Make your own Ribbon / Snippet Rolls

Forage around for some exquisite scraps of fabric and lace, place it with care add some detailed stitching and label it with love to create a Snippet Roll. From antique stained cotton reels to died and aged lace combined with recycled postage stamps, bits of paper, photos, text from books Carole Brungar shows us to make exquisite Snippet roll's  on her unique Madness and Mess journey.

Brooch Bouquet

Transform vintage brooches from your grandmother and great grandmother or the thrift shop into a bespoke wedding bouquet. Nikki at Lolie Jane used earrings as fillers around the bigger brooches.

Make your own Eco Friendly Puff Paints

Mix 1 cup of salt, 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of water with a healthy squirt of food coloring and decant into squeeze bottles. Works great on paper and cardboard and is a fun way to decorate rocks and most other things. It dries nice and hard but washes away easily. Will keep for a few days if stored in the refrigerator.

Visit Get Your Mess On for this and other delightfully messy projects.

DIY Sugar Hearts

Two cups of sugar, 4 teaspoons egg white and paste food coloring is all you need to make your own ultra stylish DIY Ombre Sugar Hearts.  Erica O’Brien's hearts can easily be used at a fabulous bridal shower, for wedding favors, as a special surprise for your sweetie on Valentine’s Day or even decor for the cutest wedding cake in the world.

Zentange High Heels

A zentangle is an abstract drawing created using repetitive patterns. It is usually structured within a certain shape much like a circular mandala. Drawing a zentangle is entertaining, relaxing, and a great way to express yourself creatively. 

Visit TanglePatterns - an index and graphic guide to the best Zentangle patterns on the web and randomly select and copy pieces you like according to your skill level until your entire surfice is filled to your liking. Fill in little gaps with hearts, dots and lines like likejilibeans to create a one-of-a-kind pair of shoes using Elmer's opaque acrylic paint markers.  Ideal for use on wood, plastic, clay, glass, metal, foam board, fabric, and terra cota.

Gifts from the Garden

If you are operating on a limited budget or just want more Eco- friendly / not mass produced gifts; you can easily make your own with the help of the ingenious Eco Bites. Everything from the miniature citrus tree grown in an orange shell which will bare tiny oranges after six years of nurturing to a root top garden for leaf foraging in the kitchen is filled with wholesome delight.

DIY Garden Project: Concrete Stepping Stones

Fine concrete, cardboard tubing, pieces of rubber doormat,  a piece of board, a saw, a ruler, oil, a paintbrush, a trowel and a file is all you need to create these eloquent stepping stones. Incredibly effective, simple and affordable this project by autors Nilsson and Arvidsson is featured in their book: Concrete Garden Projects: Easy & Inexpensive Containers, Furniture, Water Features & More. The complete tutorial courtesy of Timber Press.

DIY Decor with Vintage Flair

Get a conversation going. Allow an exchange of ideas between a bygone era and its contemporary counterpart. Decide on a theme. Forage around for select eclectic pieces that are perfect because of their finish, shape or form. And then combine and transform them. By giving timeless pieces an overcoat, Halsey at Spunky Junky created an essential conversation piece to decorate her kitchen.

DIY Blue Mason Jars

 

Mason jars, ball jars, fruit jars or large canning jars are staples that seal in memories of grandmas, wonderful aromas and divine tastes.  The old keepsake has also taken center stage in home decor. This exquisite example is the handiwork of Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous who added a permanent tint to her mason jar flower vase.

Find them at thrift stores or collect some vintage ones and transform them into gorgeous decor objects. All you need is a sponge brush and some transparent waterproof glass glaze or paint. Turquoise was used for Lina's jar. Paint the inside of the jar, starting at the bottom, with long even brush strokes. One coat of paint should suffice but if you want a darker tint, a second or even third coat of paint might be needed. Allow to dry according to the manufacturers directions. Dala's Solvent Glass Glaze dries at room temperature and  no baking is required as is the case with some other brands.

For another DIY addition to your Blue Mason Jar have a peek at Linda's innovative Frog Lid Tutorial. Flog Lids help hold flowers in place so that you can arrange them how you want. The little openings in the wire help the flowers to stand up and make your bouquets look fabulous.

Reshape Your Way to Inspiration

Take your idea and adapt it into a dance. Adjust it to produce a soap opera. Amend it to become an Olympic competition. Change it into a game. Or have it metamorphose into pornography. Whatever you choose to do; use it to reshape your idea in other forms to keep  turning  out possibilities.

Play Hangman with New York based design studio, ghettovinyl. Their Chalkboard Wall Vinyl Kids Game includes a letter bin for used letters on the left side and a built in score board on the bottom right side.

StumbleUpon Something New

 

StumbleUpon random web pages, filled with inspiration, with the click of a button. Create an account. Define your interests. Add some random non-interests for added exposure. And click that Stumble! button over and over for some external stimuli.

With his Foot Wear Art, Israel footwear designer, Kobi Levi courageously blends the boundaries between fashion and art with every pair of shoes, he creates. Shoes become his canvas through which he portrays his unique point of view. From slingshot sandals and bubblegum pumps to banana peel flip-flops; each pair is tantamount to functional art.

Make it Compostable

Faster, cheaper and easier has become the mantra of modern man. We live in a throw away society built upon convenience; but now that the long term viability of humanity and the planet has been compromised, the ability to leave no trace behind has become a design selling point.

Creating a new kind of throwaway culture and new value for short term use;  Young Ju Do, a fashion student at Central Saint Martins in London, devised a series of compostable accessories derived from edible, biologically nutritive organic materials. Returned to the soil, the one-time jewelry is cycled back into the food chain when consumed by micro organisms.

So experiment with edible, biologically nutritive and organic materials designing with the intent to leave no trace behind.

Organic Reshaping

Reshape something organic. Raid the fridge and poke around the vegetables. Grate some carrots. Cook some beets. Mash some butternuts. Or juice some beans. And  mold. Cast. Shape. Form. Fashion. Or sculpt with it.

While most designers make use of existing materials Dutch artist Geke Wouters creates her own. Her collection of paper-thin bowls are made from carrots, peppers, beet root, leeks, tomatoes, and other vegetables. Each delicate piece of edible art is made using a drying and forming process that converts organic materials into paper thin layers, giving you the sense of a microscopic view into its intricate cellular structure. True to the natural materials, no two of these vegetable bowls are alike.

Knit Big

Dutch Artist Geke Wouters's love for fabrics and clothing is obvious  in her work. Designed by Wouters and produced by Cropus Interieur Vormen, the Clavicula sofa,  is developed from concrete-iron and 27 meters of white terry, cut into strips. The cotton ‘bandages’ are sewn together to create a single thread from which a carpet is knitted using a mammoth pair of knitting needles crafted from 2 x 2 meter broomsticks. The ‘carpet’ is upholstered around the concrete-iron frame.

Handcrafted, one-of-kind items are  key to contemporary decor. So use common techniques in new ways. Rethink knitted items. Enlarge it. Extend. Expand and magnify, the materials and tools to cover furniture and accessories in their own bespoke knits.

Collaborate with Nature

Co-operate and join forces with something. Thing being the operative word, as opposed to most collaborations which include someone. So  start something and team up with,  band together and pool resources to conspire with nature to create something extraordinary.

American artist, Hilary Berseth, organized honeybees architecturally. He constructed basic frameworks of wire and wax, allowing his honeybees to finish the job. Berseth’s armatures each go into a closed box in the spring, and then the respective colonies take over, filling out his templates with wax cells, and stuffing it with honey. His manipulation of natural processes resulted in beautiful, subtle effects with cacti-like formations, curvatures and elegant flowing lines.

Embark on a spurt of guerrilla gardenening

Steve Wheen alters potholes in east London using plants and miniatures to create natural sanctuaries in broken urban spaces.  Guerrilla gardenening seems to date back to a school group in the USA some years ago and since then there have been various other similar projects. Part art project, part labor of love, part experiment, part mission to highlight how bad roads are, Wheen came up with the project as part of his university course and created his blog to log his gardening activity and take some photographs, as a creative outlet.

So locate a pothole. Till some soil. And add dash of growing color to create your very own hole of happiness. Then lurk around to capture and appreciate the astonished responses.

Exploit the Smoke & Mirror Technique

Japan based, Satoshi Itasake, of H22o430 Studio designed The Balloon Bench to be suspended in mid air. The design was visually inspired by the feeling of floating that the main character felt in the French movie, “Le Ballon Rouge”(1953). This film tells a story about a little boy that befriends a red balloon and romps through the streets of Paris. In reality the bench is suspended from the ceiling by 4 anchors concealed by the balloon shapes. Thus successfully creating the illusion that the bench is being lifted by only a few balloons.

Create a false idea of your own. Leave a deceptive impression. Or trick the senses. But play on the fact that things are not always what they seem.

Heat as Creative Catalyst

Innovative artist and designer, Tom Price, specializes in modern furniture, sculpture installation and lighting design. This London native's unique Meltdown PVC Hose Chair, was created by heating and pressing a seat-shaped former into a ball of clear PVC hose. The hose begins to melt as it comes into contact with the heated former, and due to prolonged exposure to heat it starts to burn. Once cooled the seat surface looks charred and brittle but remains flexible and comfortable to sit on.

Take a spark from Price's book and introduce heat as your creative stimulus. Burning. Molding. Melting.  And shaping your way to innovation.

Go Minute to Innovate

American based, native Brazilian, Dalton Ghetti challenged himself to create the smallest possible carvings that he could see with his naked eye and started carving a working pencil. Dalton's work is a recycling process with most of the pencils found on the streets and sidewalks. Carved mostly with a sewing needle and a very sharp, triangular, small, metal blade it can take months or sometimes years to complete. Sculpting pencils is a hobby and a form of meditation for Dalton who chooses not to sell it.

Challenge yourself to make your product small. Then make it  even smaller. And then decrease the size to the smallest it can possibly be. Unexpected innovation might just linger in this tiny scale.

Reinterpret the Ethos of a Bygone Era

Bristol based basket weaver, Dail Behennah, utilizes found objects in a contemporary way. Inspired by the 17th and 18th century ethos of valuing skill and time, Behennah spends hours stitching and weaving her plates, made with re-used, gold-plated guitar strings, which are intended for display, on the wall. Traditional porcelain plates were often decorated with gilded edges that glowed in the candlelight; two of Behennah’s plates consist solely of this border, representing the most recognizable remnants of this jewelry for the wall.

So take a trip down memory lane and delve into the history of your craft. Delve through the chronicles. Roam your avenues of interest. And locate a concept. Idea. Style. Or quirk. And reinterpret it in a repurposed material to give it a contemporary slant.

Inspired By Nature

New York-based Japanese designer Nao Tamura's unique solutions are more than simply design and possess a rare balance of innovation and beauty. Her gorgeous, collection of dishes inspired by cherry leaves is a prime example. The silicone kitchenware is perfect for anyone who enjoys a bit of nature indoors. The dishes can be rolled up, used in the microwave or oven, and are dishwasher safe.

Seeing that trend forecasts predict that nature will have a major influence on design in 2013 it might be time to dabble with the blue of the sea, to investigate the shape of the pebble, or to follow the curve of a wave.

Eco - Mini 2013 Consumer Trend

In 2013, there is   great symbolic value in creating new, environmentally beneficial life out of a consumer product. In line with increased ecologically sustainable activities there is now a phenomenon of products and services that quite literally contain new life inside. Rather than being discarded or even recycled (by someone else), these products can be planted and grown, with all the eco-status and eco-stories that come with that.

Sprout is a pencil that wants to be a plant when it grows up. Once the pencil becomes too short to use it can be planted: a seed capsule in the tip of the pencil dissolves upon contact with water, allowing the seed inside to germinate and grow.

So conjure a product that contains new life and remember symbolic, even playful statements of your values will resonate with consumers, too. Especially if they are seen as expressions of larger intent to take more meaningful action.

For more 2013 trends have a look at Trendwatching.com's 10 Most Crucial List.

Moss Painting Directions & Recipe - Growing your own design

Join the green graffiti movement and grow a design on your wall. You can mix you own moss paint using a cup of live moss (scraped from moist areas but without any soil), two cups buttermilk with 2 cups stale beer or water. Add 10 grams dissolved gelatin or 1 egg white and 1 tablespoon of syrup for the moss to feed on.

Choose a shady wall and paint, stencil or mold your design onto your wall. Accelerate the growth process by gluing dry moss (available from most florists) into your design. Water several times a day with a spay bottle to increase growth and watch your design come to life.

Anna Garforth incorporates a diverse range of natural and recycled materials in her installation work. She has a great deal of experience in design, illustration and typography to expand on for her many public eco projects, community gardens and exhibitions. Garforth’s works are a playful experimentation with materials, language, rural communities and porous social boundaries. 

Write Your Design

Taking personalization to a whole new level 'Write A Bike' is the gorgeous brainchild of Paris based designer Juri Zaech. His typography bike is exactly as the name suggests. It is a bike that spells out your name with the tubing.

Whether concept or reality try your hand at writing your next design. You never know what power a name may hold.

Mix Spirography with String and Cardboard

The Spirograph is a mathematical toy, which enables the user to draw complicated patterns. In its most basic form it consists of a fixed circle, used as a template, and a smaller rolling circle with holes. But it is the repetitive lines of the Spirograph that interests us. Trace the recurring lines of the Spirograph with multicolored wools or yarns along evenly spaced cuts on a recycled cardboard circle. Repeat the pattern several times. Change color. Add a new pattern. Again and again until your contemporary geometrical double sided star ornament becomes a significant piece of string art.

See Geometric String Craft Stars Make Gorgeous Holiday Decorations! by Creative Jewish Mom for a complete tutorial and references.

An Imaginary Pop-Up Department Store

Trend forecaster, Lidewij Edelkoort has announced new ways to shop, better ways to serve, creative ways to install and original environments in which to retail. In which we will be lending space to the inner human, making room for intimate well-being, building up a greener society and travelling to a future mentality, as if streaming in a physical way. TrendTablet's Imaginary Pop-Up Department Store is designed to let us dream of different, more courageous and engaging concepts, of another era in store design and packaging, of a consumer-driven environment full of life and wonder.

Top 20 Trends in 2013 - Trend Report from Trend Hunter

Crowdsourced consumer insight about what 2013 will hold:

Vending . Upgraded Ordinary . Dystopia Fascination . Millenial Madness . Modular Retail.  Imposed Interaction . Shoptimization . Sustain Citecture . Deliberate Vintage . Immersive Branding . Wearable Multitasking . Subscription World . Physical Virtual . Benefit Brands . Nostalgic Escape . Crossover Cuisine . Fashionising . Shoppertainment.  Indust-Retail.

Make It Yellow - And follow the trends

Is yellow the new pink? "Yes, as well as Gold. These colors symbolize immateriality and light  - the lightness if being." - Renowned trend forecaster, Li Edelkoort

Update an old accessory with glossy yellow spray paint.

Subjective Creative Thinking

Based in emotion and personal reference, the subjective is instinctive and intuitive. Let your work be informed by your distinct background. Assert your unique quality. Add your individual story. Include your own leitmotifs and personalize your entrepreneurship.

Dedicated to "the eternity of trees" John Houshmand's low organic  table with a glass leg is made from maple. According to the architects the beauty in a single piece of wood facilitates the creation of each individual design.

Make Your Own Air-Dry Clay from Bread & Glue

Apply cold cream to your hands. Remove the crusts from 3 slices of white bread. Tear the bread into small pieces, and place it in a bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of white craft glue and 3 drops of lemon juice, with drops of paint to get the color you like. Then mix it with your hands until it forms a workable ball. And shape. Form. Fashion. Make. Mold. Model and sculpt it. Then combine it with something complimentary, contrasting, or extraordinary and carve and whittle it to perfection.

Los Angeles based Avesha Michael's ceramic design's are  assembled with as much organic, sustainable materials as she can get her hands on. Her hand sculpted spoons are delicate partially glazed collector's items.

Lateral Thinking - A Test

Scroll down slowly.
Think creatively.
Think differently.
Think outside the box.
And be honest.

Man
1. ------------
Board

Answer = Man Overboard

Okay, let's see if you've got the hang of it.

stand
2. ------------
i

Answer = I Understand

OK . . .Got the drift?

Let's try a few now and see how you fare?

3. /r/e/a/d/i/n/g/

Answer = Reading Between the Lines

4.   r
road
a
d

Answer = Cross Road

Not having a good day now, are you?

Redeem yourself.

5.     Cycle
Cycle
Cycle

Answer = Tricycle

Easy to figure that one out ha!

0
6. ------------
M.D.
Ph.D.

Answer = Two Degrees below Zero

C'mon give it a little thought!

knee
7. ------------
light

Answer = Neon Light (knee-on-light)

You can prove you're smart by getting this one.

ground
8       ---------------
feet feet feet feet feet feet

Answer = Six Feet Underground

Oh no, not again!

9. He's X himself

Answer = He's by Himself

Now you're messing up big time.

10. ecnalg

Answer = Backward Glance

Not even close!

11. Death ..... Life

Answer = Life after Death

Okay last chance . . .

12. THINK

Answer = Think Big !

And the last one is real fun - - -

13. ababaaabbbbaaaabbbbababaabbaaabbbb . . .

Answer = Long Time No 'C'


Apply some lateral thinking to your creative process. Solve your problems through an indirect and creative approach. Involve ideas that that may not be obtainable using only taditional step-by-step logic, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious.

Lateral thinking test courtesy of Stories And Facts, Tips and Tricks & Black Banana Kitchen Chalkboard. Part of the funny home decor. Or gag gift range by Cathy of LayOffTheBooks.

Design Tips - Cubes, Spheres, Cylinders & Cones

Draw a square with four equal straight sides and four right angles. Turn it into a cube:  a symmetrical, three-dimensional shape contained by six equal squares. Then sketch a circle with it's circumference equidistant from a central point. Modify it to make a sphere with the shape of a ball or a globe. Outline a rectangle with unequal adjacent sides. Alter it to make a cylinder with parallel sides and a circular opening. Then trace a triangle with its three straight sides and three angles and have it mutate into a cone that tapers from a circular base to a point.

Shapes are the building blocks of objects and design. Take a square. Add some circles. Attach a cylinder. Or more. And include a cone. Put them together. Turn them over. Attach. Subtract. And transform them until they become something unexpectedly gorgeous.

Like Diamond Ring by SeldaOkutan on Etsy

Copy a Child

Child's Own Studio celebrates children’s art with hand-crafted softies and give young people a sense of the power of their imagination. From bunnies to self-portraits, mermaids to monsters and more, Child’s Own Studio, has custom made hundreds of personal soft toys from children’s drawings.

Take your lead from a child and interpret a drawing. Listen to the lines. Be true to the story. Incorporate embroidery. Add a stripe.  Knit it a scarf and leave some trim work undone in line with contemporary trends.

Be Whimsical With a Sense of Play

A whimsical sense of play is exemplified by Katy Hackney's flower brooch. The London based artist's work is hugely material driven. Working with woods, plastics, precious and non precious metals, found objects, formica, paint & enamel; her pieces are influenced by vintage toys and folk art.

Take some time to forage around toys. Wallow in kids. Remind yourself to be playful or perhaps even quaint. Add a dash of fanciful. Mix in something mischievous. Explore all that is curious. Embrace the quirks of the world around you. And express it in your work.

Dine on Living Ideas

The mind lives and grows when fed living ideas, not just dry facts. The difference between living ideas and dry facts is the difference between memorizing the premise of Surrealism in order to pass a test versus having dinner with Salvador Dali himself.  Take a moment to put yourself in the living-idea side of scenarios. Picture yourself in it for a moment. What are you doing? And perhaps more importantly, what is happening in your mind?

If this living idea is touching your emotions and firing your imagination, as it should be, your mind will be making mental connections with other experiences you've had or read about. It might not happen immediately, but even after you move on to something else, a part of your mind will notice any other tidbit that is in any way related to that recent living idea. And that's when life becomes personal and real.

So read an autobiography. Spent time with monkeys. Or find a way to put yourself in some other shoes but explore living ideas on which your mind can live and thrive.

Salvador Dali Art Print, Antique Dictionary Art Print on 115 Year Old Page, Wall Art by reimagination prints

Flush it Out

A spot of aimless doodling can lead to some really innovate ideas. Mirroring the subconscious, doodling uproots ideas, lying dormant in the imagination. So draw casually. Fiddle. Putter. Scribble. Tinker. And trifle your best ideas to the surface.

A Colorful Doodle of the Mind by carolynphelan on Etsy

Add a Touch of Green to Your Interior

Find the Work You Can't Not Do?

I highly recommend you watch this TEDx talk from Scott Dinsmore for some inspiration to believe in yourself … it’s the best 18 minutes you could invest in your life right now.

Scott Dinsmore's mission is to change the world by helping people find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing. He is a career change strategist whose demoralizing experience at a Fortune 500 job launched his quest to understand why 80% of adults hate the work they do, and more importantly, to identify what the other 20% were doing differently. His research led to experiences with thousands of employees and entrepreneurs from 158 countries. Scott distilled the results down to his Passionate Work Framework - three surprisingly simple practices for finding and doing work you love, that all happen to be completely within our control. He makes his career tools available free to the public through his community at http://LiveYourLegend.net

Do, Yield, Be

Yin & Yang,  represents the ancient Chinese understanding of how things work. The outer circle reveals everything. The black & white shapes in the circle symbolize the interaction of two energies, which cause everything to happen. Interdependent, Yin, is the passive and sustaining female principle, associated with earth: dark, downward, cold, contracting and weak. Yang, the active male principle is creative, bright, upward, hot, expanding and strong, associated with heaven and light. These two energies are in continual movement. Yin to yang. And yang to yin. Causing everything to happen. A countering weight or force, asking us to trust its motion. To yield with Yin. And do with Yang.

Yin Yang New Skeep Tee OSFA by FloozeesDoozees on Etsy

Add a Spontaneous Twist with Plenty of Color

Intended to imitate the intimate essence of nature and to serve as an aid to meditation about the true meaning of life, doodling recurring shapes  in a contemporary Japanese Zen Garden is said to relieve stress. Mix in a modern pop of color to add a touch of whimsy to your meditation and home.

Modern Zen Gardens by  Gardens of Wendiland are available in fuchsia, yellow, orange, purple, baby blue, black or white.