voice and I can’t do that if I’m not reading His word daily. What’s my intent when I read my Bible? Like when I sit down to paint, why am I doing this? My intent is to hear God’s voice so that I can obey Him. Sometimes I feel like I’m not obeying because I’m not sure I am hearing His voice. John 10:27 – “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” and there’s more, a promise, a blessing verse 28 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
Sometimes I feel like I am missing out on some things, blessings, because I am not paying attention to the God’s voice. God knows my heart. So when I am earnestly trying to do what I think He wants me to do in a situation or even in the slightest seemingly, smallest thing I know He sees me trying. Many times I fail. He might be telling me to reach out to someone and I may be hearing a voice that says “don’t disturb them.” Or it could be buy extra food at the grocery store and I hear, “you’re on a budget.” If God is telling me to buy extra food, it’s not for us. It’s for someone else. There have been times my husband has come home from work and asked if I could pick up some extra cans of soup, granola bars or cereal for the food closet at work and I listened to the voice that told me I was on a budget. Ugh!
Now that I have recognized this pocket of time, I need to act on it and paint or draw. Take the risk. Recognizing God’s voice is still a work in progress. When I recognize it I need to obey it. Take the risk. That’s a risk that will always give a return on investment. I can’t lose. I can’t loose by making messy art, I can still learn. It may not be pretty but I will walk away learning to do something or not do something. By obeying God, I really can’t lose. Even if I mess up somehow, God will work out my mess, Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
What if…, what if I stopped procrastinating and painted or did something creative everyday? What if I stopped to hear God’s voice everyday and obeyed? What if…?
This is a real brief history. I won’t bore you with all the details so I’ll leave a some links for further reading.
You may or may not be familiar with Prang or Prang products. And you may be thinking what does this have to do with greeting cards. It was Louis Prang, born on March 12, 1824 in Prussian Silesia who was the son of Jonas Louis Prang, a Huguenot textile manufacturer. He was the apprentice to his father and learned engraving, printing and calico dyeing.
In Paris, during the mid 1800’s, Prang met and fell in love with his wife Rosa Gerber, a beautiful Swiss woman bound for Ohio where they started a family and had one daughter. In 1851 he and Rosa were living in Boston where he began to work for an engraver Frank Leslie. Later in 1856, Rosa encouraged him go out on his own and works with a partner creating lithographs of buildings and towns in Massachusetts.
Louis Prang sometimes known as “The Father of The American Christmas Card” was an award-winning Boston lithographer/inventor who, in 1873, reproduced a holiday card autographed by Christmas Carol author, Charles Dickens. Louis Prang printed his first Christmas cards in 1875 and brought them to London. The Christmas cards were a big success. The following year, he sold them in the Northeast of the US . It still took two more years before he had the corner market in the United States. By the late 1800’s, he printed more than 5 million Christmas cards a year.
I was today old when I learned Louis Prang was the Prang behind Prang products. I mean I didn’t know Prang was an actual person, not just a product. Though he still produced greeting cards and occasionally gave tours in his Prang Lithographic Factory in Roxbury he contributed to art education. So in 1875 took a step into art education where he found his true passion. It was as a public service he manufactured art materials and supplies.
Prang closed his lithographic factory in 1897 in Roxbury. He merged his company, The Louis Prang Company with the Taber Art Co. of New Bedford. He continued to produce and still produces high-quality work and made child-safe art materials. Those famous Ticonderoga pencils also known as Dixon Ticonderoga, purchased the right to his art materials in 1909. (At the time of this merger, Ticonderoga was known as the American Crayon Company). Louis Prang later died in 1909. Who knew?
Like “video killed the radio star” the digital age killed hand written letters and cards. Sending greeting cards is becoming such an old way of communicating. It’s a shame because it’s such a personal way to show someone how much you care. The only real downside of sending a greeting card or letter is the fact it has to be mailed. Texting, messaging and emailing are quicker, more real time it can lack personality. Ok sure you can apply an emoji or a “sticker” (and I loved stickers growing up) to give your digital message more personality, but then again everyone is using them, the same ones.
Greeting cards are getting expensive. It is far less costly to send an email or a text or post a birthday greeting on a Facebook page. Hand crafting a greeting card can be much more rewarding. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, it can be simple. How many times have you poured over the greeting cards at a store looking for the right one with the right sentiment? By crafting your own card it you can write exactly what you want to say. I can hear you saying “that’s hard” “I’m not a writer.” You don’t have to be.
I have been making greeting cards since I was old enough to hold a crayon. I can remember making birthday cards for my mom and dad, their birthdays were pretty close together. My mom used to sew on occasion, so I took some fabric scraps and construction paper and cut out an apron with a little pocket and added a bow. For my dad I cut out a shirt with a tie. I glued the fabric to the construction paper and voila I had a greeting card. Genius, lol. My greeting cards have advanced a little since then.
Journey with me the month of April with learning the history of greeting cards, hand writing, and greeting card tutorials.
Some good news, maybe some bad news, depends on how you look at it. I have decided to merge my lives. LOL. I start Caryn’s Corner back in 2009 on Greeting Card Universe. It’s still there Caryn’s Corner, check it out. That’s who I have been in the art world. But a few years ago, I decided to start this blog during a time in my life where change had been happening and the older I get the more I don’t like change.
Back in 2019 sometime I purchased my domain name and it wasn’t until January 1, 2020 that I posted my first blog entry. It was a crazy time (still is) in the world and I thought the beginning of a new year was a good time to start uploading some encouragement to those experiencing difficult changes and to offer hope in this chaotic world.
If you go back to the earlier days you can see I posted wallpapers with scripture verses. The idea was to help memorize scripture, because how often does one look at their phone? Me? A jazillion times a day. Then I moved on to coloring pages with scripture to help with memorizing verses. This is when I started to think I should merge the two or maybe keep them separate but why?
Well the summer of 2022 or was it 2021? anyway I was asked to teach a small group at church hand lettering as I tied in some design principles and Design for Life was born. Someone suggested I take it YouTube. And I did but it was under Caryn’s Corner and I was sharing it on the Kedge Anchor as well, It was becoming confusing and time consuming. So after much prayer I decided to close Caryn’s Corner and open the Kedge Anchor with everything in one spot.
Caryn’s Corner on YT will stay up until I get everything merged, so please stay tuned as I get ready to launch the next Design for Life video on The Kedge Anchor. I hope to have all that up and running by the end of September and then I will slowly and gradually close my Caryn Corner shops and/or rename them.
If Jesus was your favorite color, what would that be? Colors have values. Value is one of the seven elements in art; line, shape, space, form texture, color and value. “As an element of art, value refers to the visible lightness or darkness of a color” (thought.com). What a color is mixed with determines it’s value. or lightness or darkness.
Let’s take the color red and use watercolor to illustrate. Red is a primary color. There aren’t two colors you can mix together to make red. But red can be mixed with other colors to create various shades of red and other colors. Mix red with any of the other two primary colors blue and yellow and you get purple and orange. So with one color such as red we can create different levels of lightness and darkness by adding various amounts of water or pigment. Add lots of water and you have light wash of red or pink. By adding more pigment we are adding value or darkening the red.
The same principle can be applied to our relationship with Jesus. If Jesus was your favorite color what would that be? Jesus is the color in our lives, He adds value. Without Jesus we are nothing. That may sound harsh, but it’s the truth. We are all sinners fallen short of the glory of God – Romans 3:23. How much value does Jesus have in your life? Are you a light wash with some pigment or are you a bright, vibrant red with lots of pigment? How much pigment of Jesus are you adding to your life daily?
When we choose to serve God by serving others, when we seize opportunities to share what Jesus is doing in us, when we are praying and obeying we are adding pigment to our lives. We are deepening the value of who we are in Jesus. The blood Jesus that covers us and washes away all our sin gives us value. Only Jesus can take His deep, rich, red, precious blood and wash our hearts and make them white as snow. I can make lots of colors mixing paints and I can turn red into pink but I can not make anything white with the color red. How are you letting God add value to your life? Please comment below and please like and share this post. Thanks : )
Our Heavenly Father is the master artist. He is the creator of all things. Only God can create something out of nothing. He has a purpose and plan for everything He created, from the tiniest single cell sea creature that keeps the ecosystem alive to the Blue whale, the largest among it’s species, God created it and created it out of nothing. John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Everything we use to create art has already been created by God. The pigments used in paint come from the earth, paper is from the trees, all that God has created. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made”, Psalm 139:14. God created Adam from the earth, like Adam, we are created from dust with the breath of God in us giving us life. He is the potter and we are the clay and not one of us is the same. We are all unique, one of a kind, precious in His eyes.
God’s plan for us was to live in perfection here on earth until Adam and Eve fell to sin. But before God created anything, He knew Adam and Eve would sin. He already had a plan in place. He had a plan of redemption and sent His Son to die and rise again on the third day. He provided a way for us to be free from the penalty of sin so that we could live with Him in perfection for all eternity. Just as He created the universe and humans He had a plan and purpose, a design for life.
In this Design for Life series, we will see how the design principles of design can be applied to our journey walking with Jesus not just to our art. Design principles are guidelines to follow if you want to create visuals that are effective. God gives us principles and commands to live by to help set ourselves apart from the world. There is a scene in The Chosen where Jesus is sending out the twelve and gives them instructions as to what they can and cannot bring with them. Jesus wanted them to be distinguished from the cynic philosophers. So I had to ask myself, what am I doing to stand out, to be distinguished from the rest of the world, what am I doing to live in contrast to the world?
In this new series, here on The Kedge Anchor, I’ll give a short devotional how you can apply design principles to your walk with God then join me on Caryn’s Corner YouTube Channel where I will talk more about these Design for Life posts and teach you brush lettering. Lessons will include free downloadable worksheets to practice your brush lettering.
I am excited to share with you how these design principles can be applied to our walk with God. So please, subscribe, like and share these posts and be sure to visit Caryn’s Corner Btq on YouTube.
Art speaks to me. It can convey a feeling, an emotion be it happy or sad or a concept. It adds beauty and color to my surroundings. It can motivate me. But what speaks to me more is God’s word, the Bible. It adds more color and beauty than art. It shapes me, encourages me, leads me to knowledge of God and His ways.
There are many ways to interpret a painting or a piece of art. For example, a few years ago in an art history class I was taking, the teacher asked us to interpret a piece of art. It was a black and white checkerboard similar to the one pictured here. I remember exactly what it looked like. It was square with the black and white squares on the right and as the eye moved across the image, the black squares began to fade, becoming grayer and eventually white. I don’t remember the artist, barley remember the textbook it was in.
(colourbox.com)
So as I saw it, the black and white squares represented time and as the color began to fade, it was marking the passage of time. I don’t remember what the other student’s interpretations were, I just remember getting an “A.” Now that doesn’t mean I was right. There were other perspectives my fellow students had. There was no right or wrong way to interpret that piece of art.
However, the Bible has only one interpretation but many applications. The Gospel has one interpretation; Jesus came to die for us sinners, rose again on the third day, conquering death and saving us from eternal separation from God. We have to choose Him, we have to recognize our need for Him to save us. There are many words that can be used to convey salvation. But adding to God’s word, Deuteronomy 4:2 or His plan of salvation or to take away anything to make it fit our beliefs, is wrong. You can speak the Gospel with different words that mean the same thing but the meaning is still the same. And yet scripture, with one interpretation can be applied to many areas of our lives.
For example, James 1:9 , “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:” – KJV.
Two different versions saying the same thing. Digging deeper into the original Greek can help understanding this passage even more. The message is pretty clear, listen first, be slow to respond, don’t get angry so quickly, keep your mouth closed until the other person is finished speaking. And this passage can be applied to so many situations in our lives; in a marriage, communication is a big part of any relationship, parents, siblings, families. It can be applied to the workplace with your boss and co-workers. Anywhere there is talking between two people this verse has application. Get all the information first before you react or respond.
When it comes to scripture it’s important to understand, the who, what, why, where, how of who wrote it, what is the message God is speaking. Like communicating with others, God is communicating with us through His word. So out of respect to the men, authors who penned the books of the Bible we need to be objective when studying scripture and try to understand what the author, the prophet or apostle, ultimately God, is trying to communicate to us. Once we have the meaning we can apply it to many areas of our lives.
Now the artist who painted the simple black and white checker board only he or she knows what he or she was intending to communicate. With art we have the liberty to interpret it anyway we want, it can have any meaning we want. But, with scripture we have a responsibility to read and interpret it the way God intended.
Is there a piece of art that speaks to you? One that stirs your soul, strikes an emotions stirs up a memory? I love this image of the wave engulfing and crashing on the lighthouse. Imagine for a minute, being inside that lighthouse.
Image: Mathieu Rivrin/Solent News
What does it look like, sound like, feel like? The lighthouse is Jesus. The water, waves are life crashing around me. But I am safe inside the lighthouse, safe in the One who is in charge of those waves crashing on me. (“Even the winds and waves obey Him.” Matthew 8:23-27)
Is there a verse in the Bible that encourages you, comforts you, corrects you? Hebrews 6:19 – keeps me anchored in Hope. Comment what pieces of art speak to you, what are your favorite verses that speak to you, comfort you, encourage or correct you.
Happy New Year! This is a late post and not a day I usually post. The changes coming to The Kedge Anchor are slow. Decisions are still being made as to how I want to merge my art Caryn’s Corner Boutique and my faith.
I want this site to honor God and reflect His love, salvation, grace, mercy, forgiveness, as well as encourage to anchor in Hope. Through my art I want to inspire others to create and encourage as well. I believe there’s an artist in all of us. We all have a creative side whether you realize it in you or not.
Each day brings us hurdles and bumps we need to navigate and sometimes that takes creative thinking. Trying to figure out how to juggle picking up kids, cooking dinner and getting thru the day can be a work of art as much as working in the garden, baking, sewing, writing or journaling even housework. Yes cleaning and organizing can be a creative endeavor. (Have you seen theYouTube channels out there on organizing and cleaning?) Have you ever wanted to rearrange a room? Takes some creativity to make a home a home. What you do at work takes creativity, how you budget your time, present at meetings, manage employees, motivate employees. Even if you’re a student, you need to mange your time and schedule. Maybe you take lots of notes and are a visual learner, making small doodles in your note to help you remember concepts, it all takes creativity. Into music? Musicians are artists too. Musicians color our world with notes that form a rhythm and pattern making beautiful sounds. Even if you have never composed music, they way you play your instrument, you have your own style.
Just getting dressed every day. You don’t need to buy a new wardrobe to look put together. There are Pinterest boards and Instagram posts and web sits that can inspire you to work with what you already have.
So I need to be creative in a way that these two passions can merge and reflect God and all of Who He is and encourage and inspire others to anchor in Hope.
The Kedge Anchor 
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