Blog overload 12,13,14,15,16 & 17

Phew! I have a lot of catching up to do!

Friday: 12
"Buttons are quintessentially versatile:they are a tool (or an analogy) for closure, but can also be used as embellishments for fabric, paper, or even beaded projects."
Today was all about a button collection. Unfortunately, I had no buttons to start a collection. I went through all my clothes to see if I had any buttons on some shirts that I don't wear or pants or something. Instead I found some shirts I can make a present for a certain somebody for their birthday. Which got me started on someone else's  birthday present and then everyone's birthday present. In my defense my family has tons of birthdays in February and I'm poor so I have to work with the materials I have. I can't tell you or show you pictures of what I made because they have not received their gifts yet and I do want to maintain some illusion of surprise. Eventually, I remembered that I needed buttons. I had to go over to my parents house so while I was there I asked my mom if she had any buttons. In my childhood my mother kept this giant pink container full of buttons. I loved to take them out and look at them, seeing if I could match them up, feeling the texture of them. I loved it and figured maybe I could take a  few from there. I found out, though, my mom got rid of those buttons but she told me she still had some. It was in a pink sewing box with some other sewing things, needles and such. I found a cool old Gillette blade. It looked really old but I couldn't find a date on the package. So I grabbed some buttons that smells like my great grandma and started my collection! (No pictures yet...)

Saturday & Sunday: 13 & 14
"Fresh out of ideas? Consider using seashells, (or other sea-buffed natural artifacts) to augment or inspire new elements in your work" 
Oh boy...I have a confession to make. Well two confessions. I don't have seashells and I the only thing I did these past two days was cut out this seashell border that was on a card. After I cut it out I had no idea what to do. It's kind of sad considering this project gives you two days to figure something out and to create it. I figured all is not lost so I kept the seashell border and decided it would come to me.

Monday: 15
"Although many journals are filled with words, just as many are not. Consider a journal as a collection of items, a place to store what ever it is that awaken your creative instincts."
I actually enjoyed this one. I made a collage of my thoughts and feelings and opinions I guess. I would show you but if I did all of you would think I was announcing I am pregnant but I'm not and you know...a journal is a private thing so I'm also not going to explain it. :D

Tuesday: 16
"Sometimes the elements you collect will fall into place quite naturally, but other times they require a push or two. Keep this in mind, however: if the process feels forced or unfruitful, don't consider it a failure--simply walk away, give it a rest, and try again another time."
This was an interesting day. I figured it would be a good day to try and write something. It's been a while since I've sat down and wrote. For some reason I didn't get much opportunity to and had to wait until later that night. I've had this idea in my head for a couple of years now and so I took this opportunity to expound on my characters a little bit and the plot. I didn't get very far because I'm very out of practice but I did get some more ideas and was able to jot it down. I dunno this is definitely a project that I will be coming back to quite often. At this point I feel like it's never going to be down.

Wednesday: 17
"Sometimes, creative energy works all by itself. Let your hands lead the process (instead of your brain). You may be surprised by the results."
I took this project to the extreme! I found most of my problems start is when I over think things and get stressed out with creating something. So today I didn't think about it at all and literally let my hands do all the work. I talked to my husband the whole time and didn't look at my project very much. The results? oh....a disaster. Obviously when you don't look at your project it kind of ends up all over the place. It was so much fun though. It's like drawing a portrait of someone without looking once at your drawing. It ends up all over the place. Unless you're a very good artist...and if you're blind.