Day 42: Turn today's junk mail into something much more appealing

Rachel: Honestly we don't really get much junk mail... none today. So I've used a free magazine that a local shop hands out. As usual, my project has absorbed over 3 hours of my day. It doesn't look like much, but I had difficulties like bad lighting because I am working at night AGAIN. I have to figure out how to do these projects during the day!

Hannah: Went and had a beer with friends and created (with a little help ) a junk mail street. The bartender asked us to leave it. Cheers!

Day 41: Create a large version of something that would normally be much smaller.

Hannah: Another late, last-minute bit of creativity. Patchen models a large painted eye. Good thing it's the weekend.

Rachel: Ahhhh... this could have been such a fun one, if only I had time and space and less clutter! I'm posting my less-than-half-done large tabasco bottle. I'm not sure I'll ever finish it. But I may revisit this idea of enlarging something one day when I can get the paints out uninhibited (i.e. when the 3-yr-old isn't trying to paint the whole house) and stop coughing long enough to hold a brush.

Day 40: What can you do with yarn?

Hannah: My fifth grader's band/orchestra performance took priority to creativity tonight. Out of all the amazing possibilities of working with yarn, alas a yarn drawing. Boohoo! I will revisit working with yarn before this year is up. Yarn profile sniffing a bloom.

Rachel: Riiiight. So, I knew that all I'd have time for would be a yarn drawing. So I asked my 3-yr-old "What should we draw?" Answer: "A picture of mommy and daddy and mimmy at the beach, with the water." So, I thought, how hard can that possibly be? And doesn't every child deserve a nice tacky family portrait in their bedroom? Little did I know, that with the "help" of my 3-yr-old and my ever-so-bad portrait skills... we worked on this FOREVER. She is impressed. I am not. Not to mention that we had to borrow yarn from grandma who only had two boring colors :(

Day 39: Write a haiku about something that happens to you today or is in the news today. Illustrate it!

Hannah: In the news today: Obama releases his birth certificate. Not the most amazing Haiku...but enough already, let's talk about real issues.

Rachel: Hai -who??? kidding. I know, this is a poem. But Wikipedia shed a lot of light on all the details of Haiku poetry... and google translate told me that my Haiku means: "A mess in the kitchen. Doctors blame everything on dust." Or maybe it's: "Kitchen chaos. All physicians dust blame”. Anyway,this is my haiku about how I didn’t get my housework done today, but I did see a specialist who charged me 150 Euros and determined that the reason I never got over my bronchitis/rhinitis is because I’m allergic to dust. Hopefully our friend Reno will check to see if this makes any sense! Here is my haiku in Japanese--I think it has 17 'on' divided in 5/7/5:
キッチンの混乱
医師はすべての
粉塵を非難

Day 38: Make something in water

Rachel: A bean/spelt tree, which will end up being tomorrow's lunch.

Hannah: Pink-haired girl swimming. I drew on a plastic sheet with Sharpies and threw in a few rocks (and a geode). She looks cold with the gray colors behind...I think she needs blue sky and sunshine!

Day 37: Make something with a stapler. You can staple things together, or just work with the loose staples. Even the stapler itself

Rachel: A new style of sunglasses, with a staple frame. Process: I made a staple chain using needlenose pliers. Then the chain just sort of took on the form of some sunglasses, so I searched around for something to stick them onto. I found this great paper a child had decorated. Cut it out according to the form of the staple chain... a little clear nail polish, etc...

Hannah: May I recommend staple art! I great way to get rid of frustration, stress and agression. This is my staple self portrait.

Day 36: Take something old and make it look new

Hannah: I had an old table top, I removed the paint. I created with paint and newspaper a flower design reminiscent of flowers you can buy from a street vendor wrapped in newsprint.

Rachel: An old watch previously owned by my mother-in-law looks new now after being treated with nail polish. It no longer looks like a watch, more of a watch-bracelet, which is too uncomfortable for me to wear. But it looks new, I think.

Day 35: Create instructions that others can use to make something and then have someone try it out.

Hannah: Again not a whole lot of time for this project. Matias thanks for being such a sport! I am glad he decided against the nail polish. Gotta love the DC Skate symbol.

Rachel: Well. I honestly thought I would NEVER get this one done... I couldn't think of ANYTHING. I was trying to complicate it too much in my head I guess. After seeing what amazing work Hannah did, I realized it could be a lot simpler than I was making it. Then, I saw my mom on Skype and she had made some of these neat little Easter things, which became my inspiration for this project. A cousin here tried out my instructions, which I had to translate into Italian.

Day 34: Work with wire or paper clips

Hannah: A sun-catcher sort of thing. Long day...There is always tomorrow.

Rachel: Well, here is my wire butterfly. I had higher hopes for it. I have crystal beads that I want to add to it, but this is all I have so far due to lack of time and energy. I had this silver-coated wire on hand, and it's very nice quality, so I wanted to do something that I could keep and enjoy. Hopefully this will get modified in the days to come and turn into something more exciting. I'm posting 2 pictures because it's hard to get perspective with the photo.

Day 33: Use pens as your material/inspiration today. Draw with them, use them as construction material, or...?

Hannah: It was raining today! As you can see in the background it is snowing again. This is fabric pen on a white t-shirt. I'd like to do more t-shirts because they are functional and a fun gift, don't want to have a bunch of knickknacks gathering dust.

Rachel: Amen about the knickknacks. I decided to draw with an inkpen, and this is the result. I ended up not finishing all the tiny waves in the sea because it was putting me to sleep. I was actually sitting in the sun looking at the sea drawing this picture. Not my best work, but I'm just practicing... Drawing with pens is so different than pencils -- I appreciated this.

Day 32: Make something ephemeral. Can you create something using a material that dissipates quickly?

Hannah: I felt like a kid. I blew colored bubbles through a straw and created you guessed it...another flower!

Rachel: It's a transparent catepillar... and it dissipated really quickly!!!

Day 31: Make a path for other people to follow and invite people to try it out.

Hannah: Ugh! More snow! I made yet another flower...a tulip path in the snow. I invited Patchen to try it since he was the only other one awake.

Rachel: The dolls were invited. I meant to get down to the beach, where a path in the sand would have been a lovely contrast to Hannah's path in the snow! But it was a windy, busy day, so the path-making took place in the evening with some markers. This took a lot longer than one would think, to color this entire paper with markers, with the help of my 3 yr old who decided the "garden" needed a red semi-circle and some black objects. She also made some bugs in the garden.

Day 30: Play time. Work with toys, and maybe even work with kids!

Hannah: It is all G-ma's fault...so Legos it is! This is our very own Lego flower garden. Created by my lovely children and myself.

Rachel: Easy to work with kids when you have them! My daughter is fascinated by animal footprints (in part thanks to a lovely book Hannah gave her called Zoopa) so we took her little plastic animals and painted their feet and made a footprint picture.

Day 29: Make a disguise for yourself, a friend, a pet, or an object. See if you can fool anyone with it.

Hannah: I had been wanting to create a photo like this ever since I saw a website with like photos. My son Patchen is pulling off a fantastic Frank Sinatra. We listened to the record to get in the mood...not sure if I really followed the prompt, but it sure was fun!

Rachel: I've disguised myself as color-challenged version of MC Bat Commander, who is the alter ego of Christian Jacobs of the Aquabats. Their creativity is inspiring. I especially love Pool Party on Yo Gabba Gabba. Did I fool anyone? Nah. My daughter was not impressed either. She couldn't wait for me to clean the eyeliner off my face. My mask ripped on the centerfold, and I don't have a widow's peak. I am definitely not as cute as Hannah's Frank Sinatra!!! Other than that, it was kind of fun. Now it's time to cook dinner!

Day 28: Back to school. Use traditional school materials to make something nonraditional.

Rachel: I decided I wanted to work with white-out! That brought to mind an amazing bird I saw out of the corner of my eye as I was driving down the street the other day. I have no idea what kind of bird it was or what it really looks like, but I drew this from memory, using #2 pencil, eraser, notebook, and whiteout.

Hannah: That's right back to flowers and leaves! #2 Pencil and notebook paper Daffodils.

Day 27: Dreamland. Use a recent dream as inspiration for what you do today.

Hannah: I didn't limit myself to a recent dream. My piece is inspired by a dream that used to repeat when I was young...falling in a dome shaped room with red velvet carpet wearing my nightie, then I realize that I can fly. Paint on stone and cardboard.

Rachel: I haven't paid any attention to a dream for months... but knowing I needed a dream somehow inspired a dream, boring as it was. An old friend and I were investigating this place which had a staircase in an arched hallway, leading up to a room. At one point, we took turns climbing up the walls at the entrance of the staircase, and just "sitting" at the top with our backs against one wall, pressing our feet into the other wall -- kind of like one of those things teenagers do... trying to see if they can climb walls. At another point, we painted one half of the arched ceiling in one color, and the other half in another color. At another point, we were up in the room, in two twin beds, looking at books, writing, and planning our future.

Day 26: Make something portable (or that seems portable) that normally isn't .

Hannah: Just in case I ever move away from the mountains...I made my very own portable dashboard mountain range.

Rachel: A portable smile - for those times when I just don't have my own readily available.

Day 25: Work with nature. Go to your yard or nearby park and collect materials to work with.

Hannah: I cut a Aspen branch from my yard to make a kinetic piece of art...or a mobile! The leaves are images from nature connected to the branch with wire. I promise not to work with leaves tomorrow.

Rachel: So, nature is great, and on a better day I would have made something much more interesting. I usually have access to lovely things from the daycare garden, but I haven't personally been there in days because I've been so busy so everyone else is giving my child rides. This dorky little heart is just my way of saying I love nature, but today there was no time nor inspiration to make something that really does nature justice. In any case, these are lavender leaves, and some other leaves, which do not really stick with glue-stick.

Day 24: Work only with green-colored materials today. Try working on a green surface for a real challenge

Hannah: My background is a green silk scarf. It is embellished with green felt leaves and flowers embroidered on. Basically Montana has very little green outside right now and I am craving it for sure. I realized I keep using flowers or leaves, please springtime come a little faster!

Rachel: a picture frame made with 4 different kinds of green paper, glue-stick, some green grass from a magazine, and a green pen. I've stuck it on my green cupboard door (not shown here). Green definitely inspires flowers and leaves! It's the first thing that comes to mind.

Day 23: Waste not. Dig in a recycling bin for all of today's materials.

Rachel: a totally original toilet-paper-roll pen/brush holder with built-in compartments. Made from an old calendar, scotch tape, glue-stick, and 4 of the 500 toilet-paper rolls I've encountered as I embark on the 5th week of a major virus that has invaded my sinuses.

Hannah: Another day where I had a lot of grand ideas and not enough time. So here is a newspaper flower in a tin can/newspaper pot.

Day 22: Create a bridge. Connect two things in a creative way. It could be small enough for an amoeba or big enough for an elephant to cross.

Hannah: I built a bridge out of Balsa wood and painted it a cheerful aqua color. The bridge is connecting our stereo speakers. Crossing the bridge are influential rock musicians. There was some debate about who to include/exclude with the hubby, we compromised.

Rachel: This is my coffee-bean walnut shell bridge. There is no profound meaning...working with tiny beans and superglue turned out to be a challenge. I had to get the tweezers, and use a series of chopsticks taped to the counter to support it while it dried.
This 365 project is fun because I'm learning that little artistic things can be fit in anywhere anytime. However, it's also frustrating because most of the projects are things I'd like to spend a week on instead of just one day. So maybe next year I'll try doing a project a week and go back and revisit some of these 365 creativity ideas.

Day 21: Write a ten-word love story. Bonus: Illustrate it!

Hannah: It's not the easiest task to write a 10 word love story. This is a collage with paint.

Rachel: I found it extremely difficult to think of any kind of love story at all, much less one with only 10 words. However, as usual, this project planted a positive seed... my husband gave me some lovely words about love and the ocean, and I modified them a little to come up with this. Painting at midnight with bad lighting is definitely my least favorite thing about this project. This is quite possibly the worst painting I have ever done, but at least I have a love story now.