For this week’s Let’s Play video, I’m letting myself be inspired by the everyday things around me like an empty pasta box.  The shape of it, with that smiling window, made me smile every time I saw it.

Instead of tossing this box out, I covered it with washi tape to make a very silly gift box! I randomly grabbed a variety of washi tapes from my collection.  I used 10 or so but could you use 1? Yes!  Could you use 2 or 3? Yes!

It is play after all. There is no wrong way to cover an empty box that was destined for the trash with tape which means any way is the right way!

Watch Upcycling trash into a gift box with washi tape on YouTube

What is Let’s Play?  It’s all about rediscovering the ability to play. Each month I share a specific strategy that helped me recapture the freedom and fun of play.   This month’s theme is being inspired by the everyday.   You can see more of the Let’s Play series here.

Giveaway! Leave a comment telling me what everyday things inspire you to get entered in the $50 Dick Blick gift certificate giveaway (more details below).   I’d love to see what you’re creating- share it with us all in our Facebook community!

If it had a mouth, it certainly needed eyes!  In the video, you’ll see where I didn’t get the eyes to my liking the first time.  No big deal, just cut another set since this was not actual cosmetic surgery.

It was just too silly not to have a tongue sticking out.  I just had to do it!  Ended up being a bit long for a tongue but it’s not like this was an anatomically correctly face anyway.

Not surprisingly, I was impatient and didn’t want to wait for paint to dry so I had to be extra careful when painting the naked underside of the tongue with Dylusions paint.

This was very practical play for me today.  I made a gift box that I needed.  I used washi tapes instead of hoarding them which felt great.  But most of all, I got to make that giant tongue!

Want to see more Let’s Play videos? You can find all the weekly posts here.

Sharing your play:   I, and a whole bunch of others, would love to see what you’re creating!  We’re sharing it in the Facebook group called A Colorful Place to Play. Why Facebook?  I’ve listened to your feedback about how and where you’d like to share your play instead of the link parties.

Monthly giveaways:  Leave comment on any (and all for more chances) of the weekly Let’s Play blog posts to be entered and one winner each month will be chosen by random.org.  Want more chances to win a $50 gift certificate to DickBlick.com?  Pin any of the images from the page or share about it on Facebook- then come back and leave a comment telling me what you did and you can have more chances to win! Giveaway closes the Sunday, July 31st at 11 pm EST and the winner will announced on the blog the following Monday.

Congrats to Margaret Price, last month’s winner!

What you are seeing here is sarcasm in an art journal. Those scribbled words say “this is a great day to be me.” This was a not a joyous phrase, but one of sarcasm that came out of frustration with something.

Basically, I was pouting about something in my art journal.  What was the something?  It was incredibly trivial but it felt so big in the moment.  How do I know it was trivial?  I don’t even remember what it was when I came back to this art journal page weeks later…or was it months?

This is mixed media so that means if I don’t like it, I can add more layers! So that is exactly what I did as I added more paint on top to this blah start to an art journal page.

The brighter colors were already making me happier but I wanted even more happy feelings.  Flowers!  I grabbed Doodle It Daisy and tested out the placement.  I was in love.  But the paint was still wet and I didn’t want to wait for it to dry…and I wanted the flower in teal….

So I wiped off the wet paint to reveal the blue underneath.  FYI- teal doesn’t stand out much against blue.  So after stenciling it you couldn’t even see that it was a flower. Oops!  It was an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly.

The opportunity was to try a different color than what I had planned.

There are often messages for me in my art journaling, and this was no exception.  I had shifted this pouting page to one of happier feelings so I grabbed the Transform stencil.

Now for the journaling.  But what to write with? The paint was all still a bit wet, so pens were out of the question.  It was the perfect time for fineliners. These are bottles filled with runny paints.  You can see how they work in another blog post and video here.

All the happy feelings I had after journaling needed even more of an outlet, so I grabbed the Glitter Paste!  I put the Daisy stencil back on the page, and added some sparkle to it!  Glitter is always a good thing!

Still had lots of happy feelings, so I scribble journaled them some more!

The final touch was a bit of white marker to transform the word transform!  Good thing the paint was dry!

The finished page-  I can still see the ugly start in places and that is a good thing!  It reminds me even things are yucky at one point, it doesn’t mean they have to stay that way!

Here are the supplies I used. Some of these links are affiliate links which means I get a small percentage. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and you are helping me keep this blog and my videos ad free! Thank you- I don’t like ads any more than you do!

InLinkz.com