The Subtle Art Of… Giving

Yesterday, I started reading a book “The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck”.

A bitter man’s title. A bitter man’s book.

But I have to say. I loved it from the first line onward. It opens up with a little story of Charles Bukowski, where at some point he decides to write and starve rather than to continue working in the post office.

I loved that part. He was a free man. Truly free man. He could have easily starved. Most of the people who’d like to become writers, actors, singers, painters… most of them never make it and settle for any job just to keep them alive. In a physical way. Inside – they die.

The subtle art.

Well, talking about survival by doing what you enjoy doing, I just got this brand new idea. Making and selling handmade unique foil cards and invitations. I could use my designs, patterns, Photoshop brushes, etc. to make the gold foil cards. Or packaging paper.

This is how it’s done.

1. Print the design on a normal paper (or card) using laser printer
2. Lay the gold foil on the printed side
3. Put a blank sheet of paper on the top of it (so you get like a sandwich with gold foil in the middle)
4. Run the whole “sandwich” through the laminator
5. Peel the foil from the card (or paper) – gently.
6. If all went well, gold foil will remain on the printed parts of paper (or card)

And that’s it!

Sounds easy. Like most of the things in life. Until they get complicated. 😉

Anyway, this is the whole idea. And it’s not mine. I was approached by one of my buyers with a request to create some designs for this purpose. I did it. And here they are:

Stardust Clip Art

Photoshop transparent overlays, PNG files with transparent background. Can be used for heat transfer foil, hot foil printing.

Stardust Clip Art Pack features:

* 12 HiRes PNG transparent files (black on transparent)
* 8.5″x11″at 300 dpi

These will make a great custom cards or packaging papers for those you care about and can be purchased on my Etsy shop – Five Cats Graphics.

I hope you will like the idea too.

Now, it seems like this post didn’t have much to do with it’s headline. But I’m still gonna keep it and conclude with a moral of the “story”.

And the moral of the story is – we seem to, generally, care about too many things in life. Too many unimportant things. Choose the stuff you care about carefully. This will, in most cases, be people. Friends and family. And something you enjoy doing.

So, if you enjoy doing DIY projects, arts and crafts, the best thing to do is create something and make it a gift for those you care about. Make them happy. Because the stuff we make ourselves are more valuable than anything money can buy.

And that’s it. Nothing else matters.

Love you all,

Silvia