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Oracle Cards

An oracle deck is a set of cards with a symbolic meaning or message attached to each, with no limitations as to structure or design – essentially, a generalization of Tarot cards. You will find plenty of oracle decks where each card depicts an animal, and the meanings are what that animal might teach us about our own lives; decks exist with all kinds of themes: trees, goddesses, crystals, angels, dragons, flowers, and plenty more. You will also find oracle decks where each card is a scene or illustrated abstract concept, and the meanings are about the represented state of being, or what the universe is telling you through the card.

There is a dizzying array available – if you run out of options in the bookstores, check Etsy. You can also buy decks of affirmation cards, inspiration cards, insight cards, and blessing cards, the extended family of oracle cards.

In June, I started the habit of drawing an oracle card each evening, reading its description in the book that generally comes with the deck, and thinking about it while going through a basic stretching routine. Sometimes that leads to a journal entry or an addition to my mini art journal; more often it does not, but even the least-applicable card gives me enough to think about that I stretch a bit longer than I would otherwise.

You can, of course, use oracle cards as journal prompts explicitly. Draw a card, and answer any or all of these questions:

Before you read the description, what does the card make you think of?
How well does the description correspond to the card? Where do you see the two especially well matched or especially discordant from each other?
Where could the message of the card apply to your life? How can you maneuver it into fitting some aspect of your life, if it doesn’t seem to as written?
In your life, is there an abundance of or a need for the elements outlined in the card? If the message is one of advice or divination, can you argue both in support of the message and against the message?

For a few weeks after getting into using oracle cards, I came up with a flood of card and deck ideas of my own. For a while I thought “This is my medium!” It slowed, though, and completing a good oracle deck is a lot of work – a lot of cards must be chosen and designed, and the descriptions must be drafted and reworked. However, you can make test cards or simple decks really quickly and easily. (And I am still working toward some completed oracle decks of my own.)

The easiest way to make your own cards is with blank index cards. You can use 4″ x 6″ cards for a large deck (though with index cards this size feels a little flimsy), cut the cards down – I’ve cut them into halves, quarters, even eighths! – or use cards that are already smaller. 3″ x 5″ index cards would be a reasonable size for a deck of oracle cards. Decorate one side of the cards to be the back – the techniques I listed for simple art journaling could all apply here. Typically you would want the backs to all match, but for test cards I have only been making them match thematically. I have a set that are (almost) all watercolor crayon resist, and a set that are all just filled in with colored pencil, and two sets that are watercolor-only. If you’re cutting apart large index cards, you can decorate a lot of backs in a short amount of time.

Mostly crayon resist card backs — Mostly crayon resist watercolor deck, 3″ x 4″

Colored pencil card backs — Colored pencil deck, 2″ x 3″

Watercolor card pressing sheet — Watercolored index cards pressing sheet with paint transfer

If you paint, the paper will probably get a little bumpy. Let it dry for 24 hours and then iron it, no steam, with a piece of blank paper between the paint and the iron. I found that even 24 hours later there was still a good amount of wet paint hiding in there to come off on the paper! I’m going to reuse my pressing sheets until I think of some way to use them as art in their own right.

So far I have handwritten the fronts of the cards, but my printer can print onto 4″ x 6″ paper, so I’ve got the option to print them. I have ideas for sturdier cards once my decks are more finished – the heaviest cardstock my printer can manage, and then cut it down into cards. I believe you could get 4 “full-sized” cards out of one sheet of letter-sized cardstock, or 6 small-but-not-mini cards (oracle decks are usually significantly larger than playing cards, but not always and it’s certainly not a requirement). I even have corner-rounding punches to make them nice and fancy. That process is a good while in the future, though!

Decks shown in photos:
First photo, left: Animal Kin Oracle by Sarah Wilder
First photo, right: Journey of Love Oracle, by Alana Fairchild (card meanings), Rassouli (card art), and Richard Cohn (poetry included in guidebook)
Second photo, left: Oracle of Mystical Moments, by Catrin Well-Stein
Second photo, right: Oracle of Visions, by Ciro Marchetti

First Steps into Art Journaling

I have been drawn to the idea of art journaling for a long time. It was always a combination of overwhelming and frustrating, though, until recently, when I found I had sort of taken it up by accident. It started with the decoupaged notebook craft night – I ended up with a lot of inspirational clippings that didn’t fit onto the covers of my notebooks (physically, or thematically), and decided to glue them into the smallest of my notebooks, making it a sort of “mood board for life.”

I’ve kept adding roughly a page a week to the notebook. Here are some materials and techniques that I’ve used:

Magazine, catalog, and other clippings – the cover of my tiny notebook is actually out of a credit card offer, and the ampersand in the photo below is out of a newsletter from my health insurance company.
Printouts from the internet – sometimes I look up a specific image that I want (since I’m unlikely to draw it to my satisfaction!), and sometimes an image crosses my path that’s worth hanging on to.
Stickers – I especially like letter stickers because I have limited skills with hand-lettering, but any stickers with suitable symbols or messages are welcome.
Crayon resist watercolor – write a message in light-colored crayon (assuming you’re using white paper), and then paint over it with very wet watercolor. Makes a mess of neighboring pages but a really nice effect; slide waxed paper underneath the page you’re painting to protect the next ones down. If you can go really wet, put drops of paint onto wet paper and the crayon marks will (imperfectly) contain them as they spread. The photo below is that effect, done on index cards.
Sharpie with colored pencil background – the permanent marker will lay down enough color that you can color in the background afterward with just about any colors and still be able to read it.
“Crayon resist markers” – this doesn’t really work the same way as with paint, but you can write with crayon and color over it with markers and get a somewhat similar effect.
Just writing, but with colorful pens – I have a set of gel pens I’m mildly obsessed with (Pilot G-2 Metallics), so sometimes I just write whatever it is I’m recording with them.
Marked-up writing – however your message is recorded, you can underline, circle, put arrows to, or otherwise highlight the key words with doodling.

I keep some newspaper and waxed paper with my art supplies to protect neighboring pages and my desk from my various experiments. None of my art supplies are “artist quality”; most are Crayola products aimed at grade schoolers.

I think my problem before was two pieces: overly high expectations for what I could/should produce, and expecting to just know what to put into the art journal. You see pictures online of people who art journal extensively and they appear to fill two facing pages of a large sketchbook every day with renditions of the thoughts and events of their lives — that’s not going to be me, and I should recognize that! Two-dimensional art has never been my medium, and I’m not going to suddenly know how to draw or paint by magic; I’ve also never maintained a diary for more than two months at a time, so why would it suddenly be easier to maintain one that requires a lot more effort?

For me, art journaling is more about making things that stand out in my mind also stand out on paper – and I don’t have two pages a day of that kind of content.

In fact, for a long time I had very little of that content. I have found, however, that adding “non-art” journaling to my life – which is still not diary-style, and about which more in future posts – has created the contents to put into the art journal. Funny, that – taking time specifically to think about my life has allowed me to articulate the things I want to remind myself of. Kind of a big duh but it was only clear to me in hindsight!

Craft Night 1: Decoupaged Notebooks

I had a craft night for my birthday party! I hope to have more, hence the “1” in the title. I’m finding there’s a lot to weed out when finding craft night ideas, so I thought I would post about the ideas I end up using.

My craft night standards are strict:

Anyone has to be able to do the craft successfully, without needing to possess any specific art/craft skills, and even if they are not having a super creative-feeling night.
Someone who really wants to engage in the craft should be able to do so – nothing so simple that you can’t sink your teeth into it – but no one should *have* to focus tightly on the craft in order to do it. I want people to be able to come and not do the craft and still have a good time.
The practical restrictions: it has to be doable in an evening, so no lengthy dry time between steps (say), and without any expensive materials or specialized tools. Ideally it should be doable mostly from stash and salvaged materials.
And finally, the aesthetic considerations: the final product needs to appeal to a wide variety of humans (or have the customizability to do so). Nothing that only fits a certain rustic-crafty decor, for instance.

I thought the decoupaged notebooks were a resounding success, so here’s the lowdown.

Decoupaged Notebooks: Process

Materials On Hand

Notebooks – I thought I would be able to find plain-brown-cover Moleskine knockoffs all over the place, but that was not true. I ended up with mini composition notebooks (3.25″ x 4.5″) from the dollar store and larger notebooks (4″ x 6″ and 5.75″ x 8.25″) from TJ Maxx. They worked just fine, and in fact having something already on the notebooks made for some fun design options – “the future is” on the largest notebook above was pre-existing printing.
Magazines, origami paper, and of course scissors – Originally I planned to get out scrapbook paper also, but it was too much. A big stack of magazines, catalogs, and tourism brochures, plus a few varieties of solid origami paper, seemed to be enough options to keep everyone happy. This gives me a whole different selection to provide at a future papercraft night.
Glue sticks and Mod Podge – I prefer to glue with glue sticks and seal with Mod Podge, just, you know, FYI, but a lot of people glued with Mod Podge and it works fine.
Foam brushes and a wide-mouthed mason jar with some water in it – the jar for putting used brushes in so they could wait for cleaning (which did not happen until the following day).
1/4″-wide ribbon and tacky glue – for bookmarks. Cut a piece of ribbon twice the height of your notebook plus 1-2″ and glue it along the inside back cover, close to the spine, so the excess sticks out at the top. That excess then folds down to be the bookmark, and you can cut a little v-shaped notch in the end to help keep it from fraying.
Wax paper – to slide inside the covers of your notebook to protect your pages from the glue and Mod Podge. I pre-cut a bunch of pieces and I think that worked well.
Miscellaneous buttons, beads, and small fabric squares – I had these around so I put them out, but I think one person used some fabric and the rest of the items were untouched.

Setup

We set up a folding table in the living room and spread the magazines and blank notebooks out on it. I covered the dining table with two layers of newspaper and set everything else out there (including the origami paper, so it wouldn’t get lost in the heap of other paper). Things moved between the two tables, but overall I think it was useful to have the separation, and people circulated during the evening depending on what they were working on.

14 people came and roughly half decorated notebooks, with many of those people decorating more than one. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves whether or not they decorated.

Lessons?

I would have started looking for notebooks earlier had I realized how much less available they are than I thought they would be. In particular, I only had 3 of the largest size notebooks, and I would have liked to have more.

I would not bother putting out buttons and beads if I did this again, just save them for a different craft they are better suited to.

I might have done a sample notebook, perhaps in particular a half-finished sample notebook, to leave on the table and demo the use of the wax paper and how to make a bookmark. I didn’t want to be in teacher mode and hover over the tables to give instructions, so that would have helped show some things, but it also wasn’t a real problem to have that information come later or not at all.

This worked really well overall, and there’s nothing significant I would have changed! It was a great choice for Craft Night 1.