365 Do-Overs

Jeanne Hinds in Traverse City, MI is making something new out something every day in 365 Do-Overs...

Why did you decide to do this project?  To jumpstart my creativity daily and to learn new and different techniques in making things.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I can't even begin to explain all the ways.  I have learned so much about crafting and materials.  I was featured in the local paper and on a morning news program on TV so I have gained confidence in my public self.  I have learned how to plan better and how to meet a daily deadline.  My computer skills are improving as well as my photographic skills.  I have met people and taught a class and learned all kinds of resources online and and and .......I love it! 

See all of Jeanne's do-overs HERE.

Natalee's Owl A Day

Natalee Richards in Michigan is making an Owl A Day...

Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do this project because I was browsing through books at Barnes & Noble and stumbled upon this journal telling me that I could make something everyday and "change my life." I picked it up and then put it back because I assumed it was something I wouldn't be able to follow through with. Something, however, brought me back to the book. I decided that I needed it and that doing this project would be just what I need to get my creativity flowing. I love doing creative projects, but I always seem to have a real problem following through with and finishing them. I have a tendency to procrastinate and I felt that this would give me the extra push to actually do something. I wasn't sure i was exactly "ready" to start the project, but I figured that you can never really be completely ready for a project that continues every single day for a year, so I had to just dive right in!

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This project has affected my life by making a goal for each day: make an owl! I definitely think it is helping my creativity grow. I see a lot of things in a different way now because I'm always thinking "How could I make this into an owl?" Anytime friends of mine see me grabbing random objects and putting them together, they'll give me a strange look and ask "What are you doing?" and before I even have to answer, they say "OH, you're making an owl!" I think it is also kind of rubbing off on some of them. I must admit, there are some days where I say "Okay, I've made it far enough. I can just quit now, right?"  Something always makes me continue, though. I think it has definitely helped me to be creative everyday, even when I'm not quite feeling up to it. I know that I have committed myself to this, so I can't give up! It also feels good to have people wanting to see my owls each day and telling me that they actually make their days. I appreciate all of the support and help I get from everyone in doing this project. And lastly, I appreciate the inspiration from Noah.

See all of Natalee's owls HERE.

Scrapbooking & Beyond likes 365

The summer 2011 issue of Scrapbooking & Beyond features a nice review of 365 A Daily Creativity Journal...

Unlikely Couples

Liese A Ricketts in Chicago, IL is making a year's worth of Unlikely Couples...

She explains, "I have to credit (for my inspiration) Ken Brown, who so made me laugh with his coupling of unlikely people on postcards in the’80’s. I still remember Ike Eisenhower and Tina Turner couple I loved. I wore that T-shirt until it yellowed from age. Continuing in that tradition with a different aesthetic but a humor not so distant. I am creating this series of Unlikely Couples.

I love making images. Although the work that I live to make is straight black-and-white film photography, during the in-between times, I work on photo collages, animated gifs, and strange things. I collect photographic ephemera and use bits in pieces as well.

The American addiction to celebrity is interesting, curious, morbid, and utterly shameless. This work draws on subjects who are part of the media or scrutinized closely by such. For these particular images I take the name of someone in the media spotlight, if only briefly, and play with their identity. Oh, such fun."

Why did you decide to do this project? I began this project as part of a daily ritual to make art daily. Someone suggested I post them to a site called 365 Days of Print, which I did. I posted every day in June but find myself compelled to make them continually. I have over 120 now and will continue as long as the juices keep flowing.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It makes me fell good to do creative things, rather than spend money, get pedicures, and drink too much wine. I feel happier, yes, much happier, and when I get a very Unlikely Couple, I laugh out loud.

See all of Liese's couples HERE.

And see Ken Brown's 365 interview HERE.

Cloth Paper Scissors likes 365

The May/June 2011 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors features a nice review of 365: A Daily Creativity Journal...

Oddments & Curiosities

Leah Palmer Preiss in Raleigh, NC is making an imaginary being every other day in Oddments & Curiosities: odd creatures on odd days...

Why did you decide to do this project? Ever since I first encountered Skull-A-Day, I've admired 365 projects from afar & thought taking one on would be a great creative stimulus. Still, the idea of doing anything every single day seemed just too daunting for my skittish personality & busy schedule. When it suddenly occurred to me that I could post something on every odd day, I knew I had to try it. The phrase "oddments &a mp; curiosities" has been part of my identity (on business cards, web profiles &c.) for many years, & it seemed perfect for the project. I began Oddments on my birthday, & hope to keep it up until my next birthday.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? It has only been a month so far, but already I find it keeps my head buzzing in a playful, dreamy way. The concept is open-ended enough that I doubt I'll ever run out of ideas-- I have dozens waiting in the wings already.  I look forward to experimenting with different media & adding other new challenges in the future to keep things fresh. I love not quite knowing what will come of it!  (I call it an experiment in predictable unpredi ctability.)
Posting so frequently has helped me to let go of some of my perfectionist, tweak-everything-to-death tendencies. Also, especially because I've been working mainly on longer-term art projects for the past few years, it gives me a real psychological boost to complete something, however small, on such a regular & frequent basis. And last but not least, I'm surprised & delighted by the fun, creative comments I'm receiving!

See all of Leah's odd creatures HERE.

Ornithoblogical Follow-Up

I've decided to periodically check back in with some folks who have completed their 365 projects...

Anna Raff made 365 birds over the course of 2010 in her Ornithoblogical project...

  I like this first one because there actually was a Hurricane Earl that was supposed to slam into the East coast in September. He kind of puttered out, so this probably wound up being funny only to me.

What are the biggest lessons/skills you learned from doing your project? I never thought about how the project would evolve, but that was quite surprising. There was definitely an arc as the year progressed, and the work improved. Somewhere around May (I started Ornithoblogical on January 1, 2010 roughly), I think I hit my stride, and it's real character emerged. It became a blog not just about bird illustrations, but one that involved a lot of word play and puns.

These guys were kind of effortless—meaning, they sort of drew themselves, and I think that shows in the piece. That's often what I'm striving for

In what ways did the project change your life? Probably one of the best skills I gained was in time management. I had made a commitment to do the blog for a year without missing a day, as a way to force myself to draw more. A large part of my time was spent brainstorming to keep ahead of the calendar, and I found I could do that anywhere. I've never been one of those illustrators who regularly keeps a sketchbook, and ideas would interject themselves anywhere—usually somewhere inconvenient—like the shower, which is not a place where I would ever have a sketchbook. I developed some systems. (I also learned about the beauty of the "scheduled post," which made vacations much more plausible.)

This was a complicated idea (for me), and I like it because it pretty much came out the way I saw it in my head.

Now what? Although my initial intention was to finish the blog at the end of 2010, it has continued, but not on a daily basis. I've been on a bit of a hiatus for the last two months, due mostly to the volume of my other work. I guess that makes it a success—I needed a self-promotional tool that included a large body of work to show off my illustration and point of view. And I'm happy to say, it seems to have worked. I'm about to start illustrating a children's book for a publisher who followed my birds for several months.

These last two made it into this year's American Illustration book. Yippee!

See all of Anna's birds HERE.

365 Days for You

Tyler Ryan Carroll in Florida is doing 365 Days for You. He explains, "Each of my days I make a gift for someone the gifts so far range very different from writing there name on my leg to making them a physical gift to sending a video card. My project is open to anyone really although currently filled only with friends and family. What I mean by open is like who ever wants to be apart of it can tell me and they are than incorporated hopefully on the day of there choosing unless the day is already taken."...

Why did you decide to do this project? I had actually decided to take on many personal projects like goals that I wanted to accomplish by the end of the year and then from inspiration on this site I wanted to incorporate my friends it was a matter of time that I finally just decided to devote my project to giving to my friends and even strangers.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? So far it has done a great number on my schedule my sleep schedule was off much more so than it now is. The first three days also taught me the importance of just doing it and not letting things fall behind or to the way side.

See all of Tyler's days HERE.

Through Faerie's Eye

Liz Jacobs in Manassas, VA is doing a project called Through Faerie's Eyes.

She explains, "Everything I create has been or will be based on the concept of art and the world as seen through the eyes of the fae.  My plan is to do something creative every single day.  But because a lot of what I do is very time-consuming, meticulous work, rather than making something from start to finish every day, I will create 365 unique items. Some may take several days to complete, based on the medium I am working with, and others may take minutes; allowing me to do more than one per day.  I'm still going to do this for a whole year, because the challenge of committing to something and sticking to it for that long is very important to me."

Why did you decide to do this project? A friend of mine began posting her art on Facebook and explained that she had begun her yearlong project as a result of the book she read.  (Your book)  When I saw her daily posts, I was inspired to order the book and find out more.  I love to create, but rarely make the time; putting it off in favor of things I "have to" do instead.  When I finished reading your book, I realized it wouldn't be as difficult or time consuming as I had worried it would be.  The fact that your words gave me permission to create a schedule and project based on my rules and not someone else's was what really convinced me.  I started that very day.  It was time to start incorporating art into my daily life as a way to nurture my own spirit.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I've only been doing it for a week, but I've already felt a difference in my outlook.  More and more, I am putting my art in the "have to" column and that just makes me shine with ever fiber of my being.  I haven't been able to create every single day because there were just some things I can't put aside.  But in just one week, I created more art than I had previously taken months to get around to.  I am hooked!

See what the faeries see HERE.

The Hired Guns likes 365

I've started writing a monthly post for The Hired Guns about unlocking creativity and the first article Make Something Every Day. And Change Your Life. is up now...

Read the entire article HERE.

One Coffee Cup a Day

Bernat Cuni of  Cunicode design studio in Barcelona, Spain decided to create One Coffee Cup a Day for a month...

Bernat explains, "One Cup a Day project is an experiment on creativity and rapid manufacturing, by ideating, designing, modeling and making available for production and purchase a espresso coffee cup within 24 hours, during one month. By the end of each day, a new espresso coffee cup was made available for sale here. The cups are 3D-printed in Glazed Ceramics by Shapeways.com."...

Why did you decide to do this project? I wanted to prove the amazing capabilities of additive manufacturing, Designing and making available for purchase an end product within 24 hours.
I choose to design a coffee cup because due to the costs of  3D-printing in ceramics with a glaze finnish, I wanted to make something relatively small and useful at the same time. Besides that, I'm a regular espresso drinker and I really like tiny ceramic cups, smaller the better.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I did this for 30 days nonstop and it was challenging, engaging and fun. A perfect combination for enjoying what you are doing. I found that having ideas was the easiest part of the project; in fact, from day 25th I realized that I still had many ideas but only 5 days to come, so I had to choose. The project didn't affected my life because I tend to be quite busy, no matter what I'm doing, so I experienced the same good work/life balance as always.

See all of Cunicodes's coffee cups HERE.

365 Merit Badge: My 365

Toby has won a 365 Merit Badge for his My 365 project with this video that reveals how truly committed he is to daily creativity...

There are still 47 daily project merit badges up for grabs, submit a video to get one of your own, details are HERE.

Eklund Family Daily Creativity Project

The Eklund Family in Richmond, VA is doing a project together, called appropriately enough, Eklund Family Daily Creativity Project!

Chris Eklund explains, "For our daily creativity project, we decided on drawing something we did or saw each day of the summer on 3x5 index cards. We will each draw one card for each day starting July 4th, 2011 until the first day of school this fall. I will post a picture of each drawing to our blog along with a brief description as told by the artist. Artists for this project are Ryan 7, Owen 5, Suzie (age undisclosed), and Chris 44."

Why did you decide to do this project? My hope is that our family will collectively pay more attention to each other, appreciate each others talents, and remember this really cool thing we did as well as the details from each day we did it.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? We will find out!

See all of the Eklund Family's projects HERE.

365 Merit Badge: A Face A Day

Maseeh Radfar has won a 365 Merit Badge for his A Face A Day project...



There are still 48 daily project merit badges up for grabs, submit a video to get one of your own, details are HERE.

365 Days of Craft Follow-Up

Bronwyn Bowerman at 365 Days of Craft got in touch to give us an update on her project which just passed it's mid-point and she sent along these handy monthly calendar overviews...

She says, "Myself and the blog even ventured to the USA (and seriously stretched my craft ability to its limits when I had to pre-make over 3 weeks worth of craft to cover the days I was in the states AND I TOOK ALL THE PIECES WITH ME!!! check out my "American" dolls range where I handmade "Obama", "Ellen", "Dr Phil" and of course "Oprah" herself"

She also explains, "This month I have started a new feature of the blog called "GUEST BLOGGER MONDAYS" for the last four weeks I have featured somebody else's craft or art project on the Monday nights. I would like to do a shout out for more people to share their projects, to hopefully continue guest blogger monday for the rest of the year." So if you would like to be featured on her blog, definitely get in touch with her!

See all of Bronwyn's day's of craft HERE.

And see her original 365 interview HERE.

Expect to see another follow-up when her project is finished!

Holly's ACEO Challenge

Holly DeFount of Raven and Rose Arts in Berkeley, CA is doing ACEO (Artist Card Editions and Originals) Challenge 2011: One small piece of original art every day...

Why did you decide to do this project?  After completing the National Novel Writing Month Challenge last November, I was inspired to do the same kind of challenge with visual art for a whole year.  I chose the ACEO format (Artist Card Editions and Originals) which is any media, 2.5" x 3.5" because I was always inspired by icons, symbols and the art of playing cards.  The project started off very casual, but soon became clear that the images I was coming up with were very archetypal and compelling. My audience encouraged me to design a Tarot deck, something I've always wanted to do.  I'm now halfway through the challenge, and well on my way developing the deck which I've fondly named "The Incidental Tarot," since it arose from the "incidental" daily drawings I was doing.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? I've always been a perfectionist in my art, and because of that, I never was able to produce a large body of work unless I was in school or commissioned to do comprehensive projects.  NaNoWriMo taught me that I could in fact just let the creativity flow, sans editor and sans critique.  I forced myself to post a drawing every day, even if I hated it.  The result was amazingly liberating!  I look forward to what I create on the fly every day, instead of procrastinating or worrying because I haven't come up with the perfect concept.  I've hit bumps in the road, plateaus and slumps where I think I can't do it anymore.  But I push on, and it's taught me that I am stronger and better than I ever believed before.  I know now that I can accomplish great things when I dedicate myself to the process.  I am already creating great things, and loving every minute of it!

See all of Holly's ACEOs HERE. And also see her weekly Tarot cards HERE.

365 onTour - Bon Air Library, Chesterfield, VA

I will be speaking about Skull-A-Day and 365: A Daily Creativity Journal next Wednesday the 19th from 7-8pm at the Bon Air Library in Chesterfield, Virginia.

Bon Air Library

9103 Rattlesnake Road
Richmond, VA 23235-2939
804-320-2461

Seating is limited so be sure to register for the event HERE.

Sun A Day

Tara Raymo in Florida is making the appropriately named Sun A Day...

Why did you decide to do this project? I got inspired to do a Sun A Day everyday for a year, by the Skull A Day Project and The Make Something 365 Journal. My goal with this project is to push myself creatively and I am such a procrastinator that I want to push my way through and say I finished something. In school I had always taken art classes, and really enjoyed it. I was then introduced to the computer and learning page layout my junior year of high school. Once I learned the computer side of things I put the making art by hand to the side. I think I let life take over and got complacent and let go of my art side. I am now a graphic artist at a small children's nonfiction book publisher and I love what I do. I started feeling like I was struggling creatively and I needed to push myself. So I started taking some drawing classes. Then I saw the Skull A Day project and bought the Make Something 365 Journal and decided to do my own project. At first I would have loved to have done Skulls, as I have skulls all over my house, but I looked around and I have just as many Suns! So that is how I started this project.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? Well I have just passed the halfway point of this project and I feel wonderful. I have to admit that there are some days I am just tired and don't want to do anything, but I have pushed myself through those tough days. On those days sometimes I feel like I just put something together to say I made a Sun. When I am done I don't always like the outcome at that moment. I then will go back through and look at all the images and those Suns I didn't like to begin with, and I really like them now. I feel like my confidence is growing as an artist. I also feel like I am finding an inner peace, like something was always missing, that I should have been doing art all those years I put it aside. I have also noticed that at work I am not struggling for ideas as much. I actually have ideas for a new project for next year, most likely not a daily project, but looking into doing a weekly project. Thank you Noah so much for all the inspiration!

See all of Tara's Suns HERE.

NerDoodle

Emily in Massachusetts is making a daily NerDoodle, which she says, " is a way to challenge me to go out of my comfort zones with mediums I don't normally use and force my creative mind to function even when it is not feeling inspired."...

Why did you decide to do this project? I decided to do this project because a friend of mine brought it up to me and said she was going to do it. I was intrigued and wanted to jump on board and see if I could take the challenge. I had been in creative slump for quite some time and felt this would pull me out of it and put me on an artistic path again.

How has doing a yearlong/daily project affected your life? This project has helped me immensely with my self confidence and seems to have rebooted my creative brain. I am feeling inspired once again and sometimes find myself excited to make my daily project. Yet I will say this has been a challenge for sure because some days are better than others. But I feel that even if I am not feeling inspired some days, pushing myself to be so really does help and sometimes that's when I surprise myself and do my best work. I am wondering what I am going to do once I have reached day 365 but I am excited to find out!

See all of Emily's NerDoodle's HERE.