Someday I'd like to be an artist. Those aren't my words, they are ones from my niece, Desea. She wants to be an artist like me. Funny I didn't even know she knew I was an artist. 

When I was young I don't recall ever thinking or saying that I wanted to be an artist. I was crafty and somewhat creative but it was never something that I thought I could be. I thought about being a psychologist and my grandfather wanted me to be a secretary but artist, no. That was definitely not on the radar. So I think it's super that at this young age Desea has already decided she wants to learn certain things. Judging from her picture above she's got a good start. She's a cutie for sure.

Have any of you wanted to be an artist when you were young?

Here's Free-for-all-Friday on Saturday. I didn't finish last night because I dated the Boyfriend instead. Hey, I have priorities. What I did realize is that I have to start FFAF on Monday otherwise life and dates happen. So, on Monday or Tuesday I'll post info for FFAF, that way I can work on it during the week and not wait until Friday. Have to learn as we go but I think that sounds like a good plan.

This is a painting that was started Thursday night at a meeting in which I spoke about education. In my mind, education is part of a larger formula...

Education is wonderful but put it with the addition of Experience and Enlightenment then you really have something powerful. 

Some of the ladies and girls added words they associated with Education. Then I added the words that some of you gave me online Friday. (Dang it! I just saw I misspelled humility. I do that all the time.) There you have it, our collaborative Free-for-all-Friday art project. 

Next weeks project - I need to know what's in your purse. 

Free-for-all-Friday is here early this week. With a little help. I've wanted to try out what another painter does. He's Dave DeVries and he runs Monster Engine. He takes children's drawings and turns them into paintings. He asks kids to make monsters and then takes it to another artistic level. I'm not into monsters but love'd the transformative idea. To see what I mean here's some of his work.

Well, you can see where I'm going with this. One mom sent in her kid's drawings this week after I asked. I didn't ask for monsters because I didn't want to do that.  I didn't know what I'd get or how I'd do any transformation. I figured I'd just see what happened. That's what Free-for-all-Friday is all about - collaborative experimentation. This is nothing like I usually do but here you go... Eliza & my painting.

When I saw Eliza's drawing I just loved it. (Thanks Eliza for letting me experiment with your artwork.) It was perfect on it's own but I was excited to try this transformation out. I kept faithful to her drawing but added color and a story. I call the painting Me & the Moon - Our Midnight Celebration. Since I just ended my 50th birthday celebration last week this just seemed fitting. The photo's a little dark since it wasn't that light out this morning when I took it.

I kept the same dark color palette DeVries uses. The only thing I wish I did differently was to put a face on that moon. Which I leave the right to go back and do. This doesn't look like anything I normally do but it was such fun. I may have to try this again sometime. Do you think I should?

Here's a DIY project - personalized plastic notebooks and folders. It's quick and easy with all kinds of possibilities. It's also pretty easy for kids to do. I'm going to be doing a few more for school coming up. Here's how. 

I got my mini notebook from Office Depot but you can get them at any number of places. The same thing with the plastic folders. Just make sure your covers are clear enough to see through. Here's the folder.

I've included a download of the alphabet that I used as well as full words if you work with Young Women. You can move the alphabet printout under the cover to spell out the words that you want. Hope this is a fun addition to your DIY projects.

Design happens all the time around here. It's always something. Here's a sneak peak at the t-shirts I designed for youth conference. The kids get them tomorrow. Arise was our theme so I turned the word on its side to give it that feeling of moving upward, arising. I also designed the temple after the new Kansas City Temple and used negative space for it. 

Two different design colors. Light blue for the majority of youth and royal blue for the youth who are on the planning committee. "Youth Committee" on the sleeve for a little distinction.

Doan's Printing did the shirts, you can find them here.

Independence day has been filled with parades for a very long time for me. The marching bands are what the Boyfriend likes best but my favs are the floats. I'm delighted and it's almost like being a kid again.

I had another chance to do a parade float this year. Part of me really enjoys it and another part doesn't. It's a great creative DIY outlet that's a lot of fun but the uncertainty of how to do it and if it will turn out is a challenge. Some people think it will come together automatically because you're a creative and that it's no big deal, whlie others think it isn't going to work out at all.  In the process, you'll swing back and forth like a pendulum.

There's a lot of people web searching this time of year for DIY float building info. Last year's 5 Parade Float Quick Tips (found here) has been viewed and reused. So, I thought I'd share 7 ideas about parade float designing.

Since the float this year had a fish theme I thought I'd play that up with the tips.

You're likely doing this for an organization of some type. Think of their purposes for wanting the float. What do they hope for an outcome? Are they interested in the process and having a lot of people involved? Or is it an outreach in the community? Or is it a tradition of fun? Or is it to show a strong brand? Whatever the reason, you should understand it. This float was about involving people in the process, name recognition in the community, and a Christian message.

People: We had about 40 people work on the float

Recognition: Passing out info cards & candy during the parade

Message: Free to be Fishers of Men - Bible verse used as the message

It all comes down to having an idea. Sometimes that can be hard to do. One tip is to look for inspiration to borrow and then make it your own. Here are 2 inspiration images that I found.

I liked the idea of dots and stripes. I thought that would be easy for our group of varying ages to do. I also borrowed the color scheme of the group of Nassos' fish. Here's how our fish turned out. We made them out of paper plates, poster board, & paper mache.

Another idea I borrowed was from Helen Friel's paper work of an underwater scene that displays jewelry. I took her small version and went up in scale by a lot.

You can see that ours doesn't look like Helens but that you can see the similarity of the borrow. I used foam core (instead of plywood) so that we could have many young people involved in the cutting and painting.

You're going to be with this idea awhile. Make sure you love it so that you can hang in there with it. Nothing says failure like hating an idea. 

Things just aren't going to go 100% your way. Have that in your head at the start so when it comes up you already knew it would. Listen to others ideas during the process.

Don't give up. Sometimes things don't look like they're going to work out, only to be proved wrong. Stick with it. Creativity is often messy in the middle. 

With a big group, you're likely to have a wide range of interest and skill levels. To make it look good and like everyone worked together keep a 1) limited color palette, 2) repetitive shapes, and 3) easy to accomplish tasks.

Wow them in some way. Surprise them with something a little different. Make it stand out - in a good way. For this float I had the whale shoot water out of its spout. The crowd loved it especially since it was hot. I left an opening in the top of the whale and had one of my kids sit inside with buckets of water and a pool water shooter. You can see him trying it out on a passing friend. During the parade he was hidden from view. The water shot up about 15 feet in the air. It worked perfectly.

Hope these tips help you in your parade float madness. I don't know if I'll be asked to do a float next year but if I do I'll read through my own notes as a reminder but until then we'll say good-bye to float building.

I'm surrounded by wonderful people. Last month was a Cultural Celebration that 3 of my kids participated in. Several adults had a very short amount of time to teach about 80 kids song and dance routines. No easy feat! They were to join about 3000 other kids in the performance so knowing the moves was extremely important. These people put in tons of time besides what they regularly do daily. When people do things like that you've just got to thank them.

I couldn't think of a better way than sharing a "love note". It's a jar with little notes from all the kids who participated tucked inside. There were 4 people that I did 3 Love Note jars for (2 people are a couple). I'm always looking for gifts to give so I thought I'd share with you how to do it. This is adaptable to any occasion.

It was actually super easy to put together. I know this because I bought the stuff 2 months ago and waited until an hour before I needed them to actually put them together. (I guess I like stress.) So, not only is it easy but it's quick too.

Who can you give a Love Note to?

I spent most of a week at Girls Camp. I knew I'd have a little down time here and there so I brought along some watercolors and water color paper.

First, I do a little pencil drawing doodle, go over it with permanent marker, then erase.

Next, I go over it with watercolors. Very easy.

The girls liked the ones I was doing so I did them each little individual ones with their names and some quality they have. Hope this gives you a little watercolor inspiration.