Day 12: Camouflage. Create or alter something so that is disappears into its background.

Rachel: This turned out a lot better than I thought it would. I had originally intended to glue some sand onto a seashell and photograph it laying on the sand at the beach. However, I didn't make it to the beach because I decided that I should do something more interesting. Searching for things I could paint on, I decided wood would be the best option, so hence the wooden IKEA pencil. I attached it to the magazine page using some gluestick and proceeded to paint with poster paints. Now it's hanging on my refrigerator.

Hannah: This was a fun project! I painted a carved African giraffe in front of my brick fireplace. I took the photo and then quickly washed it off. I wanted to paint one of my kids, but they kept moving around.

Day 11: Work in a medium you're comfortable with using your nondominant hand.

Hannah: I chose to work with water colors. I created a rather angry looking version of some sort of Little Red Riding Hood. This was hard for me, my right hand wanted to get involved and was moving the entire time. I am sure I was quite a sight.

Rachel: (laughing as I imagine Hannah's right hand making involuntary movements)
I did not know that my left hand had it in it. That's a weird sentence. This project got done at midnight. I loved this one, as it was a great challenge to my capabilities. I was rather happy about what I was able to do using ONLY my left hand, a pencil, eraser, and some poster paints. It was getting hard to focus in the wee hours of the night, but I persevered.

Day 10: Use only water as your medium/inspiration today.

Rachel: Thinking of what to do for this "assignment" stressed me out. I had no idea what to do. I decided to use a paintbrush to create some kind of water formation, and then searched around the house for something to put it on. Came up with a non-stick baking pan. The process of sticking water on it and pushing it around was really therapeutic.

Hannah: I may have cheated a little, I colored the water. Today is so gray and dismal I had to have color! I put the colors of the rainbow into different containers and set them in a window. It cheered me up, springtime in Montana can be pretty depressing.

Day 9: Make something with your breakfast before you eat it.

Hannah: #1 Mornings are really hectic around here. #2 I don't usually eat breakfast, I know it's the best meal of the day. So...I made my kids toaster waffles and berries. I didn't really make something with it, just placed breakfast items with more intent. Wish this day had hit on the weekend.

Rachel: I usually just have tea and cookies, but I decided to eat more healthy stuff today so I could make something... Made some breakfast mice.

Day 8: Transform an old book (or magazine) into something new by cutting, folding, gluing, and so on.

Hannah: I recycled an old cookbook. I made a secret compartment book. It took forever using an exacto knife, I am sure there is an easier way to do this. Then I painted it and used clippings from a magazine. Good thing I had extra time to work on the project today.

Rachel: Well, I did not have any extra time today. I'm not willing to cut up any of my books. But magazines are fun. I found things in a feng shui magazine and made a little 3D "house". The photo doesn't do it justice, so it looks a few degrees worse than it really is.

Day 7: Make a stencil and use it in your work.

Hannah: This was really fun! I made a butterfly stencil. Then I painted the snow outside of my front door using colored hairspray. That seemed greener than using regular spray paint. This inspired me to start doing snow graffiti all over town. Not quite a Banksy creation, I'll get better.

Rachel: So stencils are harder to make than I thought! First I had to find a sharp enough knife to cut this with... and then carefully plan the "no-cut" areas so the middle would not fall out. The "painting" is absolutely atrocious, especially since my green stems are so tacky, and I totally overdid it on the paint in the stencil, so it got smeared. Overall, I'm glad I did this though. I'll use the stencils again I'm sure.

Day 6: Look in the kitchen and work with the first fruit or vegetable you spot.

Rachel: Fortunately I had a lot of fruit around the house this week. My 3-yr-old loved this fruit platter and ate the whole thing. I was going to try and make something out of orange peel but it kept breaking and I was too tired to fuss with it.

Hannah: A spray painted a PINK ORANGE. I just like to say PINK ORANGE, and it looks pretty cool. My kids got inspired and painted the rest of the fruit bowl, oh well.

Day 5: What do you collect? Work with a collection of objects you have in your home.

Hannah: This is a photo of my heart-shaped rock collection. My son Corbin has found them for me. I painted one blue, that is creative right?
Rachel: What a lovely collection! The blue one is cute.

Rachel: Another struggle for me. I don't collect ANYTHING. Except maybe dust. Something about the way my life has gone... I have an aversion to collected stuff. So after stressing about this project all day, I decided that photos had to count as a collection, and I did a "creative" photoshop project and made some stationery with pics of my baby girl on it. The idea came from a piece of "stationery" I found when looking through a pile of old letters and cards (in search of a "collection"). my little sister had sent me this piece of paper at least 12 years ago where my dad had photocopied a picture of sister, and let her use the paper to make a drawing for me. So, soon, I'll print my stationery and write a letter to someone in my family!

Day 4: Take a 5 minute walk, then make something using whatever materials are available where you've ended up. Leave it there for someone else to discover

Rachel: After FINALLY finishing a big work project and turning it in, I was feeling glum from exhaustion, and I had to urgently "run errands" to the supermarket and such. So, I set out on a windy but sunny day, with my 3-yr-old, to try and combine our 5-minute-walk-art-project with the supermarket errand. I had slim hopes about finding any material on the city street, but it's amazing what you can find when you observe your surroundings!!! The curved shape of these "thingys that had fallen off the tree months before and were left on the steps of a closed-down shop" just lent themselves perfectly to the face of a little girl with pigtails. It turned out to be 5 minutes of fun. (Will post a better photo when I figure out how to get it off my cell phone)

Hannah: So...I didn't take a 5 minute walk. But I did walk from car to grocery market. My kiddos and I quickly make a snowball heart at the entrance. I had planned on building a great snow, rock and twig sculpture. Feeling a little discouraged and wondering if this daily art project is feasible. Hoping I didn't commit to something too, oh too everything.

Day 3: Make something out of paper, and don't use scissors or glue or draw on it. What now?

Hannah: Super tired after work and not feeling creative. I did manage to tear and twist some sort of a bloom while watching Jeopardy. Pop it into a little depression glass salt shaker and it doesn't look too bad. Not my finest work, oh well.

Rachel: I investigated the world of origami for my inspiration. I had to rip the paper so it would be square to start off with instead of rectangular (not allowed to use scissors). I'm glad I've finally looked into what origami is all about. Something I've meant to do for YEARS. My little girl and I liked the paper "purse" so much, we decided to make one for her dolly (we used scissors though).

Day 2: What's your favorite animal? Use it as your inspiration today

Rachel: I'm really miserable with bronchitis, AND I don't have a favourite animal (I don't hate them, I just don't have a favourite). So, I spent the day thinking about the animals of the world and try to choose one based on what purpose it serves in our environment - looking for a USEFUL animal. In any case, rainy cloudy weather inspired a painting of a spring daffodil and its ladybug friend. Yes, ladybugs are technically classified as animals. I looked it up on Wikipedia. I made this using watercolour pencils.

Hannah: My favorite animal is the magestic TIGER! It is also my Chinese Zodiac animal. I decided to do a drawing on my son Patchen's back. According to the chinesezodiac.com, those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the tiger are authoritative, self-possessed, have strong leadership qualities, are charming, ambitious, courageous, warm-hearted, highly seductive, moody, intense, and they're ready to pounce at any time...Sounds good to me!

Day 1: Make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only the materials in your immediate environment

Hannah:  I made a tiny bowl full of fruit.  It's sculpted from air clay and painted with water colors.  Day one is easy enough.  It feels great to do something creative even though it did take priority over cooking dinner.

Rachel: I'm already behind. What I intended to make was a "scream" and arms entwined somehow... to represent my frustrating day. What I ended up making doesn't look at all like what I thought I'd make, but I was too tired to do anything else.