on creativity.



I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity in the past few months and have felt a strong need to readjust my approach to art, crafts, and making things. For the past several years a lot of my creative energy went towards my Etsy shop. When sitting down at my craft table the prevailing thought bubble above my head was, “what can I make to sell in my Etsy shop?” When working on any sort of project I often asked myself, “could this be a new product in my shop?” 

That's not necessarily bad. I think there can be space for those kinds of thoughts in my life, but after a while I wasn't feeling creative and had little motivation to make anything at all. After Christmas, especially, I was feeling a little burned out (I made a majority of the gifts I gave) and I was generally uninspired. I didn’t like the self-imposed pressure to make something worthy of being sold every time I sat down to create. I had forgotten that the process of making things is just as valuable (if not more) than the end product. I didn't spend very much time making art or crafts during January and February, but eventually I started missing the creative process. So I decided to take a break from my Etsy shop and to try working on projects just for fun. 

And let me tell you it is fun to experiment with script art (I'm so inspired by Kal) and it's exciting to paint a picture I can keep, especially when it's a painting I love. My entrepreneurial spirit has not diminished; I just try to quiet it at times so I can lose myself in the wonder of painting, drawing, scrapbooking, taking photos, so on and so forth. Being honest, though, I've been really frustrated at times. I don't always like what I make. The vision I have in my head is not always so easy to put down on paper. I'm not as skilled at drawing and painting as I want to be. I know that I have a lot to learn and honing skills takes time. Nevertheless, it's encouraging to remember that I'm actually giving myself a chance to improve.

A few practical things have aided in this process:

1. I set aside specific time in my week for creative exercise. These times are flexible, but I try to sit down at my desk on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday either right after work or in the evening after dinner. Since I enjoy this creative stuff, I tend to make things at other times too. I just have these semi-mandatory times so that I will actually create and so that I can challenge myself to learn more about work in particular medium. 

2. I have a creative accountability partner. My good friend Kelly (who is an amazing artist) and I both need a little external motivation to get ourselves to spend time being creative so we decided to talk weekly about our creative processes. We are even giving each other weekly challenges, which acts as a deadline and spices things up. More about those weekly challenges later.

3. I'm co-leading an art group for high school girls. We meet weekly and do creative writing, different types of art projects, and talk about life. We're following a curriculum and I love that I have another creative outlet through this group. We work on projects that I wouldn't think of myself; it stretches and inspires me. A recent project at Girls Group sparked the idea to paint splashes (my favorite painting is above). 

While this personal reflection was largely a means to help me process my situation , I hope it encourages or inspires some of you out there. And if you have tips on being creative, by all means, share them in the comments! 

handmade stamps.

For Christmas I received a really cool make-your-own-rubber-stamp kit.  During the past two months I have used nearly all of the rubber to make seven great stamps.  I'm saving the last bit of rubber for when I get an extra special burst of inspiration.  I love that I was able to make so many different stamps out of 4x6 inches of rubber.  The stamp I made are pretty versatile and can be used together, which I sort of planned.  To be honest, these are not the greatest quality stamps and since they don't have a wooden backing, they can be a bit tricky to use.  Their best quality is definitely that I got to design them myself.  They're not perfect, but I think that's charming.

I got excited one evening and made a bunch of 3x4 cards for project life.

If this sounds interesting to you, I definitely recommend this kit.  It's inexpensive and easy to use (with helpful directions) and the process of carving is rather fun.  In a couple hours the other evening I carved four stamps and made about 10 3x4 cards.  It's simple and inspiring!

Here's a little peak at some new items coming to the shop next week:

diy end table.

DIY decor is kind of the m.o. for our apartment this year.  Since we're only here for a year and we won't be able to take a lot back to the USA, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money and buy a lot of stuff to decorate our apartment.  But we still want it to feel like home and look like a place we want to be!  This end table idea started when Josh looked out our window and saw a bunch of possibly useful stuff sitting next to the dumpster.  He went down for a rescue mission and came back up with this old chair frame with no seat.  As we were trying to figure out how to use the chair, we remembered we had an piece of wood (also collected from a trash pile) lying around.  After cleaning them off,  I set to work on painting the wood.

It only took about an hour to make and I really think it adds a lot to our little living room.

adventures in knitting.

Right before Christmas my friends and I decided to take up knitting and currently it's the only crafty sort of thing I have time for. The great thing about knitting is that it's portable, which means I can knit during class or chapel.  A couple of my teachers really don't mind if I knit in class-- I'm a kinesthetic learner so it works out well for me.  I also find the process soothing and relaxing.  My first knitting project was a scarf for Joshua.  I'd call it successful despite a few holes/dropped stitches at the beginning of the scarf.  What do you think?

 

I've kind of always thought that I could teach myself to make anything within the realm of crafty things.  Now, after entering the world of knitting, I'm thinking I should revise said thought to "within the realm of paper crafts and sewing." Knitting has proven to be a bit more difficult than I expected.  With some lovely yarn I received for Christmas I knitted scarf number 2, which turned out to be too wide.  Much, much too wide.  I unraveled it and realized that to get good at knitting I must keep trying.  Here's the unraveling of the super wide scarf:

Scarf number three, knit with wool yarn, turned out pretty well, though.  This one is for my sister, but I will admit that I wore it for three days straight before giving it to her.

Currently I am knitting a scarf for myself from the unraveled yarn of failed scarf number 2.  I decided to challenge myself a bit and learn a new stitch.  Scarf number four is my attempt at moss stitch, which is basically just alternating every stitch between knit stitch and purl stitch.  So in the world of knitting it's not really a challenge.  All my knitting knowledge comes from this site and knitting inspiration comes from soulemama.  I hope someday to be knitting sweaters in an hour like she does.  But for now, I will stick to scarves.

 p.s. I have used those large-ish wooden needles shown above in all four of my knitting projects.  They're great.

i have seven bridesmaids!

Since I love paper and craft projects,  I figured I might as well do something with paper to make asking my bridesmaids a little more creative.  I saw this idea for making a paper doll chain of bridesmaid here.  I had a free afternoon one day in January, so I started cutting away.  I didn't actually have paper long enough for all seven of my bridesmaids, so I made a chain of five and a chain of two and glued them together.  It wasn't perfect, but it worked.  I went to town cutting seven of each girl's hair and dresses in purple, grey and green.  Those aren't quite exactly my wedding colors and as of now I have no idea what my bridesmaids will actually be wearing, but these are just paper dolls.  The hair was my favorite.  It made it more fun that each of my bridesmaids have kind of distinct hair.

All of my bridesmaids are in Greenville so I asked them all in person.  I also didn't include many details about what they will wear/do because they all live close and we will be talking about it a lot in person over the next few months.  My four roommates all screamed when I asked them and everyone was excited.  I'm excited.  It's going to be great to have them participating in my wedding ceremony in a special way.  Josh and I believe that the wedding ceremony is a sacrament of the church. These seven girls are a part of my church community, so it only seems right to have them by my side as I participate in this sacrament and marry Josh.  Community is important to us and while Josh and I are the two getting married, we can't do this all on our own.  We need our community to support and helps us, give us a different perspective when we disagree, make us laugh and encourage us.

Well this post got a little more deep than I expected.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the finished product.

 

 

on quilting.

Well, I am an amateur quilter.  A few years ago I decided that at some point in my life I would make a quilt and the adventure began last summer.  I started making a super easy quilt with tons of different colors and fabrics and no apparent pattern and never finished.  So this summer I am determined to finish it.  The reason why it has taken me soooo loonnnnggg to finish this quilt is not because it is difficult, but because I spend about three hours every couple weeks quilting.  I wish I could spend more time on my quilt, but I just have tons of other time commitments.  Here I will attempt to guide you through the process of making a 4 square quilt. Actually, really this is just a step by step process for how to make each 4 square block, because I have not gotten beyond this point yet.

Step 1: Collect fabric.  My mom used to be a quilter before I was born and used up all her time and energy, so I found the majority of my fabric in our basement.  This is awesome because not only I am being environmentally friendly, but I didn't have to spend buckets full of money on new fabric.  I did stop by the local quilting store in my town (which is quite impressive for a town of 7,000) and spent 10 bucks on five different [small] pieces of fabric.  My mom also found some batting (the inside padding of the quilt) for me at a yard sale for $0.25.  Also awesome.  And most awesome of all- Joshua, my boyfriend, brought me some fabric from Africa.

Step 2: Cut three inch wide strips of two different fabrics.

You can choose any width, but I choose three inches because I liked the size.  Once I sew the squares together, though, each square will end up being a lot smaller than three inches.  Oh well.  I'm not striving for perfect in this quilt.  I'm really just doing it for the fun of the process and to have a handmade quilt to use.

Step 3: Pin the strips together.

Place the strips print side down on top of each other and put a nice row of pins in the fabric.  Simple.

Step 4: Sew.

 

 Sew in a straight line and remove the pins.  I made a 3/8 inch seam.

Step 5: Iron with the seam pressed to the dark side.

 

Step 6:  Cut smaller strips three inches wide.

Place the strips side by side with opposing patterns next to each other, as shown above and...

Step 7: Pin.

Step 8: Sew.

Step 9: Iron.

And there you have it, beautiful 4 square quilting blocks.  I made three blocks from the original two strips I cut.

Sidenote: please excuse the poor quality of the pictures.  They were taken in my basement sewing are where the lighting is terrible and I don't yet have an awesome camera that takes good pictures anywhere.  (It is on my wishlist, though.)

i am twenty!

 

  

I figured now might be a good time to blog about my birthday- considering it was two weeks ago.  My birthday was Sunday July 18, but the festivities started on the previous Friday when my Dad took me to St. Louis for a father/daughter surprise date.  We ended up at the airport for "dinner," but during dinner Joshua (my boyfriend) showed up.  It was the best surprise and exactly what I needed.  It had been a month since I had last seen Josh.  A month is a very long time. There aren't enough words for how happy I was to see him and to get to spend 4 days with him!  Since Josh lives in Seattle we've only gotten to see each other twice this summer (including the birthday surprise).  Josh said we were stealing time from summer on my birthday weekend.  We spent our blissful four days swimming in the lake, riding bikes, hanging out with friends and family and staying up late.  On my actual birthday friends came over and we made a delicious dinner.  (peanut chicken saute, vegetable curry, grilled tomato sandwiches, focaccia bread and cookie dough cupcakes.)  After dinner we played Norwegian Table Manners and Spoons.  Fun games and fun friends.  I am blessed and so thankful for amazing family and friends.

Also, on a crafty note, I am loving paint and moleskin cahier notebooks together.  These pocket notebooks are the perfect size for short-ish quotes and what not.  I buy them in packs of three on amazon.com.  I recently got small bottles of acrylic paint on a super sale (5 for $1!) at Michael's, which is what I have been using to paint these beauties. 

Look for these in my shop!