The Ecstatic Joy of Heaven

This is my card 'studio' (aka the corner of my bedroom). It's been a pretty lonely place lately. It's been just over a month since my sweet little kitty, Bliss, lost his battle to cancer.
Every Friday, we had a tradition to sit on my floor together and bust out some new Lisscat Creations cards. Well, thinking back, I did most of the work, while Bliss would oh so helpfully chew on paper, ribbons, paint brushes, and whatever else was necessary in the making of that card.
In Bliss' absence,  I taped a picture of us to the wall in the corner. The only problem was, it didn't help inspire me, but only reminded me of how much I missed him.

So, needless to say, the card 'studio' has been quite neglected. For those of you who have received cards in the past month, its miraculous those ever got done!

Whats funny, er, not funny, but ironic is.... The night before Bliss died i started writing a blog (it was never posted). I was grieving, but was ready. I was ready to let him go, and ready to let his constant playful joy in life inspire me to keep actively following my passions. But as soon as he was gone, any joy I thought I would have was overshadowed by grief, loneliness, anger... all those feelings no one likes to feel. So sadly, I confess, I let myself grieve, and ignored my art that I had wanted to create inspire others.

Then on Wednesday I received a text from a friend. The preview of the text read "In memory of Bliss".
When I opened the message, I saw this....

My dear sweet friend and her amazingly talented husband thought to draw this out for me. I was floored! Aren't you? Its so freaking amazing and beautiful!
For the first time in a month, I was reminded of how a little drawing (made with a little love) could evoke such joy. When i opened the text, i smiled. Really smiled, like one of those big cheesy grins that make your face sore. :-)
So.... THANK YOU so much to Laura  and Marco Garcia for the beautiful picture, and for digging out a part of me that needed to breathe.

On a final note: Since he was young, Bliss endured so many surgeries, procedures, medications, etc. But he was a fighter, and he chose joy. Despite all the pain and sickness, he was always playing and NONSTOP purring. I want to be like that. I want to ignore the circumstances, and CHOOSE JOY.

bliss  (blɪs)
— n
1.	perfect happiness; serene joy
2.	the ecstatic joy of heaven

Glow

I feel like I have 1000 thoughts buzzing through my mind. They all want to explode out onto this blog as one massive deep thought...BUT all of those thoughts must have bottle necked because that one massive, deep thought is not here yet!

I've spent alot of my free time lately trying to nurse Bliss back to health. When he's sleeping I am finding time to paint or read or pray. All the things I need to and love to do, but dont seem to find just enough time for.

I just finished a book called "Heaven is for Real". It is about a 4 year old boy who went to heaven during surgery, and later tells his parents everything he saw. There were so many parallels in this book that mirrored my situation with Bliss. Just from the stress and struggles of caring for a sick one, to the unknown, to  the miraculous outpouring of emotional and financial love from friends and family. Somehow this book acted as a comforting reminder of God's love for me.

The book also talked about how many colors there are in Heaven. It sounds AMAZING! So I was inspired with this weeks painting. In the midst of life there are always gonna be dark days. Things we dont understand. But like a cooling summer breeze, God's presence is weaving its way in and around us while we  struggle to stand on our darkest days.
This is a mixed media painting on canvas with everything from spraypaint to latex paint, acrylic and watercolor. The dark texture in the back was back from layers of spraypaint and droplets of acetone.
I then layered vibrant strokes of watercolor over the top to give off the colorful glowing effect.
This painting is titled "GLOW" - 7" x  9" and is available for $35 (free shipping). If its for you, send an email to melissa@lisscatcreations.com.

Also, thank you to all of you who helped with Bliss. He was doing better, but now is not feeling quite him self again. Healing prayers are still appreciated! :-) Hope you all got your cards that "he" sent out out this week too!

Back 2 Bliss

Well, as most of  you know, one of our very own "LissCATS" just had a very serious surgery. Bliss had a tumor removed the size of my fist, and the Dr's had to physically remove and then rebuild the entire side of his abdomen. The poor little guy is recovering slowly, but thank God he is still here with us, and fighting!
This procedure ended up costing us a pretty penny, or... however many pennies are in $1000 dollars!
Anyone who knows me, knows my pets are my babies! If they have a chance to be happy and healthy, I just can't let money stand in the way of that. So, I've been selling my artwork in hopes to raise money for Bliss' surgery.
Thanks to all of you, we have raised about $600 within a matter of days! Your love and support mean the world to us!
I am going to post some of the artwork that is available. If you are interested, please drop me a line at melissa@lisscatcreations.com
All proceeds will go to support Bliss' surgery and recovery.

WOLVES - 9" x 12" linocut print ($30.00)

HAND OF GOD - 36" x 24" Mixed media on canvas ($125.00)

ANOTHER WORLD - 7" x 15" mixed media on paper ($35.00)

GOOD LIFE - 7" x 9" mixed media on canvas ($35.00)

SOLO ROJO - 30" x 24" Mixed media on canvas ($100.00)

MASKS - 14" x 18" Original painted screen print ($55.00)

Puppy Luv

Ok first things first! Incase you don't follow us on Twitter or Facebook, we announced the winner of our "Suggest us to your friends" contest. The lucky winner of the $15 gift card is Casey Huber!

Did you guys like the giveaway? I think we need to have more of those in the future, maybe with some free Lisscat Creations merch! :-)

And for our second announcement, here is the next featured, furry, and adorable card!

It is brand spankin new, and titled "Puppy Luv".  Each card is hand painted and illustrated by moi, so I will personally make sure every card I create is made purrr-fect for you! (ok, cheezy, I know).

Card's are $15 each an $5 of every card sold will be donated to help the "Humane Society". They are one of the most well known animal protection services in the US. They make sure that our furry friends are treated well, from domestic animals to farm animals and wild animals. 

You can check out more information about them here.

Puppy Luv cards are available now by clicking HERE!

Thanks again for everyone's support on our latest contest. Enjoy your week and stay blessed!

It's good to have a little CATtitude...

Dear readers,

So sorry for the amount of time that has passed since my last blog post. Guess I havent done so well with posting consistently every week this year! As usual life gets busy and it seems dreams get pushed aside only to remain dreams for a little while longer. And to add to my list of excuses, I've been hit with a bit of discouragement lately. Last week was a slow month (for sales), not just with my day job, but with Lisscat Creations as well. Trust me, I understand its hard for everyone right now, me included. I guess the part that is so hard is the possibility of disappointing others. Though a fun little card, the "Truth Hoots" card wasn't a big hit, and when I say wasn't a big hit, I mean it didn't hit at all. Last month we tried to raise money for my brother in law and his college ministry at Marquette Univ. I hated to tell him that the fund raiser didn't go so well.

But enough of the excuses and not-so-happy posting...that was just a little dose of honesty that needed to be vented across the WWW.

Instead let me introduce the new cards, and share a little quote about persistence.... 

"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places" and "Nobody trips over mountains.  It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble.  Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. "

.....Pretty good, huh?!

So I've been getting a lot of requests for affordable printed card sets with the same Lisscat Creations design....so here they are introducing the new 6pc card set "CATtitudes".
Each set comes with 2 of each design shown (6 cards total), and 6 envelopes, all for only $12.50. And as always, shipping is free, and 10% will be donated back to the charity of the month. This set can be purchased at here.

Please help me to help you! Just drop me an email or leave a comment to tell me what kind of cards and sets you want to see. Special requests are always welcome! Email me at melissa@lisscatcreations.com 

Thanks for reading and God Bless!