Already August

The Royal Ontario Museum is one of my favourite places.  I spent several hours there Friday afternoon.

Brittle Star starfish fossils from England & France

Ammonites

Ammonite

Squid fossils.  Yes, squid.

Do you ever find that your hands/space/time/supplies/energy can't keep up with your brain/ideas?

I have finished a painting that I've been meaning to try for quite a while. I'm pretty pleased with it. But I can't take a photo right now, because I dropped my camera the other day, and now the lens is jammed. Grr!

Yellow Flowers

Just a couple of flower snapshots from my recent holiday. Enjoy!

Pinterest

I've started playing around on Pinterest. I heard about it a while ago, but haven't used it until this week. It allows you to create 'boards' with images from across the internet of things that are interesting to you, in just about any theme. Take a look at mine here.

Thursday

I just made a necklace a friend had asked for, and since the beads are already out, I've been making some more pieces too. I'll be taking some photos soon. These photos are from when I went for a walk on Sunday, and some of the colours and textures are pretty amazing.

Red

How to Start a Project

We all get creatively stuck sometimes.  When you're looking for your next project idea, here's a little help on getting started.  You can use a sort of prompt to give you somewhere to work from.

1 - MEDIA: You can decide first on what media you want to use, which can give you a reason to pick up something you haven't used for a while, or haven't tried before. 

2 -THEME:  You can come up with a theme, or subject matter, that you want to work from.  Try looking through books.  Not just art books, but any books - poems, nature, technology, etc. 

3 - COLOUR:  Either before you have a theme, or after, you can play with colours to help you choose your palette.  Sometimes just knowing the colours you want to use will help you get an idea for subject matter.  Other times you'll have a theme in mind, and then you can play with colours that that theme makes you think of.

Colour pages work well for me.  You can create one speaking to a colour palette you already have in mind, or choose adjective words and make colour pages based on what that word makes you think of.  Your colour pages can be snips from magazines, paint, scrapbook papers, ribbon, drawings, etc. as pleases you.

Here's examples of my colour pages based on adjectives.  The left one is "spicy", and the right is "sweet". 

Inspirations

I wonder if you've given it any thought - what excites and inspires you, what makes you smile?

Here's a few of mine.

Thunderstorms, postcrossing, Kurt Vonnegut, butterflies, ancient Egypt, watching soccer, books, coffee, close-up photography, Emily Carr...

Moments and Inspirations

After having a totally uninspired day on Monday as far as getting any crafty things done, yesterday showed some potential.  I put together some new cards, picked up a portfolio to put jewellery images into, and spent a while browsing around in Chapters.  Bought a Quilting Arts magazine, which just stuns me - the contents, that is, not the fact that I bought it. 

It was this that led to me thinking about small moments that inspire you or make you smile.  A gift that's carefully wrapped in layers of matching paper and ribbon, a butterfly in your garden, the smell of books and coffee...

Can you think of a few things that inspire you?