How to create an attractive board on 0 budget...

One of my first task at my new job was to spruce up this informational board on our campus that is suppose to display the Institute student accomplishments that I work within.  HOWEVER; I was told that there was no money to do this with...


This is what I ended up doing...I had a lot of scrap paper so I spent a couple of hours drawing and cutting circles. Then I attached them together using a large needle and embroidery thread to create chains.  I knew I wanted to use different texture/designed frames and paint them bright colors as a way to show off our students but I didn't know how I was going to do this with no funds.  I asked around and was able to acquire 3 frames from different programs through the Institute but still needed at least 4 more.  I headed to a local Thrift store and found a couple of totes full of frames in various conditions. While I wanted textured and different shape frames I didn't quite end up with this. There was some available but they cost more then I was willing to personally invest out of my pocket.  I found 4 frames for $3.75 but when I got to the check out counter the cashier gave them all to me for $1.60! What a steal!!  I used left over spray paint and paints that I had around my home to paint the frames. Once I had all of the pieces put together I went over and put the board together.  Turned out pretty fantastic for $1.60!

This is the old board. It had looked like this for at least a year.

The Bubble 5k Race

The Bubble 5k race came to my city this past weekend.  I was set to run it alone and then 3days prior to the race on a whim I was visiting my sister and asked my 9 year old nephew if he would like to run this fun race with me.  I showed him the video and told him he would have to contribute half of the cost if he wanted to run ($10). He actually said yes he wanted to and so I signed him up.  He ended up spending the prior night to the race with me. 

I took him to the packet pick up so he could have that experience. Then we picked up some snacks, went swimming, had pizza for dinner and ice cream for dessert. Followed by some Atari competition and watching Ant Man.  The morning of the race I woke him up very early and we ate breakfast, got our gear on and then headed to the race.  My nephew shared that he was excited but a little nervous.  I had to keep reminding him that this was just for fun.  As soon as we ran through the bubbles at the start I think he let all of his anxiety of what to expect go and we both ended up having an awesome time and making great memories.  Let's just saw when his mom came to pick him up later he didn't want to leave and said he was having a fun time with his Aunt. :)

My first Make-inar

I was surfing the internet trying to find affordable art therapy CEU trainings. While not successful on that front I did come across this FREE Make-inar through Inner Canvas; http://www.innercanvas.com/ which is hosted by therapist Lisa Mitchell. Here is her blog; http://www.innercanvas.com/blog/.  The Make-inar she hosted last week was titled "What Matters in Psychotherapy".  I will admit that by 8pm when it started in my time zone I was exhausted and unsure if I wanted to participate.  It was recommended that you prepare your materials ahead of time (of which I did not do).  However at 7:47pm I decided that I would participate and raced around gathering and cutting the supplies (4 pieces of 8x8 watercolor paper, water, watercolors, paintbrushes, scissors and markers).


I will say that I'm glad I participated. It was a new concept to reach out with 100 therapist and artist from around the world and watch a live presentation that included all of us making art together. While creating we listened to Lisa talk about different aspects of being a therapist and helping us to recognize what we do for others.  We created a therapist guide as something tangible to remind us along the way when we are tired about why we are therapist.  We just created the basics and then posted them on her Inner Canvas Facebook page.  But these guidebooks are something that we can keep working on at any time.  I'd like to do some of her other online trainings/workshops but even with the discount code she offered to us that evening it was still to expensive to sign up for a class at this time.

Mixed Media The Journey of the Bike

I was commissioned by a friend in my book club to create a large piece of art to replace an outdated photo in one of her rooms.  I was inspired by an image she posted on Facebook of a new yellow bike she purchased.  When talking with her she shared that she wasn't sure about getting a banana colored bike at her age but she felt the yearning to as she had one when she was a little girl.


Using that yellow bike as inspiration and a favorite quote of hers I created the painting below.  It took about 4.5-5 hours to complete and I did it in pretty much one sitting.  Well, I can't say I sat as the canvas was so large I had to stand the entire time and move around the canvas when painting it.  I've been finding it thrilling to add texture to my pieces and so I used joint compound on the lower half of the painting and worked my way up to a smooth piece of canvas as the colors reached the top.  Other materials used were stencils and a black charcoal pencil beyond acrylic paints.  I was very pleased with the results and posted it on Facebook for feedback which ended up being very positive.  Most importantly my friend loved the piece!

Mixed Media Paintings

I finally did some painting. I was encouraged by a couple of co-workers who commissioned me to created some art for their offices.  The top image is a large piece of canvas and has a ton of texture but it's really difficult to see from this picture.  I used a ton of different paints, stamps, joint compound, and did some jelly printing. In addition I cut out some different sized butterflies out of paper to create templates and dipped in a plate of white paint. Then I pressed them on the canvas and rubbed them before gently peeling off the paper to real the image.  This was a fun piece to create.  It took a couple of nights to complete about 6 hrs.

This piece didn't take very long at all to make. About 2.5 hours.  I had purchased a canvas at Michaels about a month before because it looked neat and was 60% off. The canvas was pre-printed with the writing on it and cost only about $5 or 6 dollars.  Then I used Alcohol Inks, gauze (new but left over from my surgery), cotton balls, rubbing alcohol,  stamps and permanent markers to create this piece. I was recovering from a painful surgery and was weaning myself off the medication and trying to not be depressed about feeling miserable.  Since I couldn't sleep much during this time I spent time creating.

This piece I created before the other two.  I had been wanting something for my front door for spring/summer time but didn't want to spend a lot of money.  I went to Michaels and found this US wooden plaque and it was reduced to $4 or 5 dollars.  I brought it home and painted this in about an hour and now it's been hanging on my front door. Brightens up my home. 

Xtreme Air 5k and Glo Run 5k

I participated in two fun races recently.  I'm still meeting my goal of participating in one race a month.  In May, I volunteered to participate in the Xtreme Air 5k.  This was perhaps the best race to volunteer for. What I got for volunteering for 2.5 hours was free entry into the first wave of the race, a volunteer t-shirt, a finisher t-shirt, a finisher medal, a bag pack, and a free $10 meal/drink from an awesome food truck.  Totally worth volunteering!  The race was fun. I ran it on my own but not really as there was a lot of runners.  Man were the obstacles challenging. It took about 40 min. to run and complete 12 obstacles. It was very tiring but a good time. Only bad part about being a volunteer was you didn't get a bib # so although they had photographers all around I couldn't find any pictures of me because it wasn't connected to a bib. 

This past weekend my friend visited from Buffalo, NY.  We participated in the Glo 5k race.  This was a blast. It didn't start until 9pm when it was completely dark out.  We decked ourselves in glo sticks and set out at a leisure pace.  There was some fun glo scenes decked out along the race and the last half was on a paved trail and was only list with random glo sticks on the ground. You didn't need a flashlight with all of the runners being decked out but it was definitely helpful. I tripped once (not a surprise) but at least neither of us fell. One recommendation for anyone that does this race in the future...don't wear good clothes or if you do don't get the splatter paint done on you.  They give you the option of getting splatter painted and while we tried to just get our skin other people around us sprayed us all over and got all over our good clothes.  The paint peels easily off your skin but even after soaking and washing twice it still stained all of my running clothes and shoes. I wasn't happy about this.

SC NAMI Art Therapy Represents

This past weekend SC Mid-lands NAMI organization participated in the NAMI walk to spread awareness about mental health and where to seek help.  I volunteered along with a few other art therapist I've recently met in the Columbia area to create a giant chalk mandala to celebrate at the end of the NAMI walk.

I've never made a giant mandala so it was pretty neat helping with that process.  The design was created by one of the art therapist and it was beautiful.  It took us about 2 hours to create the basic outline and mark the outline with color.   Then we slowly filled in a couple of areas to give participants an idea of what the activity was all about.  As people came to the finish they started joining us in coloring the mandala.  Many children participated and spent a long time coloring while quite a few adults of all ages also participated. Adults were more reserved at first and often colored a small portion. They seemed afraid to "mess up" while the children had no such fear and went to town.   The difference as we get older and our reservations was a neat process to see. We were right in front of the stage so we got to see all of the awards and dancing going on as part of the celebration.  I also got to see some coworkers which was cool.

The end result was awesome. If you want to know how to make a giant chalk mandala send me message and I'll try to write step by step instructions.