Day 28- the most beautiful thing in the world

What is the most beautiful thing in the world? Friends. Not just any friend, true friends, friends who you can turn to for anything. In the first few weeks of course I have not made friends like that, but I have been surrounded by friends like that for a few years now. I want to hang a photo of them by my bed. And being me this photo has to be encased in a frame I designed.

To make this I had a simple wooden frame from a craft store (it was a dollar, yay!), white paint, mod podge, colored glitter (high quality, small, I used an aqua color), saying for the top, sequins, and paint brushes.
I started with putting a base coat of white paint on the frame. Then, I sprinkled the glitter on top and spread it with a paint brush. On top of this I put modge podge and more glitter. I then put sequins around the inside edge. Creating the glitter effect might sound long but is so worth it. Place your saying at the topic. And finally, put a picture of people you love in it. Enjoy!

Day 27- Usefulness

There's nothing better than being useful. So shouldn't your crafts be useful too. It is always inspiring to use something everyday that is beautiful. It makes your day seem better and fuller. So I decorated push pins and magnets.This is a project that would be great when you are feeling down and want something you can use that will make you smile. There aren't many materials needed for this project: push pins, magnets with sticky back, decorations: cool buttons, foam pieces, and stickers, and a hot glue gun with glue. This is all up to the creater. You simply glue what you want where you want. It rocks. And these are things you can use for years.

Day 26-names

Are names really that important? Are they our definers? What purpose do they serve outside of identifying us in conversations? I DON'T KNOW! But I like my name, and in a dorm full of girls who I don't know yet my name is starting to seem even more important. Because of this I decided to do something that not only tells what room I am in but makes people talk. A really decorated initial. This is simple fun project that I should have done with my roomies help, but I just made her one ooops. DO THAT DIFFERENTLY! To make them I simple went to my local craft store and got cheap pressed wood letters that are our initial. Then, I painted them and decorated them with buttons and foam shapes that described each of us. It is a simple and fun project that you should probably actually do with your roomie.

Day 24- 25: meditation

I have really needed to do things that calm my mind and let me focus on staying sane. For me that usually means mandala time. Mandalas are a form of artistic meditation. I usually color but you can also make your own. They are designed around a circle with intertwining parts. They are a symbol of the fact that all humans are intertwined. I love mandalas. Here is a link to a site that is called the mandala project that describes them more http://www.mandalaproject.org/About/Index.html. The one I am working on is in shades of blue and purple because they are calm colors and I need calm. I suggest everyone picks up a mandala and centers them self. Eventually I will frame it and hang it by my bed. Here is a link to a site with ones to print. http://www.coloringcastle.com/mandala_coloring_pages.html and another http://www.hellokids.com/r_262/coloring/mandalas-gallery-coloring-pages/.
May this help you find your center,
Sarah

Day 23- Confidence

Confidence is beautiful. Confidence is strength. Confidence is a must have. Starting college confidence. Audrey Hepburn once said, " A confident girl is a beautiful girl". Today I was inspired to make my self a collage with quotes about confidence and femininity. I think every girl should have one. I am going to hang mine on the door to my closet because it is the first thing I see every day.
To create it I used a piece of card stock as the base. Then, I decoupaged cool organic pressed paper on the bottom for the border. Next, I added paper with different quotes in cool colors with designs. I then decorated with stamps. Finally, I wrote a few personal words around what I had already done. I will refine it at some point.

Finished product.

Days 21-22- Celebrate The Moments

So these last few days have been days of celebration. Which is amazing! Life is a celebration! Birthdays, new starts, new friends, and laughter. What isn't a celebration? So these few days I have been making cards for friends. I won't post photos until I have sent the cards though. Card making is awesome. I get enjoy glitter and cool quotes. Cards are a great way to express feelings, and reach across long distances. Making cards is simple and cheap and there is endless amounts of creativity you can put in to it. There is nothing like a card in the mail saying you remembered someones personal day of celebration!

Days 19 and 20- fostering future creative moments

if you want to be inspired you have create a space that lets you be inspired, which is what my room mate and I are still working on. It is hard. Being organized in a small space is difficult. Well for me being organized is difficult. But I have realized recently that to be creative you must let your environment reflect that. Not only does your space have to reflect you, it must be a place where you can be quiet and think. Wow that is difficult and in half a room. But imagine how difficult it would be to foster your creativity when you are homeless. I don't think that I, and many others, can fully process life without moments of creativity. It is an amazing coping mechanism. That is why I have mad respect for art therapist. And this amazing organization deals specifically with assisting with creative moments for the homeless- http://www.theartprojecthouston.org/. Check it out!
In my own environment this is what I have done:

 I put chalk board stickers on my desk drawers.

Full room. It is still in the messy stages

 out the door I go!

 Different materials for common objects

 1st drawer of craft supplies

 2nd drawer

Day 18- Big Steps!

Every big step means even more sentimentality for me. This is the first big step towards being on my own, so to speak. But even just saying "on my own" will never be entirely true. I have been blessed to be raised in an environment of love not just by my parents but by my friends and extended family. Now I just have to share something about my awesome mother she made my messenger bag and and remade my quilt for college. I hope I am half as awesome as she is when I grow up! With my amazing parents in mind, I wrote this poem:

You have given me the wings to fly, 

the courage to reach for the sky,
and love to carry me all the way                    
           through!

Thank you guys for everything! I also made a sign with  a card making, etc. software I have on my computer.

Day 17- Drawing Inspiration From Other Crafters

I was raised in a crafters household. My mother made most of my cloths growing up. ( I was always the most stylish girl in school) My dad is also a really talented artist and could whip just about anything I needed up. My toys were usually craft supplies. So of course I love to create. But as a crafter I know that I can't always be the one to come up with the idea; I just have to make it mine. Which I hope is what you will all do. This idea was from a crafter on I love to create.com (the link is one the side, amazing site you should all check it out). Since everything else in my dorm room has been personalized I figured I should make my calendar board too. I simply hot glued cool buttons and stickers around the edge and Voila!!!

Day 16- Creating means willing to fail

So, I was really excited about this project. I dyed this really cool skirt I own, because the skirt was white and stained. It looked really cool when I was dying it and I even added a shirt to the dye bath, but when I got it out of the dryer it still had the stains. I should have looked more seriously at the stains before dying the skirt and the stains will never come out. But the shirt looks amazing. And Mom is excited to embroider the sleeve.
This was a reminder that as great as some of our ideas are they aren't all going to pan out. Even though it doesn't always work out you always learn something from a failed project. I learned what to check for when I dye things and Mom is going to make pattern from the skirt so it can be used again. Rock on Mom.
If you have something to dye and have fully checked it over here is a link with multiple ways to dye it. http://www.ritdye.com/dyeing-techniques
Better luck to you!!!

Day 15-Seeing MYSELF in the mirror

I have worn glasses for years. I like my glasses. I like how I look in them and I know how I look in them. But I decided it was time to not need them, so I got contacts. With my contacts I can look in the mirror and really see my self. Which is weird. It is almost like looking at someone different. My glasses have almost been a mask for me; they remove me one more step from the person I am talking to. I realized that my glasses are one in a long line of mask I put up. But where does the mask end and I begin? Are my masks actually just pieces of me that I project more than others? Do I use my eccentricities, my friends, and even my beliefs as masks? Are they even masks at all?

  So I made a case for my glasses. It is a reminder to take my mask off every once in a while. (It looks better in person) To make it I used a cheap basic case. I also altered a picture of glasses to look the way I like it. I sealed it with decopage and sprinkled glitter over it.

An amazing organization

https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:31428.10626107570/rid:2c3fdce15f2c42ed8cf1180d004fddc1
check it out! I will work on something related to this at some point.

Day 14- I'm so stressed by my stress!

I leave Saturday! Saturday but that is only 4 days away! I have so much to do....... Though this is a more intense type of stress than normal for me I am almost always stressed about something so I decided to make a stress ball. Or one of a set of juggling balls. I learned how to do this in Apprentice Company, man that has come in handy a lot.  But a stress ball is more helpful. The process to make one is very simple but you might want to plan to make more than one because you will have left over supplies. You need three helium quality balloons, sand, a funnel, and scissors. To start cut the tip of two balloons, it is for the outer shells. Then, you fill one balloon with sand. You will need to use the funnel to get the sand in. Tie that balloon. Cover that balloon with the other two and you have a stress ball.

Day 13- Mixed Well

I have two very distinctive yet overlapping groups of friends. One is a group of girls from my high school. We are all different but we share the trait of a minor obsession with laughing. Friday night we literally laughed for 10 hours. For most people it would be off and on but with us it is nearly constant. And it rocks. But they are also the ones who know if something is going on with me. We can do anything and have fun. My other group is a bunch of people I met through church. They are my family. We can almost always pick up were we left off. Our conversations can be deep or frivolous but we can talk for hours. They are the ones who I have traveled with and grown with. Both of my groups fill a deep need for me, and both are so important to me that being far away from them for college is really frightening, because they both take up places in my heart that no one else can fill. That is my inspiration for today.

To make the effect on the body of the dress I dipped a foam brush in both purple and white, then painted lines. After that, I roughly trimmed the shape of a dress. Once I found the picture of a head I wanted to use I glued it to the dress and trimmed the dress to a better fit. I also made arms. At some point I will use this for a collage. 

Day 12- Laughter is the best medicine!!!

There is nothing like a night spent doubled over laughing basking in the bond it creates. Sure today I am exhausted after staying up till 3am laughing. I am feeling poetic after last night so today I took the plunge and wrote a poem.
Laughter:
Fills me up
Breaks down walls
Creates connection
Repeat
Rejoice
Renew
Mother nature joins in
Now I have abs

Day 11- A hostess bakes

I love having people over. It is a joy to fill my (parents) house with laughter and joy, even though the dogs hate it. And tonight is my last blow out night with the girls before we leave for school. So tonight there will be dancing and laughing and lots of food. Most everything is frozen food but for dessert I made cookies. Baking is not only a joy for me but when it is for others it is a sincere sign of my love for those people. But you know what is better than just baking, experimental baking. If it works out we will all enjoy and if not we will have something else to laugh about.

These cookies are peanut butter graham crackers and chocolate cookies. To make them I used a recipe for peanut butter frosting similar to the one here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/peanut-butter-frosting/detail.aspx. While I was mixing the frosting I also tempered the chocolate how to is here http://chocolatetempering.net/abouttempering1.html?gclid=CK6xp6zoyqoCFQQI2godqnAnzA
I then made graham cracker sandwich's with the peanut butter frosting and poured the recently tempered chocolate on top. Yummy! oh don't use organic peanut butter.

Day 10- In the same vain All the Worlds a Stage!!!

I have yet again been bit by the bug of sentimentality. This time though it is in relation to a group very different than the last group, it is the amazing Nashville Shakespeare Apprentice Company from 2010. This was a group of crazy talented high school and college age theatre kids. And we were led by two of the most talented women I have ever met. Amazing recipe no? Not only did we get two weeks of intense hands on theatre and Shakespearean acting, we got to work on a professional show with professional actors. How did I get so lucky?!?! So of course eventually I would feel the call of inspiration from my memories. There are so many things I could have done with this inspiration, but I wanted some thing for my dorm room, so I decorated a picture frame. Now of course, decorating a picture frame, to me, means making it quote picture frame. I could have used Shakespeare quote but I was drawn to one of my favorite story people quotes, "You're the strangest person I ever met, she said & I said you too & we decided we'd know each other a long time." This really describes my friends. We were pushed together by our casting but we became friends. Strange friends but great friends. 

 The materials needed are a cheap wooden frame (they are around 75 cents at Michaels), paint ( I chose a glittery green, Yay glitter), a two different colored sharpies, sequins, and a pencil. 
Start by painting your entire frame, and then let it dry, that might take awhile. When it is dried write out the quote you want around the frame in pencil. Make sure every thing looks good then go over it with sharpie. I wrote ApCo in a different color for dramatic affect. Then at the beginning and end of the quote I glued sequins. Now I will go put the picture in. 

Day 9- The post that sentimentality took over

Sunday night was the annual youth banquet. It is a time to get together and celebrate the amazing year that we have just finished and get pumped for the year to come. We also dedicate a portion of the evening to the rising college freshmen. Each of these people have a speaker who shares wise words and stories. This has always been difficult to sit through but this year was really hard because it was my year. I was the one who would not be back for the year. I was the one moving away for however long or short. I was now a young adult not youth. What a weird world. I was lucky enough to have the woman who baptized and confirmed me, honor this next big step with her words. Linda reminded me to remember my baptism and that there would always be a group of people who loved me and prayed for me. There is nothing more beautiful than that is there. Agape. Family. Home. In honor of this I finally got around to making a keepsake box. This keepsake box is meant to look like home. It ended up looking like a child's drawing of a home but that is because I did not measure well . oops. But it is still great. In the windows and door way there are pictures of my church family.
To make this I used a shoe box, 3 sheets of cardstock, brown paint and blue paint (or what ever you want), an exacto knife, scissors, 3 photos that touch my heart, a ruler, and a pencil. Oh and glue lots of glue, and paint brushes.
To start I measured and cut out the house on card stock. Then, I measured out the doors and windows and then cut them out(use the exacto it is easier). Next, I painted the body of the house blue and the door brown. As that dried I measured the roof out on a different sheet of card stock. On the next sheet I traced out shingles. I painted the other side of that sheet of paper brown. Then, as the sheet of shingles dried, I glued the photos to the back the house where I cut the windows and doors. When the paint for the shingles dried I cut the pattern out and the glued it on to the triangle of the roof. To finish it up I glued the entire house on to the shoe box. Voila

Day 8- Or learn your lesson

Today, my inspiration was a project in my new glitter "class" kit. The kit is designed to be class on how to better use glitter. I adore glitter and a chance to learn how use it better is a great inspiration. Today's lesson was on how much glue to use with glitter. Great thing to know right? I was so inspired by new knowledge and can't wait to use it in more projects. Learning new things is always one of the greatest inspirations. I made a thank you card for today's project.

Today and Yesterday- the idea is the start

Today and yesterday I spent quite a bit of time brainstorming new ideas for crafts. I always have a plethora of ideas for new crafts but I don't always write them down and so many times they fly away from me like a feather in the wind. So, I started a journal of craft ideas. Some of my up coming projects are a keepsake box, t-shirt designs, upgraded peanut butter and crackers, a cool hair brush, and many other things. When I post each of these I will explain the inspiration for them then.

Catch Up Post- Day 5- Dance like no one is watching!

Saturday was an inspirational day for me. I got to enjoy an amazing photo shot for one of the coolest girls I know. Not only was the photographer one of my favorite people, the other "models" was also a group of intelligent, beautiful, and funny girls. And that is always a reason to be inspired. Then, I was blessed to enjoy an evening of dancing with two of my best friends. Nashville has this amazing Saturday night opportunity called Dancing in the Park. At Dancing in the Park there is a big band that plays swing music and when they need a break a dance instructor teaches you different swing dances. This event is littered with people of different back grounds and ages who are just there to learn and enjoy something that doesn't happen a lot. We never have dances with people of such wide age ranges and we never have the old school dances. Dancing is a chance to just let go and and grasp a powerful amount of joy and laughter. A simple google search proves my  point dancing is a true and steadfast way to express emotions. Here are some of my favorites:
There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good.  ~Edwin Denby
I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

 

To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.  ~Hopi Indian Saying

 Dance is the hidden language of the soul.  ~Martha Graham

 
Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is not mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself.  ~Havelock Ellis

 There are short-cuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.  ~Vicki Baum

 Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another.  ~Author Unknown

 To dance is to be out of yourself.  Larger, more beautiful, more powerful.  ~Agnes De Mille

You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart.  ~Author Unknown
And I will close this post with a quote from Terri Guillemets, "Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health - it rusts your spirit and your hips."

Day 4 or Happy Birthday Daddy

My father is one of the most amazing men I know. He is kind and generous and he has an intense work ethic. My father has taught me how important it is to think for yourself and to take time to do creative things. Dad grew up working at his families candy store called McCords. He has tons of stories of creating and experimenting and the joys of making candy. McCords even made candy canes. Today, without really meaning to Mom and I scheduled a class at our local Viking store that covers chocolate recipes. How apt. Today, I was inspired by my father and the act of baking. So today's project was my projects in class.
We made: Banana chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing, double chocolate and caramel brownies, balsamic vinegar and chocolate truffles, and white chocolate bark with pretzels and almonds. Yummy!
Here are some Hipstomatic photos of our project:

There might be more baking projects on this blog soon. Those I will post the recipe

Dear Photograph

\http://dearphotograph.com/
This is a truly touching website filled with the love. I think I shall be doing this soon.

Day 3- Child Like Joy

Today was one of those days that makes you want to smile till your face shatters you are having so much fun. A group of my friends and I took some amazing kids to Bounce U, one of those places with rooms filled with blow up games. This is an annual event for us and is a day I look forward to all year round. It is always fun and to get back to enjoying things childlike. Today, one of the best moments came when I was in one of the bouncy machines where you are supposed to throw balls at each other, but we didn't do that. Instead, I really reverted back to my childhood. The days when there was nothing better then making a chain and jumping and giggling until our legs gave out. I miss childish abandon, and simple glee. Isn't it a shame that I find I can't seem to enjoy those moments the same way without a child to hold my hand. In honor of these moments I made a, drum roll please, Jumping Jack. Those articulated paper dolls you make when you are a child. This project was very simple; I downloaded a template for the doll and directions on how to make it without using brads but string. I also found fabric from a dress my mother made me when I was little and cut it into a dress for my doll. I also colored all of the templates and attached yarn for hair.
Here is the finished project:

 And here is the back:

This is the template I used:

And here is the link to the directions: http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/kids_pages/things_to_make/jumping_jack/index.html
This is of course the perfect project for those last summer days with kids that need to be filled there are tons of templates out there. It is also good for an aspiring young designer.