Creation and Therapy

Today I decided that instead of joining the army of shoppers at the outlet mall, I would hibernate in my house and "create". As a writer, I am familiar with the art of creating a story or an inspiration. However, creating something with paper, ink and a variety of medium is totally satisfying in an entirely different way. I had forgotten this until I was recently reminded by a fellow blogger. It has been a very long time since I pulled out my stamps and markers, glitter and glue, and I knew now what I would be doing with that box of unwanted Christmas trinkets that never seem to make it into my decorating scheme.

I was inspired by my friend and artist, Jocelyn of http://www.zendollworkshop.com/.  On November 3rd she wrote a post on her blog that described "tea staining" on tags. I instantly had a vision of Christmas present tags and what they would look like. My daughter and I always make our own tags using last year's Christmas cards. Albeit slightly creative, the activity is really an environmental recycling gesture. This year would be different. I was keen on the tea staining idea and so I contacted Jocelyn to get the step by step instructions. It seemed easy enough as she told me to “make the tea and dip the tag”. Perfect easy and it would add an old vintage look and feel to my Christmas tags.

I hadn't asked her what kind of tea would work best because I didn't think it would make a difference. I made 4 kinds thinking that would provide a variety of colour. Attaching the tags to ornament hooks and hanging them on the side of large tea cups worked well; I then waited for the staining to develop. The Zen Green tea created a beautiful obvious moss hue. The Liquorice tea provided a light brown tone and carried its scent with it. The Earl Grey black tea was gorgeous as its darker stain was warm and had an aged aura about it. The Acacia Berry was disappointing as after 15 minutes of soaking, the tags maintained their fresh white look as if they had never taken the tea bath at all. I glanced over to my coffee tray and noticed the small packets of Starbucks instant "Via" that I use when in desperate need of a quick caffeine fix. I wondered what kind of stain the coffee would create. The result; an amazing deep brown the colour of chocolate was produced, and I was proud of my spontaneous creation.

I then transferred the wet wonders on to a skewer and hung them to dry. Once dry, I will dust off the stamps that were used so many years ago, and create personalized messages with loved ones in mind. I will then collect all the little Christmas baubles that have lain lonely in boxes for years, and attach them to ribbon. Combined with my newly stained tags, they will find new homes on all the presents we have bought for family and friends.

This has been an amazingly therapeutic afternoon. The art of creation is truly relaxing and rejuvenating. Taking one more piece of advice from my friend and artist, I now plan on inviting some of my friends to join me around the dining room table for an afternoon of "tagging" and creating. I am sure that combined with a cup of tea and a scone, good conversation, and a laugh or too, this creative session will surely inspire us to solve some of our problems. And if it doesn’t, we will at least have spent some time not dwelling on them, if only for a few hours.