100 ideas so far

The cover. I stiched 6 groups of 5 pieces of paper together to make a journal with 120 pages. Then I decorated the cover. All while watching Scrubs on DVD.Day One: #90. Draw or write about some of the doors in your life.
I came across a couple of photos of pages that Keri Smith has done, and this was one of them. I decided to copy it into my book because I thought it was both interesting and true.
Day Two: #85. Cut a random shape out of several layers of a magazine. Make a collage out of the results. These shapes were all cut from a copy of PhotoLife Magazine. It is 5 pages of a story about Rural China.
Day 3: #34. Fill an entire page of your journal with small circles. Colour them in. Well, it's not an entire page, and they're not all coloured in, but I like it. I did most of this while I listened to our Pastor on Sunday.

Well, there you have it! The first few entries in my 100 ideas: A Work in Progress Journal

finding inspiration can be frustrating

I would describe myself as a very creative person. But for some reason, for the last few year I haven't done much that I would consider creative. I don't know why, but since I graduated high school (2004) my "creative activities" have all but dwindled away. I used to paint, draw, make slideshows and movies, play the flute, dance (mostly by myself) and now...nothing.

I have been overcome with the urge to be creative again in the last few months. I supposed it started a while ago, or maybe it's always been there, but a few months ago, I started to become interested in sewing. I have a few friends who are avid sewers and incredible quilt makers and their work started to awaken my creative side again. For my birthday, my husband bought me a gorgeous Janome Quilting and Embroidery sewing machine and again, my creative side was woken up a little more. Then, a few weeks before our first anniversary, as I was pondering (again) what to give my hubby, I couldn't ignore it any longer. "BE CREATIVE!" It seemed my soul was actually yelling at me!

Finally, I remembered a painting I had started 4 years ago. My husband is actually the one who asked me to paint it, even though at the time we barely knew each other. (Long story). I decided I would give him the completed painting as an anniversary present.

Since then I have been trying to find the inspiration I so desperately need to be creative. I read blogs and search random things on the internet hoping to find something that will spur me into action. I finally came across it the other day. 100 ideas - a work in progress was created by a woman named Keri Smith, who I now owe dearly for wonderful inspiration.

100 ideas is designed to be used with a journal and to me it is becoming an exercise in creativity. Each day I will pick one of the 100 squares and do what it says. I decided that if I was really going to force myself to learn to be creative everyday I should make a journal instead of buying one. So last night, for 3 hours I sat in front of Scrubs and sewed 120 pages into a book, decorated it and dedicated it to my 100 ideas experiment.

This is a pretty big commitment in my mind, because I'm not the most disciplined person, but I really think that this is just what I need to get out of my creativity slump and back to creating on a daily basis. The thought has even crossed my mind that it would be interesting to do the same 100 things every year in a new journal and watch the progress over time...

Today is day one. "#90. Write about or draw some of the doors in your life."

I've got three so far. The front door, the Yaris door, and the fridge doors. I'll post it when it's done.

For now: THIS IS...What's on my desk.