A fantastic video by Suzi Blu – listen to your inner muse. Let her speak, take time to play and experience the creativity you have within. This is a crazy little movie that will hopefully have you thinking about what you want to do with that happiness you have storing up inside shouting to come out and play.

All of Suzi’s videos are fantastic, especially for creative inspiration. She’s real and honest and just plain wonderful!

I love crafts. I have a whole room in my home dedicated to my various craft efforts—the problem is that. I get frustrated easily, and often find myself stuck between completing projects that I already know how to do and wanting to expand my skills. When I get frustrated I tend to lose all patience, and then odds are that particular craft project will never get finished. I have a whole closet of half finished craft projects. Sad to say, but I suppose this area is less of a closet and more of a craft graveyard.

Recently I went over to a good friend’s house for coffee. She had joined the Fair Trade Organic Coffee Tour months ago and so every time she got her new shipment, we’d plan a girl’s get together for coffee. We’d do little more than become coffee critics/connoisseurs for the day and catch up on life. I took this particular girls’ afternoon to vent about the predicament that I often found myself in: between that rock and hard place of lacking patience but still wanting to expand my skills, and my friend had the novel idea that I try some art and craft tutorials.

What a great idea! In the past I had always tried to learn from the illustrations in a book, but with very little success. Perhaps what I needed was a full on tutorial with audio instructions and if I was lucky, videos. After I returned home I hopped online to see what I could find. I was in luck.

Fast forward three months and I have now made several oil paintings, four fantastic necklaces (one of which is fairly complicated in design, I might add) and actually finished knitting a pair of socks that have been collecting dust in my craft room “graveyard. These online art and craft tutorials were just what I needed to gain traction in my hobbies! So, if you find yourself wanting to learn more about arts and crafts, check out some of these online tutorials, they will make your crafting life so much easier!

Oil painting has always fascinated me, however I do not have any natural artistic talent, so the thought of jumping straight into oils somewhat intimidated me. There is a group at my church that paints for Christ and they do absolutely wonderful art pieces that circulate throughout the church, and if they are sold the proceeds go to various ministries within the church. The first time I saw one of their painting, I was inspired.

I had many family members as well as friends suggest that I start out with either drawing or painting in acrylics as they are more affordable. I did try painting in acrylics at first, as it did make sense to learn with a more affordable medium. What I didn’t take into account was that acrylics dry significantly faster than oils and I often found myself in a state of either frustration or speed painting in order to get my ideas out on canvas before the paints dried!

I suppose I got to the point where my desire to learn to paint with oils superseded my fear of the costs of starting out in oil painting. I finally worked up the courage, and made the jump to oils—and I have never looked back.

It was around this time that my youngest child turned three and she was into everything. One of her greatest joys was to sit in her playpen and watch me paint. She seemed to have just as good of a time watching me paint as I had painting!

One day while we were at the library I came across a really cute book called Crafts to Celebrate God’s Creation. This book had lots of cute craft projects for kids about her age. After flipping through the book I decided that this was probably a book that we were better off buying instead of borrowing, as craft time at my house is a messy event! The craft projects in the book also helped open up the conversation about God, scripture and creation of the world. Molly and I have had a blast creating projects for the church and we have even done some finger painting abstracts which sold for over $500!

This morning I read a fantastic article on the Smartist Career Blog about inspiration and how it’s not the ultimate requirement in an artist’s arsenol: Going Beyond Inspiration.

“The key to a successful art career isn’t manipulating your circumstances or yourself to increase your communication with the Muses.”

The key is to make sure you are building an art career in an area of creatvity that you love. If you focus on an area of the creative marketplace that requires you to draw vegatables all day, every day, yet you can’t stand to think of those vitamin packed munchies, it’s going to be difficult to create believable art. Buyers and clients can sense what’s behind the art. You need to believe in what you are creating. You don’t have to like it, but you do need to be able to stand behind it and genuinely believe in what you’ve created.

“People who build successful art careers aren’t more inspired than other artists; they’re more committed.”

Commitment is a big factor in any business, but especially so when it comes to being the actual creator of your product. As an artist, your product is art. If you wake up not “feeling the love” of the art universe, you need to create the love yourself – not wait for it to find you. Find a way to get those creative juices flowing – get into a routine that your brain will work with and become your own inspiration.

Some tips to helping your inspiration flow:

Browse through images of what others have done – not to mimic their ideas, but to surround yourself with the subject matter. I had a client that required me to create art for home gutter system. This is not a glamorous topic by any means. I browsed other gutter company websites and manuals, and realized how dull they were – this enabled me to come up with a better vision for what the industry had and where I could improve on the subject.

Take a break to doodle – nothing gets those creative engines turning like a good free-draw. Give yourself a short time limit to simply sit and scribble out whatever comes to mind.

Chat with an artist – stop to chat or email or read forum posts with other artists. Sometimes our own blocks can be easily removed when exchanging thoughts with another creative person. Ask what they are up to, and share your own project obstacles. If you aren’t currently connected to very many artist, you’re obviously online right now, get connected! There are literally hundreds of places to connect with other artist if you know where to look in the right places.

Invent a project – sometimes working on a non-purposeful project is a good way to break the stress and overwhelming pressure of a real deadline oriented project. Allow yourself a little time now and then to work on something that has no purpose other than to be created.

Reward yourself - we all need a pat on the back for a job well done and we all need goals to strive for. Set goals that include rewards so when you’ve finished a project you allow yourself to celebrate in your accomplishments. A payment for a job well done isn’t always the reward your creative side needs.

Plug your nose and dive in – If you are really stuck and you have a deadline, there’s no turning back if you really want  your career to grow. You have to stick with your commitments, regardless of how unpleasant they may be. grab a snack, and prepare for the long haul. Nothing is more inspiring than finishing a job well done.

Content writers often suggest a great way to gain exposure and traffic to your website is to write a new article every day. Following this logic one might try the concept of creating a new piece of art every day. However as soon as I say that out loud I have an urge to kick myself – what a silly idea! Sure, doodling and sketching an idea a day is a great goal. Take 5 minutes a day to simply sketch a new thought. But a full piece of finished art? That’s a lot to ask and not set yourself up for failure after a long week of creating.

Instead, create a new inspiration every day.

Make a point to read other artist’s blogs, look at other artist galleries, take a walk outside and make a point to notice something new. Whatever inspires you, make a point to venture in that direction for at least 5 minutes once a day. Keep a journal of the thoughts, ideas and experiences you have during this inspiration time.

You’ll find that this kind of regular art thought will help  when you go through the usual “creative blocks”. Also, if you are an artist who works on projects for others, taking a break to inspire your creativity without a deadline associated with it can help prevent burn out.

For artists, our skill and talent lies in the execution and ability to come up with new visuals for other’s to enjoy. We have to remember the visuals don’t just happen – they need nurishment too.

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