Searching for Inspiration

I received a couple gift cards from parents/kids at the end of the year.

I got one to buy something special at JoAnn and one to buy some stuff at Michael's.

I always try to spend gift cards on something that I wouldn't ordinarily buy, reasoning that since the parents gave the gift cards to me personally, it's a justified excuse to spoil myself. :) Also, most of the time, the card is handed to me with a variation of, "Now you're not to buy anything for the children." (Meaning the kids I work with.) "You're supposed to get yourself a gift with this."

Lyssa and I decided to make an afternoon of it yesterday. First, we went to JoAnn. I decided that I haven't had enough injuries in the past few years, so as I closed the driver's side door of the car, I slammed the bottom corner of the door across the front of my right shin. It hurt so bad all I could do was stand there and gasp for a minute. I finally was able to start walking (ouch ouch ouch ouch!!!) It looks lovely and colorful this morning, and will look much worse tomorrow, I'm sure. Will give me some street cred with the kids. :)

We finally made it into JoAnn, where we wandered around looking at everything. I don't need more little things to decorate and clutter, I already have plenty of that to get rid of. I didn't need any fabric, since the idea of actually sitting down and making something is ridiculous right now, things are too busy.

I didn't need any scrapbook stuff, either.
But I walked through the aisle and thought about what tangly stuff would look like drawn on colored papers.

So I grabbed a few. I got some blue stuff that looks like the ocean/water to me, some blue/purple shaded stuff that I'm still not sure what do to with and this one, thinking the pattern was subtle enough to fade into the background but still cause some visual interest.


I cut the 12 inch square into four six inch squares with the paper cutter.

Then I sat and drew on it for awhile when I was supposed to be sleeping.
I haven't shaded it much, thinking it doesn't really need more areas of dark. I'm sitting here looking at it while I type and planning the next one. I tried out the white and the gold uniball pens on the butterfly, too. I'm not sure if I like the effect, but it's hard to get the color off once you've applied it, don't ya think?

I've had a hard time trying to keep up with Kelly, it's been a busy few weeks. But this is today's entry into her creativity challenge.