Archive for the ‘creative’ Category

Dress Up and Make Believe

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Dinasaur

 

I miss the days of helping my son design and create Halloween costumes.  I have fond memories, and hope he does too, of making costumes to help him turn his ideas into a reality.

 

One year, he wanted to be a character that he drew.  I helped him to draw out a pattern and taught him to sew the basic pieces.

 

There is something magical about bringing your imagination your life.  That is one of the things I love about creating.

Halloween 05 Evan Parker

 

You have an idea and you follow it through.  It may not always turn out how you planned and often it is even better because you never know what challenges you will meet along the way.

 

Sometimes pretending can give you’re the creative confidence you need.


 

 

Play! Quote of the Month

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

“Serious play is not an oxymoron; it is the essence of innovation.”
Michael Schrage

Play is essential to creativity and innovation but we often see it as a either a luxury or waste of time.

Experimentation and play allow creativity to flourish.

When you let yourself play, it is usually without expecting a certain outcome.

That alone allows freedom to try new things or ask what if kinds of questions.

Some of my best jewelry designs have come from that state of playing around and seeing what would happen.

You also tend to be in a more relaxed state when you play.

Play also implies fun. Who doesn’t want more of that? I know I do!

How can you add more play to your life?

P.S. This is one of my whimsical animal prints called Talking Llama

Cool Art and Craft Videos

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010



If you love to make things like I do, you will really enjoy this wonderful resource for art and craft instruction DVDs and videos from Creative Catalyst Productions with some of the best instructors around!

Whether you like to make jewelry, collages, fiber art, portraits, watercolors, polymer clay items, or draw, you’ll find wonderful teachers and how-to videos.

The videos are high quality and they do a great job in showing you close ups
so you can really see what the instructor is doing.

If you wish you could go on a retreat or want to learn more about a particular technique, you can do it without even leaving home. It is the next best thing to taking a class in person.

As a matter of fact, I got the Anne Bagby video on Collage, Paper, Patterns
and Glazing, because I took a class in person but wanted to see some of the
techniques again. And I’ve just bought the Water Media Collage video with
Carrie Burns Brown.

They have free previews of several videos.

I’ve been lucky enough to take classes in person from some of these instructors so I know you are in for a treat:

Ann Bagby, an incredible mixed media artist
Claudine Helmuth, known for her whimsical paintings ad collages
Robert Dancik who works in PMC and is the creator of Faux Bone
Sharilyn Miller who creates wonderful jewelry with wire and beads
Sheril Kahn, a mixed media artist who uses simple and fun techniques.

There are so many other great artists to choose from like:

Mary Todd Beam
Leslie Riley
Virginia Cobb
Dayle Doroshow

Check out the videos and free previews of all kinds of cool artists and
techniques.

Learn from the best and create something wonderful!

P.S. This is an affiliate link and I only suggest resources I would buy or use myself and I do!