Colorful projects that will inspire you to create.
I fell in love with this quick tutorial by Audrey to make a rock ring and had to try it myself. I have a few large rocks I’ve been saving in my jewelry box and had nothing to do with them — this is perfect for that!
If you’re reading this blog you’ve probably already found lots of ways to include more whimsy into your lifestyle but here are a whole lot more. Most importantly you should enjoy every single day because every day is special. Find ways to make your days special and you have a key for more happiness.
1. Sprinkle your cocoa froth with stars sprinkles.
2. Hide sweet fortunes (found in cookies) in boxes, cabinets and drawers to be found throughout the day.
3. Adorn your walls in whimsical prints from Etsy and local art gatherings.
4. Use cherry icing as chap-stick.
5. Burn a fruity candle and a dessert candle at the same time but different areas of your living room. Feel free to include fizzypop fragrance oil in one room and vanilla in the other. Walk through your home and enjoy the candy aroumas, imagine you’re in a candy store or soda pop shop!
6. Purchase frames, paint them your favorite colors with acrylic and hang them on your walls filled with art and favorite posters and clippings.
7. Dip your finger into a container of cool whip and then stick it into your mouth. Yum!
8. Purchase some sand and a sunlamp.. place the sand in a container large enough for your feet and heat it with the lamp overhead. Feel the warm sand with your hands and stick your toes in it as well!
9. Don’t toss the sand! Add a bit of water and build a sand castle.
10. Tea party! Bake cupcakes, make small sandwiches cut-out with cookie cutters and brew your favorite tea. It doesn’t matter if no one else is able to come, enjoy your tea party! Have daily tea parties.
11. Take a bubble bath with candles and tea. Read in the bath. Relax.
12. Listen to Rockabye Baby Lullaby renditions of your favorite songs while you relax for a nap.
13. Sketch out ideas and images that cheer you up. Add color with pencils or paint. Start going with it and see where you end up.
14. Top your pancakes with ice-cream syrup topping and sprinkles for a cute and sweet dessert.
15. Turn your toast into fairy bread (see below).
I saw this in Kera magazine and thought it was so cute I just had to feature it. This tutorial also teaches you to create the perfect bow which can be used for just about anything!
Have an ordinary hoodie you want to transform from boring into cute couture?
I see these hoodies all the time at department stores for inexpensive prices and wish they had a little something more, why not just DIY?
Tie the end of your ribbon to the end of your hoodie’s string after you cut the knot off and pull through.
In a cupcake making mood? I definitely am after seeing all of the adorable cupcake decorations on Disney’s Family Fun website here. I joined a few kiddie websites for fun inspiration and I cannot wait for Colette to be old enough to enjoy them! There are so many cute recipes here for kids and adults to enjoy together. If you haven’t seen the magazine yet it’s also filled with adorable recipes and crafts! I highly recommend it.
Expressing strong emotions through poetry will never go out of style, and even if it does, who cares? It’s all about making someone feel as special and beautiful as you see them, as they truly are. Want to know a secret? You don’t need to have any kind of talent to write a poem, just say what you feel! The best poems have come about when someone was feeling something intense, especially the adoration for another person. If you don’t know how to begin, here are a few techniques and hints.
Put a picture of your loved one in front of you, or just sit somewhere where you won’t be disturbed for a while and think about them. Start writing down everything that pops into your head, without worrying
that it sounds silly. It won’t look or sound like a poem yet, and that’s okay—you’re getting your thoughts and feelings down in words. It also helps to get in “the mood” by lighting a few candles and putting on some music (just be sure you don’t subconsciously copy some of the lyrics to “Need You Now” or something!)
You may or may not write your love poem in one sitting, so take it easy and don’t push yourself. If you rush, it might not sound as good as if you took a couple of days or weeks to let it come to you. Keep a notebook or your phone on you so you jot or type down whatever pops into your head that might sound good. Remember, this is something you will use to impress the one you adore, so take your time!
You don’t need to write a sonnet full of “thees” and “haths” or even something that rhymes. Most poetry does have a “beat”, however, which is what distinguishes it from prose. Read some good love poems to get a feel for the beat of poetry, and all the different ways it can be written. Here is an example to get you started:
“i carry your heart with me” by E. E. Cummings
“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)”
The lines break it up so that there is a subtle rhythm as you read it. The poet also creates a beat inside the lines, and he repeats the main line of the poem to draw it together at the end. You can also distinguish a brief pause in a line with punctuation.
Here is an example of how a poet writes in rhyme and line-groupings called a “stanza”:
“Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear;
And once that seemed too much;
I lived on air”
~ From “To Earthward” by Robert Frost
Start experimenting and using some of your best lines from your free-writing and see what you can come up with.
Use some metaphors, similes, alliterations (All ambitious alligators adore alliterations!) and strong adjectives and verbs to paint a picture with your words. There are many other elements of poetry, such as allegories, personification and allusions. You could also just get literal and say what you feel, straight out! The poetic elements are just different tools to use.
This is just an intro to writing a good love poem—just to let you know that this is something anyone can do if they try. A love poem written from the heart is more valuable than a diamond ring and means so much more.
Please excuse Miseducated again for looking a little curious lately, there will be lots of changes occurring over the next few weeks!
I’d love to sit outside along the water and braid delicate clover blossoms and smiling daisies.
Don’t you love daisy chains?
My daisies are gone, they’re under about a foot of snow and ice.
How will we have a relaxing and flowery day in the sunshine?
My best friend suggested we go to the craft store recently and purchase the tiny craft roses for just that purpose!
Why hadn’t I thought of it before?
A permanent daisy chain?
It’s simple!
Pick out a couple of the metal-stemmed flowers at your local craft shop.
(At our craft shop they’re in the wedding section~)
I got two bouquets of contrasting candy colors.
It’s quite easy, just twist them together similarly to the knotting you do on a real daisy chain..
When you have a chain large enough to sit atop your head twist the ends together.
I was flipping through some Japanese craft books lately and found a few cute uses for yo-yos that I thought were super cute for the home.
The lampshade is my favorite and I have to try it. What about you? It’s like a yo-yo chandelier.
I’ve always loved yo-yos for some odd reason, a blanket of yo-yos in an array of candy colors and polkadots really makes me drool like no other. These ideas gave me the same reaction!
Thank you again to each of the authors for your lovely craft tutorials! I’m very interested in featuring other creative blogs as well, there is so much talent on the web that shouldn’t be missed!
Now let’s get creating…
Sometimes getting your hands (your clothes, your surroundings…) messy and covered with a rainbow of colors is part of the art/crafting experience. I’ve gotten pretty familiar with several different mediums and I’ll give you a little run-down of why I love them and how I use them. If you haven’t used some of these before, I hope I can inspire you to try them! Note: I’m not an art expert, just a lover.
Creamy, dreamy, vivid. I love working with oils because you can do so much blending (they dry slooowwly) and the colors are so rich. In school, we got to stretch and prime our own canvases ourselves. You can go to the art store and buy a canvas all ready to go, but you can get some satisfaction out of doing it all yourself. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that you have to use turpentine to thin them and get the paint off of your brushes (it smells), but its a small price to pay.
Of course, the first kind of paint I ever used. They aren’t just for kids though, as you can do so many different tricks with them! Since you can re-wet the paint once it is dry, you can blend existing colors. If you want to layer different colors without disturbing the layer underneath, you can use the next kind of paint on the list…
I’m a big fan of acrylics. You can use them to paint many other things besides canvases. I’ve used them to customize wooden boxes, journals, jewelry, and I’ve painted wall murals with them. They dry very quickly and once they are dry, you can’t re-wet them like watercolors.
Messy, bright and beautifully blendable! These may be my favorite of all to work with. I keep some wet wipes handy to clean my fingers if I’m going from a dark color to a light color. I also like to use an in-between color to blend two other colors together. Blending them with my fingers is a lot of fun and makes me feel like I have even more control over the colors.
They can do a lot in the way of blending, if you vary the pressure, use strokes in different angles and layer the colors gradually. The kind of paper you use will also determine how your picture looks. I like using paper with a smoother “tooth” (roughness), but if you like the gritty, textured look, a rougher tooth is the way to go. The more rough the paper, the more your colors with stick and, consequently, the sooner you will need to sharpen your pencils. Make sure your paper is acid-free so your artwork lasts longer!
Merci to each of the authors for your lovely craft tutorials! I’m very happy to feature these blogs because they really excel at creating visual, eye-candy heavy tutorials and I know you Miseducated readers will love them as much as I do!
Now let’s get creating…