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! 

a mini birthday book.

I love making things, especially for Josh. Last year for his 22nd birthday I made him a booklet of 22 things I love about him. Since we're about to move we've been sorting through old papers and one day we found this.  I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite pages with you.

Fun, huh? The photos in this book are our engagement photos done by Allison Harp. 

project life in 2013: week 34

week 34

march 18-24

To say I'm behind on sharing project life spreads here is a major understatement. But I'm not giving up. I am almost caught up on putting together my summer spreads, but I haven't even finished sharing spring layouts here! For that reason I may just share some of my favorites from spring. We'll see.

(Click on the photo to see it larger)

What happened this week? We had to return our skis this week, which was sad. We accidentally shrunk the wool hat I made for Josh, which was super sad. This wasn't a really sad week other than those two things. We continued praying in the morning during lent, I worked on some etsy related projects and we planned another cabin trip, which turned into an "indoor cabin trip." We also made some minor adjustments to our living room that made a big difference for us.

Anything special in the spread? I made a couple 3x4 cards with my very own stamps and added some painted (and some unpainted) thickers to the picture of Josh's shrunken hat.

Favorite photo: I love the pictures of our the tent we made in our living room, but my favorite is the hat photo. It really was sad when we found that in the midst of our laundry. For some reason, though, the photo makes me smile now.

Overall thoughts: I love the colors in this spread. It can be hard to make winter pictures look bright, colorful and cheery, but this layout managed to have a cheerful vibe. Prepping these project life spreads for the blog is like a window into our old life. I'm already reminiscing about our life in Norway even just a month removed from it; I have a real fondness for this past year.

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

project life 2013: weeks 32+33

week 32

march 4-10

What happened this week? This seems like forever ago, but I am determined to keep sharing my pages here.  This week was kind of typical.  Josh was taking classes, I was tutoring and babysitting, we went for a hike and hung out with friends. We also began thinking about our plans for the summer and fall. 

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

Anything special in the spread? To change things up I made my own date card by layering strips of washi tape on a piece of cardstock.  I chose a color scheme and then just put the tape in a random order.  The date is written on a paper source label (paper bag colored). I also added in some fun 3x4 cards that I made myself.  A while ago I wrapped some pink string around cardstock; I'm glad I've found a use for it!  I also stamped green hexagons onto white cardstock.  I like that they coordinate well with the date card. 

Favorite photo: The close-ups of Josh from our hike. I was practicing using different settings on my camera and I am happy with the results.  He's cute.

Overall thoughts? I am loving the seafoam kit, but also working to add in some of my own paper tidbits. I am happy that I recorded some of our thoughts about where to live next year.  As I write this post, we are actually making that decision and it's cool to look back on our thoughts from a couple months ago. 

week 33

march 11-17

What happened this week? A normal week with some tutoring, meeting my language partner who I'm helping with English, eating dinner with friends, touring the chocolate factory for Josh and enjoying our first DNT cabin trip with friends.

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

Anything special in the spread? A trimmed down Design A pocket page insert with photos from our cabin trip and a Kvikk Lunsj wrapper. 

Favorite photo: I love the photo of me skiing.  Josh snapped that while skiing and he was able to capture both the joy and the effort that skiing is for me.

Overall thoughts? I'm happy with the insert and how I was able to use it to tell the story of our cabin trip.  I told the story on two different journaling cards, but it continues from the first to the second. It's nice that the two cards are side by side when first looking at this spread. 

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens, my own handmade stamps.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

project life in 2013: weeks 30 + 31

week 30

february 18-24

(Click on the photos to see them larger)

What happened this week? I was sick early on in the week, but still did tutoring and babysitting.  I was well enough to attend the Local Natives concert, duh.  The concert tickets were a gift from Elise (Josh's sister) and I would not have missed it for anything.  It was awesome. Thanks again, Elise!  The cabin weekend for Christian Union was this week, too.  

Anything special in the spread?  I added an insert with 2.5 x 3 inch pockets to include lots of photos from the CU weekend.  I took a bunch of photos and someone else from CU shared some of his photos with me.  Some of the pictures in the insert measure 2.5 x 3 inches and others are 5 x 3 inches. I also tucked a note I wrote during the prayer walk into a velum envelope and sealed it with washi tape.  Someday I might like to remember what I was thankful for that night.

Favorite photo: The picture of me playing soccer is pretty great (it's in the insert).  A group of us played soccer in the knee-deep snow for about an hour.  It was hilarious, difficult, exhausting and so fun. I also love the shot of Nordmarkskapellet, the chapel in the North forest where we attended church.

Josh's cousin Christopher got married on February 24, so we wrote a note to him & Ali that was read at their rehearsal dinner.  It was cool that we could sort of participate because we were really bummed to not actually be there.  We saw pictures later and it looked like a wonderful wedding!

Overall thoughts? I wish I had taken my camera to the Local Natives concert.  This was my first photo pocket insert and I really like this technique. I also used an insert in our wedding spread, but it's just a big clear pocket that holds our program, invite and wedding cards.  I think I'm starting to get a bit more creative with this project.

week 31

february 25- march 3

What happened this week?  We finally gave Benny his birthday gift, which was a ski trip to Ullevaal Seter, where stopped and bought him a treat + coffee.  His birthday was on Halloween, so this was a long time coming.  The apple pie at Ullevaal Seter was superb. We did a little bedroom rearranging and the normal stuff- work and school.  I participate in Ali's "Day in the Life" challenge on Thursday, but it was kind of a slow day. We did have a pancake breakfast and take a nice walk, but most of the day was spent working/studying. I did some painting that day and I got together with my friend Tabea to make cakes for our friend Ellen's birthday party on Friday. 

Anything special in the spread?  I included my "Day in the Life" description in a small envelope sealed with washi tape.  It's easy to open and read if I or anyone else is curious of our happenings on February 28, 2013.

Favorite photo: The world pie.  Not only is chocolate silk pie delicious, but I am quite proud of the way I made frosting look like a map.  Plus, we made little flags representing the countries of our friends.  Ellen is an International Relations major, so I the pie was right up her alley.

 Overall thoughts: I love the colors this week, but found it hard to take "everyday" photos.  I'm realizing that one of the things I most want to remember about our life in 2013 are really the people.  I want to remember our friends, but I just don't take that many pictures of people.  That's something to work on, I guess.

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen, slicker writer pens.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.  

i love tiny things (like pocket sized notebooks).

Josh has this idea that I think miniature or tiny things are automatically cuter than their bigger counterparts. Maybe this is true, but maybe not. I think it definitely applies to animals, babies, shoes, notebooks, and food. Bigger things can be cute too, though.  Josh is cute and he's not exactly tiny. So I don't think his theory totally holds up. However, I can't deny that I love tiny things and I'm a big fan of pocket sized notebooks.  They're small and cute, but also the perfect size for lots of different things. Several years ago my mom gave me some moleskine pocket sized notebooks to paint. I was hooked. Ever since, I've been using these tiny notebooks as a canvas to draw, paint, write, tape and stamp. I sell them in my etsy shop and I use them myself. Here are some of the many uses I've found:
1. My very own dictionary.  When I was studying/living in Costa Rica I was constantly writing down new Spanish words into one of my moleskines.  The process really helped me learn new words.  Sometimes it's funny to look back and see all the random words I jotted down or to remember at which point I learned these words.

2. To-do lists.  I usually carry at least one notebook with me in my pursue or backpack, so I can jot things down right when I think of them.   As long as I can remember my mom has written at the top of her to-do list "To Do's," so apparently I write that too.

3. Notes.  My kindle is not a good place to take notes about books I'm reading, so I use one of my moleskines instead.  A while ago I was reading a book by my Grandpa Matt called "Symbol and Ceremony."

4. Workout record. It's easy to take this notebook with me to the gym and record how far I ran and what type of exercizes I did. I'm not training for anything right now, so I don't need a formal workout tracking method. This works because I can still see my progress and it's motivating to add another entry to my list. 
5. Prayer book.  One of my moleskines was made especially to be a place for me to write down prayers, worries and anxieties.  On one particularly stressful day last summer my mom shared Philippians 4:6 with me, which was really encouraging. Shortly after, I made a notebook in the hopes that by writing down my worries and prayer I could begin to trust God more.

6. Travel journal.  Josh and I will be in France this week. We have extremely limited room in our backpacks (they're stuffed with camping gear), so I am taking an ecosystem pocket sized notebook along in place of my normal journal. 

Most of the moleskines I use myself are experiments and leftovers from what didn't sell in my shop.  Sometimes I paint over old designs (like on the Philippians 4:6 notebook) and I've tried taping the whole thing with washi tape. Recently I discovered ecosystem notebooks which are totally recycled and come in bright colors. I'm really glad to be using more sustainable products. I've sold a few in my shop and I am excited to use one myself for the first time this week!

Tiny pocket sized notebooks are for sale in my shop right now.  If you're in Oslo you can find me selling new designs at the artisan market in John Collets Plass on Sunday May 19 in the afternoon.

project life in 2013: weeks 28 + 29

week 28

february 4-10

What happened this week? This was a pretty normal week for us.  We continued to ski, I worked and Josh went to class.  We got together with some friends, attended a Russian party, and we went to the Teknisk (Technical) Museum in Oslo for our date night.  I made valentines for some friends back in the USA with a stamp that I carved.  

Anything special in the spread? Nothing too special here.  I made the triangle stamped 3x4 card with kraft paper and a stamp I carved.  I also included a piece of really cool paper (the blue & gold one) from Dick Blick.  My secret Santa (Erica Vogler) gave me some awesome paper for Christmas.

Favorite photo this week: The bottom two skiing pictures are my favorites.  The picture of both of us was taken when we skied off the main trail a little ways and the bottom right picture is of Josh about five minutes from our apartment.  I loved how the trees would be completely covered in snow during the winter.

Overall thoughts: I tried to sort of have a color scheme this week (yellow, gold and blues) and I like the result.  It's a little more cohesive than some of my past spreads. 

week 29

february 11-17

What happened this week? We went to see the Tallest Man on Earth in concert, Josh had his big Fulbright seminar and we went on the Fulbright ski weekend.  This week I also ended my tutoring sessions with one student, but picked up another student.  I also listened to Mindy Kaling's audiobook while I worked on projects and cooked.  It was pretty funny, but not super funny.  I enjoyed it anyways.

Anything special in the spread?  I used thickers to spell out "Tallest Man on Earth" on the picture of Kristian Matsson. I stuck the thickers right on the plastic page protector. I kind of wish I hadn't used the orange date card, but oh well.

Favorite photo this week: I love the picture of Josh with snow on his beard because it's so funny that that happens.  

Overall thoughts: I was glad to get a lot of photos from our ski trip into the spread.  I still wanted to share my thoughts about the weekend, so I used a foldable journaling card to include more words.

Supplies and Tools: American Crafts thickers, washi tape, paper source labels, pretty paper from Dick Blick, random paper from my stash, Design A and B photo pocket pages (this variety pack), Seafoam core kit, Cobalt cardstock, black sharpie, black steadtler fineliner pen.

Project Life is a simple scrapbooking system by Becky Higgins.  I am using this system to document our first year of marriage with photos, words and other fun paper stuff.  You can see my other project life pages here.