So, for Ornament Thursday for this Month, the theme was Sprout. Well, I guess this can be taken in a variety of ways, but the way I see it is that Spring is a time to “Sprout” into new ideas. Seems like the winter months are so dreary…I just can’t help it. It’s hard to find a lot of motivation when it is cold and you get home to a dark evening. I figured that this idea notebook would be a good way to motivate me and get me organized in my thoughts.

The style of this is totally me…the neon, the pop art feel, the doodles. I struggle with my own personal style, cause being a graphic designer, I am always having to design based on what other people want. Sometimes your style gets lost in the muck. I think it is good to be diverse in what you do and change it up, but I like that I was able to find my voice in this project…maybe it was just the project I needed to get kicked into gear for other projects and tasks.

For a basic rundown of how this image came to be, I basically took a photo of myself, creatively cropped it and then made it into a black and white image in Photoshop. I then duplicated the layer, posterized it and changed the layer style to Overlay. The overlay was set at 80%.

Everything else was just basically me using a highlighter to fill in the areas. I added on fun stickers for a nice touch and doodled and drew on top with a ball point pen. There are dividers as well, as seen here:

I made the dividers be major crafts/topics that I get ideas/inspiration from.

Check out these other Ornament Thursday ladies who are celebrating “Sprout”

Alexa Westerfield – a.k.a. Swelldesigner
Now that’s it’s time for spring, ideas are “sprouting” all over the place. Alexa creates this eye-catching notebook to keep them in order.

Art Bead Scene
Some good karma is sprouting up at the Art Bead Scene with Heather’s Lotus Flower Bracelet

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
The Brooklyn National Anthem sprouts every year when Cindy’s in Spring mode. See what it inspired this year!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie giggles and remembers a furry friend, brings back an old mold, and sprouts up a beaded LOLhammy ceramic ornament

Helen Bradley and Michelle Zimmerman at http design
It’s spring and we’re sprouting all sorts of wonderful art at http design. Michelle is toting her art to the market and Helen revisits a fun art school assignment for her inspiration.

Humblebeads
Humblebeads celebrates spring with a Berry Good bracelet inspired by some juicy disk beads.

Jennifer Heynen of Jangles
Jennifer has come up with a cute little necklace to remind you of spring.

Katie’s Beading Blog
Create some spring flair of your own with this easy bead embroidery idea from Katie’s book, Hip to Bead.

Kriss Cramer – Spring Is In The Air
Not much of a horticulturist? Me neither! But I love flowers and I enjoy growing these ones with some paper, paint, and rhinestones.

Linda and Tea at Make It Mine magazine
Tea decided to join the fun this month. Check out her quilt blocks and Linda’s purse.

Melissa J. Lee – Strands of Beads
What do Korean playing cards have to do with a sprouting spring? Check out Melissa’s blog to find out.

Michelle McGee – S-P-R-O-U-T
Michelle just can’t stop creating in green! A little wooden birdhouse becomes a beautiful palace!

Savvy Crafter
Candie shares some happy spring memories with a cheerful felty flower idea!

Snap out of it, Jean! There’s beading to be done!
Jean tells a touching, poignant tale of some beads who help one another, and after a small amount of sturm and drang they get it together and help each other! In fact, they prettify whatever YOU choose! Go see! It’s fun!

Spring is Sprouting for Joolz by Lisa
Even without a green thumb, Lisa managed to “grow” a garden of sorts this month.

Sprouting Up with Beading Help Web
Lynn Kvigne’s used wire and a lentil bead to create a “sprouting” pendant for wire workers who want a bit of a challenge!

The Goddess ROCKS!
Inspired by a river rock shaped like an ancient goddess statue, Hali paints, melts crayons and adds glitter to create a sparkley celebration of Spring.

The Impatient Blogger
How does your garden grow? With metal mesh, Czech glass beads and vintage French images all in a row! Margot just returned from Paris where she discovered a treasure trove of vintage paper. This scanned and sized postcard image fit the theme of sprout perfectly and the necklace was in search of a new home…add some teal metal mesh bows and accents and voila…a design sprouts forth!

Vintage Girl Teams Up With Her Vintage Momma!
What does a gal do when she finds herself far from her crafting supplies? Why, she raids her mom’s basement and then puts dear old mama to work! Stop by and you’ll see why mom’s basement is fertile ground for things that sprout!