Unleashing your creativity: links and ideas

Hi there, hope you had a very nice long weekend : )  We hung around the house and I was able to get a simple house project done (have a ton of projects on my list right now).  Saw a GREAT way to hang kitchen utensils on Pinterest, and went out yesterday to make one for myself.  Our kitchen is small and only has six drawers, and they are very small drawers.  Most of our cooking utensils are in a Pampered Chef tool turnaround, but it was getting WAY too crowded, so I needed a way to spread out the utensils.  The idea I saw on Pinterest used a curtain rod (solid rod) with S hooks, I could not find a solid curtain rod, so I used two different things: a magnetic curtain hooks and then a tension curtain rod.

The rod I ended up using is pretty strong, and it is one of the oval type ones, not the rod that came with the magnetic hooks (the rod was too flimsy). The S hooks were not cheap ( I purchased the stainless steel ones), but am very pleased with the outcome, and I will be purchasing a few more magnetic hooks to help hold the unit up (the rod is attached to our cooking vent which is metal).

My Mom stayed with us all of last week (she is 84, lives alone and is about 50 miles from us), which was great!  She received a new Ipad for Christmas so we were helping her to learn how to use it, including sending email, signing up for Facebook, using Netflix and just about everything else associated with the the Ipad and being online (she has never been online).  It was interesting to say the least, she won't have a wireless internet connection at home for another week, hopefully she won't forget everything she learned.

                                                      
Our plan for 2012 is to bring her to our house once a month for a week or so, that way we get extended visits with her and she has company (if she can stand us that long).

And now we should get on with some stamping things, right?

Don't forget to check Blitsy on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, some absolutely GREAT deals there, I did spend a bit and bought some Archival Ink pads and re-inkers at a wonderful price two weeks ago.  I check all the time to see what is being listed, and when there are good prices on the products I use that is the time to stock up!  The items listed for sale are only available for a short time (7 days), so don't wait to order if you see something you need/want.

Speaking of ink pads:  remember to always purchase a re-inker  when you buy an ink pad!  Having the re-inker on hand is a life saver, and you can use the rei-inkers for so many techniques.  While it does increase the cost of your purchase, down the road you won't have to purchase new ink pads as you can re-ink the pads you have.



This week is all about unleashing your inner creativity, tapping into the artist that is inside all of us.  When you  tap into your inner creativity you unleash all sorts of wonderful ideas that you didn't even know you had!  Have you ever felt like you just are not in a creative mood?  That your projects are lacking something?  Maybe you just don't feel that connection you once had with your scrap booking or card making.

Hopefully the links today will give you a new way to find your hidden, creative talents.  Take some time to try a few of the things below to help you find that inner artist (we all have an inner artist), and in doing so you will also find more creativity when you work on cards, scrap book pages or other paper crafting projects.

How to draw a flower with a calligraphy pen:  Loved this idea, and I have some of these pens, will need to try this!  I image that you could also create other doodles using her technique to get two colors on the pen nib.

How to draw a simple daisy with a brush marker:  Nice!  And so easy!  I have used brush markers to do all sorts of shapes, very easy and makes a very nice graphic for your card. And you could use your Copics (with the brush tip) or dye based markers with brush tips.

Lettering/doodle ideas technique sheets:  A great collection of how you can use your brush tips (Copic markers with a brush tip would work too) for all sorts of lettering and doodles!

Doodling/Art Journal blog:  Wow!  Just loved all the ideas here, doodling/art journaling is a wonderful way to tap into your creative soul, unleashing the artist in you and bringing out ideas for your next card/scrapbook page or other paper crafting project. (Here is a link to a scribd article by the same artist) I have started an art journal, trying all sorts of techniques, doodling, cutting out and pasting pictures, saving images I have stamped/colored but never used and so on.

Keeping an Art Journal is a wonderful way to also get around those times when you feel like you have lost your "mojo" or inspiration.  Each day try to spend a little time with your journal, one day add some background color to a page, the next day draw/doodle on the page, the next day add some more color and so on.  You will be amazed at how your ideas and creativity starts to flow better!

More ideas for brush tip markers:  From I Like Markers (amazing site), love the little hearts and butterflies!



Tutorials GALORE!  Lots of amazing tutorials at this link, you are sure to find something you will want to try, especially if you are starting your art journal.



Art Journaling 101:  This is a wonderful place to start your art journal experience, lots of tips, links to other blogs and more.  Again, unleashing the artist inside you also unleashes the creativity you have for all of your paper crafting projects.



Make your own Smash book:  This is a new/old style of scrap booking, you take your pictures, mementos and what nots and simply "smash" them into a book.  From the link:

Smash Books are basically pre-bound scrapbooks, but instead of plain pages, which can be daunting to fill, they have patterned papers and papers with sayings on them. The books are made from good quality card stock and can take a lot of memorabilia glued, taped or stapled to the pages.

  No fancy layout, just put your things in a book!   love this and am working on one right now, gathering up all sorts of scraps of things I have created and putting them in one place : )

Five ways to lead a more creative life:  Nice article on how you can look at what is around you and change how you view and relate to your environment to unleash your creativity.

That is all for this week!  I hope you have enjoyed the post this week, and don't forget that I love reading your comments!  Have a great week and take some time to discovery your inner creativity : )