No time for creativity? Make tiny art!

Ok, I get it.  There’s a lot of important stuff to get done!  I’ve been there myself… “gettin ‘er done” at the expense of my own art practice.  It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when the art therapist isn’t making any art!  There are many things that could be said about making yourself and your passions a priority… or about choosing to live simply (could you live in a smaller house?  Could you borrow books from the library instead of buying them?) so that you could perhaps work a few less hours, thus freeing up some time for pursuits that bring you joy.  But – one of the simplest changes you can make is to reframe your thoughts!  At times, I find myself slipping into “all or nothing” thinking; and not getting out my art supplies because I don’t have a few hours open.  Then I was reminded about “inchies” – tiny one or two-inch squares of paper.  These little beauties are so fun to create, and literally take only a few minutes to create!  Once you’ve got a few of them done, you can collect them together into some beautiful artwork.  My “JOY” example is a collection of 12 two-inch squares, added onto an 8x10 canvas.  Surely, you’ve got a few minutes to spare.

Suggested supplies

Look around at what you’ve got on hand… you really don’t need fancy supplies to get started with this! If you do need to buy things, you can get pretty good basic supplies at dollar stores

Thick paper – 140lb watercolor paper is ideal

Gel medium – I prefer to use Matte Gel medium (usually Liquitex or Golden brand) as my glue because it is thick, and is great at gluing down chunky/heavier things I add to my inchies.  If you are sticking to paper and other light things, you could use Mod Podge (available at my local Dollarama!), or even a simple glue stick! 

Bits of ephemera – old dictionaries (can usually be found at thrift stores for a very good price), sheet music, maps (really cool to include maps of places you’ve been on holiday… think outside the box here - subway maps from NYC, pamphlets from visitor centres at local attractions, train maps from Europe, etc.), pictures/words torn out of magazines… and one of my personal favorites – napkins.  The pine trees on the bottom row of inchies in “Joy” are images from a napkin!   Anything goes!

Scissors – for trimming those inchies after you’ve layered them up

Paintbrush –  for spreading the gel medium/mod podge… or for adding paint to your inchies!

Anything else that catches your eye – Let your creative side take over… you can add whatever you’d like!  Something I like to do is have a ziplock baggie set aside, and whenever something catches my eye, I put it in the baggie.  Then you’ve got a little stash of goodies to draw from when you go to create an inchie.

Some tips…

Keep it simple – the inchies I made have only two or three things added to each one.

For napkins – If you want to add bits of napkins… Napkins that have a white background behind the images work best.  Usually there are three layers of tissue in a napkin.  Take off only the top layer, and add this to your art.  Paint a thin layer of gel medium onto your inchie, and then lay the napkin piece on top of this, and press it into the glue.  After it has set (if you’ve used a thin layer of the gel this should only take two minutes), paint another thin layer of gel on top of the napkin.  The gel dries clear, and usually the napkin is a bit transparent and you can see details of what is underneath.  These transparent layers are so cool!

Have fun!! – the most important tip of all!