Believe You Can and Little Lucky Elephant

Believe You Can

hand carved stamps, ink, pitt artist pen, metallic gel pen

There's this thing in my head that says, "I CAN'T!" whenever I come up against something that is scary or large or different or difficult. It's my self destructive, negative, little monster of an insecure shadow self. It's not true, but it's like a stuck record that has been playing in my head since I was 3 years old or so.

To combat the stuck record, I made this page in my journal. 

The inspiration was actually the stamp I made last night. I wanted a little lucky elephant all of my own. I wanted to remember the determination, strength and power of the elephant.

So I made one. It was actually some what easier than the tiny heart stamp I did the day before. Maybe it was the larger size, maybe it was the softer medium (this is an actual stamp carving block) maybe I'm getting better at doing this stamp carving thing. Any way, it was fun and didn't take too long.  It actually took far longer to stamp out the little scallops in the center of the frame. Oh yeah, I did the tiny scallop stamp on a pencil eraser last night, too. That was also easier than the heart. It might just have been a softer eraser. I bet the stiff ones hold up better, though.

Here's a close up of my little lucky elephant as a stamp. Hey, look, if I place it just right, they're hold onto each other's tails with their trunks.

I just had a memory. My grandmother used to collect elephants. She told me to make sure that the trunk was pointed up, because that's what makes it lucky. I don't know if it's true, but it can't hurt.

Here's to good luck for everyone, and here's to remembering to believe that you can, in fact, reach your dreams.