Change of name.

I need to change the name and angle of my project a little. Making something everyday is hard and is becoming a chore rather than an exciting challenge. The only difference I am proposing is that I will have 365 'Creative Days' and that way I can include creative tasks with less of a need to justify it.
Creativity is where my passion lies. This creativity may be worked out by making something but it may also be writing something or any number of creative directions. I am loosening the reigns a little but still journeying in the same direction.
Onwards.....

Project 27: The Girls are off to Kenya, November 8th

So I have been wondering what to do with all my makes. I saw on Facebook that a friend if mine who is a volunteer in a government hospital in Kenya needs soft toys to give to patients.
The girls have now been packaged up and are on their way with little notes.
The 2 little felties jumped into the envelope at the last minute so all 4 of them are off to sunnier climates.
Safe flight little ones!

Project 24: Victoria Sponge, November 4th

Tasty!

Project 26: Christmas box, November 7tg

A spot of origami today...

Project 25: Gingerbread Biscuits, November 5th & 6th

2 days to make biscuits may seem over the top but I made them on one day and then decorated them with my neice the next day.

Project 23: Hemming, November 3rd.

Todays creative mission involved the sewing machine and those pesky hems again. Not really a picture worthy project but it was done. X

Project 22: Beef Wellington, November 2nd

Beef Wellington IS definitely a creative endeavour! All that mixing, pastry rolling & wrapping plus the added perk of it tasting good at the end. Dinner is served.

November 2nd - A review

I can tell you now - I'm flagging already. Making something every day is hard going and a year seems like a ridiculously long time. I have already been tempted to change the challenge into something along the lines of '365 Days of Purpose' and I would have the option of changing the challenge each month so for example I might write something each day of November and in December I might take 10 minutes every day to be still and silent. This would - I think - be a cop out and the slippery slope to giving up. One thing I have learnt about myself over the last few years is that I can give up too easily and I don't want to give up on this.

Interestingly I received an e-mail this week, just a group one but from Gretchen Rubin and her Happiness Project but there was a good link to an article called, 'Why I try to do some things every day without exception'. It talks about how it can be harder to sustain something for 3 or 4 days a week as you end up spending more time working out if today is the right day and whether you can have today off. It says that novelty and challenge bring happiness but that the pleasure of doing something everyday shouldn't be overlooked.

"The things you do every day take on a certain beauty, and provide a kind of invisible architecture to everyday life."

Andy Warhol wrote:
"Either once only, or every day. If you do something once it's exciting, and if you do it every day it's exciting. But if you do it, say, twice or just almost every day, it's not good any more."

Gertrude Stein wrote:
"Anything one does every day is important and imposing and everywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful."

I want to keep going through my urge to give up and only make a decision to widen the challenge because it's what I want to do not because I want to back out of something I have started and can't finish. It's daunting though - a year seems like a very long time.

Good grief - it's 10.20pm and I need to make something today. It;s going to be a quick one I think!

Good night, it's off to make I go!

Leanne x

Project 21: Scones, November 1st.

Cooking pasta for dinner does not count as a creative activity but in my opinion baking does at his seems more of a flamboyant, imaginative extra than a necessary task of the day.

Today I wanted to find some sort of finger food I could give Cem so decided to make him something myself. After a scan through my baby recipe book I settled on baby scones.

Project 20: Lail's picture, October 31st.

Today's make is a wedding gift which is good because Mehmet is starting to get annoyed that we are trying to battle against clutter in the house and yet I keep making stuff and filling it up!

The gift is a joint effort with some other ladies at church. I pinched the idea from the Internet and a company that charges £65 for something I could make myself - so I did. I drew a tree trunk and some branches. People then wrote messages to the bride and groom on the branches and then added their fingerprint to become the leaves. 

Annoyingly, I wrapped it up before taking a photo but hopefully will be able to get one if she opens it at the wedding.

Project 19: Trousers! October 30th

It could be argued whether this should count or not but I think it does! My husband needed the hem on his jeans turning up. It took some creative thinking to work out how to do this so that you can still see the seam at the bottom so I think creative thinking + the use of a sewing machine = a bona fide make!

Have added a photo of him for today's evidence!

Project 17 & 18: Greetings Cards, October 28th and 29th

For projects 17 and 18 I made 2 cards - one for my beautiful little neice's 3rd birthday and one for a friend's wedding on Saturday.

Project 16: Messenger Feltie, October 27th

Cute!

Project 8: Japanese Sanbo box, October 19th

After a mental day involving Ikea and a lot of screaming from Cem, today's make has to be a quick one.

It is a Japanese Sanbo box, used as an offering tray. It's a simple design but looks lovely.

Project 14 & 15: Greetings Cards, October 25th and 26th

Greetings cards with a Parisien Chic flavour.

Project 13: Gift box, October 24th

A beautiful little gift box with a gift label inside made from some cut off paper.

Just need a small gift for someone now!

Project 12: Peg Doll Fairy, October 23rd

'Retro doll' might be the sales speak for this little lady!

Project 11: Folded journal, October 22nd

Today I made a mini journal with folded card and decorated each page with patterned paper. (I admit I did try a harder book design first but got in such a folded mess I gave up!)

Project 10, Cem's bag, October 21st

This is Cem's bag for when he starts nursery in the Ladybird class!

Project 9: Flower of Toys, October 20th

I have sewn, folded, moulded and glued so today I had a go at an 'srt attack' style sculpture and created this giant flower out of Cem's toys.

The time limit for making it was the time it took for Cem to get fed up in his bo

Project 7: Clara the Bird, October 17th & 18th

It shouldn't have taken me 2 nights to make this bird but have had busy evenings so have been working on her very late at night for 2 nights.
She came out smaller than I expected but I managed to use 4 of the beads I made to add detail to the wings. Just 1 bead left to use.... hmmm what to make???

Project 6: Key ring, October 16th

Today's make is a C shaped key ring to go on my son Cem's bag when he starts nursery in January. He is going to be in the Ladybird class. Cute!

Project 4: Bracelet revisited, October 15th

The beads worked! I lost 2 in the removal from cocktail stick process, by which I mean they wouldn't budge but I had plenty left. Am surprised by how pretty they look, you would not think they had been cut from old magazines.

Here is the final bracelet & am pretty pleased with it!

Project 5: A Garden Sign, 14th October

Today's make was an unplanned one but I enjoyed it. We live on a large estate which has a great communal garden area with allotment spaces for whoever is green fingered and wants to grow things. There is also a BBQ and an intriguing round shed with some tanks, books, various gardeny things which I don't understand and today there was a little TV with David Attenborough playing on a loop!

In the garden today was a family fun day, a man came with some sort of portable oven thing and he would give you some dough to roll out, you could add your own toppings and he would cook it in the oven for you. Tasty!

Over by the benches people were asked to paint some signs on pieces of wood to go in the garden to mark the areas. My chosen topic - the humble courgette patch...

Colourful, if a little one dimensional!

 

 

Project 4: Upcycled bracelet - stage one, 13th October

This is my upcycled paper bracelet in the making. Each bead is made of a triangle cut from a magazine and rolled around the cocktail stick. I didn't plan to post pictures of projects in production but I have with this one for 2 reasons.

1) To promote the use of bread rolls in bracelet making. It was genius! Not only did it keep the beads off the table but each bead had to be coated 3 times in clear nail varnish and so each time I could move the cocktail stick a little and keep a track of how many times it had been painted by how many holes were in the bread roll. Boooom!

2) I also decided to post this one because I'm not convinced I'll be able to get the beads off the cocktail sticks tomorrow when they're dry! If the bracelet doesn't work out - I'll change the title of this make to something along the lines of  'A hedgehog made from a bread roll and cocktail sticks'...

Wish me luck for tomorrow. x

Prologue (Probably should have been right at the beginning!)

I am less than a week into this challenge and I have already come across a problem. I live in a 2 bedroom flat which houses 2 grown adults and a baby - where am I supposed to keep all the things I am making?
I can't keep them all in the flat so this is another good reason to take pictures of the projects. I am hoping my skills will improve through the year so the photos should also help show me if this is happening - hope so!
These projects added today are things I have made in the last couple of months but before the 365 challenge began. I still want to remember that I made them so will add them in today. (Haven't done todays project yet - still deciding what to do so will add it later.)



My first quilt - made by hand.

A bag for Cem's books and stories









A feltie - keyring size



My first doll - an unplanned
make and only had grey felt
which is why she looks weird!






Flower

A mini quilt - my first project with a
sewing machine!

A new challenge - what to do with it all!?



 

Project 3: Wooden Bunting, October 11th and 12th

This project involved painting the hearts and arranging them on some embroidery thread to create some festive bunting. What did I learn from this? Don't put wooden hearts covered in acrylic paint on to a magazine page to dry - trying to paint over the magazine print is not easy.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy ARTernoon!

Project 2: Window, October 10th

As well as finishing Darcey, today I made a screen from patterned paper for my kitchen window. On the shelf behind that screen is where we keep recipe books and from the outside it looks awful so I made this to hide the mess! Hope it looks prettier than the back of all the books.

 

Project 1: Darcey, October 8th, 9th, 10th

My opening project is Darcey. She is the second doll I have ever made and she came out ok, Bless'er - she's not perfect, but then who is? I had some trouble sewing around her final arm with the machine so if you look closely the stitching is rubbish and her arms are at completely different angles but I think this makes her look a bit ballerina-like. This is why I called her Darcey since Darcey Bussell is the only ballerina I know.




















Make A Day challenge - onward and upward.

Introducing The Challenge

The idea for this challenge came from an impressive blog I read by an Australian girl called Bronwyn Bowerman. Her blog, 365 days of craft, charts her creative journey as she makes a crafty item every day for the year. I am not an artist. My art teacher at school suggested I don't take it up as a GCSE and she was completely right to say that. I can't draw or paint well but I do like sticking things together and am learning how to sew so I can stitch them together when the glue doesn't work.

Because of my beginner status in this arty world, I am allowing myself the luxury of including working towards something as a make for the day. How Bronwyn Bowerman managed to start and complete so many projects in a day is beyond me.

Let the journey begin...