Day 365: Something Beautiful Remains

I can’t believe that today is really the final day in my year-long journey. I could have tried to come up with a project that was over the top, but that just didn’t feel right. Instead, I went with what started me on this creative road and chose to make a card featuring a sentiment that felt appropriate.

I used the sketch from Mojo Monday #326 since that site has helped me through some challenging weeks. I also just felt that the design this week worked with what I wanted to do.

The sentiment reads:

The tide recedes but
leaves behind
bright seashells on the sand.
The sun goes down
but gentle warmth
still lingers on the land.

The music stops
and yet it echoes on
in sweet refrains.
For every joy that passes;
something beautiful remains.

My journey may be coming to a close, but I will always cherish the memories and the friendships I have made along the way; the something beautiful that remains.

Now, for the card itself, I did step a little bit out of my comfort zone. It wouldn’t be a final project if I hadn’t. Instead of just grabbing papers from my stash for this card, I created the colored papers using water color paints. The color scheme, while not very nautical, is very meaningful to me. For my wedding, I carried purple flags and yellow roses, so the colors on this card represent that special day for me. It seemed right to tie a beginning and an ending together in this way.

The first sentence of the sentiment refers to the seashells left behind when the tide recedes so I used a seashell charm to embellish the card.

It’s not something flashy to end my 365 days, but I’m not a flashy person. I am simply a person who enjoys finding ways to be creative even though I am not an artist.

Thanks for following me on my journey and supporting me through the rougher patches. I’m not sure what my next steps are going to be. Well, I know that one of them is going to be cleaning up my craft room and trying to restore some sense of order in there. Also, in a little over a week, I am going on my annual scrapbooking retreat where I will be collecting photos of all of my projects from the past year into an album. Once I get through with that, I think I am going to take a bit of a break from creating anything remotely nautical, but probably not for too long.

Day 364: Hangin’ Up My Fishing Pole

It is hard to believe that I am down to the final projects of this year long journey. It has been a wild trip, and I am glad that I have undertaken this. I will probably miss my daily crafting time, but for now, I need to prepare myself to hang up my fishing pole and step toward the next challenge. Today’s project is all about hanging up that fishing pole:

I created the fishing pole for this using a piece of wire. The fishing line is embroidery floss, and I punched the fish from glittery paper and embellished with copper brads. (I will probably be cleaning the glitter up for the next year.) It is simple, but representative. Four fish would be a good haul for a day of fishing, and my experiences over the past year have enriched me. Okay, I’m not going to go getting all philosophical. Just say that this year-long journey has been a trip that I will never forget.

Day 363: Sound Advice

As my 365 days come to a close this week, I wanted to create a project that shared some advice that helped carry me through. It is sound advice that comes from a forgetful blue Tang fish.

There will be days during the year where you just want to give up. Believe in yourself and keep going. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. Push through the creative blocks and bad days. If you had asked me back in January if I thought I would make it this far, and I had answered honestly, I would have told you that I sincerely doubted it. But on those days when creativity was elusive, I tried to remember Dory and her encouraging message.

I wanted to make sure that I did a project dedicated to Dory’s message and today seemed like the perfect time…before it was too late. I had cross stitch pattern books featuring different alphabets and different critters. I pulled from them to put together a pattern for today’s project. Now, the fish on the cross stitch isn’t a blue Tang, but I felt that it was close enough to make people think of Dory, especially with her words of wisdom there. I had to flip the fish pattern around, since in the book it was facing the other way, which just didn’t feel right. After going through a few pieces of graph paper, and a quick trip to the craft store, I was ready to set to work stitching this cheerful little piece. What do you think?

 

Day 362: From Another Sketch Blog

I have shared with all of you that I love Mojo Monday. Another blog that I used to go to for inspiration is called Sketch Saturday. For today’s project, I decided to use their latest sketch (#290). I particularly loved a couple of the sample cards they included in their post – Vannessa’s and Lizy’s really spoke to me. How could I not love Vannessa’s little pirate since he is inspired by the sea? Of course, the card that really appealed to me was Lizy’s and how she used the tag for the image.

I obviously borrowed the whole tag idea when I made my card. I love that beach scene stamp, and I don’t know for certain when and where I got it or if I have even used it for a project. I colored the image using colored pencils and chalk pencils. I then replace ribbon at the top of the tag with a mini clothes pin. Not really sure why I decided to go that route, but once I made up my mind to do it, it just seemed to make sense to use the clothes pins to attach by sentiment as well. In case you can’t read it, the sentiment says, “Wishing you a day filled with tropical breezes and swaying palm trees.” Sounds like a perfect day to me and makes me wish that I was sitting under that little umbrella taking in a beach day.

Day 361: Craft Room Finds

You would think that as close to the end as I am that I would know exactly what I had planned for each of the remaining days of my project. You would be wrong. Since I am still fighting off a cold, I wasn’t sure how creative I was going to be feeling this morning. I went into my craft room thinking about one idea, but not loving it. I got a bit inspired and was looking through my ever growing stash of supplies to see if I had what I would need for that project. Of course, I didn’t, but I found inspiration anyway.

A while back, I’m not even sure how long ago, I had bought a slate plague thinking that I could use it some how. As I was searching, I found that plague and knew exactly what I wanted to try…sidewalk chalk!

I use my chalk pencils all the time, but for this project, I needed something a bit larger – sidewalk chalk. I found my sticky stencils and decided to use the fish since the chalks I had seemed to work best for this design. I put the stencil on the slate and set to work coloring everything with my chalk. Once I was done, I simply removed the stencil and applied a spray sealant so that my fish doesn’t accidentally get erased.

The textured slate was a bit different than just using regular chalk on a chalkboard, and I can’t even remember the last time I used sidewalk chalk, so I had fun working on this one.

 

Day 360: Tribute to My Inspiration

About a year ago, my friend Jeannie finished up her 365 days project. She created a dress each day. You can view her creations 365 Dresses. Jeannie and her dresses inspired me to start my own year-long journey, so today’s project is a bit of a tribute you her and her dresses.

Now, dresses can be inspired by the sea, and some of hers were, but when you think of beach attire, I think a bathing suit is a bit more appropriate. So, for today, I made an origami bathing suit:

I had the yellow and white polka-dot paper left over from when I made my itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie yellow polka-dot bikini card, so I used that paper to craft my paper bathing suit. Of course, just making an origami bathing suit, didn’t seem like quite enough, so I made a bright yellow gift bag that I then embellished with my paper creation.

No, my bathing suit is not quite on the level of Jeannie’s dresses. But, it is my small way of paying tribute to her and thanking her for inspiring me to start my own year-long journey.

Day 359: It’s a Fish…

So, with all of the chaos of the holiday, I didn’t get into my craft room until fairly late for me. I decided to play with a silly idea that has been in the back of my mind for a while.

At first glance, this appears to just be a paper pieced fish. But, wait. There’s more!

This fish is actually backed with cork and made into a coaster. I started out by cutting out the fish using my Cricut. I then carefully cut a piece of cork to match the size and shape of the fish. I assembled all of the layers and then sprayed the top with an acrylic sealant. Once it was dried, I had a paper-pieced, cork-backed fish coaster. I may have to go back and make some more so that I can have a complete set.

Day 358: His and Hers

I have got to have the worst timing in the world. Last night, I noticed my throat getting scratchy. Today, I woke up to a full blown sore throat just in time for Christmas.

Luckily since I wasn’t feeling up to doing much last night, I was just sitting around playing on my phone and saw an idea on Pinterest. They made cute little Christmas decoration signs with beach inspired sayings. Well, I wasn’t quite feeling that creative, but I did my take on the idea and created a door hanger:

Not wanting my husband to feel left out, I decorated the other side for him:

So, as projects go, it is totally and completely impractical, but it was what fit my mood today.

Day 357: Mishaps Make Me Crabby

The project that I originally set out to do this morning failed. I am thinking that acrylic paints and stencils are just not items that I should be working with. Anyway, after discovery the extent of my failure, I regrouped and created a card based on the new sketch over at Mojo Monday (#325).

The sentiment is a little hard to read, but it says, “Sorry I was crabby.” When projects don’t work like I planned, I can get a little crabby, but this cute little guy helped to get my mood and my creative mojo back on track.

 

Day 356: For the Love of Penguins

I have to admit that I love this time of year. Having all of the boys home for Christmas is definitely helping me to embrace the Christmas spirit this year. But, one thing that I love every Christmas is all of the cute penguins that you see that don’t seem to come out any other time of year. I think that is what inspired today’s project.

I started out thinking about making penguin ornaments or a penguin garland, but once I got started, I decided instead to do a Christmas banner featuring these darling little penguins and some chipboard banners that were in my stash. Add ribbon and snowflakes and I have a cute decoration for our mantle.

I cut the penguins using my Cricut and added brads for the eyes. Next, I covered the chipboard with paper to match the penguins scarves. I adhered one penguin on each piece but felt that it wasn’t quite enough, so I added snowflakes. Run a piece of ribbon through all of the pieces and it was ready for me to put up.