Choosing what to do

How I choose what I'm doing

It's usually a spur of the moment thing, as it is with most things that come out of my head. Sometimes I need a little prompting. You can find journaling prompts online. I have a list of some in my inspirations notebook as well as a few still left in my Determined to Shine notebook.

 Some ways I decide what to do.... written here to remind myself when I am wandering around wanting to paint or craft but not knowing what to do. It helps me choose.

• watch a video about something I have either not tried or not done in awhile. Depending on what I am thinking of doing, it could be Cat Hand (tiny notebook things) or Carolyn Dube (for larger painty things, and gelli printing) or maybe Jennifer McGuire or Catherine Pooler if card making is what I'm thinking.
• look through my Techniques Resource Notebook (also called my Inspiration notebook) where I have cards of different techniques I have tried, a section of pictures of projects that have caught my eye, and whatever I think might be inspiring. Sometimes I look at a technique I have not done, and that's what I do. I'll make a little card for the notebook, and then do it on a bigger scale, or for a tiny project
• Look at my art journaling prompts in my notebook. I see a sentiment that I like and do a card based on what it means to me. sometimes I just have a thought of a word and want a sentiment to expand on that, so I google the word, such as "grace quotes" and there are more than enough quotes!
• I look through papers and pick something I want to do on it. This includes gelli prints, stenciling pages that I have randomly done, pages that I have colored, pages that I have cut out of magazines, or pages from books. I haven't cut up a lot of books, I can't bear to, but I have been known to make copies of pages of books. I do have a book that I tear out of, an old music textbook from college, and I have also done a bunch of pages in there with college era memories... pages about where I lived, friends, or different things I remember from that time. 
• I blindly pick a paper and do something with it. Same stack I would look through, but grab something with my eyes closed. This is kind of what I've been doing a lot lately. No decisions to make about how to start!! 
• Sometimes I have decided on something to put on it and build a page around that. Such as some embellishment, or a sticker, or a specific stamp, or a specific stencil.

It is, of course, not always about painting and stamping. There's a whole list of things to do.

Paper crafts,  fabric crafts such as quilting or other sewing, cooking or baking (I'm thinking about tortillas right now!!) bead work, which has been ignored for a long time, embroidery, cross stitch, hand stitching with felt, oh my oh my. Crochet, knitting, weaving, polymer clay.... so many things I have done. And then there are the dolls. Look at the pages on the right side for some ideas, if you don't have any. Or the word list, where you can click on the word and it will come up with the posts connected to that.  Oh, by the way, I don't know how to tat. Not that I haven't tried. HA!! Or, I could always clean the kitchen......