Hey remember when I wrote about my New Year's goals and one of them was how I wanted to fill a sketchbook page every week? And then I started doing that and posted a photo every week of my sketchbook? Well if you don't, it's probably because I did it like 4 times and then totally gave up. Gotta love New Year's goals that last only for January...

Well, I've been following Jessalin Beutler on Twitter ever since I bought an adorable and beautifully painted dress from her online shop and she started this project called Art Everyday where she (as you may have guessed) makes art every single day.

For some reason, even though I couldn't manage to put pen to paper once a week, making something everday seemed attainable. I still don't understand the logic, because there is no logic in this, but I find setting aside a few minutes everyday just to play around in my sketchbook so much easier than "filling a page each week".

Art everyday (in my opinion) is about feeling free to just scribble on a page one day, make giant ugly mistakes the next day, and maybe even create something you're proud of the next day. When you experiment and make something you're feeling blah about, there's always tomorrow to start fresh. I felt a lot of pressure with the sketchbook page per week to create something good every week. Afterall, I had a whole week to complete it. Now, I love being able to experiment with my tools and not think of it as a final piece.

While I haven't managed to stick with making art literally everyday, it's definitely art almost everyday. Turns out I've been managing to fill way more than one page per week too! So I still feel like I'm sticking with my New Year's goal.

What about you? Have you stumbled on any goals this year and what are you doing to get back on track?

I'm fully into all things summer now and just loving this warm weather! I've been stocking up on summer dresses and cute new sandals. Also, my main mode of transportation has been my bike. I really wish I could bike everywhere all year round. This week I might even try my hand at a little veggie garden on my deck. We'll see how long those poor plants last. My next post might be titled "RIP Zucchini" so watch out.

This month I made a beachy, summery desktop background to celebrate sandal weather! Hope you like it. :)

There are 4 sizes to choose from depending what kind of computer/lappy you have so there should be something for everyone's situation, plus a patterned iPhone background. Just click one of the buttons below to get the full size image. Then just save it and set it as your wallpaper.

Download the Backgrounds
1440 x 900 // 1366 x 768 // 1920 x 1080 // 2800 x 1880 // iPhone

I know it's summer and the last thing you're thinking about making is sweater, but this project is too cute to wait til winter! Don't worry, your pencils won't mind a little extra warmth.

This craft is great because it will probably cost you $0. I rinsed out a can and a small jar and used leftover yarn I had laying around.

Both of my pencil holder cozies were made with Bernet Handicrafter Cotton. It's a light weight cotton yarn that comes in some very pretty colours. The blue one is "Mod Ombre" and the orange one is "Mango Madness". You'll also need a yarn needle for stitching the ends together.

For the knit cozy, I used a US size 7 set of knitting needles and cast on about 36 stitches. This will of course vary depending on the yarn you use and how you knit. Just knit a couple rows and measure up against the can before you get too far. To get the classic little v's just knit one row then pearl one row.

For the crocheted cozy, I used a J/10-6.00mm hook and 2 strands of the cotton yarn. I made a chain of 28 stitches and just did row after row of single crochet using 2 strands. Again, the number of stitches will vary depending of the size of the jar and type of yarn. After the pieces fully covered the height of the jars, I stopped and with right sides together, sewed the ends together to form a circle. If you're a better knitter than me, you could also just knit in the round and then wouldn't have to worry about the sewing!

Keep those pencils warm everybody!

Today I have a quick little crafty project for you. Using a couple stampers and 3 colours of paint, you can make a million adorable printed gift bags. I used fabric paint and mini canvas tote bags for mine, but you could use regular arcylic paint and paper bags too. It would be great for treat bags for a birthday party or for tucking a little gift into.

First up, the supplies. You'll need 3 colours of paint (red, yellow and blue) some stampers and some kind of bag. If you don't want to buy stampers, you can use things you already have around the house. The cap of a glue stick, the end of a thick marker or an old kids toy can make a great stamper too. For my triangles, I used a little square of Speedball Speedy Cut sliced into little triangles.

The reason I told to get only the primary colours is because you can mix any colour you want from those and only spend money on 3 tubes of paint. The first design I tried was using a round sponge stamper and the yellow and blue paints. I start with yellow for the first row, yellow with a bit of blue for the second row, blue with a bit of yellow for the third row and pure blue for the last row. Easy!

For the triangle design I used a bunch of Speedy Cut triangles, and the red and yellow paint. I just mixed up those 2 paints in a couple ratios to get a few shades of orange, pink and yellow. No need for rulers and measuring here, just go nuts with your triangle stamps until you like what you see.