Mini Inspiration Boards for your Desktop

How I want to feel, where I want to be and how I want my home, have been reduced to a mini desktop collage I created for daily inspiration.

A while back, I created some desktop inspiration stones (left) from recycled glass based on a framed inspiration board I created in a workshop (right).  You can see that project here.  

We have some mini canvas frames we have collected from dollar stores and art stores.  I thought it might be fun to put together another desktop inspiration.

 To make my mini inspirations on canvas I began with my magazine collection and cut out phrases and images that fit my themes. (1)

I checked to see what it would look like laid out on the canvas (2)

I used acrylic modge podge and painted it on the canvas and the back of my images and words. (3)

I started with the images I wanted in my background (4)

I finished it all up with a coat on the entire top of the collage (5)

For my board that relates to inspiration for mind - I simply added the words to the plain canvas and clear coated.  (left)  For my board that inspires my coastal dreams I added a turquoise wash of paint and created an ombre effect, for my background.

Dreams, mind and home - all reduced to a canvas measuring 2X3 inches.

You know what?  I think it might already be working.  I'm off for a quick trip with a girlfriend down to the Keys - my coastal dream has already been achieved.  Next up - finding peace and zen ...

I'll be back here the middle of next week.  Have a great weekend!

A Breath of Nature in the Big City

Just a few minutes from my house, there is a lovely park that I like to take Rufus for a walk through,  in early morning.  It was built on the grounds of an old race track and it is truly a piece of nature tucked into the city.  I'm always amazed at how quiet it is and I love pretending I'm up in the country going for a walk at my cottage because, quite often, all the sounds I hear are the birds chirping and the frogs calling.  Hard to believe, with the city skyline peaking above the tree tops.

I brought my camera with me this morning because I was hoping to catch a shot of a white heron that makes his home in one of the hidden ponds in this park.  He wasn't there today.  Often I will see him, preening his feathers one of three beautiful little ponds, surrounded by bull rushes, and quite literally, 20 feet away from a major city thoroughfare.

Other birds were there today, though, and the most amazing thing to me is this sits a few minutes outside of the downtown core. There is a wonderful boardwalk that lies between the bull rushes and as my feet hit the wooden boards I sometimes can't believe I'm just east of the city and a few hundred feet from the lakeshore.

I grabbed a shot of the ornamental grasses beginning to grow, at one of the entries to the park.  It's hard to believe that this is the same spot I grabbed an instagram this past fall(bottom picture).  Gotta love nature!

Have a great day!

ps.  This was quickly thrown together with the new picmonkey collage feature ... YEAH !!... it's finally here!!!

Inspiration Stone

Last year, my girlfriend and I took a course on time management and making time to realize your dreams.  Part of the process that day was to make a collage, from magazine clippings, that illustrated all the aspects of your life that were important to you or that you wanted to focus on.  This is my collage, that sits on my desk, and that provides a much needed focus on the days that I feel uninspired.

Last week, I had a very uninspiring(or so I thought) trip to a discount electronics outlet.  Helana was at volleyball games but she needed supplies for what seemed to me to be a very complicated science project.  I had a list, sort of, of components I needed to pick up from rows and rows, and boxes and boxes, of bits and pieces.  Just as I was checking out, I spied these glass stones.  They turned out to be recycled parts of magnifying glasses and they were selling them for a few dollars each!  Hmmm....

I thought it would be neat to continue that idea of encouragement in a paper weight sort of way.  A portable little stone to act as decoration ... and inspiration.

1 - I used a compass to make a circle to fit the bottom of the flat side of the stone.

2 - I went through old magazines and cut out inspiring images and words.

3 - I arranged the larger background first then added my words.

4 - I put on modgepodge onto the bottom of my stone and the top of my collage.

5 - I added the collage face up and pressed it into the bottom, pushing out air pockets.

6 - after a few hours it dries and the collage is revealed in a beautiful magnification.

After a couple of inspiration collages I decided to make a simple one with a monogram.  From left going clockwise - I started with my supplies (scissors, magazine clippings, paper scraps, compass, modgepodge and the magnifying glass pieces). I cut out a background from thicker paper so I needed to cut a slit in it so that it would fit the curve from the bottom of this particular glass piece (I found the other glass pieces were more flat on one side and did not need a slit cut for a curve).  I used a paper doily cut in pie shapes to fit the base of my collage.  After gluing all the elements you must wait for your collage to dry.  It looks very milky and, at first, I was afraid they might not work out.  But they did.

bottom of stones                                                 dried stones revealed

Matching felt was cut for the bottom of the stones.

Now when I need to corral all those papers (including volleyball schedules and electronic supplies!) ... I can still try to stay inspired!