In the pursuit of creativity

I don’t draw every single day. That’s something I’m trying to change but it just doesn’t happen some days. I still want to be creative though. That’s where some of my other interests come in. I particularly like paper (fondly remembers filling the paper drawers at Utrecht).

Bookbinding was my hobby for awhile during college. I enjoyed the act of measuring paper, cutting/tearing it down, cutting boards, gluing paper, sewing the pages together. Making something with my hands. It was a great process.

I don’t have the set up for bookbinding right now but I can still cut and glue paper. There’s a bunch of paper craft tutorials and templates on Minieco.co.uk. One which caught my eye was the stars.

I started with the medium stars. You can print these templates out on whatever paper your printer can handle. Then cut them out. The star template is pretty simple in that you just need to lightly score the interior lines and fold along them. (Scoring helps the paper bend easier.) Then you glue the tabs together. That part took me a couple minutes to figure out.

The Importance of Glue

With this type of paper craft the glue is very important. I tried using Yes!Paste, then wallpaper paste (because I had a jar left over from an illustration class in college), then finally had success with Krazy glue. But the Krazy glue stained the paper.

You want a glue that grabs quickly. Meaning that once it comes in contact with the surface it holds on and doesn’t spring apart with the tension of the paper. I bought Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue. It worked so much better. I also purchased a new pair of scissors that can do detail. I don’t know where my big kid scissors went but all I had were little safety scissors.

This is a great way to be creative. Sometimes when I’m drawing or painting I get overwhelmed or frustrated. But this paper craft is relaxing and doesn’t require a massive amount of thought and decision making. I’m looking forward to making more of these cute little guys.

How do you stay creative? Let me know in the comments.