What I need to be creative…..3 of 3

Only as High as I Reach can I Grow,

Only as Deep as I Look can I See,

Only as Far as I Seek can I Go,

Only as Much as I Dream can I Be.

-anonymous

What I need to be creative. Or just Create!!!

I’ve already mentioned that I needed:

1. Food
2. Visual Stimuli
3. Equipment
4. Place
5. Travel

Today, there’s three more things I need.

6. TIME

I like to have a set time that I show up for my “art”. It hasn’t always been this way, but now that I have more control over my time, it’s something I really look forward to and encourage others to follow. On the days that I work, I always schedule some art-time into my breaks. I go off , where I can be undisturbed by people or TV. Cafe style settings work well for me.

Almost daily now, you can find me doing something after dinner! Lately, I’ll get my hot chocolate made with way too many marshmallows, and I’ll sit down to c.r.e.a.t.e. something! Anything!

Before the kids could drive and I was the taxi- mom, I had to break my projects down into 20-30 minute segments. Multi-tasking was the focus of the day then. Doing projects and getting my sewing projectss done was important to me, so I found a way.

7. ENCOURAGEMENT

If you know me or live with me, you will often find me running into the other room to show my DH (dear Husband) or DC (dear child) what I’m working on. Sometimes I actually get a response from them. A useful comment or question. Other times, it’s just the “yeah, that’s great” or the “excuse me, you’re blocking my view”. Ahh well, what can I say?

Then there’s you all! You guys understand! You write such enthusiastic comments. I just love them! Even the comments that only have a word or two: “Neat” and “Looks good”. I try to comment too, when I’m out and about blog surfing or on Flickr. I must confess though, if a post or flickr upload already has 20+ comments, I usually don’t add anymore to it. I think it’s important to be one of the first to comment on something that moves me or I agree with. I want to encourage the person that did the work or wrote the article. I like the dialogue of a new post, before all the readers and blog authors have moved on from the topic.

8. DOWNTIME

Then there’s downtime. Sometimes it screams to be taken. I’ve got alot to say about this. Stay tuned!

Blog GIVEAWAY!!

This is my 150th post!! Wow! I can’t believe it! And to think, I even have a few followers! (Thank You guys, you know who you are).

I thought it would be fun to host a doodle art giveaway. You won’t win a million dollars or a cute art journal kit, sorry! But what I can do is take my doodle alphabet and make a 4x6 print of something similar to the “name” above. The winner can choose any word they want. Your Name, your word for the year, a date, a number…. I’ve found that it’s best to limit the number of characters in your “word” to under 8. That way you can see more of the doodles in the print. I’ve been making these name photos for friends at work since July. It’s been fun!!

All you have to do is answer the following question in a word or two.

What is the first word that comes into your mind when you think of ART?

To be included in the random drawing you have to comment on this post by midnight Sunday 2/28. I’ll randomly pick a name and announce it on my blog Monday 3/1. So, please stop back on the 1st so I can get your address and your word. I will need to snail mail you the print.

See some examples below:

What I need to be creative….2 of 3

What I need to be creative.  Or just Create!!!

Yesterday, I mentioned that I needed:

1. Food
2. Visual Stimuli

Today, there’s more…..

3.  EQUIPMENT

My favorite items are watercolor paper, good pens (like Faber-castell, Microns, Sharpies fine, Bic Mark its, Gelly rolls) and small brushes.  I’m  a stocker-upper!!

When I get those Hobby Lobby, JoAnne’s or Michael’s coupons, I immediately get a good pen if my back up  black XS pen has been put into use.  I can get pretty overwhelmed when I go into these stores, so I usually shop best when I know why I’m there.  Just by walking in the door of some art stores is enough to get my head swirling with things I want to try or buy.  Think Artist’s Date and you don’t even have to spend a penny.   A good benny about frequenting these stores is, I may come across a new product or a big clearance sale.  It’s also a good way to keep track of the trends that are coming out.

 4.  PLACE

First of all I’ve got to be comfortable, have decent light and I tend to spread out a bit.  I have this really cool "studio"  at home (where Phyllis the Phlamingo lives), but that’s not where you’ll find me doodling.  You may find me sewing  there, but not doodling. 

My favorite place to doodle at home is right on my computer desk.  I just move the wireless keyboard to the floor, clear my spot and off I go.  I’ll usually have on my wireless headphones and listen to music or Dennis Prager.

Another great place for inspiration is Quilt stores.  All that luscious fabric in those amazing colors.  Batik’s, diamonds, florals, stripes, Oh My!!    Museums are a special treat, especially children’s museums.   I like the fun, funky and colorful stuff you can find at Children’s museums.  Art Boutiques are always good fodder for inspiration too.

What about you?  Where do you physically go to get inspired?

5. TRAVEL

Nothing’s quite like a change of scenery or a twist in my routine to get me thinking differently.  I haven’t traveled much for sight-seeing reasons these days.  Mostly it’s to visit family (spread out in 5 states) or attend swim meets.

Our Annual Beach Vacation to Florida always gets me excited to create something new.  Or try something new.  Combination of the beach colors and sails, suits and outerwear.  Being in the water and on the water.  And not having to be anywhere at anytime, I get to be quite lazy actually !

Hey, I’m going to Nashville next week, does anybody have any suggestions for a casual Artist’s date there?  Any good artsy-shops?

What I need to be creative….1 of 3

I’m breaking this piece up into three segments. Because if you’re anything like me, when you stop in you probably don’t want to read an Essay. Just a few paragraphs is usually the best for my attention span.

What I need to be creative. Or just to create!!

1. FOOD

If you could view my blogger following list you’d see all the places blogs I’d like to visit. Every morning I always stop in and see what Tammy’s up to at Daisy Yellow. Sometime during the day, Janet will update her blog at Just Me and My Art and show us some of her beautiful Art journal pages or talk about an on-line class she’s taking. Throughout the day as the updates occur, I can’t bypass Aimee at Artsyville, or Sue at Sue Doodles. If I’m in need of a more charitable or grateful article, I’ll check out Christine’s blog at christinekane.com.

There are so many more blogs that I stop into on a weekly basis. Such as:

• Artsy-crafty babe
• Attic24
• Cathartic Creativity
• Elvie Studio
• ihanna
• Serena Lewis
• Shutter Sisters
• and recently Artist's Who Blog

These blogs are my food! My main meal! My get the creative juices going from the posts insights, articles, eye candy and quotes. I feel like I know these people, really!!

2. Visual Stimuli

Other than the blogs mentioned above. I need visual stimuli!! And lots of it! Books and Magazines and more Books are my friends. Nothing compares to the Somerset Studios magazines out there. They publish an Art Journaling magazine, Artful Blogging magazine, Somerset Workshop magazine and many, many more. Check out your local bookstore like Barnes and Noble or Borders if you want to see more. When I’m traveling or don’t want to be on-line I always reach for my books or magazines.

And another huge visual stimuli for me is ……

Flickr. I love to go into my Favorites, then click on a member that left a comment, from there I’ll check out their photostream, I can’t leave until I’ve looked at their Favorites, too! It is an amazing people connection. I find things that have been uploaded to flickr years ago. Some pics were not even posted into any groups, which means I never would have come across them. I will go weeks without checking out my “groups” pages for their recent uploads because I’m getting my artsy fix by “Favorites” hopping!

Thanks for stopping by! Please stay tuned for part Two tomorrow.

Eden

Three down…….one to go

I just finished my 3rd moleskine! Three! I love these books! I love this size for the most part. As a novice they work perfectly for me. Someday, I’ll get the bigger one, someday…..

As you can see I’ve been working on my doodle alphabet. These lowercase letters have been fun! I may go thru and rework my uppercase when when finished. I really must get a life! I must get out a little more and take a DRAWING class! Really, I must! I don’t know what’s stopping me. Probably I don’t want to be told what to do, work on a piece that I don’t find interesting? Or having to be somewhere at a certain time (other than work). But I would love to meet some like-minded people! I know there are many of you out there.

It’s like a trip down memory lane, when I open these up and look at what I’ve done. Trust me there are some pages I’ve totally given up on. But those pages come in real handy when I’m testing out my markers, for color contrast and ink supply.

I only buy the watercolour moleskines. They can take the abuse.

Just opened this one tonight! Now, I’ve got to find one locally to have on hand. I never know how fast I’ll go thru these. Could be a week or a month!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Eden

P.S. I’ll let you know when I find a class

Evolution of a Blog Banner……

I think I have a “thing” for blog banners! I started posting to this blog back in 2007. And my motto for the blog was “Just Do It”, to get me over the hump of writing on here. Exposing myself and my stuff to the outer world. It was fun. I liked the fact that if I was talking to a friend I could immediately show them something I was talking about by just going to my blog and finding the post.

Then in 2009, I wanted to pick a word. As you can see my word was “Start”. As in start to do the things I wanted to do, and I started to update my blog as well.

When I first named my blog I had it as “My Perspective”, so I thought it would be fun to bring that into the blog header in the one I used in February ‘09. Being that I don’t use the blog to voice my political views, my personal victories and struggles (other than with arts & crafts), I thought that name was pretty lame. So, that’s when “This looks like fun” came onto the scene.

The “Lighten Up and Start to express yourself in different ways” banner was pretty short lived. I wanted to jump start myself to really post on this blog, but I thought the “lighten up” wording came off as a little negative. Time to change again, then.

The Inspire, Love, Start header was super fun to make. I used many digital images that I bought at Scrapgirls and I got to express myself thru Photoshop more on here. I really have a thing for those birdies too! Go figure!

This summer as I foung myself with more “me” time due to the fact that my youngest child was driving herself to her activities and practices. I was able to sew things and to doodle a bit and to really express myself in color. I brought in my own pictures for the top banner… “A little place on the web where Creativity happens”. This banner really inspired me. I could see some of my favorite fabrics, my favorite self-made quilt, some fun doodles and embroidery. This one I could’ve kept up forever.

Now it’s December and I seem to be on a roll…..so, I had to wish my blog readers a Merry Christmas and what better way to do that than thru my banner. With pictures from my own tree and infusing it with the real reason for Christmas (not the politically correct version of Happy Holidays), I was able to show you a little slice of my values.

Then came the Happy New Year banner! I had hand drawn those birds (just 3) in October and scanned them into my computer for future work. For this banner all I had to do was color, crop and duplicate in Photoshop. Another fun, FUN, blog header!

On February1st, I had to try my hand at a Valentines header. As you can see, I have trouble with PINK! I love pink, actually adore it….but this banner seems too busy for me. Maybe it’s too pink!! Probably should’ve toned it down some.

Then today, I made a blog header with my own little doodle alphabet. The first three letters are from my earlier doodling. The last 3 letters are more recent. To me the latter letters (Lowercase) are a bit richer, not as boring as the Uppercase series.

Don’t know how long I’ll keep this header up. Until I get bored with it I guess. I think it would be neat if blogger was able to keep the blog header with the posts that we did at that time. For those not familiar I’ll explain what I mean. When I upload a new blog header it will be what is seen when you go back and read older posts. It’s too bad the header doesn’t appear that I used from the time I posted a certain post (i.e. Christmas banner blog header as you go back and read what I talked about in Dec 09)….. Ah well, such is life.

What have you seen evolve on your blog that surprised you? Inspired you? Kept you wanting to update and improve?

Thanks for stopping by,

Eden

hi……

“h” is for; hello, honey, helicopter, hors d'oeuvres , hills, and heeps-o-fun!!!

I’ve finally decided to take on the “lower-case” alphabet doodle challenge…. which I gave myself months ago. My uppercase letters were in real need of a lowercase counterpart. I’ve found with the little break from doodling in this form that my doodles have changed a bit. It’s just interesting to see that I’m not as afraid of using a lot of color to fill in the white space. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge white space advocate. But in the case of these letters, since they are drawn on white moleskine paper, they need contrast and color. And lots of it!!

One of these days I’m gonna do a series of these in watercolor pencils. I love the way the watercolor pencils give depth and fluidity to the piece. The problem with the watercolor pencils for me now is, I haven’t decided if i could do this during my break at my DAY JOB. I think though, if it’s important to me….I’ll find a way.

Thanks for stopping by….and keep on doing your thing!!

Eden

Doodle Directory

I really can’t decide what to call this???? Doodle Dictionary or Doodle Directory. I got the idea of creating this directory from Sue at Sue Doodles. She’s an amazing doodler, go check her out, I’ll wait!

While doing my mindless doodles, I’d be wracking my brain with what doodle to do next. So, off I went in my handy-dandy watercolor moleskine to document some of my favorite doodles. These are really quite simple and I really must take some time to learn more forms. This Zentangle newsletter is a good place for instruction. All in good time, all in good time.

Here’s just a sneak peak of my little directory so far….. I even named some of the forms.

The Flowers are what I learned at Calligra-Fun with Martha Lever.

The “Open Boxes” are very much an inspiration from Tammy at Daisy Yellow.

I’m really drawn to the “Striped Triangles” on this one, but would love to do more along the “Swirls upon Swirls” line.

Almost all my doodles have some sort of “Diamond” pattern in the background.

Lots of fun stuff in this one, I am enjoying this “Leaves” type of doodle lately.

Lots of fun doodles here too! I love to draw the Line Flower, Seuss Hats, Puzzle and Camouflage.

Where do you get your inspiration? Has anybody found a good book along these lines (a doodle book)?

Thanks for stopping by :D

-Eden

Studio/ Guest Room

I am so excited!! I have company coming in on Thursday and they are staying in the Studio! It’s the 2nd biggest bedroom and they won’t be as crowded as they would be if they stayed in the room that we usually reserved for guests. Granted this room doesn’t have a TV, so the other room is better for TV viewing.

This room is over the garage, hence the funky ceiling. It also gets extremely cold in the winter and hot in the summer. As you’ll see the A/C unit in the window and the space heater on the table.

Inspiration Board is a work in progress. And a wonderful place to put things I don’t want to lose. No, that’s not my guitar or keyboard. My son has taken a real interest in music over the last few years and this is his first guitar. I’m pretty musically inept, but love to belt out a Song or two as I sing along with my mp3 player. (much to my family’s chagrin….geez I really don’t get that)

My modest fabric Stash! You really ought to see my mother in laws!!! M.A.G.N.I.F.I.C.E.N.T., to say the least!

To the right of the dresser is my Current project. I’ll be appliquéing the flower petals and leaves to a tan pieced background. More later when I finish.

Some of my absolute favorite pictures of Family. The wonders of digital and scanning in old pics lets me have brand new pictures for just 19 cents from Walgreens. (If I really had my act together, I’d upload about 50 favorites and have snapfish print them for just 9 cents a piece.)……But that’s if I had my act together!!

I have had this rack for about 5 years. I had bought two at the time for only about 6 bucks each. I hung the first one right away in my bathroom. I have almost given this one to Goodwill about 3 times, but something inside said, “Wait, you may wish you had it someday”. And now, It’s someday....It’s a perfect spot for those dropper paints I told you about in this post.

I covered one of those big body length pillows about ten years ago with that striped fabric you see on the closer bed. Then my dear grandmother gave me a quilt she no longer uses that she had embroidered herself! I use what I love and I love this, however, so did the dog and the kids, so now there are tears to more than a few stitches and ink marks! Ah, well…..what can I say?? I’m so happy with those Deka Curtain wires from Ikea. I can now put all kinds of fun stuff up. And Look, that same dog has made her way into the picture. Good thing she’s on the floor, huh?

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share with you! Posting this here really helped motivate me to get this done! Pictures are clickable (become larger upon clicking them), if you want a better look. - Eden

Word Art

I got these letters last week at Hobby Lobby, I liked the cool font and hey, they were white!! What better color to embellish than white? So…. off I went to doodle them up. I was a little unsure how the finish would take with the paints I used. But it worked really well. Next time I’d probably lightly sand the letters prior to starting. Just so the ink has something to hold on to.

Oh- and these were 50% off last week! Gotta love a sale!

Below are the inks I used! I really like the dropper inks, I have a couple pearlescent ones (blue and green), which makes a pretty cool effect once dry.

So, I finished the A on Sunday, then on Monday I did the R, rolling right along I thought I’d be all done on Tuesday, with the T until……….

Dropper Danger!

The little blue dropper had a clot in it…..and not thinking I just continued to squeeze that little dropper until…..S.P.L.A.T…..

I tried to wipe it off!!! What was I thinking???

Instead of throwing the letter away, I just painted the bad end with white paint x 3 and thankfully finished up my T today! I’m now proudly displaying them in my Studio (you know, my college son’s room that I’m imposing on). Simple and Fun!!

I know this word isn’t all that original! I could’ve done my 2010 word for the year, if I had one picked out yet. I’m giving myself the entire month of january to decide.

I’d love to see what you make for yourselves! Actually I challenge you to show me what you’ve made for yourself and displayed. I will stop by if you leave me a link!!

Thanks for stopping by, Eden

Just a peek…..

Here’s a little peek of something I was working on this weekend! It’s almost done. I can’t wait to show you. I’m going to put it in my “studio” (a.k.a. my son’s room that I’m imposing on).

I thing I’ve realized something about Art/Artists. I am not really in that category, but I get so fired up when I can decorate with my “art”. When I can make a piece and display it somewhere where I can see it. Growing up and into early adulthood, I never made anything for myself. I’d always make things for others, give them away and not have something that I enjoyed to look at. I usually made things that I’d want for myself (who knows what the recipient wanted!!) Usually I’d have a reason for the gift, so it wasn’t like I didn’t give any thought to the gifts. Then if I made something for myself, it was small and simple. Kind of neutral, I didn’t want to make any bold statements in decorating or displaying. I mean what if it wasn’t appealing to my family? What if what I make falls apart? Or I outgrew the trend? But now that I’m indulging in this other side to my life, I find I want to make things for me, all the time. I want to show my personality in my creations. I also like the way things can be changed as you go, when I am responsible for the colors or the prints. I like that I have more options available to me if I just picked up some paint, or bought some cool fabric.

I think we “artsy” people need to surround ourselves with things that we love! Things that inspire our personal creativity. I think it’s like a pet and it needs to be fed. Visually fed that is! And it needs to be visually nurtured! Yes, it’s risky because it’ll cost some money in supplies or items that make us happy! It’s a little about opening up and expressing myself too! But when it clicks and things in the studio or in my surroundings take shape (even if it has a bit of wackiness), then it’s worth it! At least to me! And so far, DH (dear husband) hasn’t complained! Whew! Maybe that’s what I was afraid of!!

How about you? Do you display your art for yourself? What’s your experience with the people you live with?

Cardinal Embroidery

Do you remember my son (the one i’m imposing on, by taking over his bedroom while he’s at college). Well, he joined a Fraternity his Freshman year, he’s a Junior now. Apparently the Fraternity was trying to turn itself around and it’s ‘07 mission statement was the “Healthy Rounded Man (or something like that) Fraternity”. You had to be there when he said these words to us, i was so biting my lip to stop from giggling. Apparently they had to purge the bad (party) kids, and get good kids, then make some money thru charities to support themselves or this Frat was going to get axed from the school.

They started to get involved in some local charity events, they participated in the Greek intramurals and have even done carpentry/House maintenance on their condemned Frat house (which no one lives in, thankfully). Each year they have a Charity event for gaining funds for their fraternity. Usually he tells me a week in advance and wants me to whip up something to auction off. Sure no problem…eh-huh!! The first year I donated a bunch of fleece hats made with the school fleece, similar to the one below.

The following year I made pillow cases like these below.

I’ve always told him I could make something better if he just gave me more NOTICE! This year he blew me away. He told me at Thanksgiving that he’d like me to make something for the April Auction. That’s one, two, thr… FIVE months in advance. Well, with Christmas and the holidays I didn’t get a chance to work on a thing. I had an idea though!! I wanted to hand embroider his mascot then make a small quilt, like a wall hanging or lap quilt to auction off.

Here’s what I have so far.

My material, look closely the red and the yellow have a little branching pattern that I thought would give it some texture.

I don’t know what I’d do without my DMC floss! Works great when trying to match up colors. Much better than spools of thread and cheaper too!!

Finished this today! Yeah! Now, I’ve gotta go over and browse some flickr quilting groups for inspiration. I want the Cardinal as the main focus and work around him. These weren’t hard to make, I may have to do another cardinal or two.

Off for inspiration! Thanks for stopping by :)

Eden