Inspired to create.

‘ How beautiful it is to stay silent when someone expects you to be enraged.” Paulo Coelho

What inspires you to create? We were all gifted to create, to use our hands, to share, to learn and to teach each other. Baking, drawing, sewing and building up our environments to improve our world. This is something everyone is blessed with from the moment they are born.

I thought I share some of my favorite DIY projects that I created with you all here at Our Little Red House over the years, and what influences either others had on me or images I saw that inspired me to create. No matter what level you are at, or how old you are…we all should be creating something everyday. It’s who we are after all.

A visit to the butterfly museum was enough to inspire me to create this craft project I designed for a children’s class I was teaching. Using recycled cardboard, twine, and three dimensional glue, I designed a garden pick of whimsical butterflies.

I was born in a desert state, lived there most of my life, so the Arizona mountains inspired me as a child when creating art. Living at the base of a beautiful desert mountain gave me many opportunities to go out in nature when ever I wanted to see all kinds of beautiful things. Once I grew up that never stopped, I still get most of my ideas when hiking.

As a little girl I would go home and sketch what I saw on days of many hiking adventures with my dad. The colorful Arizona sunsets over the years gave me all kinds of ideas when mixing my colors in my art.

Nature is the best way to be inspired when trying to get ideas, what I call God’s art gallery. From the Arizona desert to the Ozarks, here are a few photos from my favorite walking adventures that have inspired me to create.

Northern Arizona up on the Mogollon rim near the Aspen trees.

Some people think there is no color in the desert, but the whole rainbow is out there. I have file after file of photos that prove that.

Arizona isn’t just about deserts, in the northern parts it’s a whole other world.

Arizona has a lot of wide open spaces. This was up where Our Little Red House was.

Hiking towards the cliff areas to get down to the river bed below.

Watching each step closely near the edges once we made it to the cliffs. When hiking the Arizona deserts, make sure you have the right hiking boots and plenty of water.

I was trying to take a shot of this pretty flower when a hummingbird photo bomb my shot, it was a nice surprise.

A rain storm was headed in and there is nothing better than a desert rainstorm, the smells of the desert after it rains are amazing.

I discovered where most of the green is, it’s in the Ozarks.

This is when I discovered where The Pirates of the Caribbean got it’s inspiration…from scenes like this. Actually this part about this walking adventure was the noises I heard all around me. Frogs, birds, insects and turtles everywhere resting in the sun. I even came across some deer in the woods.

Snow is an art all on it’s own. An ice clay from heaven for us to play with, as I see it, it can be dangerous too, but this snow was a gift and so many who had never had it also got to experience it. Think of the Spring when you see snow. The ground needed this, and God knew that.

In the summer it may be humid and bright everywhere, but in the woods it’s shady and nice. I love the contrasting colors of the trees with their bright green leaves, dark trunks and branches.

These images help me design all kinds of whimsical coloring pages, clay figures of critters and wool animals. Sometimes I will stand very still and see all kinds of little animals, from desert lizards, chipmunks, doves and rabbits, to the new critters I am discovering in the Ozarks.

Armadillos, Raccoons, beautiful red foxes and white snow owls….the environment has changed so much. How beautiful everything is. Here are a few DIY’s I designed from nature’s walking adventures.

A tiny garden chair made from my husband’s grapevines.

Little Swedish grandpa gnomes made from little logs from Arizona Aspen trees and Sheep’s wool felt.

These yarn pumpkins are so fun to make. The stems are from twigs and branches I collected when foraging in an Arizona Aspen forest.

A very tiny teddy I made from a damaged vintage coat.

Fallen and foraged Aspen branches make adorable little play people as a natural toy.

On many walks I collected acorn tops during the Fall. These acorn faces were handed out to children during Fall events around town as well as classes we taught. A sweet older man who was picking up garbage saw my husband and I and started thanking my husband for also picking up and collecting garbage as we walked. The man told us that you can roast the acorns, they are edible and then he went into how to do that. He asked if we had a church yet, as he had a very nice church he attended in the area. He had moved to the area many decades ago and had lost his wife during the height of the pandemic. Sometimes on the walks that we take in life, it isn’t about nature inspiring us, it’s also about the angels we may run into, entertaining angels as Hebrews 13:1-3 teaches us.

During the early stages of the pandemic, in what many were told to do with our lock down days, I spent a lot of time creating baskets. I used all the colors I saw from Arizona sunsets I witnessed over the years. The water, the sun and all the plants inspired me with so many colors to create these basket.

Used jeans can become new things once again, which keeps them out of the landfills. These denim bookmarks were very simple to make.

Tiny acorn tops from Arizona made adorable little felted accessories for one of my clay plates I made using leaf clippings from our garden.

Another recycled project. Old pallets were cut down into wooden houses for pretend play.

Grape leaves from the garden were used as templates for this mini clay bowl project.

The best way to learn a new skill is start out small, these little felted balls were so easy to felt.

My aunt had this big beautiful tree in her front yard that produced these sea pods. I collected a whole bag of them on one visit and made these tiny Viking ships.

An old red coat became Lady bug bean bugs after I designed a lady bug pattern to sew up.

Some children from a 4-h competition gave my son a bag of their cleaned sheep’s wool, so I made it into a snowman family to gift a little girl who’s little lamb did not win a ribbon, passing it on. Always teach and encourage others to keep trying even when we fail.

Spring has arrived and there is never a shortage of flowers for artistic inspiration. Flowers in gardens, in fields, and even faux flowers everywhere in shop windows. Baby animals, and new life everywhere, Spring is one of my favorite times for getting ideas when creating. Who doesn’t love flowers. It’s like that quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson…the earth really does laugh in flowers.

My favorite flowers to use in my coloring pages, watercolors and anything I design when using flowers are itty bitty ones. The Daisy is my favorite flower of all. I use daisies in a lot of my design and craft class projects. They are simple humble little flowers that are easy to teach how to draw and add so much beauty to our art. I have shared many DIY projects here on my blog that have to do with flowers. Flowers are one of my favorite gifts from God.

Foraging for organic dandelions to dry. These were picked from our historic property we are fixing up. Make sure you are in an area that doesn’t spray at night while you sleep. In some areas close to towns, late in the night and very early in the am’s when most people are asleep in the summer, they do this. They spray many areas with mosquito fog to kill them off. Usually they warn the residents of the schedule to warn you to keep small pets inside. The fog they spray is thick and fills up the streets. They do this everywhere in towns and cities all over America. They tell us it’s safe, just like the food they give us and tell us we can eat.

Water coloring sunflowers from my garden.

A clear vase I purchased for .25 cents turned into a whole new vase after a little paint and some tiny flowers for added detail.

Our chickens eggs became beautiful Spring eggs.

Goats milk exfoliating soap from night Jasmine growing in our garden.

A thrifted large glass bowl made the perfect Terrarium for some plants of mine. The tiny wheelbarrow I purchased second hand.

Coloring practicing pages to test new shapes and colors, to see how they look side by side.

A thrifted grab bag of many tiny wooden vases. I added simple daisies that anyone can do.

Old primary colored blocks that were painted in pastel colors and pretty floral patterns added. Change up those old toys and make them into something unique.

An old chocolate package made the perfect mold to make this Tic Tack Toe game piece. All I needed was a bag of plaster and some self drying clay for the lady bug game pieces. It was my grandma who taught me about plaster molds and how to make things like this when I was a little girl.

Making Jasmine infusion oil from our garden.

A day of painting and decorating blown eggs from our chickens.

The Easter of the pandemic I went around my garden and using many plants I propagated, I potted them up to give out to friends, family and neighbors to add some cheer. I used to do that as a little girl too, making little crafts and leaving dried flower arrangements at neighbor’s front doors. The energy of cheer and happiness is the best feeling to be around and it doesn’t take much to do. These pom pom chicks I made were added to the pots. Our dentist and each of his staff even got a little potted plant with a chick in it.These are so easy to make too.

And last but not least, the edibles and the things we grow with our hands. The chickens we raise, the bees we take care of and the honey they produce, the plants we propagate and continue to grow generation after generation. Our hands are busy daily, doing all the things we love. As my husband’s Italian uncle would always say….”Keep producing, everyday…keep producing.”

So you guys, keep producing every day, keep teaching and keep learning, every single day.”