So I’m not one of those people that can be idle for very long; I tend to have at least a few creative projects up in the air at all times. One thing that I generally look for in choosing projects though, is completion time – I’m a fan of instant gratification, so I don’t particularly like projects that take too long to complete. Of course, I have been working on one of my mom’s embroidery designs for the past 6 months… In my defense, it did sit in the back of my closet for 4 of those months due to major procrastination (not to mention intimidation – too much tiny detail, Mom!!) on my part.
By the way, I get most of my creativity from my mom. She currently designs embroidery patterns – redwork is the type of embroidery that she prefers. I’m breaking some rules and doing my current project in brown instead of red. I’m such a rebel. Here’s a link to the website where she sells her patterns; I’m working on pattern #285 – the scarecrow. Now picture him in brown. Much better, right? I’ll definitely post a pic when he’s finished, but I’m pretty happy with him so far; fingers crossed that I’ll get him finished before Halloween!
As far as projects with shorter completion times go, my newest hobby is folding books. You may or may not have seen these around lately – I’m definitely seeing more and more of them pop up on the interwebs. For those of you that have no idea what I’m talking about, you’re in luck! I have pictures! To briefly explain though, I take an old book (preferably one that nobody wants anymore; Reader’s Digest Condensed Books usually fit the bill for me), and I fold the pages to make letters, words, or even images. It’s a fairly complicated process that I had to figure out myself, because there are basically NO tutorials out there that I could find. I did locate one that would work for very simple designs, like stars, hearts, and basic geometric patterns… Not really anything that I was interested in making though. So yeah. Had to sit down and figure that out.
Now that I’ve done that, I’ve developed a pretty easy system that works well for me, and guess what?! If you decide you want to learn how to fold books, it could work for you too! I’m currently working on making easy-to-follow patterns that I intend to sell to anyone who wants to buy them – I also plan on making some patterns available to readers of my blog, so keep checking back for updates! I’ve also made custom books for people in the past, and could probably be talked into doing that again if you prefer the super instant gratification method – the one where you just pay someone to do the work for you. :o) And honestly, sometimes, that’s the way to go.
Alright, I’m going to call it. This, my first ever blog post, has now reached an end. I tried to keep it short and sweet, and if it’s really neither short nor sweet, well, cut me some slack, okay? I did try, and that should count for something.
May your socks never be stolen by a tribe of Papuan cannibals.
-Gin
