Being Creative #5 - Creative Time

Hi there! We are at half way point already! Time flies!!

To all the lovely ladies who participated last week or left comments thank you so much! It is really heartening to hear about everyone's experiences and see such lovely work. 

This party will be open till Tuesday morning 10am EST, so feel free to link up, the link tool is below.

 

I have had a super busy week and haven't had much time to create so talk about timing :-). So unless you are doing something creative for a living odds are that time is a super big constraint.

I develop software and that is creative work in its own way. But it is very different from creative work with images. So after coming home from work, running errands, making food <insert daily life activity of your choice> often I am tired. And yes I do wish that somehow I could invent more time. But at some point I realized that this is it - there's always going to be something to do.

So I create whenever I have spare time and often times I make time for it. There are two reasons why I work on small projects - one is time, the other is that I like small projects! I think that most projects I work on are about 3 hours, not all at one shot. But that' about my project attention span.

 

How much time do I spend in one sitting? Anywhere from 5 minutes to  2-3 hours, it depends on the day. Most days it is like 30 -45 minutes.

The longer time spans probably make sense to you but you must be wondering what can you do in 5-15 minutes?

1. Gawk at some eye candy for inspiration. Magazines, blogs etc. I count that as creative time, besides you need that kind of time for creative nourishment. Of course, if that's all you are doing all the time you will have that little voice in your head urging you to create something yourself.

2. Picking out papers for a collage project.

3. Picking out colors for a painting.

4. Jotting down or sketching an idea.

5. Picking out images for a Photoshop elements project.

6. Reading up some technique. I like doing that with my Photoshop Elements, photography projects.

7. Playing with or staring at beads to let the ideas form in my head.

8. Sketching an idea for a jewelry piece.

9. Wiring/Beading some of the components for my bead project.

 

One of the reasons I like playing with Photoshop is that if I am too tired, I can create right here on my computer and I don't have to cleanup anything. Yes, I dread cleaning up acrylic paints that much! I like making jewelry for that reason too, that in  a couple of hours I can have something beautiful to show for the time and it's ready to wear!

 

I have also learned to be kind to myself. I used to give my self harsh goals like I will create a collage everyday of this week. This might work for some people, it just does not work for me - at all. Some days I end up being at work longer, some days there are errands to be run so it makes no sense to stress myself out and say - "I must create for an hour today!". After all I create because I enjoy it, but when I am too tired or rushed I am not going to enjoy it if I am forcing myself.  I am not doing this kind of creative work for a living - for people who do this for a living it could be a different story.

 

Also when we travel I always find my creative juices flowing but I rarely have the time or inclination to lug around my acrylic paints etc. I find that photography fills that need. Besides photography being creative in itself, the images are a goldmine for my Photoshop experiments and for inspiration for art and jewelery.

When I go for a walk I carry my camera, you never know when you can catch a lovely sunset or turkeys trying to cross the road or some such vignette. So I get my exercise and maybe some pictures.

 

So that's it about my creative time. How much time can you/do you like to spend on creating?

The technique I am going to share here is for the glitter collage background. I learned the technique from Lori at Ink About It. 

Here's what you do - 

1. Get some sticky backed paper and peel of the backing paper.

2. Now start tearing up bits of collage/scrapbooking paper and sticking it to the sticky side of the sticky backed paper. Wow, that was a mouthful!

3. Then when you are done with the paper, throw on glitter. The glitter will adhere whereever there was no collage paper.

And since I don't like glitter falling everywhere from such work I invented a new layer. I coated the glitter collage with soft glossy gel from Golden. That sealed it. You have to give the gel a few hours to dry.

That's it!

I stuck the glittery collage to shiny blue card stock. As for the girl in the bathtub, the image is from Stamping Bella. I colored her with color pencils and then adding glittery Stickles and pearlescent Stickles. And then stuck her to the glittery background.

 

Next week's topic, it's a big one - "Inspiration". Where do you find inspiration?

Please leave me a comment if you would like me to email you to remind you about this party. Grab the button if you like from the sidebar.

 

Keep Creating!

Amisha

Comments

[Tricia]

Great thoughts you posted. I'm glad you visited my blog. It is really nice to find like-minded friends online. A lot of my face-to-face friends really don't "get" most of my art or are not into art at all. And that is a great, cute, fun and easy project you posted -my favorite kind! One thing I'm learning as I get older is to be kind to myself. No more harsh deadlines. : ) So I liked what you said about your old goals - not that realistic. I don't need extra reasons to beat myself up. I seem to find plenty of that already. Loving your party - glad you started it.

Blessings,
Tricia

[Cindy Adkins]

Hi Amisha!!! Beautiful creation!!! I hope you're having a Happy Sunday!!!
XO

[Mary]

Hi Amisha what a pretty collage you made! I love glitter!
Great idea your sharing in making this!
Have a creative day!
Mary

[Lynn @thevintagenest]

I always have a pen and paper on me because you never know where your inspiration will come from. I have had complete strangers stop and ask me what I am writing down because I have literally stopped on the street to jot something down. Thank you for the reminders. I never thought of that as a creative time for me but you have reminded me that it is. :)

[Laura Ingalls Gunn]

When I am creating time just flies. I can get so lost in a project. I have to sometimes set a timer. :)