 February 21...Day #52 of 2016...the year with the #oneword365 goal of SIMPLICITY. Time for a reality check! Since my last post, I have taken on no fewer than three, yes THREE, web-based art challenges! CHALLENGE #1: One Little Tag Craft Challenge What is it? A Facebook group for people who want a daily dose of creativity on a small scale...specifically a little hang tag, like you might put on a shipping box. You make a tag each day (or week, or month...whatever works!) and post it to the FB page for all to see. Who is doing this? Hosted by blogger Jenny Barnett Rohrs, mastermind behind Craft Test Dummies, this FB page has over 300 participants, although only a few seem to post regularly. Lots of scrapbooking, stamping, and mixed media fans seems to be on board with this challenge. Every few weeks, Jenny writes a post or shares a video with some new twist to the challenge, just to keep it interesting. After all, this is a full year challenge!  CHALLENGE #2: Brush Letter Practice Challenge What is it? A really fun way to add to my calligraphy skills! I've been doing traditional pen calligraphy since high school art classes, back in the pre-internet dark ages. Instead of a stiff pen and India ink, you use a soft, flowing brush and watercolors. Who is doing this? The work of Olivia, who goes by Random Olive, first caught my eye when she was a participant in a Creative Live class I was taking last October. I liked her style, so I checked out her website, Instagram, and YouTube videos to learn more about brush lettering. How does it work? Each month, Olivia posts a list of words with a theme. December was all about yummy holiday cookies, January was a list of inspirational words, and February is definitely my favorite so far...flowers...hint of spring to come! Olive also offers great practice sheets that you can download each month to help with learning the brush strokes. My skills have improved just enough to give me the confidence to occasionally post a sample on Instagram at #brushletterpracticechallenge, although I have a long way to go! One plus, though is being able to combine challenges. I've used brush lettering with iPad drawings on some of my tags for the One Little Tag Craft Challenge. A little bit of simplifying!  CHALLENGE #3: #28tomake with Creative Live When I got the email from Creative Live, offering a free 28-day drawing challenge, I couldn't resist! Each morning brings a new email video with a prompt for the days' creative challenge. These are quick, no more than 20-30 minutes, which is perfect. I've even been able to do a few of them during my lunch break at school, and one of them, the tangram challenge, became a lesson plan for my first grade classes this week! The best part of this challenge is going to Instagram to see all the amazingly creative problem solvers posting their responses. Will you join me? |
