Unravelings

Resolving to Make Art? Try Prompts! - Cloth Paper Scissors

How are those New Year’s resolutions coming along? Were you hopeful to start a new project? Were you insanely hoping tackle one of those a-piece-of-art-a-day adventures? Did you get to the middle of the first week and wonder what you got yourself into?

via www.clothpaperscissors.com

Metal stamps - tips and techniques

Metal Stamps - Tips and Techniques by Rena Klingenberg

Metal stamps created the lettering on this washer pendant.Metal stamps are fun, creative jewelry making tools.

These tips and techniques show you how to get great results, from the very first time you try metal stamping jewelry.

It takes a bit of practice to get nice, even results when metal stamping jewelry. I recommend practicing on pieces of scrap metal while you get familiar with using the stamps.

Metal Stamping Tools

In addition to your metal stamps, you'll need just a couple of basic metal stamping tools:

• A jeweler's steel anvil block or other very smooth, hard surface that can take some banging.
• A metal hammer with a flat face; I use a regular hardware-store hammer. (Don't use your rawhide or nylon jewelry hammers on jewelry stamps - they'll get torn up quickly.)

Other helpful items to have handy:

• A small piece of non-skid, rubberized shelf liner.
• Masking tape, blue painter's tape, or post-it notes.
• Fine-tip Sharpie markers, in black and / or any other colors you wish.

You can get metal stamps from my online store Purveyor of All Things Creative.

You can read the rest of this article at the link below.

via www.making-jewelry-now.com

Send some fiber love for Valentine’s Day - Knitting Daily

Interweave Press has a special connection to Valentine's Day because our headquarters are located in Loveland, Colorado, which is also the home of a wonderful Valentine remailing program. Each year, thousands of people bundle up all of their Valentine cards and send them to the Loveland post office, where they're stamped with a special poem and cancellation mark (this year's stamp is at left).As I write this, volunteers are busily hand-stamping Valentine cards that are remailed to all 50 states and to more than 110 countries worldwide. This is the 64th year of the program! I've received a couple of Valentines from Loveland over the years, and they're extra special. If you want to get in on this neat event, send your bundle of cards and letters to Postmaster, Attention: Valentine's Postmark, 446 East 29th Street, Loveland, CO 80538-9998. For international destinations, your cards should be in Loveland by Feb. 4; for cards within U.S. and outside of Colorado, your cards should be in Loveland by Feb. 9; for within the state of Colorado, your cards should be in Loveland by Feb. 12.

via www.knittingdaily.com

Creative? You can get organized!

Thanks to Marcia Francois for permission to publish this great article.

Creative people need different ways to organise themselves because traditional methods won't work for them.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to organising; in fact, I believe that since each person is unique, each person's organising system should also be different.

Let's look at four areas to organise yourself for success:

1. Attitude

There's a myth going around that creative people can't work in a structured environment. On the contrary, having a bit of structure in your life actually enables you to be even more creative and to do better work.

A few weeks ago, a client emailed to tell me how she's been energized and has been creating beautiful things again.

What was the difference in her life? We'd worked on organising her office space and within the order, she could be creative once again.

Stop telling yourself that you can't be organised; rather tell yourself that you organise yourself in non-traditional ways. And that's perfectly okay.

2. Schedule

Traditionally, we've all been told to work according to the clock. I'm telling you to work with your energy cycles; don't do battle with them.

If you know that you tend to go through a bit of a slump around lunch time, maybe that's when you want to run errands or exercise to give yourself an energy boost.

If you design websites and you know that you're most creative at midnight, then design your websites at midnight Who says you have to start working at 8am?

3. To-do list

Scrap the to-do list. Yes, you read that correctly. The to-do list may set you up for failure especially when you feel you're not getting things done.

Rather use an Eat the Frog list. This list helps you be more flexible so you only need to get the most important things done. My clients are always a bit shocked when I tell them, "the less you have on your list, the better it is". Just make sure those are important things on your list.

4. Workspace

When you can find your equipment and supplies easily, your valuable energy is used for actual creativity and not wasted on looking for things.

It's so important to have your workspace set up according to your organising style. Are you a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner? Are you a paper or electronic person? Maybe the reason you can't seem to get your papers organised is because you're actually an electronic person.

I've had clients with very messy offices whose computers are perfectly organised, and vice versa. It's so important to play to your strengths.

If you register for the Virtual Organising Makeover Session, you'll definitely uncover your unique organising style.

My challenge to you: Check your attitude and tell yourself you can get more productive once you organise according to your style.

And if you're not sure what your style is, find out here.

Want to use this article in your ezine or on your blog? You may, as long as you include this complete blurb.

Marcia Francois is a time management and organising coach who empowers small business owners and other busy professionals who want to make the most of their time. You'll get simple, practical organising and time management secrets to help you work less and enjoy life more! Visit http://takechargesolutions.org for your free Organising Success Pack.

eBay Top Rated Seller

I have been selected as an eBay Top Rated Seller! My commitment to quality products and great service have earned me this distinction. I'm very proud of my business!

Review: 3-in-1 New & Improved Color Tool

This review was written by a guest reviewer, Ron Davison. Ron is a professional photographer. You can view his work at Raven Productions.

My wife gave me this interesting packet to play with. The 3-in-1 New & Improved Color Tool is designed for quilting, crafts, home decor, knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, floral design and graphic design. My background is photography, and I approach color differently than those who work in other media. When working with negative film, the opposite of red is cyan, the opposite of green is purple, and the opposite of blue is yellow. Not so with the CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black) model used in printing. I've got a lot to learn about color theory outside of the photographic world.

The tool is a booklet of 24 color swatch pages, six introductory pages (a printed ruler, a how to use this guide, and some basic information on the color wheel, color theory, and choosing a color scheme), two value finders (one red and one green transparent plastic strip that is used for determining the value of a color) and one set of fabric preview windows (square, triangle, circle). The booklet is well made using high quality cardstock. I took a few minutes to carefully fan out each card and separate it from its neighbor, as they can stick together when new. Each of 24 hues is represented on a separate card, with the pure hue shown, as well as its tints (white added), shades (black added), and tones (grey added to the pure hue, tint, or shade).

Things really start getting fun when you have made your initial color selection. Flip the card over to get recommendations on complimentary (opposite each other on the wheel), analogous (several colors next to each other on the wheel), split-complimentary (a combination of complimentary and analogous), and triadic (your selected color, plus the color 120 degrees left on the color wheel and the color 120 degrees to the right on the color wheel, forming an equilateral triangle. It can be surprising to see the combinations this produces - there's no question that they work!

I'll be using this tool for matching the card matting and frame colors to the photographs I take and have printed. I'll use the cards to match the dominant color in the photograph, then use one one of the color plans (complimentary, analogous, split-complimentary, or triadic) to choose the mat or mats and frame - probably not what the author was intending, but useful to me!

Purchase the 3-in-1 Color Tool here!

Printable paper

My quest to keep from doing serious work is well underway and quite successful. Today's discover is Printable Paper, a web site that has PDF files of hundreds of papers you can download and print for free. They've got graph paper, lined paper, financial paper, music paper, and more.

30 tips to improve your creativity

This fantastic post came from lifehack.org, a site you must visit.

30 tips to improve your creativity

Recently, we asked the readers what their tips for staying creative were. Sometimes creativity flows from the heavens, but other times, as we all know, it’s like drawing water from a stone. The following are the best tips you gave us.

1. Surround yourself with creative people. Hang out with writers, musicians, poets and artists. Often, just being in a creative environment will inspire you and refresh your creative mind.

2. Start somewhere. If you create a load of crap for a few pages, whether it’s creative writing in Word or sheet music, the brain loosens up and it’s easier to break through the barrier and come up with ideas.

3. Expose yourself. Not after too much vodka. Expose yourself to new art – books, music, paintings – all the time. If you’re a rocker, listen to funk. If you’re a crime writer, read fantasy. If you’re a productivity writer, read something about slacking off.

Read the rest of the article here on lifehack.org.

Design Theory

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. 
— Leonardo da Vinci

When is enough enough?

She who dies with the most toys, still dies. When's the estate sale?

I saw this quote and had to chuckle. It seems that artists are forever collecting odds and ends, buying tools, equipment and supplies, and overload bookshelves with inspiration and instructional books.

Even though those who know me know that I am a very organized person, my goal for the coming year is to try to use up some of the stuff I have accumulated over the years. Yes, I'm organized, yes, I can find things, but does one person need so much?

We'll see how it plays out over the coming year.