Make A Monster Shaker Cards

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  I have to keep reminding myself that nothing I am doing is wasted time.  -Sue Bender

I just finished reading a book called Plain And Simple:  A Woman's Journey To The Amish by Sue Bender.  I am still processing what I read - trying to figure out what lessons came to me through the book.  This sentence, toward the end of the book, really jumped out at me.  It's easy for me to feel like I am supposed to be doing something "productive" and I mean that word in a very "American" sense.  What do I mean?  It seems to me that here in the United States there is a lot of pressure to be "successful" and how we define "success" is flashed on tv screens and billboards all across the nation.  It's about having money and consuming goods...lots of them.  So I have been brainwashed, in a sense, to believe that any time spent not moving toward making money or procuring something is wasted time.  I am happy to recognize that this definition of "success" is not some value written in stone by every human being on this planet.  It is very biased and culturally driven and I struggle with it.  I actually get mad at the value but find myself trapped in its very web.  So reading the quote in the book really spoke to me - as if it were permission or a voice from a different and equally valid value system.  Nothing I am doing is wasted time.  Wow, my inner critic doesn't even like me typing that!  It's already trying to tell me that is nonsense - that of course things I do are wasted time...oh, shut up inner critic - what do you know!  Everything I do is done because it is what I am meant to do in that moment to lead me to wherever it is I am headed.  I don't know where that is.  As Sue Bender says, "I may not understand or like what is happening...It took me a very long time to discover that I didn't need reasons for doing what I did.  I don't have to explain, or convince, or come up with answers for what happened.  I went on this journey because I had to.  Learning to follow your heart is reason enough."
Today's cards are shaker cards I created when I was making a video for Papercrafter's Library on how to create shaker cards.  I used the Make A Monster stamp set (so cute!) and did some painting on transparencies.  You can watch a video on how to make a similar shaker card here (or you might choose to join Papercrafter's Library to watch me making these particular cards).