This Week's Creative Prompt (March 14, 2011)

"The last man on earth."

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

This Week's Creative Prompt (March 7, 2011)

"Self Portrait"

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

Trinket #59 - Early Spring Necklace

"If I had one wish..." is the theme of the day. The only wish I could think of was that the fierce wind today would take it easy on the trees. They are trying so hard to unfurl for springtime, but the crazy transitional-season weather here in Virginia means that we could have one week of spring, one week of winter - repeated for two months at a stretch.

Today's 40 mph "breeze" finally settled down after a huge rainstorm blew through. I hope the trees in the city are happy and that they all managed to stay standing with the gusts that exceeded those sustained wind speeds! Thankfully, our giant old sycamores are tough and fared well. I'm even MORE thankful this evening that the neighbors' sickly, hollow maples did not fall on my garage! Hey, I appreciate the little things.

This necklace is made with silver chain, glass beads, a silver leaf, and some headpins. To me, it's symbolic of the buds and tiny leaves just beginning to appear on bare branches. It was another quick trinket, and I've been toying with the idea of speeding up the photography process, too, by shooting everything on a simple white background. I don't know, it's a little boring compared to what I'm used to. What are your opinions out there in blogland? Plain white or staged backgrounds?

This Week's Creative Prompt (February 28, 2011)

"If I had one wish..."

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

Trinket #52 - Harmony Earrings

It's another Motif Monday, and this week's theme is "create a life that really matters." That's pretty deep as far as artistic prompts are concerned. Still, it got me thinking, which is exactly what was intended, and helped me not only find inspiration for today's trinket, but inspiration for achieving some of those goals I was talking about yesterday.

For me, a life that really matters is one that is harmonious with all things around it - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. What does that mean? It means that I will strive to take myself out of environments of discord. The word "discord" itself even refers to a musical lack of harmony, though it is more commonly used as a synonym of conflict, struggle, controversy, antagonism, argument, quarreling, and contention. None of those are things I enjoy spending time around. I'm sure the same goes for you.

The trinket that came about as a result of these thoughts is one that combines several different elements that work together in harmony. The hematite spheres hang from silver chains, and the pair is then encircled by silver wire.

This Week's Creative Prompt (February 14, 2011)

"Down the rabbit hole"

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

This Week's Creative Prompt (February 7, 2011)

"God save the Queen!"

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

This Week's Creative Prompt (January 31, 2011)

"If I could save time in a bottle..."

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

Trinket #24 - Arsenic and Old Lace

I'll admit it - I had to scour the house to put together a trinket inspired by today's Motif Monday theme. I'm pretty pleased with what I found, though! While we're on the topic of confessions, I should also note that I have a soft spot for anything eerie or macabre, so this piece was extra-fun to make.

What did I find on my scavenger hunt? First was this creamy vanilla satin ribbon, formerly attached to a gift set of bath products I scored at Christmas. I found a couple of complementary beads in the bottom of the jewelry junk box and set them aside. Next, I spotted the cameo and knew exactly where this trinket was headed!

I bought a pair of these acrylic cameos (they were only sold in pairs) at Etsy back in September. I was putting together a high-stress ensemble for a black tie event at which I was expected to take the stage and make a speech - the Library of Virginia Literary Awards. Being the youngest award recipient was stressful enough, but being the only one covered in spooky tattoos in a room full of old-fashioned Virginians was the real weight to bear. I eventually decided that if I was going to be a sideshow attraction, I might as well go big. I donned a black satin dress, let all the tattoos show (except for when I was freezing and wrapped in a shawl), and topped it off with some elegant but decidedly offbeat and creepy jewelry.

Needless to say, the attendees all remember my name.

Okay, back to the present... I used one of the cameos as the centerpiece of a silver cuff bracelet I wore that evening, while the other sat lonely and abandoned on my dresser - until today. Now it has a place of honor on an antiqued copper mount (more FIMO!) and has a tiny carved bone skull as a companion. The whole shebang is held together with wrapped and bent copper wire and is topped off by a big, faceted jet bead.

This Week's Creative Prompt (January 24, 2011)

"Arsenic and old lace."

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

This Week's Creative Prompt (January 17, 2011)

"Cookies and milk."

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

Trinket #10 - Look to the Future

Today's trinket was a challenge, not because of technique, but because of limited time and patience. I've been put to the test after only ten days of this "Make Something Everyday" project - by getting sick. (Dun, dun, dunnnn!) But, like I mentioned in my post about lightening up when it comes to creativity, I didn't worry about it being a great piece, I was only concerned with it being done.

And get it done I did. Hey, I even managed to stick with today's theme of "Look to the future." This bracelet is made from more of those awesome paper beads I rolled on Friday (these are a dreamy sort of light turquoise), silver wire, silver seed beads, and some really cool glass spheres that reminded me an awful lot of crystal balls. I don't know about you, but my future is looking crafty!

This Week's Creative Prompt (January 10, 2011)

"Look to the future."

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

Trinket #3 - Blowing in the Wind

Today is the first of many Motif Monday projects! In case you were wondering, the choice of theme came from the first song title that jumped out at me when I opened my media library this morning.

After thinking about it for an hour or so while getting the daughter off to school and the husband off to work, a single image was stuck in my mind - a tornado. I know that's not exactly the omniscient breeze to which Bob Dylan was referring, but it's the only visual I could get. Today's trinkets (yes, another pair of earrings) are made from silver and copper wire funnel clouds and are accented by tiny, faceted glass beads that look a bit like raindrops. Maybe I should hang on to these to wear in stormy weather?

No significant meaning for these creations today, just a quick and easy project knocked out between Mom and Wife duties. I am, however, really drawn to that sunlight shining in the dining room windows this morning!

This Week's Creative Prompt (January 3, 2011)

"Blowing in the wind."

Remember, to participate in Motif Monday, simply use the above theme as your inspiration or your starting point for today's creative project. When you're finished making something awesome, post a comment below and include a link to your creation. Have fun and good luck!

Catch the Creative Spark!

I've enjoyed taking part in catchy little creative challenges for a long time. Whenever I feel I need a push or just can't come up with any new idea, I look to things like story starters or themed projects like Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesdays to get me going. I don't always follow the rules (you should have guessed that already) but the results are still the same - I get something done.

Because I have such a fondness for these gimmicky prompts, I've decided to start my own series as part of this Trinket a Day journey and share them here with anyone hoping to add a spark to their "Make Something 365" endeavor (or ANY creative activity!)

What's a gimmicky prompt without a gimmicky name? BLAH, that's what. So, I hereby launch Motif Mondays! Every Monday morning, bright and honkin early, I will pull a random theme out of my bag of tricks and post it here for all to see. To participate, all you have to do is use the theme as your inspiration for your creative project that day. Interpret it any way you wish, as long as you use it as your starting point. When you're done for the day and have shared your creation with the world, drop a link in a comment for that Monday's motif post. Ta-da!

This Monday, jump on board and get ready to make something with me. Heck, tell your friends and we'll have a little party every week! Just drop by and look for this header: