Time to Find a Box...

I  decided that today was a good excuse to go box hunting.  Not all of my Creativity explorations are going to fit in a sketchbook.  There are some that will need a safe place to be stored until this year long adventure is up.  In one of those cool moments of Serendipity that seem to be happening a lot lately,  Erin’s Grade 9 English teacher assigned them a project for next Wednesday where they have to create a “Box About Me”.  Erin will need to box up at least a dozen items that represent something about herself, her likes and her personality.

Michael’s was having a sale on photo boxes, which are a great size for stuff like this.  I’d cleaned out all of our empty shoe boxes after our expedition to Maine to buy sneakers this summer, so there were no plain boxes anywhere in our house.

So we both went box hunting, and we both had to adjust our expectations.

It was one of those days when most of the boxes on sale were just a little bit... well... ugly!

I’d been dreaming of a plain white photo box that I could decorate, decoupage and doodle on.  Instead, there were wild, loud patterns that didn’t do anything for either of us.  There were colour combinations that made me want to cringe and that got me thinking about why I react negatively to certain colours.  I almost challenged myself to take the colour I hated the most to see if I could work through that or turn it into something I liked... and then I found this box at the very bottom of the bin.

Remember those doodle posters that were around in the late 70s and early 80s?  I know I am dating myself, but they are making a comeback.  You get a huge poster with lots of black and then white spaces you can colour in. LOTS of white spaces and tiny little markers.  I loved them, but I don’t think I ever got more than halfway through a poster before it got crushed by the mess in my closet.

This pattern reminded me of those posters, so of course I grabbed it.  Erin found a marbled one in her favourite colour (red) and so the hunters returned home with their boxes.

I have dozens of markers.  I have entire marker sets filled with luscious colours that make me want to drool... but when I started to colour in my photo box shapes, I discovered a little problem...the colour was all rubbing off onto ME!

The only thing that would colour through the odd finish of the box were sharpie markers.  I only had 5 colours on hand, so I started a little bit but then decided I need to go find a sharpie marker set with a wider variety of colours.

This is going to be so much fun to work on!

INHALE:  We all need safe places to tuck our treasures.  Most of us have never lost that childhood love of picking up treasures to keep.  I could SO identify with Laura Ingalls when her pocket ripped out of her dress because she’d gathered too many pebbles!  Having a safe place to keep treasures only becomes a problem when the treasures overflow everywhere.  I am sure NONE of you have EVER had that happen with yarn, fabric, beads or anything else... right? We all have hiding spots for things, but now it’s time to make a treasure chest!

EXHALE:  Time to make a treasure chest... or at least start.  Find an empty box, basket, container or anything that speaks to you creatively.  Over the next few weeks, decorate it with paint, fabric, buttons, ribbons, paper scraps or anything else that suits your fancy.  I think I have some 3D fabric paint in a drawer somewhere that I may dig out to use on the black lid.  You don’t have to rush this experiment.  Just start out slow and see what happens.  The most important thing is to create a place to store your treasures and experiments that you will be making on this journey.