#381

I quite like this drawing.
I decided to make a prompt sheet. By writing a column of nouns, one of verbs and one of adjectives. I then used a couple of can tabs and drew what they fell on. I ended up with ‘fancy’, ‘elf’ and ‘playing with animals’.
This simple prompt allowed plenty of freedom, and I could even get the same prompt and come up with a male elf playing with wolves in a fancy dress costume. Could even be a pixie playing with butterflies in a ball gown. I have seen lists done with dice where each die represents a column, and each item is numbered. The lists don’t even have to be these three things. When making a monster, it could be whether it has horns, or how many eyes it has. Maybe even just picking three words from the dictionary at random and force a connection.
I’d like to make a giant list and program it into a generator. There are a few out there, but I haven’t found the perfect one for me.
I also realised that this doesn’t have to be the final picture. I can redraw it, making the cat more realistic, or change her pose. I could colour it in, and I’d like to make it bigger.
But for now, I’m exhausted. Finally finished cleaning and need my beauty sleep. Good night everyone.

#306

Bowses and roses.
I spent the day covered in glue, as I paper mached my way through ideas, while watching design ideas on Ted Talks on YouTube. There was some lovely ideology and a few methods of thinking that could be applied to my own ideas and projects.
After my nanna nap (the kiddens were frustrating and definitely needed a rest,) I cooked dinner, and worked on my digital painting until my hand cramped up. Unfortunately this didn’t take long at all, but I did get a few key things done, such as cleaning up the edges and swapping the full black background for a transparent one, which will make it better for applying to a t-shirt. I also noticed that she didn’t have much of a wrist, and fixed that.
After a time and kitty cuddles, I was able to move my hand enough to sew. I keep meaning to get out my sewing machine, but I decided I’d hand sew while watching a movie, so I made a bow. I usually use one square and fold it in half to make a rectangular bow, but I realised you get a much fuller bow if you start with two squares. So, I made up the bow, and got out my ribbon box to match the centre to the fabric. Then I had to find my headband box to make it into a headband. It’s nice to have everything clean, but then I have to re-find everything. While I had these boxes out, I found another headband that I had stared a while ago that I wanted to match with my superman shirt. I had glued blue ribbon to the headband base, but stopped there. I got out some red and yellow ribbon and came up with the design above. Half way through the rose making, I was going to give up, because the rose looked weird. I ended up liking the stylised look and went with it.

#295

Bows and a fairy.
I thought I’d switch it up tonight, taking a break from needle felting for now, and got out my ribbon box (which I promptly returned after to make my space pretend to be clean.) I’d been looking on Pinterest for crafts as usual, when I followed a trail towards bows. I like how you can choose images and migrate through the pages like thoughts, ever evolving and perhaps returning to images multiple times. It allows you to pick what you like, and show you more like it, it’s fun and doesn’t take brain power. In the end, the site learns what you like, and you might learn things about yourself. My journey often leads me to the miniatures section in crafts, which isn’t a surprise, as I’ve always loved miniature things. The skill that goes into the art of teeny tiny room making astounds me, and I’m yet to master this. Sure it takes a lot of different skill sets, that I may have, but it also takes a lot of patience and dedication to one project. Perhaps if I decide on a room and make a little bit each time I’m on a certain craft, I can complete something in a few years. If I had started when I first found this love. I’d have finished some by now. Come to think of it, I have a half painted wooden doll furniture set that I’m trying to customise. I’ll have to dig it out when I’m up to painting again. That might be after clay, if I ever start that.
Just like Pinterest, I have veered off course into a progressive path of natural thought. Letting your mind go on like this is good for idea generation and brain storming. Also helps with sleep if you write it all down.
Goodnight.

#282

I made a cube!
Every time I start a project, I think of two more. It’s like a never ending pyramid scheme of creativity. I’ve had to start writing down ideas, more than usual, so I can continue with each project. Tonight, I had about four different felting objects that I was switching between because it’s fun and keeps me going. I’ve been wanting to get out my clay, but that would involve cleaning, and space, so I just tend to stick to felting which doesn’t need much room or setup. Perhaps I’ll get to clay when I’ve thought up enough designs that I can just model them without the thinking in between. I’ll have time on the bus on my way to gym to write out ideas. Otherwise I’m usually crafting, gaming, or sleeping.
I recently stopped my game design course that I was doing, and thought I would have nothing to do, but I’ve spent more time being able to create without feeling guilty that I should be doing homework. It’s definitely improved my mood, and creative flow.
Creativity begets creativity.

#235

So, I got out my quilling supplies for a few reasons. One- I like making these coin things and they will totally be legal tender of my dream world that I own. Two- I’ve seen some pretty inspiring quilled cards lately and I might get around to making if I stop making coins. Three- I finally found a silicone chocolate mould with perfect domes to use with the resin, in which, these coins would look lovely, whether it’s by themselves, with die cut letters, painted on or layered together.
I originally wanted the domes to glue to pictures to make fridge magnet/paper weight things. These domes are about 1 ¼ inch wide at the edge, so too small for a paper weight, but being a dome, they can be smaller, the shallower it’s filled. It’ll be an opportunity to use up the last of the horrible resin that I have on trialling, then I’ll have to buy some good resin online.
I have such a long list of things I want to try in art and craft alone. I have hundreds of notes on my phone and so many notebooks filled. If I never had another idea, I’d be set for life. So I have to screen my ideas, which is sometimes easy because they can be silly. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and try to do so many things at once that I burn out. It’s all so exciting that I can’t decide on what to work on and end up getting nothing done. I really need a way to organise my ideas, so that they don’t all need to be done right now, but I won’t have the fear of losing the energy or ideas if I leave it. Of course one good thing of leaving it is refinement and thinking of variations that wouldn’t be thought of when jumping right into a project. But that often leads to obsession and I make the project up so much in my head that I either get sick of it or it gets too scary that I’ll mess it up.
My head is too full for its own good sometimes.

#201

Horrible photo is horrible.
I wanted to make a Christmas themed headband and I thought of the leaves and flower idea. Then I bought my new circles die and stacked three sizes of red felt with a button finished with a gold thread cross for the flower. I’m not sure I like the red and white leaves in with the green. Perhaps different tones of green would look better, although it is very Christmassy, just like gaudy jumper/sweater.
It would probably also look nice as an everyday headband if the colours were changed. Perhaps a peach or white flower. Maybe more than one flower and only a few leaves. You could make a wreath using a leaf die or punch. Make the leaves autumn themed with reds and oranges or match your clothes or decor.
I get a lot of ideas that I have to write down because there’s no way I could make them all. I have about 700 notes on my phone alone. I always carry around a notebook and I’ve filled many of them. Not all of them good, but it is important to write them down. I not only think of art and craft ideas, but game ideas and how to fix certain parts of the world. I recommend that you do this too. Creativity feeds creativity. Write down any ideas you have. They don’t have to be good, you don’t have to show anybody. Even if you don’t do anything with the idea, you may look back and it will give you inspiration or just be fun to look back on.