Creative Life: Where To Start

Starting to Create Again

Have you ever gone through seasons where you felt uninspired and unmotivated to create? I’ve been going through that lately! It’s been driving me crazy!! I love to create and craft! I truly believe getting creative is so important for our self-care! But sometimes finding the energy to do it can be difficult. Yet there are so many benefits to creating. Being creative can be so empowering! It is also a great source of hope, joy, and relaxation!

Where do you start when you are wanting to get back to being creative or to begin a creative chapter in your life?

Just start! Start where you are and work with what you have! Sometimes when we are wanting to start a new habit or new goal we set these crazy high expectations for ourselves. If it’s your goal to be more creative maybe start with having one creative activity a week or a couple of evenings a week to work on creative projects. It can look however best fits your life in this season. My goal is just to be creative no matter what that looks like! Whether it’s a completed project or a part of a project just get creative!

What will you create today or this week? Post pictures in the comments! My hope for myself is to start being more creative more often and to simply start something positive and refreshing in my life! What is your creative goal in this season?

I’ve written about three projects in this post that I’ve done this week! I hope they will get your creative ideas flowing!

Wallpaper Adventures

Today I was walking around my craft room wanting to start a creative project. I recently purchased this wood circle from Hobby Lobby. I didn’t have any particular plans when I bought it, but today when I was looking at it decided I wanted to decorate it with embossed wallpaper. I love working with embossed wallpaper! It is so pretty and fun to paint! This may be a strange decision, but the wood sign has a frame on the front so I decided I would decorate the back so that it is one even piece. I traced the wood circle on the wallpaper and cut it out.

I used hot glue to attach the wallpaper to the back of this wood frame. Hot glue can sometimes dry kind of fast so I did it one section at a time.

I wanted to do this layered paint look on the wallpaper with the brown gel stain and green paint. I did a dry brushing technique for the green and watered down gel stain.

I just painted as I wanted. I started with the gel stain and then the green. I just went back and forth with the brush. I did wipe it with the cloth a couple of times to give it a weathered look. This is how it turned out!

What is your creative style?

Dollar Tree Plant Sign

I’ve been thinking about several different craft ideas today, but landed on decoupaging this plant sign from the dollar tree. I love decoupaging with different materials and in various surfaces. It’s so easy to do and so relaxing! I used a bright green and brown paper for this project. I traced the sign on the paper and cut it out.

Then I brushed mod podge on the metal sign and laid the paper on top. You can then seal it by brushing mod podge on top of the paper. It’s such an adorable little hanger!

I love this sign because it’s such a good reminder to keep growing!

Felt Lavender

I’ve been thinking about making more felt lavender for a while and today was finally the day. I’ve already done some of the steps to make the felt Lavender previously so it will be a quick craft to make. Felt lavender is very simple to make. I have photos of the stages below.

First, you have a strip of purple felt whatever size you would like then fold it and glue it in half.

Then cut small slits into the side that’s not glued.

Then use hot glue to wrap it around a floral stem.

Once the stem is all wrapped with your felt you have a lavender stem! Super easy! So I already had a few made and then I made enough to fill this Jean pocket. You could put these in a vase or any kind of container!

This Lavender craft I already had parts of the felt prepared from months ago so it only took me 15 minutes to get the whole thing created. Is there a project you’ve gotten all the supplies for and it is all prepared but haven’t had the time to complete it? Maybe today is the day!!

DIY Trees With Embossed Wallpaper

I enjoyed this project so much!!! I love how both trees turned out! One tree I made with art board and the other with a wooden triangle tree. I was originally inspired to do this project when watching another crafter, the owner of Hammons Nest, used embossed paintable wallpaper to decorate faux winter skates. I knew I wanted to try making a tree with these materials!! Check out the tutorial below!! This post contains my Amazon referral link.

Supplies Needed:

  • Wooden Tree, I got mine from Hobby Lobby
  • Art Board, I got mine from Hobby Lobby
  • Embossed Paintable Wallpaper
  • Mod Podge
  • Antique Green Chalk Paint
  • Paint Brushes
  • Cloth to Wipe Excess Paint
  • 3 ivory or Brown Cloth Strips
  • Brown Paint
  • Scissors
  • Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Instructions:

To start this project I first worked on the tree made from art board. I drew a Christmas tree in pencil on the board. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it can be any size you want! You can see by all my eraser marks that it took me several tries until I liked how it looked.

I used regular scissors to cut out the tree. It was a little bit difficult to cut it out because the board was so thick, but it worked pretty well!

Then I traced the cut art board tree and the wooden tree on the wall paper and cut them out.

Then I brushed mod podge on the board and wooden tree and put the cut out wallpaper on top. I did press down on both projects for a little bit to ensure the wallpaper was secure.

Then I used this antique green chalk paint to paint both projects. To do this I brushed the painted over the wallpaper until it was completely covered. Then before it could dry fully I wiped the excess paint off with a scrap piece of cloth. I love how this technique brought out the details of the wall paper!!

I did not paint the stand of the wooden tree, but I did add a trunk to the art board tree. I braided three strips of plain ivory fabric and used hot glue to attach it to the trunk. Then I painted it with brown paint.

I love how these turned out!! Comment below if you give this craft a try!