Challenge 54

Challenge: Connect the dots.  Make something only using dots.  The dots could be stippling from a pen, the circles cut from paper using a hole punch, or even small, round price stickers.

My first thought was drawing with circles.  I've done a few stippling pieces in my day, and I love the effect but the time commitment is pretty huge.

I felt like a bit of a cheater, but I dug up my hole punch and found some price stickers.  I also found some paper that I treated many years ago with paint and written text and decided to use it as my base for this challenge:

Added some stickers

Punched holes in the outer stickers

Punched holes in the right side and a little bit of the top

Added punched out parts to the center of each non-punched label

Detail of the right side - I like that all the holes I punched don't stack up into a straight line

With some of the blue punched-out circles scattered on the top and right side of the paper

Different view

Stickers removed, just seeing how the paper looks

The back side of the paper

I had fun doing this project, not over-thinking it.  I love circles so much, in art and jewelry and most visual things, so there were really a lot of options of things that I could do for this challenge that would be satisfying for me.  

53

Challenge 53: Make something in which the sense of smell is the essential component.

I hit another block with this challenge.  I really didn't know what to do.  I looked around the apartment for different scented materials, but couldn't get past thinking how I was going to make the objects into visual art. I decided to compromise with the challenge.

We keep incense around the apartment because it's the best way that my fiance and I can agree to keep our place smelling pleasant.  Candles, sprays, etc. - we just haven't been able to agree on anything else.

So I decided to light some incense and document my experience by trying to capture images of the smoke in photographs.  Although the resulting photos don't actually have a scent to them, incense smoke is always scented so I came to terms with my photos being close enough to the terms of the challenge.

Here are some of the more interesting pictures:

Looks like filigree to me

Kinda ghosty

I see part of a female figure in this one, with her long hair blowing to the side

Looks almost like a letter in some fancy font style

Wisps

Outer space?  I love all the visual "noise" of the incense crumbs on the dark wooden table

Experimenting with wiggling the camera slightly when taking the shot

More wispy pieces

In conclusion, I found that smoke is hard to take photographs of, but it could also be my less-than-professional camera and amateur photographer skills.  It was a fun challenge though, and interesting to try to take photos of smoke than just add some filter on a fancy computer program to do it for me.

Also, I peeked at the next challenge just to see if it might be another especially challenging one for me, and I actually already have a few ideas and think it's going to be one of those challenges that I could run away with for days if I had the time.  Stay tuned!

52 card pickup

This post has nothing to do with cards, other than it's the 52nd challenge.

Challenge 52: Work upside down.  Create something in such a way that you have to rotate it 180 degrees to display/see it when it is finished.

I sat on this challenge for a week and nothing came to me.  I'm not going to feel bad about it, but I want to have something to post so here are a few things I've come across recently that I can share with my faithful readers in lieu of the results of this challenge:

Animal clothing hangers.  These are hilarious!  Brought to you by the quirky Urban Outfitters.

Then, there's this fabulous blog post on Yes and Yes by Sarah Von Bargen on How to Buy Happiness for $5 (or less) - which I found to be really fun and inspiring.  I can get stuck in a rut sometimes and know that a little jazzing up of my routine can make a huge difference in my attitude.  

Finally, I present this helpful list of craft adhesives and what how to best use each one.  Included are E6000, Mod Podge, Gorilla Glue, hot glue, and many more.  I often don't know which adhesive to use on crafts and tend to go with a trial and error method, so this guide will really help me out.

That's it for today!  I hope you enjoy looking at the stupid cat hanger as much as I do (it's soooooo stupid, I love it!).

#51

Challenge 51: Make something that would not normally be considered cute and cuddly into something that is.

Ok, first thought - a teddy bear!  I realized that I had just put some newspaper and ads into the recycling bin, which are never cute or cuddly.  The idea can about simply and I whipped up this bear in no time, with the help of some masking tape and a marker to help me make his face look cute:

Sure, he's a little lumpy and not quite proportional, but just look at that face!!!

So, in the end, is he cuddly?  Not really.  Cute?  YES!  I loved making this bear and it was a fun way to spend a little time unwinding after work.  

Day 50!

For those of you who have stuck with me since the beginning of this blog, thanks!  I appreciate it.  I'm only on to the 50th challenge, but I actually feel pretty proud of myself.  If I were stressing about completing one challenge every day, taking and editing photos, and writing up a summary, I'd go nuts.  And I have a feeling that this blog would be pretty boring.

So...on to #50: Be a minimalist.  Work only with white materials today.  Try working white on white for a real challenge.

Paper is white, and I have tons of paper around me - drawing pads, scrap paper, paper for the printer, wax paper, and so on.  I took some of my scrap paper and cut petals in varying sizes, then used a little scotch tape to piece them together.  I added a few little curly strips for some flair.  Here is the result, in different views:

(the paper I used is white on one said and has print/pictures/color on the back - so I guess I cheated on this challenge, but I don't care since I mostly followed the rules).  :-)

I've been making flower prototypes out of different materials for possible wedding decor, so I definitely have flowers on the brain.  This idea came about so easily and I just went with it, not really thinking of anything else I could do instead.  I like the result, and while I think it's important to push your creativity and limits, sometimes it's okay to just go with what naturally comes out.

I moved!

Dear loyal readers,

Yes, I have moved.  Again.

I moved a couple months ago and have only recently settled back into creative habits.  Check out my creative space:

It's a small desk space with a couple shelves and a bulletin board, but it's something.  The surface of the desk is currently being bombarded by an afghan that I've been slowly working on recently:

I'm especially proud of the storage jars I rigged up, containing lots of drawing and writing utensils, paint brushes, etc.

And lastly, to highlight the new space, I present my bulletin board, filled with ideas, inspiration, and personal goals:

I've mentioned in the past that some friends and I do craft shows occasionally a few times a year.  We actually sold some of our work last month at the FreeMusic Fest in Freeland, MI.  It was a great time!  The weather was beautiful, it was the first craft sale of the year for us, and there were awesome musicians playing music all day long.  We had a lot of fun together.

These friends that I mention, well, we are getting a little more professional and organized at each craft sale.  We've developed a logo, business cards, and we actually had a business meeting a few weeks ago and discussed the development of a collective blog - and it's here!  Locust Street Crafts is the place to find us.  I'm incredibly proud of how far we've come in a couple of short years and look forward to making greater strides in the future.

I will still update this blog with my creativity challenges and other highlights, now that I'm a little more settled into the new living arrangement with my fiance, and of course, Lola:

Thanks for sticking with me - more to come soon!  

Dirty Money

Hey, it's my birthday!  I decided that I wanted to get creative with another challenge today, so here we go.

Day 49: Quantity over quality.  Work with a lot of something.  It could be dried grains from the kitchen, a jar of buttons you have in the closet, or all of your T-shirts.

A quick think and a look around and I decided to work with a jar of pennies I have.  My sister got in and created a few things too.  Here are the pics:

My first design, a swirly thing.

Christine's penny tower.

A few creations by Chris, alternating rows of shiny and dark coins.

Close-up of the snowflake design.

The unedited photo of the triangle.  I really like the way the photo looked unedited, so I decided to leave it alone.

Chris's kitty face design.

My dark-to-shiny progression design.

A close-up of the shiniest of the shinies.

And the darkest of the dark.

And some of the middle-tones.

It was fun to play with the coins and get ideas, but after even just a few minutes, my hands smell all coppery - not that I mind, but there is definitely nothing like that smell.

Tower

Challenge 48: How tall can you make something that stands up on its own?

Naturally, my first thought is LEGO.  So I get out the tub of Lego, spill it all over the living room floor and start to build.  Of course, it's not as simple as that.  There's the sorting out of undesirable pieces, the saving of awesome pieces, and so on.

After about 40 minutes of sorting and building, my tower began to look a little wobbly so I decided to call it good.  Here is the result - first, a couple different views of the entire tower:

A close-up view of the top.  I found a lot of pieces that I wanted to save to use on the very top, not limited to a shark/swordfish, a treasure box, a skeleton dude, some flowers, a cannon, and a barrel:

That skeletor dude is riding that big fish, backwards, while wearing a very sweet battle helmet and drinking a giant cup of wine.  He fears nothing:

That's my tower.  I measured it and it stands about 30 inches high.  I think that I've probably made a few taller pieces than this one before and could sit and play with Lego for hours, but today, my Skeletor Tower reigns as is.  Until one of the cats knocks it over.