Create Every Week - week #1

Create Every Week

This year I wanted to challenge myself to be more creative just for me, I do a lot of creative things for work but sometimes it feels like everything is work focused and less on having fun and just enjoying the process.

I know a lot of people do the drawing or painting challenges but I really don't restrict myself to any specific medium, more just to go with the flow and see what captures my attention in the moment.

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Week #1 - ipad apps

I am forever downloading apps to play with, some make the cut and some get deleted almost immediately. What I wanted to do is find a way to sketch then digitally colour my sketches - I have product ideas in mind but I need to figure out a process that suits me first!

My favourite app is Sketches which is free and extremely powerful, nothing groundbreaking for far as art goes yet but I do really like it and so it is going into the 'to keep' folder. It's really easy to use, has lots of pen types and works with my wacom pen.

This sketch started in Sketches as a line drawing but then I wanted to use the paintbucket to colour it so I opened it up in Pigment, which a colouring book style of app.

It has several free colouring pages and you can upgrade to get more, you can also import your own images to colour in.

I like how it turned out, still a bit rough around the eges but now I have a process down so I can concentrate more on getting my images more polished.

I've ordered a couple of books on how to draw kawaii things, so expect more kawaii goodness coming this way!

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That wraps up this weeks Create Every Week post, if you want to join the journey, let me know! I would love some company!

Hello Old Friend...

Surprisingly, I haven't fallen off the end of the world, although it does feel like it some days!

Many, many times I have thought about the blog and promised myself to get back to it, I never intended to take such an extended break!

I have been thinking about it a lot though, why I stopped posting and what was stopping me from starting up again.

I think the long and short of it was that life got busy and a lot of it was busy-on-the-computer work so when it came to blogging - which used to be the fun stuff, it was feeling like a chore and I really just wanted a break from the computer!

That and well, Ebi-kun is growing up, we don't get to craft and make stuff together so much these days. He gets home from school later and doesn't have as much free time.

And creativity wise, work has me creating so I am using that side of my brain but I haven't been doing so much outside work related stuff.

That I do want to fix, I miss it! I miss making a mess and just creating for the sake of creating.

So I have been thinking, to keep my creative self-accountable, I'm going to post at least one creative inspired post a week. I don't know what it will be yet, it could be painting or sewing, photography or cooking or anything else that takes my fancy. No restraints.

Maybe there should be a hashtag #52weeksofcreativity2018 - are you in?

Here is a little monster to kick it all off....

Although I've not been active over here, I am all over Facebook like a toddler with chickenpox! make sure you follow my jojoebi page, I do live videos almost every week and come and join Moms That Rock, which is a great community and that's where I hang out most of the time!

I have the Kaizen Coffee Chats going on at the moment and will be closing the doors to The Kaizen Revolution in a few days.

As you can see, I haven't been laying around binge-watching Netflix, who has time for that!

But neither have I been binge creating so we need to fix that. In fact, if you are in the Saitama area and want to get together for a crafternoon/ crafterlunch type of thing, drop me a line, I am trying to get a group together!

Well, I think that just about wraps things up. I will attempt to do a couple of catch up posts for all the stuff I have missed, this blog is somewhat like my family history book too!

I feel like I am back and ready to do this!

Thank you for sticking around :)

Rainy Day Art Session

Shhh don't tell him, but I was secretly pleased when the first day of the holidays was a rainy one. It meant I could take a break from work and instead we could get down and get creative.

I have recently fallen back in love with watercolours and Ebi-kun saw what I was doing and wanted to try too. We watched some hand lettering videos on YouTube then tried our own hand at it.

Not as easy as it looks. The strange thing here is that Ebi-kun HATES calligraphy at school but he happily sat for a couple of hours doing it in English! Maybe I'm nicer than his teacher!

We did seem to take over the whole living room with our creativity, which I don't mind, there is always a time to get messy! I'll share some of the finished pieces when the paint has dried!

Creativity Challenge - Fancy Monsters

Today's side by side creativity challenge was to draw a fancy monster, that is to say a monster in his or her best party clothes! Why? Who knows.

It's funny how we didn't look at each others work until we had finished but our monsters are quite similar, both in top hats and bow ties and and  the same type of mouth - how strange!

Ebi-kun's is actually a Mermonster, I like him!

Mine is more of a disco monster, although a top hat at a disco is quite odd, maybe not as odd as a monster at a disco!

Are you joining in with the challenge? What does your fancy monster look like?

Creativity Challenge - new paints

New Watercolour Paints!

As we continue with out creativity challenge I decided it was about time I treated myself to some new paints. Or more accurately, some paints! All the paints I have bought in recent years have been for Ebi-kun really. 

I have been feeling drawn to doing more water colour work, so when I was in Tokyo I went on a mission to find something suitable. 

I remembered going to a big art store with  my friend Paige but couldn't remember where it was, I sent her a quick message and she sent me the name of an art shop back, plugged it into google maps and off I went. When I got there I realised it wasn't the store we were at before but it was 4 floors of arty goodness. Yes, I was in there quite a while!

It is a loooong time since I have done any watercolour work and the brush that came with the set holds water in the handle, I was a bit dubious at first but now I am loving it!

So here is one of my first dabbles, you can probably tell I am still trying to get used to the new brush but I liked how they turned out.

So how is your creativity challenge going? Did you try anything new this week?

Being More Mindful About Creativity...

It dawned on me the other day that the reason I have been neglecting the blog a bit recently is because I usually get inspired to write from the photos I've taken. The photos are often something we have been doing, places we have visited, crafts and projects we have been working on.

Well in the last couple of months, I have been busy with work and Ebi-kun doesn't have as much free time thanks to school so our creative endeavour have taken a bit of a nose dive.

So we decided this week to be more mindful and to actually make an effort to do more of the fun stuff, whether it be crafting, drawing, painting or experimenting.

I thrive on creativity and need to be doing something creative or I go into a boredom coma!

I picked up a couple of new sketch books and we are thinking of challenges to do, we have our own book so we will do the same challenge but interpret it in our own way. Hopefully this will produce some interesting results!

Challenge #1 - Decorate Your Sketch Book

We decided it was easier to flip it over and decorate the back of the book that to try and cover the flimsy front...

Of course, Ebi-kun went for a football theme, he is somewhat footie mad at the moment and currently reading Ronaldo's biography, I can't really complain, there are worse people out there that could be a role model!

I managed to do mine with the book upside down! doh! Of course I didn't realise until I was almost finished. Of well, it's just a sketch book, not exactly the end of the world. I treated myself to some new pens last week so this was a good excuse to play with them!

I've also been playing with some ipad apps, I still prefer pen and paper and because I work online, it's good to get off the screen but I'm a geek and I like playing around with new apps, what can I say!

I'd love to know what you have been up to recently, feel free to join in with the challenges if you need a creative boost!

I'm off to Tokyo tomorrow so that should provide me with some arty inspiration!

 We will be back with more next week...

#DAOAFA

I have an accountability partner Kris, we were in the same master mind a while ago and hit it off. Whilst in said mastermind we would often find ourselves just messing around on a Friday afternoon, I would make stupid posters and memes for no other reason that to have a laugh.

What we found was by the end of the week it was time to wind down for the weekend but since we both work for ourselves, at home it's kinda hard to goof off - Facebook it is then!

After some time we coined the phrase Dicking Around On A Friday Arvo or #DAOAFA which basically covers everything that isn't 'proper work'.

What did happen was that I found I was getting super creative, coming up with new ideas - jotting them down, there would be a fair amount of banter and generally it was FUN.

We kept talking about making #DAOAFA a 'thing' so this is that thing, put out there in public, maybe it will go somewhere or maybe it will fizzle out. It doesn't really matter, there is no pressure, it's just for fun.

So join us, #DAOAFA, let your creative juices flow and have some fun. Use the #DAOAFA tag and we'll see you over on instagram/Facebook

Creative Juices

As you know, I haven't been doing much on the sewing/pattern design side of things recently and although what I do now is very creative, I am always making up new PDFs and using my outside-the-box super power to solve problems I have been missing the other type of creativity. Actually doing things physically, with my hands.

So, I set myself a challenge to do something arty or creative everyday, I doubt I will blog about everything but I wanted to share, and if anyone else is in a creative slump, you are welcome to join in!

Last night I sat there wondering what to do, then I remember about an exercise I did in a textile module at art school. We had to use a card with a window cut in it, and we had a page full of squares, we had to fill each square with what we could see through the card window. But it was broken down to just basic lines. After that we were told to pick two colours and fill in the squares as we liked. To be honest, I don't really remember what the point of the exercise was, I imagine it was the springboard for design.

I decided I didn't want to do squares as circle are more interesting but I stuck to the rest of the rules. It was great to be able to do some creative work that is not work related! I doubt this will ever get used for anything but I will add it to my file of 'things to do with Ebi-kun' as I can see he would enjoy it to. Plus we can do it anywhere.

Your turn, what non-work creative thing did you do today?

Inspiration Sunday with Villa Carton

Inspiration Sunday is a 7 question interview with people I admire and that inspire me, I hope they will inspire you in some way too.

I discovered Villa Carton last year and love their products and philosophies, the designers are artists and I thought it would be fun to learn a bit more about the people behind the genius.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.... 

Villa Carton is a company created by Manon and Ruud van den Broek. We are two artists, living and working in Holland. We have two small children and we are committed to design and create creative and innovative toys for young children. We hate copycats....

2. Where do you get your inspiration from?

From our own youth and from our children. They finally understand what we do for a living and they are very good judges and advisors. At first they thought that we were packing and taping cardboard boxes for a living....

3. Tell us about your business?

We started with the idea of a big prefab cardboard playhouse for children, based on the history we had in our youth with the package boxes of big products, like washing machines and t.v. sets. In 2006 we were the first company worldwide with a big cardboard play castle. We received many positive reactions which inspired us to keep on designing. We still have loads of new ideas and we want to add some of them each year to our collection. Since 2012 we concentrate more and more on our best talent: the designing part. We started cooperations with several companies for all logistics, sales and production. 

4. What led you to start your business?

It was just the fact that we had an idea for a big cardboard castle, which was too strong to ignore. We started very naive, without having thought about the impact it could have on our lives. We are still happy that we just started. If we had known all the impact up front... But with the focus on the designing part, we are slowly moving to our ideal situation. Be creative for a living...!!

5. What does an average day look like for you?

We answer email requests, update social media contacts, design new products, make samples, have fun with our children....

6. What is the one thing about your job that makes your heart sing?

The moment we have created a new product idea which looks like it always existed and which is approved by our own children...

7. Share a secret with us that has never been shared online before 

When we finished our first product the big cardboard Castle, we went to the international Nürnberg Toyfair with 4 people in our old Saab with a big trailer. The old Saab broke down after 70 km and it took hours to arrange new transportation. But we found a van which brought us to our first adventure. Because of our very late decision to participate at this fair, we had no idea that we would have a very bad pitch on the first floor behind a big pillar, which blocked the complete view to our booth. But the visitors found us anyway. And after a while even big companies were visiting us at that same bad pitch. It was a very promising start of our new adventure.

Villa Carton is a very innovative brand which has already attracted very many international press. Their product designs were already broadcasted on the national TV in Canada, France, New Zealand, Australia and Holland. Their designers were mentioned in 5 international toy design books and in hundreds of international magazines.

Links to the following (just include the ones you wish to link to, you might not want to list everything!)

website : Villa Carton

Facebook : www.facebook.com/VillaCartonOriginal

Twitter : @villacarton

All photographs are ©Villa Carton

Creating for children...

Today's post is over on Whip Up. Kathreen asked me to do a guest post either about creativity and parenting or creativity and process. I couldn't decide which to do so the process post ended up being yesterdays treasure maps post and the parenting and creativity is on her blog. Photos of my studio too!

Go and have a read, if you leave me a question at the end, I promise to answer it!