[Gemme]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

I got my package today, too! Honestly, I'm a little overwhelmed. I will have to meditate on these objects and hope for some inspiration to come by.

Originally Posted by nycfem

You are reading my mind, lol. I have been sick with an upper respiratory infection and so I worked on them all day today. Then I was writing up my process, and my first paragraph was:

"When I first received everything and laid it all out, I felt super nervous. I remember I had that same feeling when Amiyesiam did this project way back! It is scary not to be in control and easy to feel overwhelmed! There are new textures and objects that I am not used to working with, so I think, “Should I have signed up for this!”

***

Rest assured: It gets better and ends up actually being a ton of fun!

You all should have seen the floor of my living room when I was putting it all together.



Madness!!!

You both have good ideas here. What I did with ami's project was to lay everything out in front of me and to group like things together, whatever my version of 'like' was....color, 'type' of supply, stuff I already use/am familiar with versus the non-familiar, etc.

That brought it down from a smorgasbord buffet to plate sized portions, so to speak, and I was able to see more clearly what items I would be using versus what I would not.

Remember, you don't have to use everything. Only 25% of each of your pieces need to be from these supplies. More is fine, of course, but not less. You can do any sized pieces as long as it's no larger than 5x7. If you choose to use one of the papers as the background, that's a big portion of the piece already.

The important thing is not to overthink things and to try to look at things in new ways. You have some items that you only have one of and, if you make identical pieces, that would be hard to do so you have to think about how to replicate that piece. You could make copies of it with a printer/scanner or use the first item as a template for the other pieces and color it in the same. Some items I sent out were not designed to make it into the final pieces but to be used as tools to help you with techniques and to give you ideas. Some things will wind up on the cutting floor and that's okay. Not everything will work and that's okay.

I want you to think but no so much that your brain hurts. Go with whatever attracts you and have fun. This is an awesome group of participants and I know this is going to be crazy creative in the end.