Monster Mondays!

Ok.  I keep having ideas of projects I want to share. They seem like they would really be fun to do online.  But, I know I also have this tendency to jump into things without much thought.  So, pretending to be a grown up on the inside (my outer grownup shows more), I’ve been choosing to wait, give the idea a few days of thought to see if there are any holes.  Inevitably, I find hole or two or three and think:  Whew, I’ll just keep that to myself, looks like I dodged a bullet there…I suppose.  Or maybe I didn’t trust myself and the idea lost its steam.  It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes.

So, I’ve had another idea and this time, I’m jumping in.  I’ve started it already on my Facebook page but I want to share it here too.  You can play along in either or both places.

I’m calling it:  Monster Monday.  

Monster Monday is a fun way to introduce some creativity into your life.  I’ll send out one monster related, creativity art type thing to do every Monday until I stop.  At this moment, I have 13 ideas to share.  The exercises are fun, non competitive, meant to be freeing and, did I mention, fun.  More information is coming – you guessed it – next Monday.  🙂

Please, share this with your friends, your acquaintances and, maybe, that artsy looking woman you just passed on the street.

I ask that you share pictures of stuff you made on my Facebook page.  It’s a public page, so you don’t have to be a Facebook member to access it.  You can also email them to me and I’ll share them for you.  Here and on Facebook so you won’t miss anything. 

Why monsters?  Because monsters don’t have to follow rules like real animals.  They don’t have to have two arms and two legs.  They can have as many or as few as you like.  You make up the rules that help us recognize them as beings.  At least one eye?  A mouth or eyebrows?  If you are inspired, feel free to change your own rules.  If some conditions are met, maybe you can change others.  If the mouth is saying MONSTER, maybe you can leave off the eyes.  Play around and see.  Monsters can have animal like attributes like wings or fins but they don’t have to.  They may have leaves or wheels.  

If you aren’t happy with what you’ve made, put it aside and start over…or don’t.  But please don’t throw them away.  Not yet, anyway.  Tuck them away for a week or two.  Then take them out and peek at them, can you see some attributes you can change to make them more monster-y?  Maybe you just want to cut them up and remake them into other monsters.  Or, maybe you just truly don’t like them.  You don’t have to.  At his point, if you want to, just give them the heave-ho.  This is supposed to be fun and not stressy.  

I’ll keep the supplies you need simple and cheap.  It’s probably stuff you have around the house. I recommend you make your monsters on index cards because they rock.  They are both easy to find and cheap.  

Supply list (keeping in mind that I may come up with some more ideas that need different supplies later):  Index cards, paper, a black pen, a color marker or two or three, acrylic paint, maybe a paint brush but you can paint with your fingers too, a glue stick, tape (washi, electrical and/or masking, as long as the tape you choose isn’t transparent), a magazine and/or pretty paper that you can cut up, which means scissors, and finally, some music to listen to.  

I hope you decide to play along, next week:  Same monster time, same monster channel.