More fun things to do with paint chips

I thought about titling this blog post "More fun things to do with paint chips (and a lesson on craft time)" because that about sums up my experience yesterday.  Every Saturday I try to do something artsy/crafty/creative.  I started the day by having Honey teach me how to rejoin broken joints on a chair I picked up at Good Will.  I was hoping to have the chair re-do finished for today, but I learned that the process is a bit slower than that, and that's okay -- I want the end result to be beautiful.

I had a hair appointment in the middle of the day, so I needed a simple craft project.  Michell at Girl in Air had this lovely idea for wall art involving paint chips.  Flowers!  It was so pretty that I knew I wanted to try this myself.  I wanted to share this idea with others, so I made the mistake of telling a friend "Let's do crafts!" forgetting that some people are a bit more OC than me and get very carried away.  But more on the lessons of craft day later...

First, we picked up more paint chips.

A lot more paint chips. (Please understand that this was not all me. And on the one hand I may feel bad about all the paint chips, but I justify it by saying there were still paint chips in every color left, I don't think it costs this store money, and we're using them not wasting them. Does that make it better?)

My extension of craft invitation to one person ended up being extended to another, and so there were three of us working.

We found out that Behr paint chips work best for leaves.  They actually have paint chips in the shape of leaves that we could've used if we didn't mind having words on the art. Instead, we trimmed those down and used them as templates. We also made a stencil of a smaller leaf, and then cut very tiny leaves so that we can three sizes from which to choose.

We each made a flower and a tree -- all of the flowers and trees turned out differently.  The other two crafters also decided that they wanted to create geometric art like what I did a few weeks ago.

Mine are the top & bottom pieces on the left -- a tree and a flower

 I like my flower, but I don't care for my tree.  Honey tells me to pretend it's something other than a tree and maybe I'll like it.  We'll see.

Now to the lessons of craft day.  I realized that these days started because I was supposed to be doing an "Artist's Date," following the pattern of The Artist's Way, and Artist's Dates must be done alone.  I probably should've stuck with that idea.  I'll know better in the future.  But this day and experience did serve to teach me some valuable lessons:

1. I don't like scheduling times for being crafty or creative (like "I'll craft from 1-3PM"), but I do like having a set amount of time (like one or two hours) that I'll be working on a project because I have too many other things to do to let projects take over my day.
2. If other people are involved, I feel responsible, especially if it's at my house, and this does not allow me to relax.
3. I have no idea how to say no or put up boundaries without sounding rude, at least in my personal life -- somehow I've figured it out (mostly) in my professional life. I think that means that I care what the people in my personal life think and so I let myself be a doormat -- not cool.
4. I've tried very hard to get rid of or tone down many of my OC tendencies and I can now see what a difference that makes. I stop to eat, I put boundaries on the length of time I spend doing projects -- and this includes projects like remodeling parts of the house and gardening.

Right now I think what I have decided is that I will either not invite people to craft with me or I will be very clear about parameters and a schedule ahead of time, something I don't want to do but is apparently necessary so that my house is not completely overrun until 10PM with people sitting at my table and crafting a bazillion projects.  (I did not actually stay at the table that long. I left for a while to eat dinner -- and yes, I cooked and left food out for the other crafters -- and then when I finished my projects I went downstairs to be with Honey.)

Next Saturday I will be crafting alone.  And I will enjoy it.

I'm linking up here: