DIY Planner

Back to school is right around the corner, and it's time to start getting ready. So, in this post, I'll be showing you how to make an awesome and easy planner to keep you organized and ready for school.

What you'll need:

A spiral bound lined notebook (this is what I used, but you could also use a spiral bound graph paper notebook). Mine also had a little pocket just inside the cover, which is really nice.

You'll also need:

A pencil

Gel Pens (You can use regular pens but colorful pens are much better.)

Washi tape, stickers, or other decorating materials

Instructions:

The first thing you'll probably want to do is decorate the cover. I used washi tape, but you could cover it in a piece of colorful scrapbook paper, paint it, or whatever you want.

I left some spaces because I thought the brown added a nice touch.



I made sure to cover up the logo,
and other stuff I didn't want on the cover of
my planner.

Once you've decorated the cover, it's time to start laying out the inside of your planner.

I used a ruler, and every eight columns, I used a colorful pen to highlight one of the lines. This created four sections. You will notice there is a little extra space on the top and bottom, but you can just decorate that area. Now, your notebook might be a different size then mine, so you'll just have to experiment and make adjustments. I had to do a lot of experimenting.

Next, I wrote the month at the top and the dates in the columns.

The next step was making some vertical lines to split the columns into three sections.

Basically, what I did was use a colorful pen to draw the line that separates the dates from the squares. Then, I measured 6cm from that line and marked it with a pencil. The next thing I did was line up my ruler with that mark, and make a line through all the columns with my pen. I then repeated that step once more to accomplish what you see in the photo.

Again, for your notebook, it might be different.

You probably saw in the last photo, that I had three things written at the top of my planner.

Well, those are just the things I wanted to put. I'll explain:

The "Schedule" section is kind of like a checklist. I write down what I need to do everyday in the Schedule section and check it off when I'm done with whatever I had to do.

The "To Do" section is pretty self explanatory. It's a to-do list. But, this is different than my routine section because it's stuff I need to do that doesn't happen everyday. Like,  write blog post or clean room. It could be pick up books at library or download photos onto computer.

The third section is "Events", which by the way, you could just title "Calendar", because that's basically what it is. I'll be writing stuff you'd write on a calendar, such as appointments, outings, gatherings, etc. You get the point.

 Of course, you can make your categories anything you want. These are just the three things that I wanted in my planner. This way, when I open my planner, I can know what I have to get done, what I should get done, and what I have going on that day.

Add some washi tape on your pages to bring a lot of color!

Now that you have the basics of making a planner down, you just have to keep making pages and writing things in. Of course, you don't have to write in a whole year (or however long you want your planner to go on) in one time period. A good time to do this might be while watching TV or listening to music. I love my planner so much because I can customize it however I want.

You could also add in pages that have inspiring quotes on them or have some photos on them.

Have fun!

P.S. I have tons of cool ideas for more DIY posts, so stay tuned if you like them! :)

Roadtrip Fun

Road trips are great, but admit it, they get a little boring, especially if you feel sick when you do certain things in the car. I feel kind of sick when I watch movies, specifically when they are on one of those built in movie screens on the ceilings of cars. So, here is a list of things you can do in the car to cure your boredom.

1. Mad Libs
Mad Libs are so fun! And funny. You can do them alone, but if you want more funny stories, it's best to do these with friends/family. If you can get your whole family to play, awesome!

Image via google images

If you don't have a Mad Libs book on hand, you can print Mad Libs here.

2. License Plate  Count
This is great when you are driving through several states! Before your trip, write down all the states on a sheet of paper, then when you are driving, say someone passes you with a Kentucky license plate, then make a tally next to Kentucky, etc, etc.  If you want, you can write the license plate of every car that passes you on the whole trip, but let's be honest, that's a lot of license plates, and you might want to do a different activity on your car trip. :) I love this, it's so fun! I also sometimes count billboard signs (like firework signs).

Image via google images

3. Collage
I think it would be really fun to do this! Before your trip, you would print out pictures of the place you are going and also landmarks or locations you are visiting. You could bring a glue stick and notebook, and on the car ride there, paste in the photos and write some things you are excited about, or what you think certain places will be like, whatever you want. When you are there, take pictures of all the places you go. When you get home, you can print them out, paste them onto the next page, and write about your trip and what you loved most. :)

Image via google images

4. Journaling
You could add journaling to your collage and make a scrapbook out of it! Basically, just journal in the car, and each day when you are there. It'll be a fun way to remember things! I guess this isn't exactly a thing to do in the car, but you can do part of it in the car

5. Color/Do An Activity Book
Coloring is super fun!!! If you don't have a coloring book, there are tons of websites you can print pages from.
I like these ones from hallmark: http://ideas.hallmark.com/summer-ideas/summer-coloring-pages/?mc=T_E_M_062915_HM_VA_ColoringPages
And Mr. Printables has a ton too: http://mrprintables.com/printable-coloring-pages.html
They have really awesome giant coloring pages on there, too!
As for the activity books, I'm sure you can get printables for that, too! But, try and think up some of your own and make a booklet of them! For example, put in car quotes! "Are we there yet?" said _________________. I think car quotes are super funny! I actually saw those in a book, called All You Need Is A Pencil: The Stuck In A Car, Train, Or Plane Activitiy Book. If you can get this, do! I saw it at Barnes and Noble and wanted it! Otherwise, as I was saying, make your own. That is just as awesome! You can fill it with jokes, tongue twisters, tic-tac-toe boards, doodle pages, games like hangman or "would you rather" (or make your own game up), etc. Have fun with it!

Image via google images

6. Guessing Games
I played a "guess the song" game with my cousins on a recent roadtrip. One person would hum a tune and the others had to guess it! It would also be fun to do movies/books. You would have to describe a movie/book without saying the title, characters names, authors name, etc.

7. Listen To Music/Audiobook
Want to read a book but it makes you sick to your stomach? Listen to an audiobook! Also listen to music, it will make you a lot happier in the car. Music seems to always lift my mood. The bonus? You can listen to music while doing these activities in the car! Unless you are doing them with another person.


Image via google images

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post!  Go have a fun road trip! You can comment down below if you want. You can also pin my posts on Pinterest, so go do that!

Fantastic Photography

A few weeks ago, I did a photography camp at an art center. We got to use nice cameras, we went to some cool locations, and it was a lot of fun.

In this post, I will be sharing with you some of these photos. :)



Some bright flowers I saw when we were walking around the neighborhood.

You may notice in some of the photos, the subject of the photo (in this case the flowers) are offset. That is called the "rule of thirds." Have you every had a grid set on your camera? Imagine drawing a tic-tac-toe board on the photo, or a large hashtag. That's basically rule of thirds. The subject would be in one of the nine squares, instead of simply being centered in the middle. More on the rule of thirds here. 

 

A dreamy dandelion near the beach...

Here is another rule of thirds photo of a dandelion. This could be considered a close-up, because the dandelion is focused in on, and the background is slightly blurry.

These flowers and plants were in a big pot outside a shop.

This photo may seem a bit random...the yellow flower near the middle is the subject of the photo. The brownish-red plant is framing it. Framing in a photo is when the person or object in the photo is in a sort of frame. They could be standing in a doorframe or by a big open window.  It could be by a fence or a tree branch. Let's just say there are lots of options. If you'd like to see some more examples of framing, click here.

 



 This is one of my favorite photos. I love getting up-close and seeing things so clearly.

 This is a close-up, or what they call a "macro" (short for macrophotography) of a tree.

A "macro" photo captures the texture of something. It could be a tree, like in the photograph pictured above. I think macrophotography is fun. I always like getting really close to something and taking a clear, focused picture of it.

 

Here is another macro of a dog's nose and face.

 You can see the sort of dot texture on his nose.

This is an action shot, too. It seems as if the dog was sitting still, almost posing...but he was moving, and it was hard to take a photo of him. Though action shots are hard, they are often the best, because they capture moments and emotions.

The lake and sky looked gorgeous that day!
 

This is a landscape photo, which has three elements:  foreground, middle ground, and background. In this photo, the foreground is the rock, which I had the camera set on. The middle ground would be the lake, and the background would be the clouds and sky.

 

I absolutely love this shot of a rock, with the lake in the background. It's another macro shot. You can totally see the texture and details of the rock.

The clouds were really pretty. I love clouds when they are like this. This photo would look even better with a filter.

 

A beautiful day to be in the park. The boats looked really nice floating on the lake, the grass was green, the sky was blue.

 Above is another landscape of the lake, and below is the same photo but in a different view. I guess it could be a bugs-eye view. I've always loved getting into a different perspective:  laying down, looking up, shooting pictures in a different angle, etc.

The grass is close-up and focused on, so I guess this could also be considered a macro.

Speaking of perspective, I took the photo below by getting really close to the tree and then pointing the camera upward.



A great macro of some really cool tree bark.

Well, those are all the photos I will be sharing today. I have more and will take more soon so hopefully I will do another post on photography.

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you like my blog, share it with friends and family. Also, please go check out this awesome blog: The Earth Walk. There is an awesome post about dolphins on there, which sort of relates to my post about orca whales.

More posts coming soon, so stay tuned! :)

Cheerful Chalk

A couple of days ago, my Mom and I did some cool chalk art on the front sidewalk. Today I will be blogging about it!

 

We did this a while ago, and we did it again yesterday. It's really fun and relaxing. We each had our own square of sidewalk, and we did doodles and zentangle designs on them. It's really bright and a great spring activity. It gives a great splash of color on your front walk.

Try all sorts of creative doodles, you can write words, just do patterns, draw something and do patterns around it, etc. Just fill the square. The possibilities are endless! Buy some cool new chalk if you want. We tried some "glitter chalk", it was really nice, and sparkles in the sun. Someday I want to chalk the whole portion of our front sidewalk! But I would need a lot of chalk. :)

 

Enjoy these photos:

 

 





 

 

Well, I hope you enjoyed this short little post. Go outside today and fill in a whole square of sidewalk with chalk. It's really fun! And it's great to see people walk by and look at it.

If you have a Pinterest, you can Pin my post on Pinterest, and also share it on other social medias. Scroll to the bottom of a post, and there is a bar with options to Pin, Post, Tweet, and more.

I am very pleased to say my last post got around 100 views and lots of comments! I just want to thank you all so much for reading my blog and supporting me. It makes me really happy! Thank you!

Stay tuned for more posts coming soon to The Creativity Tree!

 

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There are many zentangle books out there, but here is the link to one we enjoy:

Zenspirations





Spring Crayon Art

Hello and welcome to The Creativity Tree!

 Sorry I haven't done a post in a while. But now, with Spring and Easter right around the corner, I decided, why not create some colorful crayon art for Spring. So, enjoy!



What you need:

Crayons, new or old

A canvas

A blow-dryer

Hot glue gun

Newspaper and cardboard

(to protect your workspace)

Instructions:

Start with your crayons and your canvas. You can decide to place your crayons however you want. The rainbow pattern, ROY G BIV, is very popular for crayon art, and that is what I used, but you can do any colors and patterns you want. Be creative with the shades of colors you use. Arrange the crayons on the canvas the way you would like. Remember, they don't have to go across the top. You could glue them in the middle for example. (Also, don't worry about the brand of crayons you use. I used a large variety and it worked totally fine; it's just that some crayons melt faster than others.)

Once you are happy with the arrangement of your crayons, it's time to glue them.

I glued a strip of glue onto the back of each crayon and then stuck them into place. Don't be shy with the glue, because you don't want the crayons to fall off the canvas when you are blow-drying it. But be careful with the hot glue, it can get really hot. I even burned myself. :( 





Now, let the glue dry and cool. (Hot glue dries very quickly, but just make sure it is fully dry before you blow-dry.) To test if your crayons are dry and set, shake your canvas around a bit or knock the bottom of it on a hard surface. If there are loose crayons, they'll probably fall off.

Now, it's time to blow-dry! You will want to prop the canvas up when blow-drying.

We set up lots of newspaper on the floor and wall, and set a piece of cardboard on the wall, then set the canvas on top of that. (Beware, this is very messy and the melted crayon can splash everywhere, so set up lots of newspaper. When I did it, some splashed on the wall and floor, but it came off.)

Blow dry on high, heating all the crayons evenly. Start towards the middle of the crayons, like where the logos are. They will first start getting wet/shiny, then start splashing onto the canvas. To prevent lots of wax from splashing off the canvas, start blow-drying from the top, pointing downwards. This will cause the wax to run down and onto the canvas instead of splashing everywhere.  

Keep heating until you get your desired look. The longer you heat it, the more it is going to mix together and blend, so beware of that.

And you're done! Let it dry/cool/harden in an upright position. Then you can set it on a shelf, hang it on a wall, etc.

This project is perfect for Spring because it has bold, bright, happy colors!

It's super simple and fun! You can also make them any size you want! It is great Spring/Summer décor and could also be an awesome gift!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post! Please share it! You can Pin It on Pinterest, email it to friends, share it on Facebook, and more! Also please leave comments and subscribe to my blog so you can get notifications when I have a new post! :)
I hope to post more DIY's soon, so stay tuned!


Here is a cool time-lapse video that I took of the crayons melting.

Valentine's Day Candy Bark

Welcome to The Creativity Tree!

Today I will be doing a tutorial on making Valentine's Day candy bark.


The finished product

What you will need:
Candy melts (I got these red, vanilla flavored candy melts at Aldi)
Mix-ins (I used conversation candy hearts and valentines day candy corn broken into pieces)



Instructions:

*Begin by covering a baking sheet with wax paper.

*Then microwave 2 cups of candy melts in a large bowl, microwaving in thirty second intervals, mixing in between, till smooth.

 *Add mix-ins and stir till they are coated. (Add as many or little mix-ins as you like. From previous times of trying this, I have seen that more mix-ins adds more flavor and is better.)



*Pour the candy mixture onto your wax paper. Use a spoon/spatula to even out the mixture. You can make it thin or thick. Top it off with sprinkling more mix-ins on top.

*Let the bark cool/harden completely. Break it or cut it into pieces (I did pizza shaped pieces).



I used a spatula to pry the bark off of the pan. The wax paper makes it easy to take off.
It's like a giant cookie. Yum!

Enjoy this recipe! It's delicious.

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I got this recipe from American Girl Magazine, September/October 2014 issue.