Moving Beyond Self-Satisfaction

So you might have gained something from creating your gift. Great. What else is there?

This post is the fourth part in a six-part series. You might want to read previous posts from the Stretch Your Thinking Series.

There are a multitude of reasons why you might have begun creating a hand-made gift in the first place. You may have…

• wanted to create something
• dreamed about trying something new
• desired impress someone
• wished to give a unique present
• wanted to add love to your gift
• gone broke
• gone crazy

Either way, you’re at least thinking about it. Now that we’ve gotten the gist of the gains that you’ll make from doing this, let’s change topics to what the other person will receive from the fruitful labor of your talents.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’ve finished whatever you’re working on. Say it’s a baby mobile for your sister’s newborn baby. You present to her some dozen or so hours of hard work with a smile. She accepts it graciously and can’t stop reveling in the pure beauty of such an object, and marvels at the kindness in your heart. Time is not only money – it’s also love. Now, wasn’t that great? Everyone’s all fuzzy inside, and your hard work has paid off. When the baby grows up, (s)he will have a cosmic respect for you, and will surely feel loved and treasured.

Mission: Almost Complete.

Forge a Sense of Independence

The question for today is: What do you get out of working on a gift for someone else? In this journey of self-exploration through art and creativity, you will stumble across the unknown, leading you to obstacles (that you will find in yourself to conquer). But, how exactly do you prosper from these situations? What’s in it for you?

I’d say that one of the most advantageous parts of working on a project is that you find yourself quite alone. This is where your growing independence thrives. Unless you’re working with a buddy, the thought process that you go through, and the careful attention that you pay to your project can only be completed by you. In fact, the most successful preschoolers that I’ve taught are the ones who can focus for a time on their own work, only looking for help during truly difficult points. These children tend to be among the fastest learners of the class, and definitely the most mature.

Some alone time might be all that you need to prove to yourself that you are worthy of your own time. It’s something like going back to the basics of time management and adulthood. If you don’t dictate some of your own time sometime, then when will you have your time? I’ve found it an exceptional piece of advice to never allow others to seize your day and make you pay attention to things that don’t interest you. Because in the end, you won’t get the most out of your life if you’re not mentally there.

Therefore, remember that a creative exploration in crafting gifts will deliver its value twice if you let it: once for the recipient of the product, and once upon you.

Check out the rest of the Stretch Your Thinking Series

Part 1: Try Out a New Creative Medium

Part 2: Exercise Your Imagination

Part 3: Problem Solving: Gaining Expertise

Part 4: Forge a Sense of Independence

Problem Solving: Gaining Expertise

When you make a gift for someone in a way that you never have before, you’ll be facing uncharted territory (aka facing a path of problem solving and learning). This is wonderful news, for you’ll not only be blazing the way for other artists (provided you share your findings), but you’ll also be keeping your noggin in tip top shape.

Boost your self-esteem.

Finding a problem and fixing it lets you prove to yourself that you are capable of dealing with unexpected situations and making decisions that deliver – a job skill that’s high in demand.

Knowing that there’s always an opportunity to problem solve later allows you to make mistakes, and let imperfect creation thrive.

It’s not a waste of time.

Even if you end up throwing your creation away, it’s okay. Solving the problems that arise, and trying out something without fear will be invaluable for future projects. You might be able to brainstorm new techniques to use later, which will add to your repertoire of knowledge about your art.

Check out the rest of the Stretch Your Thinking Series

Exercise Your Imagination

So what do you do with a bottle of glue, some glitter pens, cardboard, and a pack of scrapbook paper? Duh, you experiment!

Be wacky.

Create weird things. Make the tallest structure you can. Then paint it beautiful. Make a windmill, a recipe book, a toy box. Anything. Just create it. It might be cool and it might be perfect for someone in your life.

Just start.

If you’re stuck without a a good project idea, then a quick tip to convince your creative muse otherwise would be to just start. When you take a risk with your art, you begin to see new patterns, and throw away the notion that only certain craft projects are “possible.”

Carve out time.

What are the most thoughtful gifts that you could make for the people that matter to you? Ask yourself that question every time you sit down with a variety of materials (unless you’re making yourself a gift). And be sure to carve out enough time in your week for you to be able to create without restraint. It’s an essential part of sparking your creativity, and a way to really make the unexpected happen.

Perfect isn’t perfect.

Remember that the things you create don’t need to spell perfection. However, that doesn’t mean that a gift shouldn’t be well-crafted, because great craftsmanship shows that you’ve spent some time on the gift. And that will make the difference between random crap you found around the house, and something purposeful and filled with meaning.

 

Check out the rest of the Stretch Your Thinking Series

Try Out a New Creative Medium

Do you need to get your friend/relative/spouse/child a gift in a few days? Do you also suffer from a creative slump? Perhaps trying a new creative medium could be the answer to both of these problems. Creativity block is cousin to a well-known problem called writer’s block, and is rumored to affect just about everyone at some moment in time. Often times, the creative block is mental. Perhaps you’ve fallen into a rut with your art (in whatever form it may take) and can’t seem to escape the monotony of your daily routine of creation. It could be time for a change.

In terms of health, when you shock your body by following a new or slightly more difficult exercise regimen you can make larger gains in muscle, and become closer to your target goal of fitness. This lesson can also be transferred to making good use of your mental capacities. Your brain needs a change in scenery in order to function more dynamically. In addition, trying out new mediums of art will give you an opportunity to view the old medium with a new perspective. You’ll gain ideas about how to inventively approach your old hobby.

So, if you’re ready to shock your creative mind, and are willing to try something new, I’ve thought up a small list of potential creative mediums to try out today.

Writing

· Expository

· Narrative

· Creative

· Persuasive

· Poetry

· Prose

Drawing/Painting

· Watercolor

· Pastel

· Oil

· Acrylic

· Pencil charcoal

· Calligraphy

Scrapbooking/Paper crafts

· Card-making (for different holidays, seasons, occasions)

· Decoupaging

Sewing

· Fashion

· Felt stuffed animals

Miscellaneous

· Acting

· Woodworking

· Decorating (interior or garden)

· Editing/shooting videos

The beauty of trying out a new medium of art is that you might be inspired, but that you also might have something special that reminds you of someone in your life. As such, you can gift this creation to that certain person for their birthday or other occasion. Because after all, a special occasion creates a need for creativity.

Feel free to post any other art forms that I haven’t listed in the comments below.

P. S. If this list inspires you but it turns out that you don’t have enough money to fund a new artistic endeavor, then take this simple tip: Shop your garage. Much like shopping your closet, you’re bound to find treasures galore. Markers you never knew you had, oil pastels, prismacolor pencils, old cloth, etc. Next in the Stretch Your Thinking Series will be tips on how to use old materials and a little imagination to shape your creation into something giftable.

Check out the rest of the Stretch Your Thinking Series

Stretch Your Thinking by Hand-Making Your Gifts

There are various perks to creating hand-made gifts, but the subtle facets of creative exploration that you'll pursue will be the most rewarding. Over the next week I will be writing a series of posts about how to create meaningful gifts for loved ones and friends, and stretch your thinking in the process.

So - I advise you to get a little crafty and tune in with me over the next week.

Here's a topic list for the series:

1. Try Out a New Creative Medium
2. Exercise Your Imagination
3. Problem Solving: Gaining Expertise
4. Forge a Sense of Independence
5. Moving Beyond Self-Satisfaction
6. Personal Touches vs. Devout Consumerism
   

How to Successfully Make Your Own Duct Tape Dress Form

Making one of these homemade dress forms can save you plenty of money in the long run if you plan on creating clothes for yourself. The average price for an already-made dress form is about $150, and it's not even the same dimensions as your unique body! If you are to make your own, you'll spend an average of about $5-$15. I first got the idea from Youtube after researching sewing methods and DIY fashion, but I think that the advice I got from watching several tutorials was incomplete. So I'm going to give a run-down of my experience and a tutorial on how to avoid certain pitfalls.

Materials
-duct tape (at least 60yds, preferably more)
-scissors
-two plastic garbage bags
-a buddy

Estimated time required: 30-40 minutes

The Beginning
I was originally going to use an oversized t-shirt, but realized that it might be more effective to use a garbage bag since it would lie closer to my frame.

1)Line your body with a garbage bag (or two). To do this, cut holes for your head and arms and slip the garbage bag on. I used a plastic produce bag to line my neck. Use the second garbage bag to cover your lower-half if one bag doesn't reach your mid-thigh.

2) Rip pieces of duct tape into ruler-length strips until you reach the neck area, then rip the pieces smaller since you're working in a more delicate area. Pictured below: duct tape already formed around mid-section. (I look sort of like I'm dressing up for a Lady Gaga concert, no?)

3) After completing the midsection, move on to the chest. My only warning for this part: be sure not to create a uni-boob effect. Allow the tape to contour to you so that it's an accurate representation of you.

4) Be very sure to triple (or quadruple) the layers of tape so that it's a sturdy structure. I made the mistake of only putting two layers of tape on my form and it was fairly flimsy. This might be fixed when I fill it with polyfil, but for now it cannot stand on its own.


5) To remove the form, your buddy needs to cut it off of you in the back.

6) Tape it up in the back so that it is one whole piece again.

7) Stuff it with Polyfil (or anything else that you think will work).

8) Find a stand on which to hand/mount your form.

The Finished Product
The dress form actually looks pretty cool and futuristic. This project has got me thinking about other times where it's appropriate to wear duct tape clothing. Visions of Halloween are in my mind!

Crafts Toy Box: Bringing Back the Memories

A wallop of time will be freeing itself up due to the onset of summer. Due to this, I'm deciding to let my creativity run wild, which also means that I'll be taking on more artistic challenges.

Right now I've been dabbling, and dabbling costs money if you're not already set up for the job. Hence, I'm slowly building up the inventory to be able to unleash my creativity. I recently likened the act of creation and crafting to my younger years of playing. My sister and I had a specific way we "played" with our toys. We usually created stories with our characters, and it was how we spent most of our free time. Of course, for the sake of organization, we had a large toy box that housed our action figures, stuffed animals, and general play things. Every morning when we woke up, we'd dig into our toy box and pull out some new toys to spark our imaginations. I want to do this with arts and crafts. By transforming plastic storage drawers into my crafts toy box, I feel excited every time I peek in.

Here's a picture of what my box looks like:


The top of the box holds my scrapbooking paper and my tissue paper (inside the American Eagle box).

Drawer 1
This holds my writing/drawing/painting tools and the other basic materials such as scissors and a sewing kit.

Drawer 2
In the second drawer, I keep my ribbons and lace, and general paper materials.

Drawer 3
I have miscellaneous things in this drawer; some of which include paper bags, beads, bows, and felt.

Now that I feel sufficiently prepped for any craft-work that I might do, it'll be much easier for me to go ahead and make things at the drop of a hat, or even ponder over what I could be making. This drawer is the perfect rainy-day thing for me to do.

Craft Project Completed: Black Pillow with Beige Lace Trim

I made this pillow for my lovely best friend's birthday last Thursday. I hand-sewed this one since I'm still not versed in the language of sewing machines. But I will fix that very soon. I'm in the process of researching the best sewing machine for my needs.

Craft Project Completed: Stuffed Animal Memo Holders

I made these penguin and lion memo holders for my site managers at my job with the help and guidance of my boyfriend's sister. I decided to do this for them as a thank you for all of the support that they've offered me throughout these past two years of my college experience.

It feels nice to have been able to use my own skills, patience, and effort to create something that was intended for other people. Presenting them their gifts was a reward in itself. To me, it's a million times more valuable to receive a labor of love rather than to receive a store-bought gift. In addition, my site managers each have a unique present -- that no one else could ever replicate exactly.

A Photo a Day Challenge

My goal is to take at least one photo each day and showcase it on my Flickr to gain an eye for composition, color, and possibly develop a photographic genius. It's been challenging so far in terms of capturing just the right clips of reality, and leaving out the elements that don't seem to add any value to the photo.

Photography for impact is no easy business, but it's a fun one.

What I like about photography
Sometimes I look at a photo and am overwhelmed with feeling. I think images are such a strong form of communication in that it can provoke emotions from an audience. The effect might be different for every person, but I believe that certain images have intrinsic value as expression pieces.

Random Fun: Hand Animals

These hand animals can be made just about anywhere. Who knows, you might be able to impress someone with these little creatures!

The Snake

The Camel

The Frog

All hand animals courtesy of Samson Lam.

Why DIY (Do It Yourself)?

The mall is a nightmare. It looks glamorous until you have to fight your way through crowds, wait in the long lines of the dressing room, pay outrageously high prices for lunch at the food court, and leave with two items and zero cash in your wallet. A great thrift store diva to check out is Ms. Shopping Golightly from The Thrifty Chicks -- she explains how our consumer society is a wasteful entity, and what to do about it (thrift!). After a day of shopping at the mall, I usually leave stressed, with more than my fair share of fights with loved ones having occurred there.

Pictured above: A fabric sunflower planted on the wall at a Mother's Day brunch from last Sunday.

I want to escape from that. However, I don't shop online because I don't like being surprised by poor quality. So, to nurture my unique sense of style, save some cash, and unleash my creativity (so to speak), I think I'll start DIYing some of my clothes, and other craftsy stuff around the house and my room. I would love to work with colors and textures of fabrics because they brighten rooms up.

A couple of sites that have amazed me upon my research of DIY fashion are:

• Giannyl features creations by a woman named Gianny who sews up fun and simple projects that are presented in video-format.
  
• Threadbanger is a site that I came across on Youtube by chance one day and have kept coming back since. I first watched their tutorial on making a Duct Tape Dress Form, and have found their collection of DIY fashion advice to be a must for people aspiring to keep DIY in their lives.
  

The internet is brimming with craft projects that focus on decor. These tend to excite me since I love a cheerful ambiance that holds uniqueness. It inspires and motivates. Yee haw!

Responsibility in Planning

I'm in charge of a few things this quarter.

1) Mother's Day Dinner May 9th.
Despite the seeming simplicity of the event, it is proving hard to plan for. On Sunday we'll be feeding the largest amount of people we've ever fed in the history of our young lives. I think the total came out to approximately 11 persons. What fun! What horror!

2) Relay for Life on May 22nd.
I'm getting my Jumpstart team together to participate in this event that raises money for cancer research. We'll be walking nonstop for 24hrs in shifts, and it should be great fun. However, it requires me to take over the leadership of a team and coordinate the food, tents, and other necessities that we will need in 24hrs.

3) Old Team Leader and New Team Leader Gathering after May 28th.
I think the most challenging piece of this event will be that the date will coincide with many peoples' finals. I might not get a great turnout. Anyways, it will be wonderful experience to learn how to gather a bunch of people with a variety of backgrounds and differences, into a common space to socialize. It will be a new challenge, but an exciting one.

As for my summer plans, I had it in my mind that I should have taken a fellowship that would give me chances to showcase my leadership and organizing abilities, but maybe I'm already getting there without a formal institution to tell me that I've learned such practices.

Artistic Endeavors

This week I've spent a bunch of time digging around in other peoples' lives and gaining inspiration for myself for blogging and creativity.

A site that I've been frequenting is Geninne.com, the blog of a woman who watercolors birds and other delightful pieces of nature. She is a wonderful artist, and it turns out that her sons are as well. I think the most inspiring part of her whole journey is that she has grown as a blogger in her professionalism. It's nice to be able to track back to the times of her beginnings and see how far she's come.

This week I also joined a place called Doodle Club. Every week there is a themed assignment, and we commit to putting out one piece of art that we can say encompasses the theme. This week we are drawing our own super heroes. As practice, I've been doodling in my notebooks and doing some character sketches of my superhero before the deadline for this week's doodle.

As far as trying my own hand at art, I was recently inspired by a post on Letting Out the Creative Beast by Betsy Streeter. She uses a creative technique for many of her posts by taking pictures of her drawings as she tells us the best way to let our beast shine. It also helps that her drawings are adorable!

Another "artistic" idea that I've been playing around with is the idea that composing Polyvore sets can also be creative. It's a site where you can put together your own outfits based on the clothing items from popular stores. Here are some of my Polyvore sets. If you've ever been to CollegeFashion.net, then you already know what I'm talking about. I think I'll try my hand at it one day soon when I have some extra time.

Appreciation

I've been thinking a lot lately about the people in my life who've helped me to become the person that I am today, and I want to thank them. Many of you might be reading this right now, but others don't even speak English (like my host mom from Ecuador).

I have a list of people that could go on for days, but I think it's high time that I actually did something to show my appreciation for them. I'm going to make cards, gifts, homemade crafts, and send them all out in hopes that these people understand their wonderful mark on my life.