creative


Letter from Santa Clause [Christmas Surprise]

I’m really happy to announce that this year I will be producing and selling Letters from Santa Clause for you to purchase for your little Munchkins!

Currently it is only open to the United States but if you’re an international reader and are interested in one, please email me and I can work something out. Shipping just will be much higher!

It’s fully customizeable for your little one, which is perfect to bring some magic!

To view the full listing and purchase one, please click here!

Feel free to share around if you don’t personally need one because some little one may need a little extra magic this year!


Halloween Apparel [Spooky Season]

Spooky season is the perfect time to get some new clothing or just figure out something simple to wear. Not everyone gets to dress up and have tons of ghoulish fun on the 31st.
Zazzle is one of my favorite sites with some fantastic products, many which are made by regular people who are just super creative. Even you can go on there and design something to make it special just for you and your friends.
Check out these cute designs that I found that are funny and creative for the season! I know I’m always looking for something for the season and with all the options you can’t go wrong!
Links below are affiliate links.

NaNoWriMo 2018 – Tips and Tricks 8

With Halloween just around the corner, that also means that NaNoWriMo is just about to begin! So you’d better start your creative engines and get up to that starting line because it’s going to be one short month. You always think that 30 days is a long time.

It goes by in a heart beat. You’re still on chapter 4 and suddenly it’s December!

So, how do you survive? How do you get anywhere in the month when you are so busy?

Take everything I say with a grain of salt because I’ve never actually reached the 50k mark, I’ve come pretty close. Maybe one year I’ll make it!


Tips and Tricks

1. Start planning now!

You have just under a week before the count officially begins so now is the time to start planning! No cheating though, you can’t start writing the official story. But you can start creating outlines and writing your ideas down for the kind of direction you’d like your story to create. Maybe create your characters or start brainstorming at least!

2. Make sure to start off strong!

In the beginning, you’re more likely to have more motivation so definitely use that to your advance. Get to writing and creating ideas. Don’t worry about editing. That can be done during December. November is all about writing. Just write, write, write! You have a set of words you need to write each day, so if you can start off and get ahead, that means the days you don’t have time don’t feel so bad!

3. Plan your days during the month!

Use your calendar to plan your writing times. Make sure to check the calendar at NaNoWriMo.org to find out when the word dashes are and online chat sessions where you can motivate yourself with other people! Carve out time in your week when you can write. So maybe instead of watching a movie on a Friday or trolling the internet, go and write! You can go a month without some of your usual things because WRITINGGGGG~!

4. Don’t get discouraged!

It can be really difficult to push though, especially in that last week and a half of November. But don’t give up. You aren’t necessarily writing to get this published, but for enjoyment. There are no deadlines that are the end of the world. Just remember to push through. Even if you don’t meet the 50k word that’s okay. Just don’t give up! Get online to the chats with other people. Make friends in your area if you can to write with. It honestly helps and saves your life to get through it!

5. Set your goal lower and impress yourself!

I don’t generally set my goal as 50k. That’s always there as a goal, but I generally set it lower depending on my life. One year it was only 20k, but I generally set it at about 30k as that is really do-able doing the month. When I make that I feel accomplished. If I go above that, then it’s even better. But set it to be whatever is better for you. Maybe only 10k words is something you can do. That is okay! Set is lower and surprise yourself instead of too high and being disappointed.


Overall, just know that you can do this! I’ll be right there, writing along side you, so if you ever need some extra help, feel free to contact me!

I know that I’ll be spending the next week or so planning out my story. Can’t wait for it to begin!!!


Book Page Watercolor Painting [Bookish Craft]

Welcome to day 2 of our crafts! Get ready to create some more amazing stuff.

Today, we will be continuing to use the book from last time. Might as well as there’s so much of the book that you don’t want to waste!

Also, that way, you don’t go through too many books. Use every part available to you!

Without further waiting, let’s get started!

Step 1

Get ready by prepping your crafting station again. Choose the page you want to work on. You may want to bend the spine to do so. My books spine actually was so old and brittle it just cracked which is okay too.

Book Page Watercolor Painting [Bookish Craft]

 

Step 2

Choose your design! I decided to draw my design first but was a little difficult to see it later once I had done the next step. So you may want to watercolor your page first, to create your background, let that dry, and then pencil on your design on top! But, once again, it’s really whatever you want!

Book Page Watercolor Painting [Bookish Craft]

 

Step 3

This is the part you get to watercolor! The color scheme you choose is completely up to you. Go with lots of colors or just choose two, maybe even one on a gradient. Your design on top can be anything. I chose an old style lamp because I saw some inspiration from Pinterest!

That’s it for that kind of craft!

But, if you’re looking for another kind of thing to do, check out down below!




Another great thing to do is create a redacted page choosing out certain important words to you.

This will work better with smaller book pages, but done properly you can make something work.

Create some type of powerful sentence. See an example below!

Book Page Watercolor Painting [Bookish Craft]


Book Painting Summer Craft [Bookish Craft] 12

Book painting crafts are quite a big thing, if you look in the right place! Really talented people sell their amazing designs, recreating covers of popular books and selling them.

For me, I personally wouldn’t buy one because I like the books that I read to be clean, but as a craft I think it’s an amazing idea.

Yes, I did partially destroy a book for this craft, but all crafts I did for the week involved only 2 books, both of which were old, falling apart and second hand. I don’t believe in the destruction of books, but books that have reached the end of their time can get some extra love and be re-purposed for other great things. So if you do this craft, I suggest not getting a new book but going to your local thrift shop and grabbing a book from there. I generally avoid popular novels and religious books!

So, that being said, let’s get started!

Step 1: 

Get your inspiration from Pinterest! It’s a great place to start for book ideas. What you paint doesn’t need to be related for the topic of the book as you probably chose something really obscure! So get some ideas from online.

 

Step 2:

Now, make sure to cover your space with newspaper (look at all those discounts!). I find that that worked just fine to keep my area clean! If you’ve got a smaller child doing this craft, then you may want to…cover everything!

 

Step 3: 

Get your book out. Make sure that you’ve dusted any dust off the cover or any dirt that could be on it. You want it as clean as possible!

 

Step 4

Make sure all your painting supplies are ready! For me, I used acrylic paint for this project due to the spine being made out of a material that seemed to absorb paint. Watercolors wouldn’t work because of the dark color of the book as well. So depending on the book, and the idea, you may want a different kind of paint. Think about what your end result will be. Maybe you will be using markers! Or just lettering all over the front. But for my project, I chose to use acrylic paint.

 

Step 5:

Now I’m the least creative person so I was unable to easily draw this wolf. So I decided to print out a silhouette. Since you’re not using this to make money off of, you don’t need to worry about copy right so you can use anything you want. However if you’re looking to potentially sell later, make sure you use free source images from places like Pixabay.

 

Step 6:

To transfer my wolf to my book, I shaded in the back and then traced it on. The shading didn’t work so much as the book was quite dark, but I was able to make an impression in the cover to trace with my pencil once I was done. You can use tracing paper and do it that way, but I find that just shading in the back is just as easy. You need to take your time as it’s not as perfect, but for most projects, the general idea works fine.

 

Step 7:

Now that I had my shape traced on, I made sure to darken the outlining because once I started painting I would loose the clear cut shape. Add anything extra that you want in your picture!

 

Step 8

It’s finally time for the fun part! You get to paint. This I can’t tell you how to do. I personally used a chiseled edge brush to get sharper lines and a larger brush to paint larger spaces. But it really depends the idea you’re going for. The benefit with acrylic paint was that it dried so fast, so as I was painting it was drying and I could quickly start doing next parts!

 

Overall this was an extremely fun project for me. I’ve never done something like this before but I think I’ll do it again, once I can think up what I want to create next! It was so simple, didn’t take a lot of time, and was so relaxing. It’s perfect for those summer days when you, or your children, are at a loose end! Not only do they get to be messy and creative, they get to make something they can be proud of and put on their bookshelf!

You could decide to paint the entire book, including the spine, with multiple designs or keep one theme going. I didn’t do so as I used the book for multiple projects so I needed to keep bits clear. But it is completely up to you!

I hope that this gave you some inspiration! Good luck!

If you do decide to create something, I’d love to see what you make. Either email me a picture or, if you share it on Instagram, tag me @mylibrarycardworeout, or if you Tweet it, share it to @mlcwo! I’d love to see what you make!