Getting close to 555

I look forward to having you join the page  FANTASTIC FAN!

Welcome to the Club Creative Studio Blog. This space is a place where the focus is on creativity.

Several times a week, I share creative prompts, project ideas, inspiration, and featured art on this blog.

Daily, I share similar information on the Club Creative Studio Facebook page.

If you have not visited lately or you would love to follow the creative trail as a FANTASTIC FAN,

please click the “like” button you will find on the page:  http://www.facebook.com/clubcreativestudio

I have a FANTASTIC surprise for the 555th FANTASTIC FAN FOLLOWER on FACEBOOK!

Will it be someone you know or did you help them find this page?

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• Creativity: Where Is It? (clubcreativestudio.wordpress.com)

 

Creativity: Where Is It?

Thomas Merton quote.

Club Creative Studio has a few questions for you to ponder today.  Concerning CREATIVITY…do you know where it can take you?  Hopefully you do not have to look long or hard to find it. Creativity can be found within yourself or within others.  So knowing that; where is it? Do you know where to look or who to look at? Do you know what it can do for you? Where it will lead you?

Discovering creativity levels within yourself or others is a growing and learning process.  As the quote from Thomas Merton suggests, art  (or creativity in general) enables or allows us to find ourselves. We can discover what is deep within us or at the top of the surface.  Merton also goes on to say in the quote that we can also lose ourselves at the same time, meaning that we can set ourselves free and experience creativity at its fullest, not paying much mind of other things going on around us. Creativity never grows old or goes out of style. Creativity may grow stale but we can always revive it and relive it and improve.

One place to start looking is quite obvious. Merely look ALL AROUND! Yes! Creativity is all around us, I have always said this many times. Open your eyes to discover the unique qualities of life around you. How can you get lost in creativity and where will it lead you?

While I was a classroom art teacher, everyday I would strive to stress in my students the importance of seeing creativity around us. Expressing it and experiencing creative venues gave our students the chance to see where creativity could take them.  Maybe they were introduced to a new concept. Maybe they found a new talent or practiced a new skill. Perhaps during our lessons, they grew appreciative of other’s creative efforts or served as inspiration to another as they expressed their own creative thoughts.  Taking extra steps to recognize where creativity is affords us the opportunity to search it out when we need it.

Where will creativity take you? The creative journey can be as long and as exciting as you make it out to be. It can be shared and appreciated.  A creative journey does in fact allow you to find yourself, express yourself and understand yourself. Creativity also lends the opportunity to get lost in the process, lose track of time and lose our inhibitions and fears about art or any other creative thought process or expression. Dance, prose, visual arts, theatrical arts etc., they all are expressions of creativity that take us to places we have never seen before. Relish in the creative process. Look around to gain it and foster it to grow it.

The aspect I love the most about being an artist is the fact that what I create can be shared and appreciated. While creating, as I continuously find myself and lose myself in art, I also get the thrill of giving and sharing art.  To view results of  my creativity, please take time to view creations on the website. The inventory is updated and evolving often.  The creative spirit is there to inspire, appreciate and best of all, purchase! Enjoy! http://www.clubcreativestudio.com

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I Am All Ears!

I am “all ears” to listen to your comments from the Club Creative Studio post today!

How did I miss those ears?

Club Creative Studio has a continued focus on creativity.  Today’s post explains a few creative happenings from the past and present.

A week ago, while viewing Asian stone sculpture ruins at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I took a photo of this beautiful stone head. I guess it’s over-all beauty, and facial expression struck me at first in appeal. But, later as I got home, I noticed the obvious aspect of this statue;  the figure’s EARS.  The new revelation may have been in the forefront of my mind as I made many pairs of earrings that particular evening, and had ears on my mind.  Never-the-less, the ears certainly are a focal point of this stone sculpture, agree?

Looking at these ears in my photo gave me the prompt to write on my Facebook business page that I would have loved to sneak a pair of my hand-made earrings on this statue on display at the museum. What an improvement that would make! It also brought to mind the notion that I have not written about how I first got my own pierced ears. I would love to share this story with you.

From what I have been told, I got my ears pierced at the young age of three days! My mother pierced my ears in the same manner that many she knew of that time did in their families. She used ice cubes, a sterile sewing needle, a cut raw potato, red embroidery thread and cotton balls with rubbing alcohol. Without going into gory details, I among many others who went through this same process made it through without infection or turmoil after a few weeks of continual care and applications of rubbing alcohol with cotton balls.  A few weeks later, I was sporting my first pair of gold earring studs.  No, I do not remember any pain what so ever associated from that event. And yes, I still have my pierced ears.

If I had any baby photos in my possession, this is where I would certainly share those. Because I don’t have any on hand, please believe me when I say that I looked adorable with my bling on at such an early age! The craze to add second piercings in ears was high and popular around the time I hit middle school. I was in the eighth grade when I got my double piercing in each ear.  This time and at that age, I went to the mall and got the “piercing gun” shot into my ear lobe. This sounds so painful and crazy to write and say that out loud right now. I wore my second earrings in my ears at whimsy and even to this day, I wear two pair at once at random times when the mood strikes me.  I never got into more piercings or high piercings along my ear or in the cartilage however.

Step ahead with me into my future from that point in time. Having my own daughter in front of me gave me the thoughts that tradition was to rule and she would also have pierced ears at a young age. No, I did not allow my mother or anyone else to pierce her ears with the needle and thread technique at the age of three days but, she did get them pierced eventually. From the ideals of tradition, I wanted my daughter to have pierced ears. The ideas at that time were commonly voiced in opinion that a mother should not make the decision for her child concerning pierced ears. A popular belief and argument expressed was (is) that the child should decide that at a later date for themselves.  Also, I remember hearing “If God wanted you to put holes in your body, he would have placed them there). Many views, many beliefs, many separate decisions to consider when giving permission to alter your child’s appearance.

My husband and I discussed this and we came to a few conclusions. Yes, she could get her ears pierced but, if he was not around to actually see it happen, he would be fine with it.  Well, with permission granted, I thought about when this would happen.  As our children went through their series of childhood vaccinations, it did come to mind that the short crying spurs from those inoculations would also be about the same in duration from the piercing gun method on an ear.

My husband, being in the military, had a short deployment for three months and our daughter was five months old. That was when I took her to the mall with a friend and she got her ears pierced with the piercing gun. She did well and had no problems with them. When my husband returned home from Haiti, the deed was already done. Our daughter had bling on her ears. And we were all fine with it.

For many years when she was older we made our own earrings together. Making earrings for gifts were our shared creative outlets. And we were expressive in wearing earrings everyday.  Today, at nineteen, my daughter still has her ears pierced and enjoys keeping earrings in, and will make them on occasion as well using my supplies in the studio. Over the years we have discussed earrings and on the subject of getting more piercings in her ears she says that she is glad that I got her first pierce but, she is not interested in getting any other holes in her ears.  Time will tell one day if she has her own daughter and what path she will take on this subject. I guess I will wait for that time to come to continue this post.

To view the hand-made earring category collection online from Club Creative Studio, visit the page link below and click on the scroll down tab entitled: Earrings. I create with a variety of beads. All available online earring items are created for pierced ears however, I often make “clip” earrings from special requests. It takes is a small adjustment from me to transform an existing pair into non-pierced earrings or I can create with a custom request in mind. Enjoy!

http://www.clubcreativestudio.com

Dangle earrings are appreciated.

Peculiar People

Believe it or not it is National Peculiar People Day. You know someone who fits into that category right? Strange, odd, and different people certainly make our world an interesting place I am happy that we have a day that recognises uniqueness.  In order to avoid name-calling and labeling, this TNT (This-N-That) blog post will highlight the peculiar Art that is created by interesting people.

I decided to feature the celebration and recognition of quirkiness in this blog today by sharing the visual posts that I have pinned via Pinterest.  You will find this link below. I have a virtual bulletin board where I attach images with links to websites depicting the theme: Odd Creativity. This is also the title of my board.  Perhaps by viewing my board(s)  I may inspire you to appreciate the unique qualities of art as well as the people behind the art who are the artists.

Look for my photo to make sure you are on the Club Creative Studio Pinterest board.

Below you will find the link to Club Creative Studio’s inspiring boards on Pinterest.  You will find that the account called: Club Creative Art has several interesting boards. Please consider signing in or signing up and begin to follow any or all of the boards by clicking on the “follow” tab(s) you can then continue your Pinterest inspirations sparked by posts of Club Creative Studio. Have a great time pinning. Just be sure to set your timer so you can monitor your time on the computer.  It is an addicting activity!

Let me know if a board or a specific image gained your attention or appealed to you? Happy National Peculiar People Day, especially if you think you are one of them!

http://www.pinterest.com/clubcreativeart

Creativity and Cardboard

What a great quote to start off this blog from Club Creative Studio.  I welcome you to take a few minutes to watch this video and be inspired from a nine year old boy’s creativity.

If you have ever wanted inspiration to create and use low-cost materials then take a look at what this YouTube sensation video has to offer. You’ll witness simplicity of dreams from the eyes of a child, using his creativity and cardboard. It’s CREATIVITY at its best. Bringing tears to my eyes having heard about this a while ago and then again as I post today on the Club Creative Studio blog: I share this highlight, as I continue to watch the wheels turn and confidence grow in creative thoughts of a young boy, Caine. Be inspired! Be CREATIVE!

Enjoy.

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

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• The Happiness Jar (vandclover.wordpress.com)

I’m Making Room for Improvements

Club Creative Studio is in the process of making a few changes that will surely translate into many favorable results.  Pardon this interruption from the typical blog post and continued series posts about creativity. I am posting a special feature post to announce my excitement.  And yes, it does have to also do with CREATIVITY.

In the past it has sometimes been hard to convey the details and beauty of our creations from a mere photograph.  Often times I would hear at a craft fair that Club Creative Studio jewelry is so cool up close and personal compared to seeing it in photos.  While it is true that there is nothing like actually seeing something with your own eyes and holding a creation in your own hands, I should always strive to show you what makes our art so unique.

New lighting system for taking photos of Club Creative Studio Art.

I have taken many notes over time in hopes to learn more and present art in better ways to you. It is clear that I want you to be able to see in detail what makes our creations so wonderful and pleasing to own.  With that being said, I have invested in a new lighting system that so far has excited me very much.  If you will notice, I am taking great care in presenting art with better photography.  This is exciting because you can’t always be at an Art Fair that I am at, and you want to see art just like those walking in front of my booth space.

BEFORE LIGHTING PHOTOGRAPH:

While this photograph was “o.k.” I think the AFTER PHOTO is much better!

AFTER LIGHTING PHOTOGRAPH:

I am thrilled to be able to capture the sparkle and depth of this necklace.

Please share your thoughts on the improvements.

It is my hope to bring you information that will better serve you and represent our creations in a true light to show-case their magnificent qualities the best way possible.

The online store will progressively display better photographs. If you would like to request that a particular item be re-photographed, all you have to do is contact me via e-mail with the product name and item number. Thank you for wearing and sharing Club Creative Studio Art!

http://www.clubcreativestudio.com

veronica@clubcreativestudio.com