A month gives me plenty of time to use products (or whatever I'm picking) enough to get a feel for it, take photos perhaps, and fully report on why I dig it. For March, I've got three picks to share. Some months, there may be more; other months, there may be just one thing setting my creativity afire, though that's hard to imagine. I do tend to like a lot of things, and I like sharing what makes me happy.
So, let's dive in.
My first pick is spray mist by Mister Hueys for American Crafts in Calico Shine.
I bought it at Archivers a couple weeks ago. As I was browsing and chatting with a friend who works there, one of the other sales associates came out of the stock area with a tray full of brand new bottles, all different colors. I was going to get the white shade, but I changed my mind and bought the plain shine instead. Imagining all the different uses for it, all the things I could add shimmer to, I had to have it.
And I have used it. A lot. I've used it to add shine to a painted surface. I've used it to dilute paint enough to make it more splatterable. (Yep, it is a word; I just made it so!) Using a paintbrush, I've used it to add shimmer to paper flowers and flowers I've fussy cut from patterned paper. (I'll post that layout once there's enough decent sunlight to capture a decent photo.) I'm sure I'll find all kinds of other things to shine with this stuff.
Pretty sure it was $5.49 at Archivers. I'd like to link up to an online retailer, but all the ones I checked were sold out. Popular stuff!
My second pick is Shimelle Laine's starting points. Taking her class at Two Peas really got me hooked, and I've been using the concept ever since. What I love about Starting Points is that the playing portion of creating a layout comes first. I get a running start without being held back by planning where all of my page elements will go just yet. I feel more freedom to be inspired to try new things along the way. Working with Starting Points has rekindled my love for scrapbooking, my excitement for the creative aspect of it, in a big way.
To see some of Shimelle's more recent starting points, click here and here and here. Check out the ones I've previously posted here and here.
And here's one I did a couple weeks ago that I haven't had a chance to share yet:
My third pick of the month is something I've done for March two years in a row as part of the One Little Word class by Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes. In 2011, I participated in the class, and this year, I'm doing the monthly prompts on my own.
At the beginning of the month, I committed to writing at least 15 minutes every day. No rules about what I wrote or how much, really. Just that I wrote something daily. Most of the writing I've done was in my personal journal, and I did miss two days, but perfection was not the point. The point was to cultivate a practice in daily life that somehow nourishes me and helps me manifest my word. Showing up at the page, any page, sets the table for tea so the muse feels welcome to visit. Which is exactly what happened because I wrote a short story in one evening this month, the impulse and inspiration so strong and compelling, I simply couldn't resist the urge to write.
I love when that happens!
So, those are my three picks for the month of March. What are yours? If you care to blog about them, be sure to leave a comment with a link to your post so I can read it. Or if you give any of my picks a try, let me know how it worked out for you.
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