Day 55:

"Write an advertising jingle for something in nature (a tree, a bird, a cloud)."

Finally something that falls exactly in my theme and I have nothing.  Nothing at all.  A jingle?  I have tried to come up with something but I just can't get my brain to wrap around it.  I even thought I would give it an extra day or two as this is suppose to be Monday's post but I posted the weekend late due to a Christmas family celebration.  Still nothing.  So instead here is a photo out of the book of photo's I just completed for my mother as a birthday gift. 

A little winter wonderland to help me get in the mood for Christmas, because currently it is sunny and green, more spring like than Canadian Christmas.

Day 54:

"Connect the dots.  Make something only using dots."

I did today's project based on Australian Aboriginal Art.  I used fine tip markers instead of a quill and paint.  I know that dot paintings have a lot of meaning in Aboriginal Culture, depicting stories and meaning by the designs and choices of colour. I hope that my interpretation was not culturally insensitive in any way.

Day 53:

"Make something in which the sense of smell is the essential component."

Sorry for the late post.  I was hosting the family Christmas this weekend and just didn't have time to post my work on the weekend.  I will post the weekend projects today and Monday and Tuesday's projects tomorrow to catch up again.

Given that it is Christmas time I put cloves in an orange for my project today.  Totally natural materials.  The smell is fantastic and it reminds me of my childhood, my mom would always have us do simple projects like this to lead up to Christmas.

Day 52:

"Work upside down.  Create something in such a way that you have to rotate it 180 degrees to see/display it when it's finished."

I decided to try and draw upside down.  It was a little harder than I expected.  Especially the bunny.

Day 51:

"Make something that would not normally be considered cute and cuddly into something that is."

I had a lot of ideas for today.  I may use this prompt again if I ever get really stuck.  I decided to use a snake.  I have a totally irrational fear of snakes.  I can sometimes look at them in a zoo but even when they are behind glass they freak me out a little.  I do find green pythons fascinating though.  Their colour is so vibrant and they curl up on branches.  I drew my snake to have those sad 'puss 'n boots' eyes pleading for you to love it.

Day 50:

"Be a minimalist.  Work only with white materials today."

Day 50 already.  Wow.  Only white?  I think feathers.  I cut some white feathers out of copy paper and photographed them on cream white water colour paper.

Day 49:

"Quantity over quality.  Work with a lot of something."

Buttons.  I have lots of buttons.  I save the spares attached to new clothes, any that fall off and never get replaced as well as cutting them off things to be thrown out.  From time to time I buy them for a project and there will be one or two left over.  I drop them all in a jar and they become eyes on stuffies, get used in children's projects, sewn on to an new project or replace a missing button. 

I created an apple tree with a pond hosting a turtle and frog and wild flowers in the field under a starry sky.  You just need a little imagination to see it. (Note: that there is a heart carved into the tree trunk.)

Day 48:

"How tall can you make something that stands up on its own?"

Wooden blocks. 

Yes I pulled out the wooden blocks and created my take on a tree trunk.  It wasn't very tall but it was certainly getting unstable as the blocks are from a few different sets.  I used all but 5 small triangles.

Day 47:

"Work with flowers - artificial or real, live or dried, picked or bought."

Well it is a busy time of year right now.  Today seems like a bit of a cop-out as I simply took a photo of my spectacular poinsettia that I purchased.  It was beautiful on it's own, no manipulation required.

Day 46:

"Face it.  What can you do with a face - yours or someone else's?"

Well this was a bit tough.  What I wanted to do was layer the picture of the storm on the side of the face of a picture of  my son.  I have never used any photo shop type software and didn't have any on my computer. I really didn't have time to download and learn photo shopping (I intend to find some time to learn though) so I experimented with my printer.  In the end I just printed one photo over another for a cool effect. 

Day 45:

"Create an image with masking tape or any other kind of tape, for that matter.  Try making it on a nontraditional surface.  Extra credit: Leave it for others to find."

I seem to be making a lot of trees.  Maybe I should have done a tree a day project.  I made another tree today out of masking tape.  I did it on a tree at the front of my property, it seemed wrong to do it in the park.  Left my blog address on it in case anyone passing by wants to see what this tree is about.

Day 44:

"Make something that lights up."

I made a little paper lantern (7 cm by 5.5 cm) out of a piece of blue Japanese paper I had.  I then used a fancy hole punch to punch out little rabbits and glued them hopping around the lantern.  It fits perfectly over a tea light and is rather cute.  I couldn't get a good photo showing the illumination. 

Blog Feature Make Something 365

I have been featured on Noah Scalin"s Blog Make Something 365 & Get Unstuck  Check it out and see some other very creative projects.

Cheers

Day 43:

"Learn something new.  Ask a friend to help you do something using a technique or skill they're good at."

Well today I stopped at learn something new.  For many reasons, that I won't get into, I didn't consider the second prompt today.  I did get a book about tying knots called 75 Chinese, Celtic, & Ornamental Knots by Laura Williams and Elise Mann.  I tried a few but was only successful with two yesterday.  I am planning to continue to learn the knots as I think they are all very interesting and the more complicated ones looked fantastic. 

The pink and blue knot is called .... you guessed it .... dragonfly knot.  The green one is called Snake Knot but with the long tails untrimmed it looked to me like a bug with long feelers and pinchers. 

Day 42:

"Turn today's junk mail into something much more appealing."

I don't seem to get a lot of junk mail on a regular basis.  Today I got two pizza fliers.

I took them and ripped them into tiny 'leaves' for my tree.  The colours in the fliers just screamed fall leaves to me.  The results are:

In hindsight I should have looked for one of those fancy hole punchers that crafters and kids use.  I think the kids might actually have one that is leaf shaped.

Day 41:

"Think big.  Create a large version of something that would normally be much smaller."

I decided on a Bull Ant today.  I lived in Australia for six years and although Bull Ants are big (they range in size from 8mm to 4cm) they aren't as big as I drew at 23cm.  They can give you a painful stings by gripping you with their mandibles, curling their abdomen and injecting you with the venom.  I have seen them but happily was never stung by one. 

Day 40:

"What can you do with yarn?  You don't have to know how to knit or crochet; you can try yarn painting or just experiment."

First let me say sorry that I haven't been posting. I have been creating but not sitting down at the computer and posting.  I thought maybe I would post a whole bunch today but I decided I would continue with one a day.  That way if I get tripped up getting things done over Christmas I will have a few days grace.

Doing something with yarn is something I definately know well.  I decided I would just knit again.  I got a pattern from http://mochimochiland.com/blog/ for the very cute snails.  I used some sock yarn scraps I had on hand and made these two little friends.  I used little seed beads for the eyes. They were immediately snapped up by my youngest.

Day 39:

"Write a haiku about something that happens to you today or is in the news today.  Bonus: Illustrate it!"

It started raining (last night now) and is suppose to rain for the next 48 hours.  I could really use snow instead to get me more in the Christmas spirit.

Day 38:

"Work underwater.  Fill up a large bowl, vase. or old fish tank with water and create something inside of it."

Today I used a large glass vase and the collection of rocks I have gathered over my lifetime.  I have been picking up a rock from here or there for at least the last 30 years.  Usually they speak to me in some way. Some of them are roughly heart shaped.  My favourite is a long rectangular shaped rock I picked up in Newfoundland.  

Day 37:

"Make something with a stapler.  You can staple things together or, heck just work with loose staples.  Even the stapler itself can be transformed."

My stapler is a staple-less stapler.  It does this paper cut fold thing.  It reminds me of a  frog because of it's shape and colour.  I decided to cut out some legs and eyes to make it look a little more froggy and took a picture of it with some "stapled" paper.  (Yes that is my favourite project in the background Day 34)

 

Day 36:

"Take something old and make it look new"

I hold onto a lot of old clothes and material in hopes that some day I can use them again.  I have a bag I bought this summer that was made out of an old pair of pants and I really like it. These are clothes that can't be donated because they have holes or stains.  I thought why not use some of this to make a new toy.  I made a Canadian Moose this way for my niece.  These are the materials I picked.  Some felt scraps, a old pair of flannel pj's, a toddler dress and a kids long sleeve t-shirt.

With the help of a pattern in the book Softies Only a Mother Could Love Edited by Jess Redman and Meg Leder.  I turned the material into this little bug.

I didn't expand the pattern as it said in the book so she turned out to be about 15cm by 20cm (wings to toes).  I also hand stitched the entire project, I figured getting out my sew machine and setting it up would have been too much of a hassle but it sure would have been quicker in the end.

Day 35:

"Create instructions that others can use to make something and then have someone try it out."

All along I have been trying to use the prompts in the book no matter how difficult I find them.  Sometimes I do my own interpretation, but I always try to tie my project back to my theme and the prompt.  Even if it is in a silly way.  Today I had nothing.  I could not be inspired to write instructions.  I couldn't come up with anything so I thought I would just paint or draw something instead but that didn't work out in my busy day.  I spent my creative time working on covering a new hard covered sketch book.  I intend to use it as a visual journal/ calendar/ idea/ everything book.  I got the inspiration to start this from a book by Eric M. Scott and David R. Modler titled 'The Journal Junkies   Workshop Visual Ammunition for the Art Addict'.  This is another creative tool for me which hopefully will be a way to tie all the different avenues in my life back to a creative work.  I have used the leaves I cut out on Day 8 to cover the back of the book so far and I am going to place only a few leaves on the front.  This is what the back looks like so far:

So really to tie it in to my daily project all I have is that I followed someone else's instructions and I used cut out Maple leaves.  I should be back on track tomorrow.

Day 34:

"Work with wire.  Thin-gauge wire can easily be bent by hand, so no special tools are required.  You don't even have to buy wire if you have some paper clips handy"

First let me say that posting the day after the project already feels like it will work better for me.  This has been my favourite project thus far.  I loved working with the wire and I loved the results.   I bought a spool of 24 gauge beading wire from the craft store and I simply bent and wrapped one continuous wire to make the entire tree.  I then took a second piece of wire and wrapped it around the 'roots' and a rock from my beach rock collection in order to make the tree stand up.

The tree stands about 20cm high with the branches spanning out about 28cm.

Day 33:

"Use pens as your material/inspiration today.  Draw with them, use them as construction material, or....?"

Finally I am caught up in posting.  This was yesterday's project.  I am trying to decide if I will post the day after I do the project as a way of staying on top of it.  That way I can do the work whenever it fits in and post the following morning.  Might help keep me on track. 

I decided I would use pens to draw.  Checking through my older daughter's  stash of writing utensils I came across a couple of those multi-coloured pens.  Back in my day they came with only 4 colours: red, blue, black and green.  Now you can get them in an assortment of colours some pens holding 6 or even 8.  I decided on the pen that had choices of: black, blue, green, red, orange and purple.  Then I drew and coloured a shell with them.  As part of the challenge I didn't use any pencil sketch to start, just pens, no chance to erase.  The result is this.

Day 32:

"Make something ephemeral.  Can you create something using a materiel that will dissipate quickly, like soap bubbles, smoke, butter on a griddle, or cream in coffee?"

This was hard.  First trying to make soap bubbles with products that don't produce a lot of bubbles was a challenge.  Then making my tree from the bubbles proved difficult as the moving of the water to shape the tree would continue to tear it apart as well.   Trying to dry my hands quickly to handle the camera for a picture.  And finally the picture itself of white bubbles in a cream bathtub.  In hindsight I should have added some food colour to the water to give a better background for the tree.  Anyway these are the results:

If you use your imagination you can see the tree.  Cheers

Day 31:

"Make a path for people to follow and invite people to try it out."

Okay, okay I cheat a lot, or maybe I look at things differently, is that so bad when you are being creative? 

I decided to paint a path today.  It is another one of those pictures that got stuck in my head.  I used water colours and a black sharpie maker. 

When my youngest looked at it she said "I love the forest it looks like you could walk right into it".  So with that; I invite you to try out my path, you never know where it will lead or what you might see.

Day 30:

"Play time.  Work with toys: If you don't have any, borrow some from a friend with kids, and maybe even work with the kids!"

I wanted to celebrate a bit when I got to day 30.  Woot woot!  Unfortunately it happened Saturday and it is now Tuesday but I was excited to get to day 30 anyway. 

As soon as I read the instructions I immediately thought LEGO!!!!  I love building with Lego.  I hate stepping on the little pieces but it still is a staple in our home.  I made a tree with regular bricks and a few of the fancy shaped ones.  I wish I could have found more of the green rounded pieces that I think are used for Lego trees, but I liked how it turned out.

Day 29:

"Make a disguise for yourself, a friend, a pet, or and object.  See if you can fool anyone with it."

Let me start off by saying I am behind on posting again and will post up 3 today and 3 tomorrow.  I am trying to get in a rhythm for blogging after I have completed the projects but some days (especially weekends) my plan goes awry. 

Now onto the project:  I wanted to make a cool bird masquerade mask but I really didn't have any supplies so I drew a picture of one.  A bit of a cheat I am sure.  I coloured it with crayons.  I definitely didn't fool anyone with it.

Day 28:

"Dreamland.  Use a recent dream as inspiration for what you do today."

I don't know if I exactly follow the instructions today.  I am not sure where the vision for this water colour came from.  perhaps it was a dream or something I witnessed once but I had a small sketch with colour labels in my idea book for sometime.  Like my bridge earlier it was just something I had in my mind to paint.  So here it is.

Day 27:

"Back to school.  Use traditional school materials like number 2 pencils or lined paper notebooks to make something non-traditional."

First let me say that this is actually Day 28's instructions.  For reason's beyond my control (a flood in my basement and house guest to boot) I needed something a little easier that what I had in mind for Day 27's actual instructions.  I will come back to it, hopefully tomorrow.

My materials were things I found in my son's room.

It is suppose to snow where I live tomorrow, maybe the first real snowfall for the area this fall, so in that theme I wrote 'LET IT SNOW' in the blocks of the graph paper and 'Let it snow" in cursive on the lined paper.  Then I folded them and cut some snowflakes.  These are the results.

Day 26:

"Make something portable (or that seems portable) that normally isn't."

Well I did a little sketch late last night but didn't have time to post it.  I decided to draw a little pencil cartoon of a guy carrying a tree.  Sort of portable shade and clean, cool air.  Of course we really can't carry around a tree but wouldn't it be nice if we could.

Day 25:

"Work with nature.  Go to your yard or a nearby park and collect materials to work with."

It is late autumn so finding materials that aren't brown is a bit of a challenge.  I decided to raid my brother-in-laws garden as he has a more established and natural garden. Then I just arranged my finds on a white background.  I like the way it turned out.

Day 24:

"It's not easy being green.  Work only with green-coloured materials today.  Try working on a green surface for a real challenge"

Green in a nature theme should be really easy but I just couldn't seem to come up with anything creative today.  So I found a bright green piece of paper and a green Sharpie.  No real inspiration seemed to come so I doodled some Kerropi inspired frogs. 

Day 23:

"Waste not.  Dig in a recycling bin for all of today's materials."

The inspiration for today's project came from the art being done in my daughter's grade 1/2 class.  They were drawing owls and ripping paper to glue on them.  These were the drawing instructions given to me by the teacher.

I chose to rip up newspaper and glue it on my owl drawn on the back of a cereal box.  I think the kids pictures may have turned out sweeter with their coloured construction paper and creative owls but here is mine.

Day 22:

"Create a bridge. Connect two things in a creative way.  It could be small enough for an amoeba or big enough for an elephant to cross it."

Well I just realised that yesterday's post had nothing to do with nature.  I got really caught up in a love story and forgot my theme.  Today I went a little off course as well.  There is a foot bridge I cross often when I am heading down town.  Whenever I view the bridge from the up river crossing I always envision painting it.

I have wanted to paint this particular painting for many months now but I have just never taken the leap.  Today's bridge inspiration gave me the push I needed.  Of course in my vision of painting this bridge it is not my usual water colour but a bold acrylic in primary colours with a purple sky.  Weird what I see some days but I was happy to paint this finally.  So my natural angle today is that this is a wonderful natural space that I love to stop and look at but truly I was just happy to paint my vision of the foot bridge.

Day 21:

"Write a ten-word love story.  Bonus: Illustrate it!"

Writing isn't my strong suit but when I started out on this creative journey I decided I would really try and work form the ideas given in the Noah Scalin's book (365: A daily Creative Journal   Make Something Everyday and Change Your Life!).  So I took a stab at writing my love story and illustrated it.

Ten Word Love Story:

Met

Married

Kids

Good and Bad

We Remain in Love

Cheers!

Day 20:

"Buy or make some clay (see instructions on page 238) and then use it like you never have before."

Today my inspiration came from some of my favourite illustrations in children's books.  Have you ever seen a picture book where all the illustrations are done with clay or plasticine?  We have a few and they have always amazed me.  I used my daughters plasticine to model a pond.

My daughter loved this so much she now has it safely stored in a plastic container.  She also made a little black cat with orange eyes of her own.

Day 19:

"Create something that floats on water. (It doesn't have to be a boat.)"

When thinking of something that floats on water and is natural two things immediately sprung to my mind.  Lilly pads with their beautiful flowers and autumn leaves.  A few years back I took a picture of some autumn leaves which I placed in our back yard pond, it is still a favourite picture of mine.  I decided to draw  lilly pads and a water lilly.  Once again I sketched it our and used black in and water colour pencils. 

My children all agree it looks like Pacman.

Day 18:

"Work with the things you find in your car (or a friend's car if you don't have one.)"

Well first let me say I am behind on posting my creative projects.  I have been doing them daily but got behind on posting them for various reasons.  I will try to post two or more a day starting tomorrow to catch up.

Working with the things found in my car.  Didn't really leave me a lot, there is a car seat, some CDs, a box of tissues and a stack of garbage that had yet be removed (my kids never take it out themselves).

I used these items along with some tape and a pair of scissors to make a vase and flowers, inspired somewhat by the tulips on the tissue box.  Looks a lot like something one of my children would make for me.  Not my best work.