Low Cost Idea- Spray Your Way To Improvement

Club Creative Studio loves to share creative low-cost ideas on Two-Cent Tuesday.  Today, the blog has a focus on an inexpensive project that will improve or change your world with the use of spray paint.

If you want a dramatic look in lighting, consider spray-painting your fixture black.  I recently took this photo of a beautiful crystal chandelier at The Union League in Philadelphia.  I thought while admiring it that this look could be replicated easily and cheaply with black spray paint.  If however, you have a metal light fixture or anything made from galvanized steel, there are considerations for paints.  Galvanized steel is a metal for example that is difficult to paint.  So, knowing the material you are working with first and foremost is important so that you are not wasting your time or money in your creative process. Check the can labels to recognize the best spray can type for your projects.

Getting back to Galvanized steel for example, that material cannot be painted with normal alkyd-based paints, which almost all spray paints are based. It is suggested that if there is any “alkyd…” don’t even think about using it on your steel project.  Looking on the aisle shelf, the brand “Rust-o-leum” does put on the back of their spray paint cans a warning not to use their spray paint on galvanized steel.  However, beware that most spray paint companies do not include this warning.

So what makes that metal so difficult? It is steel that has a zinc coating to increase the steels corrosion (rust) resistance.  It’s “hot-dip galvanization” is a process that makes it similar to steel with large visible grains. Using spray paint to other materials is not as difficult to choose.

Need ideas on what to spray in your home for a new creative twist? How about these suggestions: cabinet knobs and other fixture handles, frames for photos or mirrors, light switch plates, file cabinets or storage furniture, light fixtures, lamps, chandeliers, candle holders, appliances, radiators, steam risers, and even plastic, wood, wicker, and metal furniture.

A pro of using spray paint over brush application paints is that spray paint creates a smooth surface as opposed to brushing on paint. Faux textures like stone and granite as well as unique finishes like a clear coating and metallic are available for your experimentation. Suggested tips for great results are on all can labels.  You may need to gain extra supplies and endure additional steps besides a quick spray. Primer, sanding, or wire-brushing may be needed, depending on the object and the paint. So while this process can be low-cost, it does have a small percentage of cost associated with it depending on the size of your project and the type of spray paint you require.

No matter if you are making a cosmetic change or improving a home item like a flaking barbecue grill, spray paint is a great option to a quick change or improvement. Using spray paint for an improvement is a low-cost idea that can help in a creative improvement solution.  Let us know if you have used spray paint in a recent project. Taking a before and after photograph can be helpful to appreciate how far a project has come.
                              
                              
                           
                         

Inspired By Creative Quotes

Great reflection quote for the creative person.

Today, Club Creative Studio shares a quote that has inspired me and is proven to be correct for correlation in the world of the arts.  Creative quotes can be great reflective words and inspire on many different levels. The words of Vincent Van Gogh can transform your way of thought with a certain focus.  These three simple lines can become your everyday challenges for your creative spirit.  Are they words that you can relate to, or hope to incorporate into your creative world?

I Am Seeking

Are you a person who seeks out creativity or yearns to explore new adventures?

I feel that as a creative person I am always seeking. I seek to find the time to create, and stay motivated. I look to find the best materials, new materials. I seek knowledge and wisdom from others in the arts. I search for the best technique to incorporate in my creations. I seek to become a better artists on a daily basis. I am seeking answers to my many questions. Yes, I am a seeker, are you?

I Am Striving (And Thriving)

Are you a person who is striving to thrive in your environment?

Are you one who wonders how and if you are actually doing a good job in your creative life? Do you know what it takes to thrive in your own creative level or situation?  If you have creative goals and are striving to obtain them, it is more likely that you will have milestone successes and can relate to the reward of thriving in your field.  Does your current creative journey give you satisfaction and joy?  If it is not are you taking steps to get you to the point of thrill? I feel that I am striving everyday to perfect a technique, try something new, or maintain a productive status.  Thriving in both my art and business is among my most general and continual efforts.  Whenever I am given the chance to express and provide art and help another side step and overcome ordinary, I know I have just experienced a slice of “mission accomplish”.  I am doing what I have set out to do each and every time I create Art That Sets You Apart! Learn to evolve.

I Am In It With All My Heart

Are you dedicated to your creative tasks?

Being a creative person calls upon the inner strengths. Are you the type of person who can stay focused from start to finish of a project? Are you dedicated to the progression of your art or craft?  Your productivity depends upon your work ethic and dedication.  My personal mantra: Be Creative Everyday reminds me that I am “in it with all my heart”. I own the idea that I can express myself through art every day in some fashion or form. Past, present and future are all markers of time that has or will show me that I am indeed involved with creativity with all my heart.

This notion of knowing that I have my heart involved with my work helps me shape creative efforts in my workspace: Club Creative Studio.  On many levels, the past has been a part of this creative growth.  Love of art and hands-on creativity has proved to be a creative outlet for me. In experimentation and creative growth, the experiences of the past have taught me to use those events as background starting points of prior knowledge and skills. Your art may feel like a thing of the past but, it is what also helps propel you into your present art and your future creativity.

In present-time, knowing that I place my heart and soul into creating art gives others the opportunity to see what the creative spirit can offer and share.  In future-times, maintaining the drive and personal attachments of art created proves that an artist does put their personality and a bit of themselves in all creative tasks, resulting in expressive, personal and unique creative endeavors.

Caring And Sharing

I would love for you to visit the Club Creative Studio website to see for yourself how I am creative everyday. 

http://clubcreativestudio.com

I care about you and your creative processes.  I am also happily sharing art and information about Club Creative Studio on the Facebook page.

Please join us there and consider clicking the “like” to enjoy sneak peeks of hand-made art and gain inspiration, learning about creativity.

http://www.facebook.com/clubcreativestudio

 

 

 



Related articles

• Creativity Takes Courage (clubcreativestudio.wordpress.com)
• Creativity As Stress Buster (clubcreativestudio.wordpress.com)
• Admire and Inspire: Buds Buy Beads (clubcreativestudio.wordpress.com)
• Where Creativity Thrives (socialhallucinations.com)

Creativity As Stress Buster

Believe it or not, being more creative can allow you to also be less stressed.

Having a creative outlet opens your mind and eyes to new and exciting ways to distress.

What’s your creative stress buster?

I use the opportunity to be creative with art on a daily basis. In this TNT (This-N-That) Club Creative Studio post I’d like share ideas why creativity can come to the rescue in times of stress. My personal and business mantra is Be Creative Everyday!  Having this frame of mind has allowed me to use the arts as a means to be expressive and less stressed in my day.

Focus your mind and hands creatively and you are in for an escape (of sorts) of reality. Being creative takes my thought process to a different out-of-the-box, critical thinking stage.   It helps me forget about the other things that are stressors in my life.  When I am creative, my focus changes to thinking in nonconventional means and I allow myself to grant freedoms of imagination and growth from routine.

Being creative sets my mind free from rules and places me in a state of experimentation.  Gifting the opportunity to ask and act upon questions like “what if”. Recently, I had the misfortune of having technical difficulties.  Within two days of each other , I discovered that I laundered my cell phone and the motherboard of my computer was fried. Talk about some bad luck. My technical difficulties were woes that I had to solved quickly so I could get back on track to where I needed to be personally and in my business. Those are stressful times, when you have to worry about a cost associated with a solution, as well as the time you are going to sacrifice to get back to your normal life when there is a challenge in your mist.

Creativity gave me comfort. Creativity was the sweet diversion from my problems.  Creativity gave me something else to concentrate on while I waited for the outsourced help. In this instance, I had gained time to be more creative because I was not directly involved with my main concerns. You can use creativity as a crutch to help you become stronger in critical thinking skills and thinking differently in general. I think that stress become less prominent if you inject some level of creativity into each situation. Creative thoughts sure take the routine out of the day,  allow your personality to shine, and gift others with alternative points of views. We were all meant to be indivuals and I can think of no better way to express uniqueness than to show your creative side. Give the gift of creativity to yourself or others today and find out if it will serve as a stress buster technique for you in the future.

What will you do to inc0rporate creativity into your life by thought and action? You may start by taking on a simple challenge as this: ask the question: “what if…”

Related articles

• 52+ Ways to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone (myscienceacademy.org)
• Beading Bracelets (clubcreativestudio.wordpress.com)

The Ayes Have It

Do you like bright colors? The ayes and EYES have it.  Like it or not color is exploding with popularity in eye shadow shades and elsewhere.  Do you have a “go-to” palette that you rely on? Have you noticed the new fashion trends in make-up, nail polish color and fashion in general?  Club Creative Studio has seen a recent change to neon and bright colors from common fashion looks in nail polish to eye shadows.  Although there are signs of more subtle shades, take a look at some of the common painted lids.  What do you think of them?

Ready or willing to add some bling to your eye area?

Consider the color wheel when picking out shades of eye shadows. Cool or warm colors can look very dramatic.

Glitter makes this look glam.

It’s a new trend to apply rub-on temporary tatto-like, shadows onto your eye-lid areas.

Of course, I have highlighted some extreme looks here but, it is an exciting color trend for 2013.  It’s a growing love for color upon eye lids. A commercial I recently saw describes their color line as Color Tattoos, meaning that the colors are bright and long-lasting. I think it takes a certain type person and style to pull off the heavier colored eye lids. It is not me but, I love the dramatic look. It may also be a matter of applying with confidence and practice that makes the look appealing. What do you think?  Willing to try out a new color trend for the sake of fashion? What is your stand-by color of choice when it comes to eye shadow tints?

I love when color becomes a main focus and becomes influential in our lives. The challenge for me, as a bead and jewelry designer is to use that information from a popular trend and experiment with similar color combos in my clay and glass art.  I want to reflect what the trends are but, I don’t live and breathe them. Sometimes the transfer appeal works and creations are noticed more quickly, simply because of the color in the item design.  Other times, color has no apparent barring on our creation popularity and it comes down to personal choice of customers.  A person is drawn to Club Creative Studio Art because of taste in style or design, appreciation for creativity and unique factors and the fun and functional staying power of a well made one-of-a-kind item.  Whatever the main reason is for a second glance of Club Creative Studio Art, I am happy to offer items that are pleasing to the eye! The ayes do have it!

To view one-of-a-kind colorful and artful items inspired by what is around us in life, please stop by the online storefront or contact us with your specific color palette needs. We create hand-made ART THAT SETS YOU APART!  http://www.clubcreativestudio.com  Contact us for custom art requests at: veronica@clubcreativestudio.com

Veronica’s Visions

Welcome to a new year of posts with the focus on CREATIVITY.

Club Creative Studio has made creative business goals each year. They have been expressed in a visual way and used as an every-day display for the entire year.  This is a low-cost creative activity. It is a tradition that is also a type of visual communication.  By creating a poster (vision board), my focus on goals is always right in front of me, in a colorful way. I am reminded of the importance of them each time I look at the poster. It’s great to visualize goals, a poster board creation can serve as a prompt to keep you on track or inspire you to reach higher to obtain them. Try to make one for yourself, if you are motivated by this post.

Club Creative Studio’s 2013 Vision Board

A vision board is a creative way that anyone can express their vision of the future in poster form and keep a focus on where you want your efforts to lead you.

Ten Suggestions For Planning Your Board

1. Decide when you want to have your poster complete.  Plan accordingly so that you have enough time to finish your project. This is no time to procrastinate because your purpose of the whole creative exercise is to commit to your wants and needs. Make this a priority so that you can have success right away in completing your poster and use it as inspiration as soon as possible.  A good time to aim for completion is at the start of a new year or land-mark event.  It may take some time to gather cut materials, and construct it so plan ahead if possible.

2. Use old magazine cut outs, photos, inspirational quotes, written journal thoughts, computer software or scrapbook materials or a decorated plain piece of paper to creatively organize and decorate your poster board or foam core base.  It can be made in any size or shape.  Keep in mind however, that the larger your base board, the longer it will take to cover and the more material you will need to do so.

3. Use a key focus word or short phrase (sort of like a title) to aid as a theme for your poster creation.  This will give your board an over-all theme and make it easy to recall your goals at a quick glance no matter how detailed your other information on the board is.

I used a few key words to develop my theme. The word RAISE… reminds me of my goals to: RAISE Expectations, RAISE the Bar, RAISE Standards, RAISE my hand, RAISE questions, RAISE Awareness, Raise Profits and RAISE Eye-Brows.

4. Take advantage of using color or mixed media in our board to add variety and uniqueness. If it is eye-catching and generally attractive, you will find yourself looking at it more often.  This is key to using it to your advantage and bringing your goals to the forefront of your mind.

5. Plan to review your resolutions, habits, motivations, and goals daily. Place it in plain view so that you see it everyday and often.

6. Allow for space to add to your lists on the front or the back of your board.  One year, I wrote many of my accomplishments on the back of one board, making that side just as important as the front! Maybe your “buzz word” can be best serve you if it is repeated several times in the same poster. Consider making up your own power word by combining two or more words together like my example of the words CAN and  FANTASTIC to combine into: “CANTASTIC”.

Club Creative Studio’s theme word for 2013 is: “CANTASTIC”!

7. Vow to make a new board each year and keep the old boards as reminders of past success if you have the space.

8. Encourage others to create with you and share your goals. It is fun to share supplies, gather and celebrate your journey plans.

9. Keep your friends accountable for your goals and ask for help and support from them when you need it.

10. Knowledge is Power. Use the spirit of creativity to invite others to make their own boards, and tell how they are part of your life and how they serve you. Promote your success.

Club Creative Studio has a repeat word theme and that is “WOW”.

Have we inspired you to take some time to make a visual board with your goals?  Have a great time creating and a great time reaching those milestones in the New Year 2013!

We welcome you to visit our website as we share creativity and you can see for yourself how the goals on my vision board have been incorporated into creative art!

http://www.clubcreativestudio.com

We also welcome you to follow this blog and check back often as we start a new year of sharing on the topic of CREATIVITY.

New Year’s Tradition

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We create our own decorative glasses and masks for the new year.

We wish all of our visitors to this site a great start to the NEW YEAR! May it be a creative year full of happiness and good health.  This will be a quick post to share a tradition that my daughter and I take part in each New Year’s Eve. We don’t purchase pre-made decorative eye glasses…we MAKE THEM!

Happy New Year!

This year we made the year numbers a bit larger and placed a stick handle on the back to display as a mask.  Each year we get out the markers and decorate away! We don’t spend too much time on it or add any mixed medium supplies, it is merely a quick way to bond and share the new year together in a few pics with our creations in hand.

Happy New Year! We hope you celebrated in style!  Are you inspired to start your own tradition by doing the same thing next year?  Try it!

Making A New Year Joy Jar

Club Creative Studio wishes you and yours a very Happy New Year.

The year 2013 can be a full year of inspiration and appreciation if you welcome it into your life. My daughter and I wish to share a project that you too can do to help you kick off the new year.  Are you ready to learn how we are getting our year off to the right start?  If you want to resolve to show more gratitude in your life and appreciate the positive and good things that happen to you, this project is for you.

This is a project that is meant to creatively hold the written positive thoughts and actions of an entire year.

We have cleverly and fondly named our project. We call these creations our “Joy Jars”.  Our decorated jars are going to be the hub spot for our daily written sediments of one aspect in the day that was a positive or uplifting aspect of that day.  So that we can remember the event, on a small slip of cut paper, we are planning to write down at least one highlight of the day that gave us joy.  For an entire year, we hope to continue to fill the jar and stuff in the numerous slips we accumulate.  On New Year’s Eve, 2013, we will begin to open up each tab collected and smile at all of the great things that happened to us through out the year in gratitude. Are you inspired to create your own Joy Jar in 2013?

We went on a hunt to a few of our local thrift stores in hopes to find low-cost and interesting glass jars with lids. We felt pretty lucky in finding jars that cost $2.00 and $3.00 each. I am sure that you may be able to find something even less in price, recycled, or even around your home that would also suffice for the same purpose.

We decorated our jars in different ways.  My daughter used many inspirational word stickers, and decorative tapes on her glass jar.  She placed them on and around her entire jar so that no matter which way the jar was displayed, it would show a decorative side.  She created a simple look but, it is still cute and colorful.

Glass jar decorated with stickers and decorative tapes.

Finished Joy Jar

Completed Joy Jar.

The jar that I embellished included hand-made polymer clay beads, hand-twisted wire, and pink and red seed beads.  I glued the large clay beads on the flat areas of my jar.  The jar already had scroll raised designs so adding twisted wire also added the feeling of movement and whimsy to the over-all look.

I added seed beads to wire on my decorative jar.

I used my hand-made clay beads and wire to embellish my jar.

This is the lid of my jar topped with a hand-made clay bead. It is an easy open lid with the added embellishment.

To get an idea of some of the simple joys that you too may want to add to your “Joy Jar” read a few of the comments shared from the Club Creative Studio Business Fan Page on Facebook.  I asked the fill-in-the-blank question: ____________ brings me joy.  These are wonderful examples of sediments that can be added proudly to a “Joy Jar”. Are you inspired to make your own jar?  Being specific in your highlighted statement will be the best prompt of recalling the gratitude you felt when reviewing it a year from now.

Family brings me joy– Kristy

Peace brings me joy- Anna

Inspiration brings me joy- Dawn

Champagne and the feeling after a workout gives me joy- Lauren

Making Earrings brings me joy- Rachael

When a child really understands something funny, the laughs they bring, that gives me joy- Michelle

Being surrounded by beautiful things brings me joy- Karen

Hearing a baby laugh brings me joy- Lynnette

My kids and husband bring me joy- Valerie

Another Finished Joy Jar

Enjoy creating your “Joy Jar” with your own mark of creativity.

Happy New Year as you take your creative spirit into 2013.  I welcome you to follow this blog for more creative prompts, projects and information. Also, be sure to check out the evolving creativity in Club Creative Studio Art on the website: http://www.clubcreativestudio.com

Related articles

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Blue Christmas- Inspired By Elvis

Club Creative Studio is sharing theme art in this Feature Friday post today that has been inspired by music on the radio.  It’s that time of year that the sounds of Christmas fill our airways.  Appreciating Christmas carols are part of our traditions, and one has inspired me to create a few statement pieces of hand-made jewelry art in the color blue.

Club Cretive Studio Art. Hand-made pendant.

The necklace above is made of various mixed metals, faux pearls, glass beads, shell buttons and dyed shell beads, a tea pot charm and a blue and black clay bead from polymer clay.

Lately the tune Blue Christmas sung my Elvis Presley has been heard quite often. So, I decided to create from the title of the song.  I don’t seem to createhand-made items in the color blue very often. I don’t know why. I have nothing against blue. I like blue. So, to concentrate on one specific color, and create item after item in the blue theme, was a welcome challenge and change of pace. How does the color blue make you feel? Does it make you feel down or lift your spirits with a calm feeling?

Image from blog: Daily Days of MKH

Using music as inspiration is easy because you can listen to words over and over and take to heart what is being conveyed to you. Any given day may render a new meaning while listening to the same words of a tune so use that as inspiration as well.

The song Blue Christmas inspired art in this theme color.

Theme jewelry-making can be a challenge to create because you may feel like you are limited in creativity however, it can also be a welcome task because you are placed in a position that you need to stick to in terms of a certain style, mood, or color.

Hand-made jewelry art with a focus on the color blue.

To view more creative creations please visit and revisit the website

http//www.clubcreativestudio.com

Custom requests welcome

veronica@clubcreativestudio.com

Suggestions For Your Socks

Club Creative Studio has a question for you: What is on your sock?  I am referring to your Christmas stocking that are traditionally hung by many from a fireplace mantel.  If you are one that does this year after year, I want to hear about how those socks are decorated. I also share ideas today as suggestions for your socks. What can you use and what have you used  to embellish them and make them your own decorative items for display?

Do you have stockings that are hand-made, heirloom pieces of fabric or store-bought?  Today in the Two Cent Tuesday post, I want to offer ideas that you can do inexpensively that will make those manufactured  dollar store-type Christmas stockings more personal and festive.

Christmas stocking ready to be decorated.

It may be as simple as having a glue gun and a bit of creativity.  You can use items that are “found items” around your home or purchase something specific to add to your stockings. To add personality and a personal identity to them, it is just a matter of being open to the creativity that you have within, and find a way to apply your ideas.

Let’s start with the most inexpensive ideas:

Hot glue items or use self adhesives to add buttons, rick-rack fabric, lace, ribbon, pom-pom, yarn, tassels, bows, cinnamon sticks, border trim, feathers, beads, charms, glitter, sequins, cotton balls or  faux fur.

Using unusual found items that convey personal interests may be interesting to attach with hot glue as well. Consider items such as crayons, pencils, photographs, theme scrapbook cut outs or stickers, silk flowers, cardboard initials,  bay leaves and whole cloves, small plastic toys, even coins.

To identify with name recognition, you can use fabric paint, fabric markers, small photos, initial charms, name tape, or decorative name tag.

Stepping it up a notch with these suggestions:

Moving on from glue to sewing techniques puts a different spin on the finished look.  Add higher quality textiles or fabrics. Adding a personal embroidery emblem, iron-on patch, rhinestone trim, actual photo frame and photo, quilted fabric sections,  personal theme ornament, or hand-made element in carved wood elevates the completed item.  The idea with stepping up the decorative element is the larger cost invested or better quality elements added, not necessarily the amount of decorative additions.

I have not included photos of improvements given to these stockings because, this is a project that my daughter and I will do together this year.  These are new stockings and they were bought because they are uniform in size, color and sweater-type texture for a more uniform theme this year.  Adding the personality will have a different feel this year, a more sophisticated theme.

So, let me know how you have personalized or made your holiday socks more special to display by adding decorative elements.  Did your creativity take hold in your project?

Beautiful Bullets

Welcome to the Feature Friday post from Club Creative Studio.

Club Creative Studio Jewelry Art.

This post highlights an interesting recent creation.  It may have started out as “trash” but, I am happy that I can refer to it as “treasure” now.  I spent time visiting an interesting person and in the mist of one of our conversations she quickly swept away the empty gun shells from a desk top to throw away. Her son, a police officer had the discarded shells from his training. Who knew that being tidy in front of me would make her change gears and not toss the trash.

I asked her if I could have the empty shells because I had an idea to drill a hole through it and somehow make an interesting pendant.  She agreed to share them with a smile and a bit of confusion. It was hard for her to imagine that I could really use them for something artful.  I had ideas in my mind, and I could not wait to show her the results.

Needless to say, I found a way to be creative with the empty shells.

Mixed with a combination of beads, metal wire, crystals, sequins and charms, these bullet shell casings are made to be one-of-a-kind, unique pendants hanging from a simple chain.

Club Creative Studio bullet pendants are one-of-a-kind creations.

These creations will be available online after a brief introduction at a four-day holiday craft fair the first week of November, 2012 in Rockledge, PA.

Club Creative Studio Bullet shell jewelry art.

Please bookmark us and visit us online for the latest creative creations. Our creativity is Art That Sets You Apart! http://www.clubcreativestudio.com