39 Life lessons for my 39th birthday!

I will be turning 38 this Friday, September 18th, 2015. Updated: I am turing 39 and I am updating my list from one year ago.
For some reason I keep forgetting what my actual age is, maybe because I am slowly but quickly approaching 40... Don't get me wrong 40 is a great age. I heard it is the age where you just don't care about what other people think and you do you. I thought I had hit that in my mid thirties, boy was I wrong.

As a child I never thought about being close to 40 years old. Never understood the feeling adult women get when that number is around the corner. Have you done what you thought you would? Do you feel like life is going in the direction you want? These are some of questions we might ask ourselves.

So far, I have live in four states, worked in small, and large corporate fashion companies. I have transitioned to the public education sector and I am a small business owner. I have lived by myself holding my own and have learned to live with the opposite sex (my husband) for 11 12 of those years. I have had my hair relaxed, cut, then became natural to do that process all over again. I have crawled, walked then ran in the race called life. I have experienced many things and know that my journey is far from done.

I am very persistent and with my Christian faith this has helped me to to move forward. I am blessed to see each and every day and have learned a lot along the way. I wanted to share some of these insights and hope they will aspire you.

Not in any particular order, they are all equally important.

1. Don't dwell on your past. It is in the past for a reason. Learn from it and move on.

2. Try to smile everyday. Not only will it help you through a tough day it will help
someone else. We are connected to everyone and everything around us. Be a light.

3. Forgive. When you don't that un forgiveness is like a monkey on your back. It will weigh you down and taunt you.

4. Don't go into debt... any kind of debt. Pay it off quickly and don't rely on credit cards.

5. Get life insurance. You're an adult, do this now.

6. Lift others up. The world around us can be mean, don't join in.

7. Dole out compliments. This is will not only help your spirit but once again it will uplift others.

8. Read your bible (or a book that helps you to connect spiritually). Being connected bring a sense of inner peace to both mind and spirit. This also allows your inner values to guide you in how you interact with the world around you.

9. Create. Find your inner artist. You may not be able to draw or paint but find what allows you to freely express yourself.

10. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. They are broke and you will be too. (see #4)

11. Put your mask away. Accept who you are and be yourself to the fullest. ( I am introvert living in an extrovert world. Hard to change that)

12. Be opinionated, but think before you speak. Everything you are thinking and feeling doesn't need to be said out loud.

13. Keep your eyes and heart open. Love come in different shapes and forms.

14. Honor your parents. (this might be very hard for many but it goes with #3) Even if you don't think your parents deserve it find away to do this by set boundaries, visiting briefly or limit contact. Do what you can. Be the bigger person, be civil and kind in your dealing with them. Let go of unrealistic expectations so you don’t set yourselves up for continued disappointment and heartache.

15.  Be accountable for your actions. Only children blame others for their faults.

16. Naps are good.

17. Good friends are priceless. As I learned in girl scouts - Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.

18. Learn your history. I am am firm believer in learning things for yourself. You can't rely on teachers, parents, friends to educate you.

19. Everyone is not going to like you and it's okay. 

20. Know your wealth. We are all made in the creators image. We bring different things to the table. Love your self first. Don't wait for someone to come along to love you.

21. Youth and physical beauty will always fade. Even when we have a world of injections, make overs, and plastic surgery, beauty will still wither and fade away. Age gracefully.

22. Mind your manners. "Please","Thank You"," You're Welcome" will take you a long way and they sound nice.

23. Keep dreaming! You're never too old to dream and start something new.

24. Words are the blossoms, action the fruit. Always follow through, be a person of action.

25. Don't look for change, be the change. It starts with you.

26. Look for patterns. In yourself and in others. Patterns are either red flags or green flags. This is help you to know if you should proceed with caution or with full force.

27. Be open for opportunities. They come in different forms, don't limit yourself.

28. Step back and kiss yourself. When you do something positive give yourself a chance to celebrate. ( imagine James Brown)

29. K.I.S.S. Keep it Simple Stupid. Try not to over-think, over-analyze, over calculate, over... anything.

30. Be the Little Engine that could, and if you can't it's alright.

31. Learn to Laugh. Laughter heals the soul.

32. Show people appreciation. Appreciation is a form of reciprocating love.

33. Be aware of the seasons in your life. Life is like seasons - winter, spring, summer and fall. Winter things calm down go into hibernation, spring renews and brings forth newness, summer creates passion, and fall is time to take stock and to itemize your blessings.

34. Life isn't fair. It just isn't and that is okay.

35. Travel near and far. Experience the beauty of world.

36. Don't confuse your path with your destination. Just because you might be in the mist of a storm doesn't mean sunshine isn't headed your way.

37. Take care of your body so it won't fail you. Do what you can to stay active and eat well.

38. Learn to let things you can not control go. This goes for people, jobs, relationships, etc.... The only thing you can control is yourself.

39. Join in a cause.  Don't just stand around telling other people what they are doing wrong do something to help fix it. #blacklivesmatter 

M.I.A Art Paper cutting Blogger

Sorry, I have been missing in action lately. I had a huge move that took all my strength and time to get through. Then I had to go back to work and readjusted to that. So I promise that after Sept 8, when school officially starts here in Virginia I will post every Tuesday like a good blogger. It makes me sad to know how I have been slacking. So please excuse me!

I hope you have liked what I have posted so far and that you have enjoyed my free templates. I would love to see pictures of any paper cuttings you have done so far. Leave any comments below!


Thank,
Janelle Washington

Inspiration Tuesday - Bruce Lee Life Lessons Quotes

 I grew up a huge Bruce Lee fan in my younger days. I had a statute and several posters of him in college. So for today's Tuesday inspiration I go to Bruce Lee for a very simple lesson that I need to learn as an artist.

As an paper cutting artist you have to create your own opportunities, it's the best way to succeed. Sitting around waiting for something to fall in your lap or for someone to find your art won't work all of the time. So here are some ways to do that. 

*Talking to people about what you do (frequently)

*Expressing yourself creatively on social media (daily)

*Creating / Thinking outside "the box" 

*Looking for inspiration in strange places

*Experimenting with new mediums

*Collaborating with others

*Letting your style evolve 

*Reinventing yourself

Find other quotes with a great explanation at the: www.positivityblog.com

Quotes found in the video are:

1. Have Faith in Yourself

2. Don’t Think Feel

 3. Styles tend to, not only separate man

 4. I think of myself as a human being

5. Be Like Water my Friend

What are some other ways to create opportunities for yourself as an artist? What has worked for you?

Cut Paper Art / Afro Comb Inspiration

I get ideas for my art by researching a certain topic, looking at pictures, reading books or flipping through blogs. While looking up African mask styles I came across a website about an exhibition in London at the Fitzwillam Museum called The Origins of the Afro Comb: 6,000 years of culture, politics and identity. The exhibit was over, but it excited me to see so many designs of the Afro comb. As an African American woman with lots of hair this tool has played important roles in the creation, maintenance, and decoration of my hair and in my cultures history.

I was so interested in this exhibit and the history I decided to design and have my own interpretation of the Afro Comb. I first created rough sketches and scanned my images into Illustrator. From there I refined my shapes and ideas, until my Afro Comb was symmetrical and looked the way I wanted. I then printed my design out, taped it down to black paper and started cutting.

Paper Cut Art Afro Comb

Paper Cut Print in Orange and Blue

I loved these two so much I am currently designing another Afro Comb paper cut. Stay tuned!

American Craft Council Overview

As I stated in my earlier post I participated in the American Craft Council’s “Let’s Make” Station in Baltimore. It was so much fun! Even though I was sick and it snowed heavily Saturday, I had a blast!

I got into Baltimore on Friday night to put up my paper cut art along with Annie from B’morecuts and to see the layout. Our station had a table with three stools and three dividers. Annie had beautifully created a banner and put up examples of our templates on the dividers.

Saturday, I was scheduled to be there at 10:00am and to man the station till 3pm. I had many inquisitive visitors stop by the station and lots of people actually sat down to try their hand at paper cutting. I talked to the visitors and showed them techniques to make the paper cutting process easier. Paper cutting art can be a long and boring process so most people started but didn’t finish their template. I ended up encouraged them to take it home and finish it later which most people were happy to hear. The Baltimore Convention Center is a huge place and there were many displays of quality artwork, so I understood when people stopped cutting their paper cut art templates. I was just glad they tried.

My family came out Saturday to support me and I made a couple of connections with people for interesting business collaborations.  

My Brother in law - Matthew Washington

Sunday was the last day and I got in that morning around 11am. This time Annie’s assistant was able to come and help since the snow in the area melted. I started to feel worse so I didn’t stay as long as I wanted. The crowd was a bit thinner than Saturday, understandably. There were more kids this time and they wanted to participate, which made me uneasy. I had two accidents, one from an adult and one from a teenager. They both cut their finger but they were good sports about it. So glad we had a emergency kit...

Overall the “Let’s Make” stations were a success. Many people told me that they enjoyed all the stations and would like to see this format again next year. Hopefully, I will be asked to come again!

Janelle Washington of WashingtonCuts

WashingtonCuts and B'More Paper Cuts Art Display

Paper Cut Art Presentation

I had the chance to present my paper cut art craft to a couple of high schoolers at Takoma Academy in Takoma Park, Maryland at the end of December. The class, Careers in the Visual Arts and their Practical Application is taught by Lonnie Woods, my cousin's husband.

The course teaches students about the broad range of career options available in the art and design industry while they learn skills and techniques that are necessary to obtain specific careers. The class is structured around in the class lectures and discussions, studio projects, fields trips, and guest speakers - this is where I come in.

I was nervous, cause high schoolers get bored easily and I am not great at making presentations. I had 45 minutes to speak about my experience in paper cutting, how I built my business, the skills I need for my craft and a demo of techniques for paper cutting.

I created a simple slideshow using Google slides and wrote out the key points I wanted to talk about. Since I transitioned into paper cutting art from fashion design I shared my start in fashion and the companies that I worked for first. Then, I gave a brief introduction to how I got into paper cutting - it was through fashion, afterwards I talked about the history of paper cutting, and lastly running my Etsy shop. All in all, it was a great presentation, the students were engaged, asked questions, like my art and seemed to enjoy my demo. My demo consisted of showing them how to cut straight lines, curved lines, text and I gave them templates of diamonds, snowflakes, and a Star Wars snowflake template I found online.

See slide show here

Pictures courtsey of Lonnie Woods

10 things I learned at my first craft fair

I participated in my first craft fair on December 28, 2014 in Richmond Va. My friend from college who owns a t-shirt printing company called Petal Foot invited me to attend with her. The cost was reasonably low, so I decided to give it a try.

The overall theme was for the holidays and it was based around Kwanzaa so I knew that this would be a good venue for me to introduce my cut paper art style and hopefully get a couple of sales.

I created a much better collection of paper cut art than I thought I would. Being a paper cutting artist it was lots of hours of me sitting and cutting out the same thing over and over, so that was no fun. I did pick my easiest paper cut to duplicate and the more difficult art I got them printed professionally, which I received three days before the craft fair. Talk about cutting it close! Learned my first lesson.

So after six hours of sitting, smiling, conversing and getting a headache from the loud music I was a bit unhappy with my results. I did learn some valuable things for an artist so that helps me looking forward to my next fair.

*Know your customer

I thought since this was a Kwanzaa fair and my art is very afro-centric that my items would sell well. I didn’t factor in the type of customer that would be there. My price point was a little out of most people's price range and even though I had a good variety of prices they were still high for the customer.  Selling original art is no easy feat.

*Know your venue

The space at the Kwanzaa venue was pretty small and extremely loud. It was hard to talk to communicate with the customers that did come by so I wasn’t able to really “sell” my artwork. The Kwanzaa program was long and that took most of the customer’s attention away from the vendors. Also, there was a large chuck of time where the vendors were asked not to sell items, so that sucked.

*Give something away for free

I had created a couple of small diamond paper cuts that I was going back and forth on giving away free and then decided not to. The price I listed wasn’t favorable with my customers even though I had a lot of interest in them… especially the younger kids. So maybe candy next time.

*Have a card reader and a receipt book

I love that Etsy provided their own card reader and I ordered one early. The reader accepts cash but I had several customers ask for a receipt in hand. Thank goodness for my husband! He had bought a receipt book earlier for me.

*If you do custom orders have a way to get your customer’s information while you are there.

I tried to prepare for custom orders by showing what I offered but I wasn’t prepared for getting potential customer’s information. I had several people tell me that they were interested in having custom art and silly oh me just handed them an business card and told them to contact me by way of my website…..

*Do giveaways

I didn’t even think to do this at all! But my friend from PetalFoot did and I lost most of my email contacts to them..

*Ask for help

My husband attended the Kwanzaa fair with me and without him I would have been burned-out. He was able to write receipts out, pack, load, unload the car and was great support. My parents visited and that gave me a boost of morale! My mom even offered to buy us food when we left, which leads to me to my next lesson.

*Bring snacks and your own spending money!

I had a bottle of water and a small bag of Doritos, which my husband ate! My water lasted the first hour and I didn’t have enough snacks. So I was starving by the middle of the fair. I didn’t have enough of my personal money to even buy the food that was being sold there so I was starving after two hours.. The program was 8 hours long!

*Set up your table a week before and try to re-use household items

This was the best thing I could have done to prepare for the fair. I spent hours looking through Pinterest for examples and had a vision of what I wanted my table to look like. I visited my parent’s home to rummage through their household items and found:

• a metal cash box with keys (sweet find!)
• colorful bowl to hold my cards
• metal basket to hold my smaller items
• Tree limb to display my angel ornaments/tags
• Target circular that displayed a fold able 6’ in table with a handle on sale (great deal that went fast, should have gotten two)
• String

I also visited my local Goodwill store and found 2 interesting wire racks to display my prints.

*Remember to purchase or make the small and forgotten items

I had ordered a couple of Kraft bags but ordered them too late! I ended up running to Staples and buying a box of generic “Thank You” plastic bags. Not the look I was going for.  Remember to make or purchase:

•  Price labels
• Your business sign
• A sign in book for emails
• Business cards ( a lot of them)
• Table cloth ( I just bought some fabric that fit the dimension of my table and did a couple of hand stitches to create a hem and to make the ends look nice. I also, used sewers tape to iron a hem on for my table runner.)
• A small bag for pins, tape, markers, scissors etc.
• Heavy duty bags to carry my items into the building
• Sturdy box to hold extra merchandise
• A safe place to hide my personal items like wallet, car keys etc.

So even though I didn’t break even, I learned a couple of valuable lessons and I hope my mistakes and lessons will help you to have a successful or at least an interesting first craft fair! I look forward to my next craft fair and to put my changes in place.

Please share in the comment section if you have any other lessons or tips! I would love to hear from you!

*Bonus

Here is a list of great online resources that helped me prepare.

• handmadesuccess
• Shopify
• Pinterest- Craft Show Ideas
• Festivalnet
• Goinghometoroost