I'm in week 21 already and I wanted to postpone my post but then I said to myself no, you won't write for 5 weeks again so I won't :)

​The truth is, I don't have much to show because with Spring being here and the weather somehow weird but also very nice I have been spending my time outside mostly. Which means not that much creating got done. But I am keeping up with my #25daysofteacoffee challenge! And that's great me thinks :)

I have been sewing a bit too, this I must admit. First I made something for myself - I put an applique on a bought top and I love it. I did it by hand and I hope the future fraying of the gecko fabric won't ruin everything. I'm hoping it'll actually make everything way cooler :) 

Then I made a new bag for our climbing rope and I managed to recycle all the good things from the old one. So the blanket is now sewn on the bottom of the new one and the strap and the zipper were reused. It came out really well and it functions perfectly. Mission accomplished in my view :)

Here are 15 squares of the tea/coffee challenge I made up till yesterday. I'm making them at breakfast and then it depends on the day - sometimes I manage to keep adding to them during the day and other times they stay as they were made in the morning. I do like making them though but I very  much dislike this paper that I'm using :) But I'm sticking with it so that they will all be the same in the end.

I know this is short but that's how it was creating wise :)

I hope you're all having good times, if not, I hope you get back in the good soon.

With much love,
♥
​nini

I need a little challenge to get me back into the groove of being creative daily. I chatted with my online friend Ilana today and neither of us heard about one that would sing to our hearts - which is when this idea came to mind... 

We draw/paint/doodle on a little piece of paper for 25 days in a row and then make a lovely collage out of all these pieces. We can display it as it is or take it further and paint over it. We could also make a book out of them. Or a garland. Or just toss them into the bin. No pressure for perfection here, just a bit of art time every day because these minutes are a life changer. They certainly put you in a very different perspective and ease of mind. 

So, what say you? :)

Now, I put "art on the go" in brackets up there. Why? Because I know we don't always have a lot of time on our hands to be creative or to sit down behind our desks and make. "Portable studio" is a wording I heard many times before but never really went for it. My creative and dear friend Liezl mentioned it just the other day so I took a look at the video she linked to. Now the girl in that video packed a really big box for her portable studio but it was full of things she loves using the most for her art journaling. I decided to go much smaller for the sake of this challenge alone. I created a little package that contains everything I need to make these 25 pieces of coffee/tea art and I do plan to use it! At home or while I'm out for that tea with a friend of mine. They can have fun drawing too as I prepared more than enough papers :) 

The most important thing for making art on the go is a solid surface to work on especially for the times one does not have a table near by or when we want to work on loose paper. There are a lot of things we can use for this and I am sure we all already have them at home. I use a small bamboo cutting board when I do my small sized watercolors. It's portable, I can tape the paper to it so it doesn't wrinkle up and I can have more paintings on the go at once. 

For this challenge I made a sturdy board myself because I needed a smaller size. Here's how I went about it: 

I took two matching pieces of cardboard (you can use any type of cardboard but do use more layers as it makes everything sturdier) and glued them up really well. I left them to dry while going for a walk and when I returned I prepared my surface to work on:

I covered both sides of cardboard with white paper and then I taped clear tape over it to make it waterproof. This way I can easily washi-tape my paper on and off the board and mix watercolors on the surface as well (should I need to). 

My "portable studio" contains a zip-lock bag of pre-cut watercolor papers (I went for cca. 10x10 cm), my drawing white board, few pens, eraser, small set of watercolors, two aqua brushes, washi tape and some paper towels. And it fits in a lovely tin box that was a gift from my dear friend Mo. Quite perfect I'd say as I can very simply toss it into my bag :)  I could even put all of this into a bigger pouch but I love the idea of using a box.

This challenge will start on Monday, 7th of May and will run for 25 days. I shall post my pieces on Instagram daily (hopefully) and then do a re-cap post here on the blog showing you all the pieces at once. 

I hope you join me for a bit of daily art fun spinning around our favourite tea or coffee. I am very keen on seeing what you guys come up with. If you share on social media please use the hastag #25daysofteacoffee so that I can see your works.  

Let's have fun with this! :)

♥

​nini 

Seriously? Writing down a log for the past four weeks? While being in the fifth one already? Well yeah, why not. I was busy :D 

Spring arrived which means it's time to spend much more time outside - hiking, climbing or just walking. One gets a bit too tired for art making which is not exactly good, so with today, I am setting up a new challenge to get back into the groove of creating again. Hiking, climbing and having time for my friends is still ON though, because friends and the like minded souls out there are what makes everything SO much better. 

​I'll post about the challenge in my next blog post - let's keep it to itself :)

I really wasn't creative a lot in these four weeks but I did do a fun collaboration with a friend of mine who makes dog collars and accessories - here is her beautiful site GALGINA. Because I was visiting my dear friend Mo this month and I wanted to surprise her with a new collar for her little furry friend Simona (from Galgina) suggested I paint the fabric myself. I loved the idea so I made it. I went with green because it's Mo's favourite colour and I knew it will look awesome on her Snoopy :) I wasn't wrong me thinks:

I managed to make myself a My Pages inspired travel journal a day before leaving but I did a different type. The size is the same as the original book but the pages are not treated in the same way and the craft paper I used was a different one. I wasn't exactly using it but I did a few test pages in it and loved it very very much. Here's one spread on which I tested Mo's oil pastels which turned out to be just simple crayons. But in A LOT of different and yummy colours. She gifted them to me so that I can keep on experimenting with them ♥ So sweet! 

Now that I'm back from my very relaxing week with dear Mo and after a week of getting back into my reality it's definitely time to start doing my work again. I miss being creative a lot and it really is time I put a bit more effort into squeezing art into my days.

Oh, I did watch quite a few of my online classes in the meantime! Sadly none of them made me pick up a brush but I still felt like I was getting new things into my head. Which is always good, right?

Don't forget about my new 25 Days Challenge! Reveal is in my next post ;)

Hope you're all good! Do tell what you've been up to.

♥

​nini