365 Project

The first daffodil blooms in my garden and the sun is getting warmer. A change in the season is so rejuevenating and spring is the most rejuevenating season of them all.

Not that the winter was quiet - my creativity has taken new turns and I am making things I never imagined I would be doing a year ago. What if I take on a challenge that requires a year?

Have you heard about the 365 project where you take a photo of yourself every day for a year? That gave me a brief thought of doing such a project myself. Note I said ‘brief’. About ten seconds.... the thought of taking my photo every day did not really appeal to me.

Then over the weekend I found Make Something 365 & Get Unstuck that brings together all 365 projects submitted by the artists, crafters and any other creative bloggers. I started to read through the articles focusing on the authors of creative and arty 365 projects and I was hooked. I mean this is something I could be interested in doing. I read interviews of people at various stages of their own 365 projects and the promise of unlocking new creativity and enhancing your own abilities were inspiring.

The truth is that rarely a day goes by when I am not making something, drawing something, writing something, planting, tending or growing something. What I do not do every day is blog and here is the key to my motivation.

Blogging more regularly is recommended I’ve read. Many of the blogs I follow post every day. Sometimes it is just a photo, sometimes a short piece of text, many posts are on a theme such as Wordless Wednesday, Flickr Friday, Folksy Friday.... and so on. I fear getting involved in themed posts for the same reason I worry about taking on a 365 project.

When I started blogging it was a means to record my creative adventures as I started making greetings cards for family and friends. Just a craft journal really until then I started thinking maybe I could sell my cards and improve both my income as well as rekindle my love of art. I’ve taken a laid back attitude and simply post when I have something to show off. As more people started following and my work changes I am challenged to develop into sharing information I am using to learn new skills both as a crafter and subsequently as a blogger.

I rarely post on the day I start writing. I like to write a first draft and then rewrite at least once before posting, often preferring to sleep on it before clicking the publish button. Well that's my excuse ;)

A 365 project would be a challenge but on the positive side I anticipate:

I will become more disciplined
I will become better organised
I will learn new skills
I will develop my creativity

You can obviously choose to do anything you want for a 365 project. These are some I found while researching:

A A Card A Day
A A Fan A Day
A Skull A Day

The Skull A Day project lead the creator Noah Scalin to write 365: ADaily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life to encourage you to take up the challenge. I've looked at the preview and it looks very interesting.

But that is not all... you don’t have to limit the daily craft to one individual:

Cranium Condominiums (great name eh) is a journal of any creative activity by a large creative family

Also if you miss a day for any reason you can just continue where you left off. And if you can’t complete the challenge you can start a new one when your circumstances allow.

With that I am seriously considering taking on the challenge and see where it leads. I’ve decided though to start a blog especially for this purpose. Now all I have to settle on is a theme.

Have you ever done or thought of taking on a 365 project? What motivated you to take on such a challenge or what stopped you? Did you start one and not complete it for whatever reason? Do you think you’ll ever try to do one again? If not why not?