Why, oh why did I chose "LOST" as this week's topic?!? I had such a hard time thinking on what to do. I thought it was going to be so easy, and I had so many ideas of different things. One of the ideas I had was to make a postcard-like thingy and place it inside a wallet or purse and leaving it in a bench or chair, it would totally convey the feeling of "lost" then I thought I should save that one for when I choose the topic of "looks like something stolen" or "object that can be mistaken by a bomb" so then I had to start all over again. I kept thinking this Lost topic was a lost cause (ha ha, get it? ahhh.. never mind) and then I had an A-HA! moment... the patron saint of lost causes, San Judas Tadeo (you may know him by Saint Jude) I then thought of making a little card like the ones they do for saints and novenas in the catholic faith, and then that brought me the idea of making  a shrine, (candles and everything)

I had this little box I had bought at the checkout of Michaels, (because really, who can resist checkout bargains!) the candle fit perfectly in it! I then made the card from watercolor paper and made a little investigation of who San Judas really was. It turns out he's a really big saint and has a lot of followers in South America, intervening in lost causes everywhere.

"Hey, Jude, don't make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better"

I forgot to take a picture of how it looks like with the lid closed, but it does closes perfectly, (candle and everything)

In the lid I drew a relic heart. Like the ones we use in churches to pray the saints for miracles. we pin them to the images clothes and they serve as a reminder of our intentions.

I used acrylic, pastel crayons and black pen for the image. I painted the box with gesso and acrylic.

I love the idea of a "portable" shrine! :)

In case you are thinking this is such a great idea and you love the card, I have made it into a PDF file so you can download it and print it in case you want to carry it with you when you face a desperate cause and need some guidance. You can find it in the "downloads" section of the website, Here's the link!

Please visit the contributions of these great artists and one poet (so far!) for this project:

Lost Love by Kathy LaRocco

Lost by The Granola Poet

Lost by Lena Rushing

Lost by Shauna Ratapu

Thanks to all these great artists, this project hasn't been lost. It's still making it's way.