I’ve learnt a lot of new skills over the past year but one of the more important ones has been practising mindfulness. According to Dr Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap (you should read it), mindfulness is “consciously bringing awareness to your here-and-now experience, with openness, interest and receptiveness”. Practising mindfulness can enhance psychological health and I can vouch for its success as I use several techniques to help me deal with feelings of anxiety.

One of the big on-trend products at the moment are adult colouring books. Many people find these releaxing and they can actually help people practise mindfulness as well as they focus on the task at hand, or the here-and-now. As soon as I saw the new Lighthearted Leaves stamp set from Stampin’ Up! (available 1 September), it made me think of colouring for adults. I decided that I wanted to create a card to give to people who could do with some time out.

I used Jet Black StazOn ink to stamp my design so that the recipient could use felt tipped pens without the ink bleeding. I kept the card base black so as not to detract from the simple outlines of the stamps and also so as not to dictate the colours needed by choosing a coloured card base.

Once I had the front colouring page sorted, I decided to create an insert inside the card to hold a tea bag. My tea of choice is caffeine-free, peppermint tea. I find it very calming and I hope that the recipient of my card can have a 10 minute time out while they sip and colour.

The tea bag does make the card a little bulky and it won’t stay closed by itself so I whipped up a quick belly band to slip over it from Kraft 12″x12″ cardstock, lush Wild Wasabi seam binding and of course I can have any sentiment I want to with the Alphabet Rotary Stamp.

The final thing to note is that because of the colouring page on the front, I decided to put the tea bag holder where the message would normally go, and I put the message on the other side. This is so that when colouring, the card can open out and lay flat and there won’t be any bumps from the tea bag holder to navigate.

Who do you know with a lot on their mind and needs some mindful time out?

Jess x

CLICK PRODUCTS TO SHOP

Lighthearted Leaves Photopolymer Stamp Set [139712]	Jet Black Stazon Ink Pad [101406]	Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]
Kraft 12″ X 12″ Card Stock [133674]	Alphabet Rotary Stamp [133769]	Stampin’ Trimmer [126889]	Wild Wasabi 1/2″ Seam Binding Ribbon [134570]