Day 37

"Make something with a stapler. You can staple things together or, heck, just work with the loose staples. Even the stapler itself can be transformed."

Several layers of tissue paper do not like being glued together. Nor do they enjoy staying still for me to staple them. Blarg.

Day 36

"Take something old and make it look new."

I took an empty can of concentrated iced tea, painted it red, covered it in a layer of red tissue paper, and painted a pretty black design on it. Can you see the little top hat tribute? :)

Day 35

"Create instructions that others can use to make something, and then have someone try it out."

Well now. This image is HUMONGOUS!(500x3200) And so I uploaded it on devientArt instead, so you can all go over there and see it. Have I mentioned how big it is?
How to Make a Felt Heart

Day 34

"Work with Wire. Thin-gauge wire can easily be bent by hand, so no special tools are required. You don't even have to buy wire if you have some paper clips handy."

Luckily, my mother is just as much of an artsy person as I am, and she's had a lot longer to collect supplies and stuff. So I had thin wire.
I also had seed beads and beading thread, which I still believe has wire in it. It holds shape very nicely for a beading thread. I find it suspicious. *ninja eyes*

Change is [sometimes] good.

I think I'm going to change this. I'm not enjoying it, I'm stressing over it, I put off doing the art every day because I don't want to. I'm a changing person, never the same day to day, so how can I expect myself to do the same thing every day? It makes no sense, at least to me.
So I'm going to change this so that I will enjoy it more. This project is for my benefit, after all. I'm supposed to be having fun with this.
So from now on, I will not by making top hats every day. For January, sure, it was fun, but it gets dull for me, to always have to think in the same shape. This is not how it was supposed to be, and I don't feel the freedom I want to have with an extracurricular activity like this.
So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to change everything, right now. I think I will enjoy it more, it will help me achieve the goals I set for this, which my current project is not doing.
I apologize to anyone who is disappointed by this. But really, it is my project, sorry.
Oh. I suppose I haven't actually explained the change yet, have I?
Well, first of all. The site is now A Bottle of Paint. I like that name.
Secondly. Top hats were great for January, but now I need a change. So, every month this year, I will change the subject I will make an extra pretty little picture depicting that month's topic, and all my creations that month will have that theme.
Thirdly, on the last day of the month I can make ANYTHING I WANT, with any theme and/or topic. Just for fun.
I want to enjoy this. I don't want it to be a chore, and I was beginning to treat it like one. So that's the new plan, and this one I'm going to stick with.
Thank you.

Day 31

"Make a path for people to follow and invite people to try it out."

It has nothing to do with Top Hats. Click on it to see a bigger version.

Day 30

"Play Time. Work with toys: If you don't have any, borrow some from a friend with kids, and maybe even work with the kids!"

Does anyone else get the feeling that this book was intended for adults? Hmm? Whatever. Who cares? :D Besides, as a 'kid' with younger siblings, I have my own toys!

Embrace the moment. Never again will you hear me say I am glad to be a 'child'. :P
I might make this more complicated a bit later, like a lego wall mosaic or something.
You know what I realized today? This doesn't have to be complicated. I don't need to sit on my butt all day trying to come up with something super-amazing. It can be something super-simple every day. Of course, that's no fun, but part of the reason I'm so stressed about this is because I think my creativity is running out. But it's not, I'm just trying too hard. :)

Day 23

"Waste not. Dig in a recycling bin for all of today's materials."

Well, they weren't sitting in a recycling box, but they are recycled materials.
- The bottom of a gum container
- The lid from a baby food container
- Some paper cut out to make the top hat stencil from Day 7
- Black paint, red paint, red ribbon

Day 21

"Write a ten-word love story. bonus: Illustrate it!"

Lucky you. Consider it a HUGE honor that you were allowed to see the inside of my journal/diary. :)

Yes, I know the last word looks like "Lover" not "Love", but that's what I get for trying to be fancy. :|
I still can't draw my boyfriend. I've decided it's because I just can't put his wonderfulness into a picture on paper.

Day 20

"Buy or make some clay and then use it like you never have before."

It's sad, but I've never actually made a sculpture out of clay. Just little pots and the letter A.

I decided not to paint it just yet...I kind of like how it looks now.

Day 19

"Create Something that floats on water. (It doesn't have to be a boat.)"

It's a boat. 'nuff said.

What you see in the background there is the box for my awesome new Letraset Comic Art Markers. I luuuv them ~<3

Day 18

"Work with the things you find in your car (or a friend's car if you don't have one)."

'My' car is full of random stuff I didn't feel like using. This was so much more amusing, though technically it's my brother's 'car'. ;)

Day 17

"Make something inspired by and/or that goes over an eye (yours or someone else's)"

They are top hat glasses. They make you look cool. BD

Day 16

"Make a unique print by cutting up a potato or sponge, and use it to stamp on a material of your choice."

It was a potato, but I think it's modifications were for the best. ;)

Day 15

What can you do with just a dollar? Use a dollar bill as your medium of inspiration today.

Well, I live in Canada. Our lowest bill amount is $5. So I made my own $1 bill :)

In The United Tops of America, we speak a strange "Frenglish" language.

Day 14

"Make something microscopic. How small can you work? Can you make something that requires a magnifying glass to see?"

Weel, it doesn't require a magnifying glass, but it's pretty small. You can see my eraser and the tip of my finest (smallest) paintbrush next to it.

Day 13

"Use tea leaves or tea bags (used or unused) or even just liquid tea (in a cup or not) to create something today."

This was ridiculous to do, and I smell like tea now. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I ripped open a tea bag, spread Mod Podge on my paper(which dried too quickly, so I had to keep putting it on) and sprinkled it. I tried to make one in a tea cup too, but that didn't work so well...
Believe it, people. This is what your tea looks like.


This is not one of my favourites, for sure.
Camera is shit.

Day 12

"Camouflage. Create or alter something so that it disappears into the background."

Somehow, my painting water was dripped all over my desk. I don't remember it happening, but you have no idea how upset I was when I found out. This took me forever to do, but I had to use an ink pen for the black, and it smudged. I am rather disappointed, but I still really like it. :)

Day 11

"Work with the other hand. Pick a medium you're comfortable with, then work with your nondominant hand -- if you usually favor your right hand then only use you left and vice-versa."

My left hand is absolutely useless. I'm serious. It can't really do anything properly, much less draw. I still did it, though I couldn't draw a straight line.

I had to darken it in photoshop because my scanner didn't pick up the lines as well as I had hoped it would. That's why the colouring's yellow-y.

Day 10

"Use only water as your medium/inspiration today."

Black paint + Gloss Mod Podge + Water =

Yes, that's real water on top of it. And underneath, a painting and a couple of layers of Mod Podge. Mod Podge is advertised as a "Waterbase sealer, glue & finish", so probably not the smartest thing to use, but certainly the most available at the time. Besides, it works just fine if you do it fast enough. Even better if you wait a few hours for it to dry, but I didn't have a few hours, so I had to work relatively fast. Turned out well, though, and I didn't even plan the lovely shadows in the corners. I'm very happy with the shine, however. It took a while (which I just barely had) to find the right angle for that reflection, but it's exactly the way I wanted it to be. I think this is going to be another of my favorites. :)

Day 9

"Make something with your breakfast before you eat it."

...Breakfast? o.o Oops.
I didn't do this one either, sorry. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow...or next weekend...we'll see.
Once again, though, I drew something pretty instead!!

Sorry, once again. This time I'm sorry for the late and crappy posts. I've had a bad weekend and I just had to get these done in the time I had. I find I have more time during the week, while I'm supposed to be busy, rather than on the weekend, when everyone assumes I have nothing to do and include me in their grand scheme without consulting me first.
It's stupid. Bleh. Hope this week is better.

Day 8

"Transform an old book into something new by cutting, folding, glueing, so on."

I am completely incapable of destroying a book, sorry :/ I love them too much.
But I drew a pretty picture instead!! See? See? ^_^

I drew it but finished it in Photoshop. Sorry it's crap, it's late, maybe I'll remake it using actual tools, not just the cheater's path.

Day 7

"One week down! See how fast it goes? Today, make a stencil and use it in your work."

One week indeed! It's so cool! :) I'm still lovin' it. It's a lot of fun (for now, at least), and I'm gonna take the opportunity to suggest again that you try it out.
Anyways.

The first one is the stencil.
The second is the stencil in my sketchbook, covered in paint.
The third is after I lifted the stencil off the page.
The fourth is after I used white-out to fix the leaks that happened when I put too much paint directly on the page, or my paintbrush got under the stencil.
And that's it. If someone wants to see bigger versions, request them yourself. :P

Day 6

"Look in the kitchen and work with the first fruit or vegetable you spot. It could be in the form of juice, jam, or even canned."

In my defense, there was only jam and bananas. And pieces of apple. Shhhhhh.
But you know what? It's my project. So pffft to you, book. You are simply inspiration!

"A daily project is all about the rules you set for yourself, and there is no punishment for breaking those rules."

A quote from the How to Use this Book page. Now I'll explain why I'm saying all this.
You see, I forgot about the fruit/vegetable part. I opened my cupboard and saw Peanut Butter, Nutella, and Crackers. So that's what I used:


It was delicious, too. Just ask my brother. We had a hard time eating it, though, because it was so cute! ♥

Day 5

"What do you collect? Work with a collection of objects you have in your home (or borrow a friend's if you like)."

I collect pencils. I love my pencils. ♥
The obvious solution (and the easiest) is this:

I actually made that after the 'official' one, though, so maybe not so obvious to me. And this one was damn hard to make! I had to keep it up with bottles of paint to keep the pencils from rolling off. It took me quite a while, almost an hour. Mostly, I think, because my first couple of attempts (before the paint bottles) fell down about halfway through. But finally, I created this:

Please use your imagination. It is a top hat. IT IS A TOP HAT.
It is ridiculously hard to make a top hat out of pencils without a good couple of hours at your disposal. xP

Day 4

"Take a five-minute walk, then make something using whatever materials are available where you've ended up. Leave it there for someone else to discover, but be sure to document it first!"

My five-minute walk was supposed to be somewhere nice through the forest, but I ended up walking to Harvey's with my friends instead. The materials I used where very much available, and I would have left it there, but my friends ate it first. On second thought, maybe leaving it there wouldn't have been a very good idea. It would have been a waste of fries ;)

Day 3

"Make something out of paper, but don't use scissors or glue or draw on it. What now? (And no, you don't have to know origami to do this.)"

Key words: Paper, scissors, glue. I ripped the paper, rolled it, and bent it, then rested the pieces on top of each other. It would definitely stay better with some glue, but there is no glue holding it together. You can see some of the random ripped paper on the sides.

There's no bigger version. I decided it was kind of a waste of space on my photobucket account, so unless someone specifically requests a bigger version of a picture, I'm leaving it about this size. It's plenty big enough to see the details anyways.

Day 2

"What's your favorite animal? Use it as your inspiration today."

Today I felt artistic, so I drew the top hat. My favourite animal is a cat (or so I've decided it will be today), but I can't draw animals at all. so I came up with a creative solution. Or rather, a solution I hope is creative. Drawn in pencil, inked with my brand new brush pen (♥!), behold today's top hat!!:


I think I got a good size for the picture, don't you think? Yay!! :D

Day 1

"The first step is the hardest, so start small today and make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only the materials in your immediate environment."

So today, I made a small top hat. I used a black bottlecap, a small black hair elastic, the black lid of an old glass jar of black paint, and a couple of small pieces of Christmas present ribbon. All these things were found on my desk where I do all my work on everything, and the finished piece was definitely small enough to fit in my hand, as it was supposed to be. I had to make it relatively quickly, it took me about ten minutes to find everything. And this is the first official top hat: