SPARKING CREATIVITY

By: Tina Lawver

Are you a magazine, home décor, crafting, art addict?  I totally am!  Unapologetically, I might add.

Often, I can be found leafing through pages in magazines, exploring the internet, and strolling quaint little shoppes admiring displays in search of treasure and inspiration.

It’s absolutely one of my favorite activities, hobbies, and lollygags.

I was going through my “Spark File”.     By the way, do you have one of those?  …A collection of images, tear pages, and ideas that really get you going creatively?  Where, when you sit down in your cozy chair with a yummy cup of your favorite coffee and go through them, it sparks ideas and expands your vision?

Come on!  Leaf through mine with me.  I’ve got my coffee.  Do you have yours?
 
Hmmm, how about a Fall or” Halloweenie” tree?  A black and white theme with a pumpkin spice background.
 
 
How can I translate this idea into a display that fits that space I’ve been trying to fill?   Break it down.  What do I really need to achieve a similar look and feel?  It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated.

*Don’t want to paint a wall that color just for a season? Drape it with fabric or create a screen out of an old door and add the color to that.  It’s just a background to make the rest of it pop after all.

*Find a container like and old urn or go to the hardware store or the dollar store and pick up one of those lightweight containers and paint it black and make it look old by sanding over the finished paint or by dry brushing over it.

*Sink a prim Christmas tree  that you’ve lightly sprayed in a flat black into that container or use a gnarly branch from your own back yard, strip all the leaves off and you’ve got a nice base for this project.  Decorate it with silhouette shapes printed or stamped on white or off white card stock and hang from the tree along with mini gourds and whatever else might work.  I love it.

Oh! I love this one!

I saw this picture of a gourd and just thought how wonderful that would look filled with those flowers and then repeated on a porch railing.

I can’t resist this idea which I’ve done before going crazy with a fine point sharpie on white pumpkins.

Curly designs, flourishes, family names, little messages. Great idea.

How about a phrase or sentiment of your own that could be stenciled on the toe kicks of your porch steps.  If you want to be able to change them with your mood or the seasons, simply cut thin board and stencil on them and attach and detach as you wish.

Go with neutral elegance using birdcages, crows, twigs and arrangements of gourds, moss and mini pumpkins at the base.  I love this look.

Thanks for flipping through my fall “SPARK” file with me.

You can start one of your own today with an inexpensive expandable file, scrapbook, or an old shoebox.  Just begin collecting those ideas and images that spark something in you.

Blessings,
Tina

(images from bhg.com and various magazines)
www.TinaLawverDesigns.blogspot.com
www.theartfullife-tina.blogspot.com