For my baby girl’s 1st birthday party, I decided on the theme of “Under the Sea” because I know how she loves the beach - and water in general. With this theme in mind, I started making lists of things to do and buy.

One of the first things that needed to be done was creating the Guest List and the Party Invitations. Always a tough one. I had the additional dilemma of whether to buy invites - or create them myself. I decided on the latter. And, I thought I’d share with you my step-by-step procedure for creating these “Under the Sea”-inspired invitations.

Step One:

After deciding on the theme, the next thing I did was sketch a design for the invites. Since I knew I’m planning to use my gocco machine for the base of the invites, I created my final drawing with a Riso carbon pen.

Step Two:

After creating my drawing, I burned a screen on the gocco machine. And, used ink blocks to separate certain areas, since I knew I wanted to use different inks on the same screen. I then printed on blank white notecards I bought from the local craft shop.

Step Three:

After allowing the prints to dry, I hand painted the design with goauche paints. I used the goauche more like a watercolour here - and allowing the gocco inks to be my guide as outlines.

Step Four:

After the paints are dry, I hand-stamped the main text “Hali’s 1st Birthday Bash” plus the invite text (To, You’re Invited, Date, Time, Place, RSVP) using clear acrylic stamps from my stamp collection. I decided to use Staz On ink (instead of the usual pigment/dye inks), to make sure that it will stamp properly over gocco inks and paint. I did not experiment with the other types of stamp inks because I didn’t have the time. So, I’m not sure if those can actually work.

Step Five:
After the inks are dry, I embellished the invitations with a fabric flower embellishment. Just to add a 3D/textural element to the invitation.

The next steps after these are: Filling out the invitations (To, Date, Time, etc)… and then sending them off, of course.

Oh, and yes, I also created matching envelopes by using the same gocco screen - but only printing part of the design on one side of the envelope.

Note: Everyday Creativity is a new section here, where I wish to share creative ideas and projects that I’ve done for use in my daily life. Instead of turning to store-bought or off-the-shelf items, I like trying to make them more personal by injecting creative touches.

Even though I don’t consider myself a ‘greenie’ - I still like to be able to do little things to help make our planet a bit more sustainable. This isn’t an easy thing as a crafter/artist. We’re often consuming things, buying things. So, every little bit of creative recycling is always a good thing.

• Reused Crafts - If you want to get into recycled crafting, this site offers you plenty of ideas.
• Cushion Covers from Fabric Scraps - Karen Cheng also did her own bit of creative recycling when she found herself with excess fabric from another sewing project.
• iHanna’s Blog - This is actually full of artsy craftsy goodness. Lots of recycling ideas - from creating decoupaged second hand trays to creating containers out of used empty tin cans and wallpaper scraps.
• Chopstick Art - Create all sorts of art and craft projects from recycled chopsticks.
• 35 Accessories Made from Recycled Materials - Necklaces, bracelets and more from bottle caps, wires, etc.

The photo you see here is my own contribution to creative recycling. These birthday gifts are all wrapped using recycled or re-purposed materials. The square boxed present, for example, was wrapped with butcher paper that was stamped. Also used a brown paper bag, old ribbons, and old wrapping papers.

Would love to see your own creative recycling projects!

Here’s wishing you a great and wonderful New Year. May 2008 bring you lots of time, energy, and passion to keep you living a creative life.

Doodling is one creative exercise that I highly recommend. And, if you’re not quite sure about getting ‘doodling inspiration’, then you might want to try learning about the Zentangle. It’s simple, fun, and effective. Definitely a great way to get creative!

As I said some time ago, I have become addicted to creating mini books and albums. And yes, journals. So, I decided to explore the art book journal making process even more. This time, primarily with scrap papers, ephemera or found materials.

And, this is the ONE I ended up with. So, very fun! Will definitely do more of these…

Creating blank art book journals actually inspired me now to create another project. But probably, not yet. Will definitely ponder on the idea some more, though.

Some techniques used here: stamping, hand stitching, paper punching, stapling, cutting and pasting.

Some materials used: clear acrylic stamps, ribbon, embroidery floss, found objects (card, postcards, blank index card, etc), stickers, rice paper, marbled paper

Bound with Zutter BindItAll, o-wire.

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