creative crafts – your own design

this necklace – interesting

love this squid tie

and craft as art group

wonderful wooden necklace

journal quilts titled ‘drive by shootings’

Refashioned watch is a great idea from Ox-hill´s blog(Portugal).

Recicla tu reloj. Una buena idea, en el blog de Ox-hill(Portugal).

so much craft inspiration to be found on various craft groups over at flickr – I will be featuring a few over the next weeks – check them and out and decide which are for you.

craft rooms – yummy

this is a great studio – with fab storage and story board wall

love the use of space in this bedsit – a lovely inspirational room

jewellery studio – with flea market finds all over the walls – how fabulous

Wear your own creations – check out this group

patchwork short skirt to wear over jeans – lots of pockets – very cute

shibori dyed fabric in this skirt

handprinted ties

for those wanting something a little bit alternative

felted skull bag

crochet bike

Greengrocer mosaic by Ruth Buchanan

If you’re stuck for colour inspiration, try wandering the aisles of a greengrocer’s shop and really look to see the colour combinations. It’s so simple to resort to assumptions, and inspiring to see how colours really go together (let alone textures). The variety of subtle browns and creams in taro root. The colour run from creamy yellow to pinky red on white cherries. The suffragette brilliance of beetroot. The sheer variety in polyanthus (that one’s pretty seasonal, but worth looking forward to). Take some photos, to help you see, and try them in the palette generator.

I put photos together for the mosaic above with fd’s flickr toys mosaic generator from one midwinter visit to a favourite (well lit!) greengrocer’s.

If you have other suggestions for colour palettes and inspirations, by all means share them in the comments. How do you arrive at the colour combinations you use in your craftwork?

for the geek in all of us

laptop bag

knitted ibook

scent of water - knitting organic cotton washclothes

toast and cupcakes making some pretty groovy hoodies

small things from the south island of New Zealand has a tutorial on making knitting needle protectors

anemone are a two woman from Belgium and the USA, who now live in Auckland, New Zealand, and make gorgeous things together.

cloud of birds makes the most wonderful soft toys with amazing faces

I have had so much fun exploring the paper craft pool – lots of scrapbooking and card making and other paper crafts too

paper beads

altered matchboxes

While I do tend to read a fair amount of blogs and magazines, sometimes I need to go elsewhere for a little creative inspiration. It’s less about getting tired of everyone’s amazing creations and constantly inspiring and innovative designs, and more about re-thinking my own creative boundaries.

My Friend Liisa as a Princess,
Colored pencil,
Heli R.,
Age 6,
Sotkamo, Finland

And lately, the Global Children’s Art Gallery has been doing the trick. The gallery is a large collection of user-submitted content of children’s artwork from around the world.

It reminds me to stop thinking about what I can’t do with my work, and to start remembering that there is nothing wrong with coloring over the lines or off the page or even just drawing squiggles with no particular idea of what the end result is or should be.

Seeing art through the eye of children takes me back to my childhood where I created without worry or expectation, just full of energy because I wanted to express myself with paint or chalk or marker or crayon. Just because.

So if you’re looking for some new ideas, try going back in time and see where it takes you.

Smiley Face,
Colored pencil,
Fatima W.,
Age 7,
Kuwait