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 

I'm noticing a pattern in my creative out pours and it has to do with "feeling free" to be able to do my work. Free as in having no tasks upon me that would kill my wish to even start. And this is bad because who has all the time in the world, right?

I think the solution to this is rather simple - it's in creating MORE - in shorter periods of time across the day. Why? Because it  will make me learn how to jump into the creative mode if I train myself to. So this is something I will try and do from now on. It is easier to take half an hour to be creative than 3 hours or so. Maybe even less, it's the "showing up" that matters and being able to connect to our higher selves to bring down what we need to and heal in the process.
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How do you deal with such a problem if you have it? I'd love to know and learn so please, comment away.

Moving onto the Logging part of this blog now :)​

This week was mostly about watercolors. I finally went into the practicing mode and did two pieces inspired by Danielle Donaldson's "Be Still" on-line class. They are rather addictive to make and fun and I must admit I do love how they turned out. I did not do exactly what she teaches but I am contemplating about how to finish them off by adding some words to them.

I was going to take out one of my washi tapes and seeing that full drawer again made me go into the DIY mode. Like the quick and furious DIY mode. Not pretty, not fancy, not even exact - it was all about an useful end result, that was really all I was going for. And you know what? I love it. Will have to make another drawer as there is less space in it now due to all the tidiness but it works perfectly. 

Here's a quick visual guide through the process if you need some inspiration:

I also managed to finish up 3 ATC cards that I owed for quite a while. I sure hope their new owners like them. One in particular was very challenging (that's why I was putting it off for so long) and one I needed to do again as the first one got lost in transit. The best part in this ATC exchange thingie is packing up the cards to send away. This year I'm using my small stitched envelopes made from recycled craft paper which I just ADORE. Really. I think craft paper is one of the coolest papers out there! How do you feel about it?

Oh and while I had my beloved colored pencils out I made two wooden brooches. I made these designs back in 2015 and they were really loved so I'm thinking about making some more to sell. What do you think? Do you prefer pins or pendants/necklaces? 

This was it for this snowed in week :) Thank you so much for reading, I hope you'll visit next week too.

With much love,
​nini