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Hidden Butterfly

by Denise M. Sessous

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Week Five: (Day 12) Camouflage…Create or alter something so that it disappears into its background.

First of all, so sorry about the HUGE time gap between posts. My life got a bit chaotic (as life sometimes does) and I’m returning to a sense of normalcy now.

That being said, I decided to approach this challenge in a more abstract way as opposed to photo-realistic. Butterflies have great camouflage, but they only mimic the texture of bark and leaves.

So, I took lots of pictures: a few with my wood blank in front of the background to get a sense of scale and a ton of the tree with the vines. I cut the photos apart and the decoupaged them to the blank.

Unfortunately, so much time had passed between when I started this project and when I finished that the lighting had changed. And in hindsight, I should have used the photos that’s came out more “yellow” than the ones that came out more “blue.” But, she seems to blend pretty well.

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Pages of a Book-er-fly

by Denise M. Sessous

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Week Three: (Day 8) Transform an old book into something new by cutting, folding, gluing and so on.

So, I absolutely needed a book that I don’t care about. All the books I own are ones I want to keep. So, it’s off to a thrift store…thank you 2nd and Charles for your free book bins.

The first idea I had was to cut away the page edges or the center (like a book safe) so when the book is opened, there’s a butterfly shape.

The second idea was inspired by a recent trip to a shabby-chic consignment shop. There were a few wreaths on display made from old sheet music rolled into cone shapes.

Then, I discovered book folding…and that was all she wrote. A few YouTube tutorials and and couple of hours on Photoshop later, I had a plan and a template. I ran out of pages on my first attempt (thankfully, I picked up two books) and now I have a bookshelf-worthy book-er-fly.

 

 

Paper Butterfly

by Denise M. Sessous

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Week One: (Day 3) Make something out of paper, but don’t use scissors or glue or draw on it. What now? (And no, you don’t have to know origami to do this.)

So initially, I considered tearing paper into little bits and arranging them. But, I seem to have a psychotic aversion to creating something temporary.

Then, I remembered a high school art project involving making our own paper by putting colored paper in a blender…paper smoothie anyone?

Well, the results are in and they’re not perfect. I didn’t have all the tools needed, like a mould & deckle and couching material & a press. All those goodies are on my amazon.com wish list now though.

So , this project came out as more of a sculpture that a piece of art paper. Fun, nonetheless.

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Butterfly of the Week

by Denise M. Sessous

CreativeSprint inspired me to get started on a creative journey.

My friends inspired me to keep going.

So, I purchased Noah Scalin’s most recent book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life!

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I’m also giving myself some flexibility and challenging myself to one creative project a week. So, this book should keep me busy for about seven years!

My goal is to post the results on Monday or Tuesday of each week. That way I’ve got the weekend if I need it.

So excited!

Thank you CreativeSprint

by Denise M. Sessous

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This was a wonderful experience for me. So much so, that I can’t wait for the fall to try it again. Hopefully by then, I’ll have enough rudimentary skills and photographic archives to use Photoshop as my medium.

So here goes my list of lessons learned:

  1. Sometimes the first idea is the best one.
  2. It doesn’t need to be perfect
  3. Mistakes happen
  4. Art supplies are everywhere
  5. Trying new things, inspires new things

I wasn’t able to complete every challenge due to work and social obligations, But, I still accomplished enough to make this bitchin’ wall of butterflies.

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Messages

by Denise M. Sessous

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CreativeSprint – Day 14: Create something inspired by an email, text or other message that you receive today.

I get a daily newsletter from Today called “Stuff We Love,” and in today’s Today email I found this article about a t-shirt for travelers. It’s covered with icons and all you have to do is point to the image representing what you want. Genius or lazy, I can’t decide. Maybe lazy genius?

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But, it did inspire me to create the butterfly version…

Maybe I’ll print it on a t-shirt one day…

 

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Candy Crush Butterfly

by Denise M. Sessous

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CreativeSprint – Day 18: Break something and make something new with the parts.

I decided to break some hard candies a la Candy Crush with my trusty hammer. I wanted this to be something I could keep, so I glued the candy to a piece of cardboard…

I didn’t count on the candy dissolving into the glue. Live and learn.

It looks kinda like a map of the United States, a sticky sweet, ooy-gooey map.

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