The Doubter

I was just reading an old issue of Artist's Sketchbook from June 2002 and there is an article about your Creative Personality. Yup you guessed it I found mine, nailed it on the head, couldn't have put it any better myself. Now how to I overcome this and move forward?

The Doubter
Motto: "Me? Creative? HA!"

The Doubter would love to be creative, but she's scared of looking stupid. Depending on her nature, she'll take one or two approaches to art. Impatient types might try something new, but if it doesn't seem to be going the way they hoped, they give up on it. More tentative personalities don't even get that far. Convinced of their lack of artistic ability, they wait ...and wait ... for inspiration to strike and just the right project to come along. Harrumphs and deep sighs are the hallmarks of Doubters.

So there you have that's me as far as my creative ability goes, I'm a Doubter. Everyone else in my family has that creative gene but for some strange reason I wasn't there the day they were being given out. I must have lost my invitation or maybe I just wasn't invited.

The article goes on to suggest some "creativity boosters" and one of them happens to be getting a kit like a paint by numbers or something along the lines I might buy for my own kids. Its supposed to take the pressure off. What?

If I can't handle a paint by numbers and it looks like something my 5 year old would do then that's even worse and I would really feel stupid then. That's the reason why I pursued Altered Arts because for me there seemed to be no rules to follow and I could take something and make it into something else and call it art.

But that's where the Doubter in me comes out to play again and I need to stop comparing myself to others and just have fun with it and to not worry about what others think. Yeah, easier said then done, huh?

Tune in next week for my next excuse as to why I just don't haven't been doing anything creative...

Birthday Goodies!

As some of you know I recently celebrated my 39th - yes that's right 39th birthday. I'm very blessed to have some wonderful friends who made me feel extra special. I wanted to share with you one of my gifts as I know you will love it as much as I do.

Michelle over at 3rd Eye Muse (who I'm honored to know in real life even thought we don't see each other very often) makes these super cool origami cranes. I've received a few over the years, usually attached to her awesome Lemon Poppyseed Cake at Christmas. I believe she even tried showing us how to make then at the park one day. I'm all thumbs and just couldn't fold the paper like that.

Her latest creation involved making these cranes even smaller and the detail is amazing, I don't know how she does it. For my Birthday I was given a pair of earrings made from these paper cranes.

You can see a picture and read more about theme at Michelle's blog:
http://3rdeyemuse.blogspot.com/search/label/cranes

Thanks for making me feel extra special on my Birthday, I'm proud to wear these super cool crane earrings!

:)

Update

If anybody out there is still following my blog I just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive and still have internet access for the time being.

Hoping and praying for a miracle and that things will get better for my family and all the others out there that are suffering.

Since my last post I've celebrated a birthday which wasn't much of a celebration but I am blessed to have some wonderful friends who made me feel extra special. I'll share some of that with you soon.

My clothing biz is still for sale and I'm open to offers if anyone knows anyone who may be looking to get started working from home. I am also willing to sell just the inventory if anyone out there is already established and just needs to add to what they have.

I miss having time to be creative and I miss visiting with my artsy friends and hope to see you all soon!

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Brillante Weblog Premio Award

Vicki over at Simply Vicki surprised me with this blog award today. Thanks Vicki : )

Here are the instructions for the following Brillante Weblog Premio award recipients:

1. Place the logo on your blog.
2. Link to the person who awarded you.
3. You can nominate up to 5 blogs.
4. You can then add their links to your blog
5. Leave a message in the comment section to each nominee on their blog

I'm going to change this up a bit by placing this over on my All Things Natural Blog since I've already done a few artsy awards in the past. Hope that's okay?

So pop on over to All Things Natural to see my nominations - see you there ...



: )

I just had to blog and let you all know that a dear friend of mine has been published and for a great cause too! Michelle of 3rd Eye Muse writes . . .

You might and might not know, but I participated in the creation of an Art Doll to benefit the Susan G Komen for the cure Foundation. The project was spearheaded by a woman named Monica Magness. She made a call to artists requesting that people create a 2 inch square to be used on the art doll – ultimately there were a total of 182 artists that responded and contributed to the creation of not only the doll (aptly named Love Squared), but other artsy items for a drawing. The doll has made a trip to Art Doll Quarterly where it was photographed and featured in their Autumn 2008 issue (pages 50 – 53) and has since made her way back to Monica’s home. The drawing is already in progress, but if you are interested in getting your name into the drawing (will be entered two times for every $10.00 donation) it will remain open until October 15, 2008.

For details, please visit: http://girl-gone-thread-wild.blogspot.com/2008/05/pink-artist-drawing-august-1-october-15.html - the web page includes ways to make donations, a more detailed story of how the project happened, links to all the squares submitted and so much more!

Mini Canvas

I was feeling creative this morning and here is what I made. It is a mini canvas from Blick, it measures 2.5 x 3.5 which is the same size as an ATC so I felt comfortable working in this size.

My inspiration came from Sherrill Kahn's book titled Creative Embellishments. You can read more about the book here.

I painted the base with Metallic Antique Copper and while it was still wet I used a stamp to pull some of the paint back off creating the faint script in the background. Then I used Lumiere paint in Halo Blue-Gold to highlight and accent.

Then I added a wrapped chenille pipe cleaner and a stamped fun foam embellishment I made earlier from the Creative Embellishments book.

Working on canvas was new to me and definitely something I will do again. I have 4 more mini canvases and a few larger 11x14 ones along with some canvas panels to play with.

Click photos to enlarge for detail.

Your Great Quotation of the Day

It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It's my partner.

Jonsa Salk

Why?

Why do some people have to be so mean? Why are some people so cold? Why do others feel the need to hurt people? Why does life have to be so hard?

Yeah I guess this is a "why me" post. Why bother?