Today was the last day in which all three of my children scheduled to be simultaneously out of the house for the next ten weeks, so I made myself a focussed list of work project tasks to complete. And then promptly ignored it in favour of a day of creative play! One thing lead to another and a rather aimless beginning developed into a project idea in such a textbook way that I thought I’d write about it here.
The first element of the project happened whilst I was making breakfast in the kitchen; I met a tiny green bug climbing purposefully up the side of the box of cereal. He had such a comical face that I did some quick sketches of him before he jumped off to who-knows-where.
Do you ever have times when you want to do something creative but aren’t sure where to start? Today I wanted to make a little book (I love both books and little things!), so I rummaged around on Skillshare.com and found a class on making books by folding and cutting a single sheet of paper, by Daniela Mellen.
This is a lovely, clearly explained and fun class and I quickly made three different little books from papers I had in my stash.
What to do with them now?
One was made from a mustard-coloured sugar paper so I thought it would be arty to make that book all about purples and yellows colour exploration. Lots pencil crayon and bits of fabric and paper later, I had filled the whole book with colour and textures. It’s very peaceful to just cut and stick, arrange and colour without trying to produce anything more than a pleasing layout on the page.
I think I was most pleased with my idea of stitching a long purple thread across the pages and right through the book from front to back, which then doubled as a means of holding the book shut.
But there was no story here. Just colour. How to make it into a setting? To add an element of narrative? I remembered the tiny green insect from breakfast time…
… and made a tiny beetle on a wire.
And there it was. The beginnings of a new story. ‘Tiny Beetle and the Purple Day’. I don’t know entirely what it’s about yet, but it involves a beetle and a lot of purple. Tiny Beetle can wander about and explore the differently-textured landscapes of collage and thread, inspiring all sorts of exciting scenarios in my head.
I even made a little pocket between the pages for Tiny Beetle to live in. Although I say so myself, it’s a really cute little book. I haven’t quite got videos sorted out here on my blog page yet, but if you’d like a quick look through the book I have a reel here showing it on Instagram.
Thankyou very much Daniela Mellen for the starting point to a fun and productive day of play. I should definitely mess around aimlessly more often!
Hannah Sanguinetti 
This is adorable Hannah, so creative xxx
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