Creativity Part 1: Music Writing, Photoshopping, & Movie Making

I have been thinking a lot about creativity. There are so many different ways to create—craft something by hand, doodle, write a song or a poem, garden, design your home, cook, the possibilities are literally limitless.  Yet there are also so many ways to consume what others have created.  Consuming is so much easier, especially with so much available at the click of a mouse, or the drop of a couple of dollars.  Entertainment is cheap, and creativity takes real work.

At least for me, the hardest part is getting started.  I have asked a few wonderfully creative people I know how they get started and find inspiration, and I’ll be sharing their responses here over the next few weeks. 

This first post is by my wonderful, talented husband, Andrew.  He is extremely creative, always making something: movies, doing photoshops, and for me the hardest--writing original songs.  He writes me a completely original valentines song every year!  I know how hard it is, because I tried last year to write him one--really tried, and it was a complete joke.  Here are some of Andrew's thoughts on creativity.

For me, creativity is a two-way street. Much of what I create, I do with the consumer of my creation in mind. Whether it's a Valentine's Day song for Ariel, a birthday photoshop for a sibling or a training module at work, it's often with the audience in mind. This audience can be as narrow as a specific person and as a broad as the Internets. I think meaningful creations should evoke emotion. When I am getting started with a big or small creative project, I ask myself the question: What emotion do I want to evoke with my creation? Love, joy, frivolity, peace, strength, nostalgia, excitement? The expected emotion then propels the craft. From there a story will swirl through an image, a melody, an idea. I try to infuse that emotion into the creation with the hope that the consumer can experience shared emotion. Though to be clear, I don't necessarily want to dictate what the consumer feels, but it helps me get started to have something that I want to project in mind. 

Creativity has great effect when the creation evokes emotion through story. 

Below are some examples of his handiwork.

A birthday photoshop for a sister

A fun Christmas card to send to colleagues at work

And most impressive, here is a link to all of Andrew's Valentine's Day Songs.  The 4th song is probably my favorite (though it's hard to choose!).  It's a beautiful song he wrote after Abraham (our #1) was born, to tell the story of his birth in epic-song-fashion.

Here is a fun music video we made for one of the Valentine's Day songs (making movies has turned into a fun family tradition).

CO & Potato Printing

You may remember that for this year we are going through the values of "charity." Do you remember the first one for January?  "Long Suffering."  Yeah, we should have given a second thought before praying as a family to be more long suffering.
We passed around the stomach flu, had the coldest month we could remember, and had a gas leak that resulted in co2 poisoning, and having our gas turned off because of a leak, taking with it our heat and hot water.

Our home was swarming with these guys late last Friday night as they tried to detect the source of the gas leak.

Our CO poisoning came from corrosion of an old gas pipe.  We don't know how long it's been leaking, but we definitely experienced most of the symptoms: headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion.  Especially the confusion ;)  Having the gas turned off in January was a good crash course in preparedness.  I'm happy to say we did pretty well, and we're very grateful for a very effective wood burning stove that did the job beautifully.

But seriously--get a CO Detector!  People can go years not knowing they're being poisoned, if the leak is small.  Who knew?

Needless to say, we're very happy to be moving into February, with slightly warmer weather, slightly more light, and instead of focusing on "long suffering," we get to be "kind."  How bad can it be?

To celebrate, the littles and I made this super easy poster.  We used potatoes and a red and black ink pad, and viola!  A reminder poster.

Happy February!

Simple Crafts for Halloween: Ghosts, Pumpkins, Spiders (and the Boo Cannon)

I have generally not considered myself particularly crafty (as in: thank you cards, holiday decor, scrapbooking...).

I think it's because I'm too practical. I tend to use my creative time to produce things that have clear utility. Since crafting doesn't add to my health, enrich my mind, or clean my house (quite the opposite, in fact), I have not often sought them out. Even when I look through a book of fun and easy sewing projects, appearance is second to function. (It wasn't until recently that I decided that it might be okay to include some non-edible flowers in my garden, alongside the vegetables.)

I feel very boring admitting this.

But recently I've been thinking back with great nostalgia at some of the decorations that adorned my childhood home around the holidays. At Halloween, it was the big pumpkin in the front window, the "elegant witch" on the mantle, the gangly skeleton hanging on the wall, the flying ghosts on the kitchen ceiling fan. I can't imagine my childhood empty of these festivities.

So last week, I thought, we need some ghosts to brighten up this holiday! I ended up spending the afternoon making some inutile but completely awesome little Halloween decorations with my kids. They are a cinch (had to be for me). You probably have everything you'll need already.

I hope one of these adds some fun to your Halloween week!

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TISSUE PAPER GHOSTS 

Items needed: tissue paper, string, marker, tape

I have kept every piece of tissue paper I've been given for the last seven years, so I have lots! If you don't have any, it would work equally well with regular old tissues.

1) Lay a tissue paper out on the table (cut smaller for smaller ghosts).
2) Crumple a second piece of tissue paper into a ball, placing it in the center of the first.
3) Gather the corners of the flat tissue paper up around the ball and tie with some thread.
4) Draw eyes (and mouth if desired) and hang.

I used an extra long piece of string to tie up the necks so I'd have some leftover for hanging the ghosts. To help them hang straight, I brought the string up the back of the head and taped it to the top. We like watching them slowly turn as people walk through the room.

Sammy made some all on his own, preferring longer "floaters" (his term) to the smaller ghosts I made.

FOLDED PAPER PUMPKINS

Items needed: paper, scissors, stapler, tape

This is basically just cutting, folding, and a little taping and stapling. These were fun to make, but I really wouldn't have made so many if Sammy hadn't insisted he needed 10 for a project he had up his sleeve. Instead of doing a step-by-step for you, I'll direct you to the YouTube tutorial I found. I tried all the sizes she suggested, then made up some of my own.

Isn't it a sweet little pumpkin patch?

Note to those who make up their own sizes:
The width of your strip of paper = the squatiness (width) of the pumpkin
The length of your strip of paper = the heighth of the pumpkin


EGG CARTON SPIDERS
Items needed: egg carton, paint, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, glue gun

This idea came from my neighbor's bush, and actually, but not surprisingly, exceeded my scant crafting supplies. I lacked the googly eyes and a glue gun (Keenan says every home should have a glue gun hiding near the back of some cluttered cupboard... apparently his home was like mine!). I'm thinking about investing in one for these spiders. Anyone know of another kind of crafty glue that would stick tight and dry fast??

Each spider is a single section of egg carton, painted black, with pipe cleaner segments hot glue gunned to the sides and eyes on the front. Too cute to be spooky.

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My 5-year-old was thrilled with my holiday craftiness and jumped right on the decorating bandwagon! The following gradually appeared around the house:

Window ghosts and witches

Some quick-sketch scares

A sparkly knight

The "Boo Cannon:" pull the string
and the mini-ghost pops out!

He tells me he has decorating plans to last us all week! Personally, I'm glad he's taking over so I can get back to my boring, functional life. ;)

Have you made anything fun to display at your house this year?

Happy Halloween!!

Wilbert

Benjamin recently finished an "after potty chart."  He has been potty-trained for a long time, but the whole flush-underpants-pants-wash thing does not happen.  He usually runs to the toilet, and when my back is turned, tip-toes outside bare-bunned before I can do anything.  He's going to pre-school on Tuesday, so I thought (before he really frightens the little girls in his class) it was a good time to get this thing under control!  

His reward for finishing his chart was going to be a pair of cowboy boots, but when I saw the prices, I thought a hobby horse would be more economical.  And it was!  I only ended up spending about $3 (for the stick).  The rest was made from odds and ends I already had.  

Wilbert, the DIY Hobby Horse

Meet Wilbert (Benjamin thought of his brilliant name).  He was pretty fun to make.  I couldn't find a tutorial for one I liked, so I just looked at a bunch of pictures and used what I had here to make him.  Along the way, I thought "I should be making a tutorial for this."  However, I'm just not good at taking pictures while doing projects.  In fact, my children are lucky if they get fed and put to bed when I'm working on a project.

My work station looks like this right now.

So, because there's no picture tutorial, I'll tell how I did a few things that took me a little while to figure out.

• The eyes are fabric, pasted on with my glue-gun
• The ears are kakhi pant fabric and burlap. I made a pattern that looked like this (look, I even took a picture of it for you). 

• I sewed them together insideout, flipped them right-side out, then sewed along the bottom. They took the right shape on their own.
• To attach them to the sock, I cut a line on each side of the heel, stuck the bottom of the ears in, and sewed them in inside out.  
• For the hair, I wound some yarn around and around something that gave me the right side of loop, then I sewed it on a long skinny piece of fabric in batches (does that make sense at all?).  Then I cut a long line on the top of the sock, and sewed the whole thing in (again, with the sock inside out, and all the "hair" inside the sock, being careful that the other piece of fabric didn't show.  It also would have worked fine to glue the yarn to the fabric, but sewing seemed easier.

Well, that was probably completely un-helpful without pictures explaining what I meant.  It was a half-day project that was cheap, and turned out fun.  And if Benjamin learned the lessons his chart was supposed to teach him, then it was well worth it!

Sweatshirt Repurpose 3 Ways

 I had a lightweight sweatshirt that got too old to wear.  I'm always looking for ways to re-use things, and ways to save money, so I came up with three quick projects!

I first made the baby skirt using the bottom hem of the sweatshirt, and a bright shoelace from the dollar store.  An elastic would have worked just as easily.  This is a good basic tutorial, using an elastic.  I used my awesome sewing machine (yay, Craigslist!) to make some simple button holes for the shoelaces to come out.

Next I made some PJ pants for my boys to share.  It really shows off their skinny legs :)  I used the sleeves and just sewed them together using a pair of their PJ pants as a guide.  I opted for the other shoelace, again instead of elastic (but I just found some great cheap elastic at Dollar General!).  There are lots of tutorials on turning sleeves into pants. It's a very fast, rewarding project.

And finally, I made a little flower headband for Evelyn with the scraps.  For the headband, I took three pieces about 1" wide, loosely braided them, and sewed the ends together.  There are lots of ways to do the flower, but I basically followed this tutorial, and hot glued it on the headband over the seam.

What's your favorite way to upcycle your used clothing?

Kid's Fine Art

I really love the color in our diningroom:

Behr's Swan Sea (It's brighter than it looks on your screen)

But I needed something big to contrast it in that big space.  I remembered that my friend, Amy of Progressive Pioneer, helped her kids make a big painting of "fine art."  The how-to video was gone, so I emailed her and got the instructions.  If I still lived by her, we would have gone to the craft store together and picked out some really fun paint combination (she has great taste), but as it was, I put it off and put it off for about a year before I finally just got some paint and did it.

Here's the how-to.  Imagine it in your favorite color combination.  (note: sorry, our camera is having issues and it's in the shop right now.  You'll have to forgive the very sub-par pictures. The color is particularly off.)

Tools:

A large canvas

Large paint brushes (the cheap plastic ones give the most texture)

A cheap squeegee (it may not work for it's intended purpose after this, so buy a cheap one!)

Gesso (at any paint or craft store)

Paint of choice (I went to the hardware store (where I'm much more comfortable than a craft store, I'm embarrassed to say), and paid about $2.50 for paint samples and just used those.

Instructions:

1. Put on smocks or painting clothes
2. Have your kids paint on the gesso.

Here's where much of the "artistry" comes in.  Don't make it smooth.  Be generous with the gesso.  Use things with interesting texture (like leaves, a comb, lids, etc) to spread it around.



Leaving her mark

3. Let it dry.
4. Squeegee on the background color.  This bring out all the texture you created with the gesso.

5. Let it dry.
6. Paint on the foreground color.

I kind of regret how long I let the boys paint.  They were super fast!  I wanted it mostly to be a yellow painting, but it's mostly a red painting (yes, that is red, believe it or not).

6. Let it dry
7. If desired, paint an accent color.  We chose to splat ours:

I just had the boys dip their fingers in the paint (we used our wall color--is that cheating? :)), and flick and shake it onto the painting.

Then we needed something for the other wall, so we made three more :)

Now, we have something to fill the wall space, and best of all, the kids made it!  It's a fun bright piece of art that's also a fun memory.  If you do some "fine art" with your kids, let me know!  I'd love to see it.

Easy Stocking Garland

Last year, I was inspired by this post at one of my favorite blogs, and thought maybe I could try my hand at a stocking garland.  I'm sure it took me much more time than it would a more experienced crafter, but I had fun spending time at the sewing machine figuring it out!

I'm sorry I don't have step-by-step photos, but here's a rough rundown:

1.  Find some fabric scraps (I found a few at home and bought a few more since I don't have oodles of scraps lying around).

2.  Draw a little stocking shape on a piece of cardboard and cut it out.

3.  Cut your fabric around the cardboard stocking, and pin them right sides together.  A few of my scraps had hems already, so I made those the tops of the stockings.

This one is my favorite.

4.  Sew around the edges and flip them inside out.

5.  Sew a piece of twine into a loop in one corner of your stocking.

6.  Tie some bells at increments around a length of twine and hang a stocking on each bell.

This could be a fun advent calendar if you made more (and smaller) stockings.  It was rewarding to feel successful at making something festive to brighten up my home during the holidays.

We didn't have our own stockings where we were living last year, 

so I used the garland stockings for some little stocking stuffers.

Hot/Cold Packs

We've had a nasty 24 hour flu around here, so I made these Hot/Cold Packs for some people who needed a little warmth and love.  They'd also make great stocking stuffers.

They were super fast and easy to make.  I just cut out some shapes, sewed them together with rice in the middle.  For size reference, I traced a cd for the circle one.  I also sectioned off the long one so it would keep the rice evenly distributed.  These packs are great.  We'll be keeping ours in the freezer for bonks, but they can also be warmed up nicely in the microwave.  They do a pretty good job maintaining their heat/cold.

For a bonus, here's a picture of my patient baby watching me sew.  I'll be posting her birth story soon.

The VOC Question

My husband and I are purchasing our very first house. I wish I could include a triumphant trumpet sound to that sentence. Go back and reread that with the trumpet in your mind. We are SO excited!

We are lucky, the house we are purchasing is in excellent condition, and so we'll be making it our own with little changes, like repainting rooms here and there. No large renovations needed.




Our first order of business has been to repaint the front room where Joe's piano will reside. I had never thought of this as a potentially harmful venture in our day since lead paint was outlawed in the 70's. But did you know that most paints still contain potentially harmful ingredients known as VOC's (volitile organic compounds)?






I had never heard of VOC until my good friend, Mia, told me about them when she repainted her house. VOC's are solvents that are in many many household items you and I use on a daily basis. Anything that gives off a strong odor is a likely culprit, such as strong cleansers, plastics, vinyls, even furnishings in your home such as certain types of carpet. VOC's are both found in nature, and are man made, and are linked to a host of health issues ranging from minor to severe headaches, eye, nose and respiratory problems, even liver issues, and cancer, (the man made VOC being the more toxic of the two).

Those are the health issues. There is also the issue of what chemicals we are releasing into the world around us. Even if these didn't cause my family health issues, what are my projects doing to our environment? Just a thought.

My specific point today is to let you know there are low-VOC and non-VOC paints being manufactured now!! In Utah the only brands I have been able to find are Olympic and Behr -- with these brands, as with a few, you will find the base white paint is VOC free, but adding tint will ad unspecified amounts of the compounds into the paint. Also, according to this consumer report, some low-VOC paints leach less of the compounds into the air than the tinted non-VOC brands. Having used the Olympic brand, I will tell you I was impressed with how little odor there was when we painted. Also that brand seems to have excellent durability. Again, because we used tinted paint, I have no idea how much VOC my paint ended up containing.



In the past VOC-free paints were considered poor quality, but most brands are receiving rave reviews today. And they come in a great variety of colors! True non-VOC paints, all tints included, included such brands as Freshaire Choice, and Mythic. Low-VOC brands include Benjamin Moore Aura, Behr, Olympic, and Glidden. Sherwin-Williams also advertises to sell other brands but I'm out of studying time at present. :)

Hope this information was helpful! And thanks to Mia for letting me know about it.

DIY Play Kitchen

For Christmas I gave the boys a play kitchen I put together.  I started with this hutch I found at the thrift store. 

  

As full disclosure, my friend, Camilla had recently made a kitchen from an almost identical hutch (the above pic is actually hers), so I just used her experience and expertise (and paint) to make a very similar kitchen.

Here is the finished product.  I used a bowl I had for the sink (you could use a dog bowl too), chalkboard paint for the oven "window," hardware from IKEA (the faucet is actually a cupboard handle).  The oven and stove knobs and burners I pried off a mini portable kitchen set I found at a garage sale (Camilla just traced concentric circles for burners and that looks great too). 

 

 

Here's Camilla's kitchen.  Please note the tile backsplash!

Over all it was a really easy project that just took only a few dollars and hours, but we get great use out of it.

DIY Valentine's Day Decorations

I got into the Valentine's spirit about January first, and was surprised to find I didn't have very many Valentine's decorations, so I went to the Martha Stewart website.  I had never been there, but they have lots of craft ideas for every holiday of varying difficulty.

 

This is a craft that would be great to use with children.  I really like the result, and I have a few ideas of how it could be made even easier. 

Sorry for the phone pic

Martha's Instructions:

Begin with a 12-by-16-inch sheet of waxed paper. Fold it in half along its length; unfold. Deposit wax-crayon shavings (made with a handheld pencil sharpener) evenly but not thickly across one half of the paper. Fold the clean half of the paper over the shavings. Crimp the three open edges with a 1/2-inch fold to hold the shavings. Protect your ironing surface with kraft paper. Place the waxed paper on the kraft paper, and cover it with another sheet of kraft paper. Iron lightly on medium heat, checking after every few passes. Stop when all the shavings have melted; let cool. Next, trace and cut out hearts of various sizes. String each heart with a silk thread for hanging.

My Tips:

What took by far the longest for me was shaving the crayons with a pencil sharpener.  I looked it up (after I had gone to all that work) and sure enough, you can just put the crayons in something small and oven safe (like a muffin tin) at 250 for about 15 minutes and viola, melted crayon.  Then you could just pour the melted crayon into the middle of the wax paper, put the other way paper on top and spread it with a ruler or something flat.  It's not an exact art, but if you spread it too thinly the hearts will curl, and if it's too thick they might flake a little.  I didn't freehand the hearts.

I hung the red thread from a white ribbon which I hung across the south-facing window in my dining room, and it makes the cheeriest decoration with the sun coming through!

Making Soap

For once I documented  the process of a creative project, and now I can't find the pictures anywhere!  You'll have to take my word for it, I did make soap.

Someday I'd like to learn how to make soap from scratch, but for now I'm happy making fancy soap from soap blocks.  It's really fast and easy.  It's definitely a kid-friendly project.

This recipe comes from Darling Clementine, along with all the pictures. 

Citrus Peel Soap

Ingredients:

• 1 lb block soap (olive oil, glycerin, goat's milk are all good choices; available at craft stores)
• Molds--mini loaf pans, muffin tins or special soap molds are good choices (I used my heart-shaped measuring cups.  Those IKEA ice cube trays would make really cute little soaps).
• Turmeric powder
• Lemon and orange essential oils
• Fresh lemon and orange
• Pretty paper and ribbon for wrapping

Instructions:

1. Cut a block of soap into approximately 4" x 2" chunks and place in a microwave safe pitcher or bowl. Warm for 30 seconds to one minute, taking care to catch it before it foams over.
2. Remove from microwave and add 1/8th teaspoon turmeric powder. Stir with a spoon until dissolved.
3. Add 2-4 drops of orange essential oil until you are satisfied with the smell (I had to use more for it to really smell)
4. Grate 1 tsp of orange zest into the mixture and stir until combined. 
5. Pour into selected mold. Let set for 45 minutes (or until the soap sets) and freeze for 10 minutes more before demolding (the freezing is so the soap shrinks and you can coax it out of the mold easier).
6. Repeat with process for another bar of soap with more or less color. Use just a tiny speck of powder for lemon soap and substitute lemon zest and essential oil for orange. Make as many bars as you like.
   

I got my soap block from Go Planet Earth.  They have a good selection and the price was competitive.  I would use them again.  I got their organic soap base, and their goats milk soap base.  The organic soap looked like the one in the picture, and the goats milk turned out nice and creamy looking.

Another great place to go is Soap by the Loaf.  This is where to go if you are going to make lots and lots.  The minimum order is three loaves, with each loaf being about three pounds each.  If you're going to be making your soap from now on to avoid nasty chemicals, this is probably the way to go.

Mitten Follow Up

Done.  That was so fast!  If you're looking for the easiest possible sweater project, look no further.  Trace a hand on an old sweater, taking advantage of the hem (remember to trace them on the inside of the sweater!), sew around it (with a little room to grow), and cut it out!  You could even sew it by hand if you don't have a sewing machine.  Just make sure the opening is big enough to put the hand through, that's the only place the baby mittens were a little tight.

I'm definitely hooked on sewing.