Category Archives: The Crafter’s Devotional Project (CDP)

So the project became delayed when we went to NYC and even though I had a great trip, I took a dive creatively.

But now I’m once again returning, we had a great trip, took a ton of photos and received permission to “think freely” at the day job, so I think that might be helping. Maybe I’ll start out slow…

Anyways, today is Day 37 in the project book, I’m going to start here and hopefully make up for lost time as I go by doubling up on assignments and grouping some of them together (for catching up purposes of course). The daily ideas/tips/tricks are getting more and more difficult which is a wonderful challenge but can be a bit too challenging if you’ve fallen out of the fledgling habit.

Day 37 asks me to revisit something. Anything. Examples include Monet’s lily pads and haystacks. This reminds me of a recent Etsy Labs presentation by Noah Scalin who did Skull-A-Day. So I started to think about this process and what I’d like to do. Obviously, the key to my brand is the symbol of a star. Starfall. So, there’s some thoughts about Star-a-day, star-a-week, star-a-whatever. I’d really like to incorporate jewelry into this plan though. I have a hard time doing this because I find most of the star beads that I’ve come across to not speak to me on a creative level.

So for reference here are just a few of the people doing something creative on a constant basis:

- Gretchen Little’s Heart-A-Day

- Jessica Hische’s Daily Drop Caps

- Stephan Bucher’s Daily Monster

So this should serve as some inspiration. I’m going to read through some of these and see if I can’t discover my daily/weekly/whatever of creativity. Because I really need to get going with this.

So here’s me at the Museum of Natural History, I’m hanging out with the dinosaurs.

And Sal was chased by a dinosaur! What an adventure we had!

So tough to get started again, I feel like I was in a great place before we went away, and it’s not like I didn’t have a great time or anything, but I’m having a hard time getting back into the habit I was beginning to establish. I know that creating a habit takes something like 30 days before it sticks, but I feel like mine was actually sticking a lot sooner. Oh well, I can do it again. I’ve been told you can’t force creativity and I feel that’s something I’m trying to do with the back-up of blogging/creative projects I need to do. I should’ve planned this trip better and done these activities before we left.

Can’t look back. I can cheat a little, so I will.

1. Buttonwork Part I (Day 12)- Lucky for me, I’ve already established a button collection. I’m continuing to work on it, but I’m pleased that I have a whole peanut butter jar of buttons that I’ve washed. I’m thinking about painting them for both sewing, collage and jewelry work. Has anyone every painted their buttons?
2. Gravestone Symbolism (Day 19)- The book gives a list of symbols commonly associated with graveyards. The book instructs me to think about symbols I’m drawn to over and over and possible interpretations for these symbols. I feel like this should be a post all by itself once I’ve fleshed out a real response. There may even be photos! The short answer though (so I can catch up!) is that from the list, I’m drawn to hourglass, sprouting tree and shell. The interpretation for hourglass is the inevitable passing of time. Both sprouting trees and shell can symbolize everlasting life and life’s pilgrimage. So, that’s kind of funny huh? I’m drawn to the inevitable passing of time but I am also drawn to everlasting life and the journey. I really need to make this one a separate post. Sal, hold me to that!

Today’s additional post is about Sensory Exploration. I will hopefully be getting myself to the sewing machine and making myself a little camera holder (since I still use the little foam baggy that provides little protection. Here’s a photo to show you what I’m up to, this is the inspiration for the palette of the camera holder. I hope I matched the colors well enough.