Crafting 365

I saw this fun-looking group on Flickr and decided to join. Members post a photo a day showing their creative endeavors. I noticed it because some of my contacts had photos in the group's photo pool. So far I've done 8 days - it's fun!

This week I've been working on house-shaped chunky pages for a swap on ATCsforAll - lots of fun! I started with cardboard pages, then gessoed and smeared on acrylic paint. then I stenciled with ink pads through punchinello and glued on paper accents. I used some of my favorite paper: brightly colored memos from work that I paint, draw, and stamp on while I'm working on other projects. I love how it kind of preserves some history about me, and I really like the crazy color combinations that end up on this paper. I made a door and window on each house. I colored a phonebook page green and cut out leaves. I glued those on, then used my sewing machine to put on some stems and grass. Then I used markers and gel pens to put quotes about home on the pages. I did eight pages -- seven to swap and one to keep. Here's the page I'm keeping. The words say, "Home is where the dirty dishes are." That sure is true for me!!

Inchie Display

I've been collecting inchies from swaps and one-on-one trades, and have had a few different storage methods. At first, they were shoved into a teeny drawer in an organizer on my art table. When they outgrew that spot, I moved them to a plastic box that I got with some Ferrero Rocher candies (mmmm....). I figured that once I had a box full I'd be ready to put them on display. Well, that box got full after I hosted the word inchie swap!

At first my plan was to get a HUGE canvas to glue the inchies on. Then I started thinking about how much a gigantic canvas would cost, and how difficult it would be to find a good place to hang it (keeping in mind that our apartment has concrete walls that you can't hammer into). Last weekend I spotted a great deal on 16 x 20 canvases -- 2 for $6! I bought two packs, and figured that a three panel display would be ideal.

This week I painted the first canvas and glued my teeny inchies onto it while watching the Olympics (go Michael Phelps!!). I hadn't calculated how many inchies would fit on one canvas, so I was surprised to see nearly my whole collection fit! 180 inchies fit on the canvas -- I could have squeezed in one more row on top if I had started a smidgen lower on the last row -- hmmmpf!! I've still got about 50 left for the next canvas -- will need to get swapping to get enough!

Inspiring Video

A while back, Zhenia recommended some Ira Glass videos on her blog. In them he talks about creativity and taste - really interesting stuff, and very inspirational. He says that we're bound to make crap when we're trying to be creative, and that we just need to keep on making lots of things and eventually something good will come out of our efforts - when you've got good taste you can recognize the good from the crap :)

After I watched those videos, I remembered how much I used to love listening to This American Life when I used to drive from the university to my parents' place on the weekends. I listened to some old episodes on their archive and cut out ATC blanks from cereal boxes. Good times.