Pay It Forward and the beginning of 365

*sigh* FINALLY. I finished my miniature works for Pay It Forward 2012. This... was a long time coming. Essentially, someone starts it, and it begins with someone saying that they will make something for the first six people to comment, but in return those people must post the same thing and make something for six other people. This is mostly through Facebook. I commented on the status of one of my friends, who made me a beautiful Red Riding Hood based piece (which now sits on my tea shelf with a dog creamer and a drawing of  two rabbits). Four people commented on my status post of this Pay It Forward, and I finally finished the works for these people. Only three of these people get works that I put some effort into, since the third person is a person whom I see often, and there are no rules of what you make for the lucky six. This friend of mine will likely get a very fancy cup of hot chocolate or tea or something of the sort.

These are the completed works, all of which are quite small. I won't say who they're for (since it's really not that important), but I will describe them in detail. I will describe them in clockwise order, starting with the black bear.

The Black Bear- Soft sculpture, inspired by Rose Red & Snow White (one of my favourite fairy tales by The Brothers Grimm). This is a very small bear, with semi-movable arms and legs. I made it out of this weird wool blend fabric I have from a past project, and it's sewn to look quite ratty. The fact I made it was kind of inspired by the person whom it's for. The glass eyes (I wish I had gold beads) reference the bear in the story, who (for those of you who don't know- spoiler alert) turns out to be a prince. The red thread and white ribbon reference Snow White and Rose Red, the two sisters who show the bear kindness.

Bear- Embroidery, with wool and acrylic paint on tea-stained raw silk. For some reason, I decided that I wanted to do a weird abstract embroidery of a roaring grizzly. I kept thinking of the Sailor Jerry tattoo 'If you must be a bear, be a grizzly'. I have no idea what it means (something relating to the sea and sailors, I imagine), but it is regular tossed around my skull, and I think it's one of the reasons why I'm so obsessed with bears.

Bow- This is the first hair bow I have ever made, and I'm quite delighted that it turned out okay. Though if it's worn it will probably be ginormous. Or a nice size. I haven't decided yet. I kind of wish that I made it a little bit wider so that the coming together part in the middle was more extreme, but... Live and learn, I guess! It is cotton, with painted birds wings (which... I'm not great at... these are probably the best I've ever done) done in acrylic, and it has one of those clips that you have to pinch together at the end to release. That in itself is almost too much detail... Any who...

Overall, I'm fairy content. And this brings me to....

365 Days of Creativity Challenge

My very own attempt at the genre of 365 days of creativity challenges. This is truly going to be a challenge for me... At least, I think it's going to be. Or, who knows. It could be the easiest thing I've ever done, end up being one of the healthiest decisions I've made. Only time will tell! It seemed like finishing the Pay It Forward challenge was a good way to start something that I've been wanting to start for several months.

Now, everything for this 365 day project will be on a separate blog, since I want to keep it separate from the projects that I do for Etsy, school, and so on. If I have to do something specifically different... Even better! I am calling this project '12 Months of Alice'. Mostly because I like the sound of it, and whenever I think of what I'd like to do, it inevitable involves some reference to Alice in Wonderland, madness, or all matters of vaguely relating to dear Alice. After all, we are all mad here. You can find the blog right here: 12 Months of Alice.

Oofta let's hope that I don't drive myself madder than I already am!