Note: If this newsletter doesn't display in its delightfully colorful formatting, you can view it on the Web at www.artellawordsandart.com/ARTELLAGRAM-2-1-09.html. Happy New Year! I hope that your year is off to a super start! There's no denying that the new year is a time that is ripe for making changes, starting new projects, and pursuing new goals. There are lots of things here at Artella Land that may help support your goals for 2009, and we've even got a Li'l New Year Shopping Spree for Artellagram readers, to help make it a little easier to dive in, heart-first, to play in one of our new programs. :-) While it's been great, through Artella, to support the dreams of creative souls, there is an essential ingredient that can't be packaged in a magazine, e-course, workbook, or article. There is a certain all-too-crucial degree of determination, endurance and perseverance that can only come from within the individual. And when it is accessed, a dream not only becomes possible, but probable! I call this force "persedurance": a sassy combination of perseverance and endurance which, when activated, is truly a power to be reckoned with! To access your own "persedurance", simply ask yourself: are you ready to persevere and hold on to your dream, regardless of any disappointments you may have had up to now? Are you ready to say “I cannot and will not let go of this dream”? It is not enough to just exist and live beside our dreams. We have to make each dream very much alive….continually fleshing it out, connecting with it intimately and constantly. In the same way that a couple does not give up trying to conceive a child after one or two attempts, you need to remain faithful to your dream, and remember that the journey to conceive your dream is part of the fun in getting there :-) Do whatever you can to tap into your own "persedurance", and make 2009 the year where stagnation is no longer an option. It is time to joyfully surrender to the motion of your destiny! If you're in a hurry, here are some "quick links" to the highlights in today's Artellagram. You can simply follow the links that you're interested in to go directly to the relevant information! Li'l New Year's Shopping Spree! NEW Artsy Envel-Hopes 2009! Muse Cruise "Sail" Continues! Invitation to the Self Care Mastery Revolution! Congratulations to Poetic Idol Winners! Renovations coming to The Artella Daily Muse Join the Artella Affiliate Program Become part of Artella's Team! In the Studio with Aly Cooney Creativity Tip: Recycling Holiday Cards Quotz Crystal™ 1. A Li'l New Year's Shopping Spree! If you've got some creative goals, dreams and projects brewing in your mind, I invite you to take a look around the Artella store and see if there is something that you think may support you in your new goals for 2009. As you look through the various e-courses, eBooks, recordings, and downloadable art supplies, if there is something that makes you feel really excited, you can take $5.00 off your order by using this coupon, that we've created just for Artellagram readers: To save $5.00 off your Artella eProduct purchase, simply use the coupon code: HAPPY2009 when you check out. The $5.00 will be deducted automatically. Minimum purchase for this coupon $10.00, and it is good on all Artella eProducts, including our brand new e-course, below! 2. NEW Artsy Envel-Hopes 2009! Artsy Envel-Hopes 2009 is finally here! We've updated one of our most popular e-courses, Artsy Envel-Hopes: Joyful Art Projects to Change Your Life to make it even better! Here's what's NEW in Artsy Envel-Hopes™ 2009: NEW - Improved Design! Artsy Envel-Hopes 2009 has been given a complete makeover, so that every single lesson is PACKED with visual beauty and artsy intrigue! See a sample lesson, here! NEW - 30 Free Art Journal Papers! We've created a collection of 30 NEW beautiful background papers, so now you not only get to a unique envelope template with each lesson…you get an artsy background paper, too! See a sample art journal paper, here! NEW - 30 Printable Envel-Quotes! We got such great feedback about the "Envel-Quote" that accompanies each lesson, so we decided to give them a very special Artella-style treatment! We've now laid them out in a beautiful printable format, for dozens of inspiring uses! See a sample printable Envel-Quote, here! "I confess, I decided on this course because I love to make things with paper. Imagine my surprise when I started with the first envelope and found it to be meditative and enlightening all at the same time. Making the envelopes was so revealing that I actually exposed "ME" to me. I thank you for making this course such a joyous learning experience." – Sally Visotski "As always, Marney has come up with a great, fun, inspirational online course that makes me want to tell everyone. She is my light in the dark, even when I don't know it, she is hope and fun for me. This class has to be her best yet. I will recommend it to all friends and online pals!" – Jodie Foster Read all about the all-new version of Artsy Envel-Hopes 2009, here! If you feel a little nudge of excitement as you read about it, then bring Artsy Envel-Hopes 2009 into your life and watch the little serendipitous miracles of gratitude in your art and life blossom! 3. Muse Cruise "Sail" Continues! We're hearing great feedback about the brand-new Luxury Cabins aboard the Artella Member Ship! The Luxury Art Journaling Cabin celebrates the amazing power of Art Journaling to enhance creative well-being! Kate Chabourne said, "I just had to respond to the incredible gifts I just found when visiting my new Luxury Art Journaling Cabin. I can't believe how rich and beautiful everything is, from the idea-and-inspiration-packed magazine to the great questions and images in the prompt pages. I am SO impressed, excited and grateful for all of this…It is an incredible value in every way." The Blissness Cabin offers Artella's unparalleled support for creative entrepreneurs of all kinds! Tara Douglas-Smith wrote us to say, "I am so glad that Marney's wise wisdom for creative entrepreneurs is back and better than ever with the Blissness Membership. I am LOVING it...it's so creative and informative. Nowhere else but Artella could you get this kind of quality, this kind of creative oxygen, at such a great price!" The Digital Art Coach Cabin was created especially for those who love Digital Art and want to learn more about it! Dawne Schwartz shared her excitement: "I am already loving the Digital Art membership - the tutorials and pixel packets are awesome! I think the digital art membership is a great way to learn more about creating digital art for those of us who are pressed for time, and don't have the time (or patience!) to play around with Photoshop and learn it on our own. Plus you get tutorials that are specifically geared for artists. Thanks for everything!" We're so excited to be exploring these new territories and hope you'll join the fun! Enjoy exploring all the Member Ship Cabins right here! By popular request, we're continuing our Grand Opening Muse Cruise "Sail", when you sign up for more than one Luxury Cabin, each new Membership is permanently locked in at just $5.00! Or you can sign up for the Artella Land Complete Access Pass and save even more, AND get a bonus Artella digital spending spree! Here's what Pam Tucker has to say about the Complete Access Pass: "I am LOVING my COMPLETE PASS to all of the Member cabins! I love the weekly recordings from Marney (what an inspiration)! I look forward to hearing her messages every week. I love the Zines in each cabin...I don't know where to start! I could spend all day here!! Thanks so much, Marney, for these wonderful new additions!" Thanks to everyone for your positive feedback! We're so excited to have you on board for what promises to be a fantastic new year! 4. Invitation to the Self Care Mastery Revolution! I'm participating in a really exciting series called the Self Care Mastery Revolution, and I'm happy to invite you to attend as my guest. This online series is providing live, in-depth interviews with some of today's most in-demand speakers, ready to educate, enlighten and empower you to master your body, your energy, and your life. I resonated so much with these words from Adela Rubio, organizer of this wonderful event : "CHANGE is palpable everywhere. 2009 is a year of powerful movement, can you FEEL it?" I DO feel that it is, and couldn't agree more, which is why I was truly excited to be asked to be part of this very inspiring event. You can check out the list of other speakers here, and if reading more about it makes you excited as well, I hope you'll join me and sign up to reserve your free online pass! 5. Congratulations to the Poetic Idol Winners! Our latest bunch of Poetic Idol Winners has been announced in the Artella Café! Thanks to all who entered and voted in this contest! Visit this post to read the winning poems. The deadline for entering the next Poetic Idol Competition is February 28. Visit the Poetry Plaza to find out how you can enter your poems to win fantastic awards, including the $200 1st prize! 6. Renovations coming to The Artella Daily Muse! Beginning today, we're making some very exciting renovations to The Artella Daily Muse! We’re making a lot of changes, including implementing many of new requests from our loyal Daily Muse readers! If you would like to receive an email message when the all-new Artella Daily Muse is ready, sign up for our free Daily Muse Teaser! 7. Are you an Affiliate, yet? Have you been wanting to bring in some additional income? If so, you'll be very happy to know that Artella's New Affiliate Program is finally here! After many of your requests and over a year in the making, Artella's Affiliate Program is ready to help you start earning income, just by spreading the word about Artella. The Artella Affiliate Program is free, and within a few minutes, you can be ready to actually start earning real income, receiving 25% commissions, one of the highest commissions available online. Get all the details about Artella's exciting Affiliate Program, here! 8. Interested in Becoming Part of Artella's Team? If you're interested in becoming part of the amazing Artella Team, check out this post in the Artella Cafe for details. We're rolling out some exciting new features in the coming months and would love to bring a few more wonderful, creative souls on board! Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I knew that the ideal artist from The Shoppes of Artella to feature would be Aly Cooney, because she makes such wonderful romantic, artsy jewelry! I hope you enjoy this interview with Aly! Artella: What is your favorite piece of art you've ever created, and why? Aly: My favorite pieces have always been those that were personal to someone and the best of those has to be a chair that a woman brought to me. She said it had belonged to her husband's mother and all that she had left of her. I had that chair for almost two years and was lucky she was patient and could wait until it created itself, but it did. It became a handpainted story of her mother in law's life, depicting all she held dear in symbols and in words, almost a story board of all we could find out about her. Even the space under the seat wasn't wasted and I created a book to go with it to decipher the symbols. It was a pretty wild and colorful piece by the time is was complete but the best part was her face and that of her husband's when they saw it. Making someone else happy just has to be the best! You can read the rest of Aly's interview, here See Aly's inspiring products in The Shoppes of Artella, here. If you want more artist interviews from Artella, take a look at our eBooks Artist Profiles Assembled and Artist Profiles Assembled, Vol 2. ART TIP OF THE WEEK: You've probably most likely put away your winter holiday decorations by this point, but stop before you throw out the holiday cards! So many holiday cards have lovely art that can be easily recycled in art you create year round! Here are some of our favorite ideas for what to do with your holiday cards: - Decoupage images from several cards onto a three-dimensional surface, such as the mint tin shown above. - Create art journal or scrapbooking layouts about your holidays experiences, and use elements from the cards to frame and highlight your pages. - Make an abstract collage by cutting several cards into 1 inch squares. Pick out 12 squares randomly and glue them on a board or canvas or card stock to make an abstract collage. - Isolate elements within the design that can be used in other art work all year round - perhaps a fleur- des-li, a star, or a swirl. - Recycle the cards by making your hand-made paper. Holiday cards often contain metallic foil, and the flecks of foil really sparkle in handmade paper! - Superimpose your own personal photographs onto scenes on Christmas cards. - Images from religious cards are great for shrines! These ideas are excerpted from the eBook, Artella Mae's NEW Altered Ancestors: 50 Techniques for Using Vintage Photos in Art. WRITING TIP OF THE WEEK: Here are some ideas for "recycling" holiday cards to use in your writing: - Select random words from a holiday card, and arrange them into a new "found" poem. - Pretend it is 100 years in the future and you've suddenly discovered this very holiday card. Write a short story about finding this card from the past. - Look at the images on a holiday card, and imagine it was being sent to celebrate a completely different holiday: a fictional holiday that you make up, yourself. What might that holiday be called? What traditions would be involved in your fictional holiday? This Quotz Crystal™ is a high-resolution jpeg image, suitable for printing. Print it out and post it somewhere to remind you of the "persedurance" that lies deep within you! ~Perseduringly yours, Marney Artella Founder, Mango Lover, Hula Dancer Artella Land ~ the creative isles of words, art, and spirit Artella PO Box 6211 Kamuela HI 96743