January 23 - filler #2 January 23, 2015 20:00

T'was quite a day. Went to visit coworkers at the office and despite hiding in quiet corners throughout the day, it was way more than I could handle. With a raging headache and no energy, there has been no project of the day. So as previously promised, here's a past project:

This is the cardbox I created for our wedding. This is probably my favorite of all the decor pieces we had at the wedding - unfortunately I made it too small and with all the cards overflowing (I know, woe-is-us) the box eventually got destroyed. I properly should've aimed for 4, if not 5 boxes. A note to consider for next time (lol). 

I'm not going to lie, I can't stand to cut out any more flowers at this point; this was the last item I created for the wedding, so by now I had cut hundreds of flowers (each flower has 3 cut layers). The bedazzling of the box was therapeutic and although I may have gotten carried away with all the shiny, I think it really added to the personality of the wedding.

This was also relaxing in the week coming up to the wedding as I did it all while sitting on the couch with a Disney movie on in the background. It definitely kept me from focusing on the wedding or any details that could have stressed me up as the big day came up. If there was one tip I was to give to future brides - other than relax and be yourself on the day of and know if anything goes wrong it'll just make for an awesome story in the future - is find a project to do to keep yourself relaxed in order to avoid getting hyped over the small things. 

January 21 - more quilling! January 21, 2015 22:40

I showed my mom the flower from the other day and she insisted I make her one for her office. This is a work in progress since she likes more bright colours, but here's what we accomplished while wailing at the top of our (my, actually) lungs. 

January 19 - quilling flowers January 19, 2015 23:30

So I haven't been able to shake off the headache and it's even gotten to losing balance every few minutes. I'm not proud to say that I didn't get out of bed today until 6:30...PM.

I am, however, proud to say I gave quilling another try since I enjoyed it so much recently during my other project. We made it a date and turned it into a bit of a quilling party with the more experienced Steph, and while listening to the Emperor's New Groove movie, and not speaking much, we placed our undivided attention into the hands of the strips of paper. I got a part of my project done:

The plan is to eventually spice up the rest of the frame with more quilled flowers but this is all I could muster tonight. 

Although the concentration increased the headache, I must say this was so soothing it was almost theraputic. Highly recommend giving this a try! Just google image "quilling". The things that come up are absolutely ridiculously incredible! Very inspiring. 

January 18 - extreme family photo January 18, 2015 20:00

as an idea for a creative project at some point this year, I offered myself to a couple of photographer friends. They all have had me before the camera and know I'm terrible as a model - can't keep a straight face and, let's be honest, I'm no model. I thought it'd be fun to work on that while giving them a chance to work and experiment with something they've had in mind and would need a test subject for. Before long, one Adam Mooz, a fantastic photographer whose photos are all over our house, offered a try at an extreme photo. 

Basically, it's a series of individual photos of each member doing what describes them best and then put together into one grand photo. He came up with a great idea for our little family of three and we got to work today. 

Step one was to get Pippin into a pot. After a puddle of pee and lots of coaxing, hugs, and kisses, we got the pup into the pot. Love how this turned out, and kudos to our wonderfully talented friend, Adam, for giving this a shot and giving us the time of day!

January 17 - filler #1 January 17, 2015 15:00

I'm taking a break today becauase headache. I don't understand where this is coming from but it's brutal enough to take today off. To avoid a blank post, here's a project from last year:

This was a project I did for multiple reasons:

A. I wanted to try out spray paint

B. I wanted to experiment with scratch off paint. 

C. Drawing a full map is cool and hardcore. 

D. The scratch off maps I saw in store were all sorts of ridiculous rainbow colours. 

This was a Christmas gift and it seemed to be quite the hit. I learned you an use half acrylic paint and half dish soap to create scratch off paint like on a lottery ticket. Neat trick! It was cool to sit down and see the recipient scratch off all the places they've been to, and of course, spray paint is awesome! This was my first time using some and my god, it's so easy and quick! 

January 13/14 - photobook January 13, 2015 23:40

I know it's way past wedding excitement, but I'm a bad person and have yet to send a few thank yous to the elder relatives over seas that couldn't make it but sent gifts. Most of them don't have access to the photos we posted online, and we wanted to share our day with them. 

I've also realized it's already been so long that I don't have any more time to waste in ordering one of those online photo books. Thus, I've decided to try making one myself. 

Day 2: one turned into four. I've made 4 books :) 

January 12 - old project January 12, 2015 22:30

Seeing as I spent today just working on the scarf again, I didn't like the blank slate in my articles going from January 11 to 13 (NOT OCD!). So I wanted to make one for today to fill in the gap. 

I'll keep the scarf update in the original scarf post:

January 8/9/12 - scarf

I'll use this opportunity to post an old project, since I had a few moments of creativity in 2014 (mostly towards December). 

Here's a painting I did a while ago. Still trying to figure out where to hang it - that could be a whole project all on it's own.

January 7 - m'lady January 7, 2015 23:36

I actually had this one done half way through the day. Pretty proud considering I lounged in bed until 1:30ish. Started the day with a headache but found this quite the soothing therapy!

I found this tutorial that gave me inspiration to try this out.

Unfortunately, the tutorial required a bunch of actual tools - who knew quilling is an actual artform all on its own? So I made due with using the back of a brush, a pencil, and my fingers. Fun times! Love the outcome :)

January 4 - chalkboard January 4, 2015 22:36

Today is kind of a cheat day since I'm completely pooped from yesterday. I spent the majority of the day sleeping on the couch and trying to get up only to end up falling asleep again. 

For today's project I'm kind of using one I made in the last week of December 2014 when this whole creative streak hit me to begin with. I had turned a hideous brightly coloured painting I had hanging in my living room into a chalkboard. Super easy and super popular, I bought chalkboard spray paint and began spraying anything I could get my hands on. I actually initially bought it to paint my wine glasses for people to write their names but got carried away with the leftovers and spray painted our kitchen cork board, and the main painting in the living room. I'm including this as today's project since I went ahead and drew a new picture so as to change it up a bit and give some character to our house. Here's the main project:

It's been a great conversation starter and the wine glasses are a whole different story for chit chatter. Super easy! Just tape off what you want and you can transform any cheap or free item into a cool item ;) a bottle of spray paint is about $6 so it's well worth what you get out of it!

January 3 - chameleon January 3, 2015 16:39

What an opportunity! A friend of mine, Danielle Allard, is releasing a new album, Chameleon, and has asked me to body paint her for the album cover!

Check her out - she's fantastic! http://www.danielleallard.com

I've had the pleasure of painting Danielle before In her favorite theme, music:

I can't really post pictures so as not to give anything away, but I'll be back with pictures once I can. I haven't face or body painted in over a year due to the concussion so I was weary to take on this task but I couldn't bring myself to say no. That said, it was within 10 min of getting there that I remembered why my business is on a hiatus during this whole ordeal - I arrived at the studio without a single paint brush and a fraction of the sponges I needed. It then took me a good half an hour before I could even bring myself to begin drawing and after doing so I continued to question every step - which is not a good business model not comforting for the breathing canvas. We got past all that but after a nearly 6-hour session, I am completely pooped and drained both physically and mentally from the concentration. Oh, MetamorFaces, how I miss thee.   

EDIT: the wonderful Danielle and Justin Van Leeuwan (who also shot my wedding! www.jvlphoto.com) allowed a sneak peak :D

January 2 - superheroes January 2, 2015 22:22

Day two of 2015 has proven to be a success. I have spent majority of the day painting and repainting the canvas to bring life to our recently renovated basement. I can't say this is my best work - far from it - but even the idea of Thor in the same room brings out a girly giggle out of me.

Happy to say this is slowly tying the room together! Just need to get a large rug for under the Crockinole table, finish our arcade machine, and maybe a few extra decor accents and we're done. Only took 3 years :) 

Total time: 8-10 hour (including the original painting I painted over)

Total cost: $30

On that note, this took way more out of me than I expected concentration-wise. I'm beat and bed is a-calling!