I find the way in which we function and view the role art in our lives very interesting. You will have heard people talk about the right and left side of the brain and how this determines how you function. The right side of the brain controls your left side of your body and vice versa but it is also the more creative thinking side of the brain too. This doesn't mean you are more arty than others if your right side is more dominant it just means you have a more creative approach to life and your interpret colours and patterns in a different way to those who use the right side of their brain more.

Take this test and see which side of your brain is dominant and see if the traits it shows are true are not, you have to answer the questions honestly and quickly to get a true result.

http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm

My results was that I use my right side 55 %  of the time and my left 45% of the time, I have learnt to move from one side to the other depending on what I am doing - its not easy but with understanding and practice you can get great benefits from this way of thinking.

Let me know what your test results are and see what you think

regards

Jane

Hello! My name is Sarah and I blog over at The Fifth Street Palace as well as The Fifth Street Academy. Jane has graciously let me take over her blog today with a fun t-shirt stenciling tutorial.

So with out further ado here we go!

Materials:

• t-shirt
• printer
• freezer paper (you can purchase it from amazon or some craft shops)
• exacto knife
• cutting surface
• fabric paint
• sponge brush
• card stock
• iron

Step 1:

Choose an image that will not be too difficult to cut and print it onto the dull side of the freezer paper.

Step 2:

Cut out the black parts using the exacto knife.  Be sure you have a cutting surface underneath so you don't cut your table.

Your stencil should now look like this.

Step 3:

Plave the stencil shiny side down on your t-shirt and iron.

Step 4:

Squirt a dab of paint onto a sponge brush.

Step 5:

Quite liberally fill in the stencil with paint.

(Yes I did get a little on the edge.  I ended up stenciling 2 butterflies to cover up my mistake).

Step 6:

Gently peel away the freezer paper.  Now bask in the beauty of your creation :)

Feel free to stop by The Fifth Street Palace and leave me a comment!

Hi I have been exploring Twitter and found a tweet asking for people to sign up to swop a blog for a day and be a guest on your blog. So I was paired up with Sarah Scott www.sarahlscott.blogspot.com, she lives in canada with her family and has a passion for crafts and keeping fit. Look out for her tutorial on T Shirt painting!

I was born in Corbridge and grew up in Northumberland in a family home surrounded by arty crafty influences. Both parents were very creative and even went to pottery evening classes when I was very young! Art always featured somewhere in our days whether it be play early on  on the 'clarty table' ( my brother and I could make as much mess as we wanted as long as it was on our little table which Dad made us known as the clarty table) or sketching what we saw on holiday and always only because we wanted to. At school I hadn't a clue what I wanted to do and when choosing my 'O' levels, art and textiles were pushed out to make way for French as it was important to have a language in your choices back then. Little did I know what I would end up doing many years later!

So eventually I went to Huddersfield Polytechnic as after working in the local hotel in my village I decided a carer in hotel management was going to be my thing. Left poly had various jobs all over the place and loved them all. Joined Swallow hotels in 1990, North East based company and I am sure because of this 9 (yes I am biased) it was such a friendly caring company to work for. All changed when the company was taken over 10 years ago and work life changed beyond recognition. Change is good you know and exciting but this change wasnt, I was moved over to run a hotel in Preston which I enjoyed and did this for 4 years. During this time we changed hands yet again and life became unbareable so I started to look for something different to do. Applied for all sorts of jobs and often got the 'you need the right bit of paper' to qualify for the job reply.

Whilst on holiday in Turkey in October 2005 I was reading the Country Living magazine and flicking through the adverts in the back. All kinds of things to buy if you had a mansion and lots of money to match, however I read out one for Pottery painting parties and immediately my husband Robert shouts up 'you could do that you know'. Not wholey convinced I had a surf about when we got home and found a Ceramic teacher over in Pontefract who was running a course the following weekend. So off I went for 2 days and basically came back announcing we were going to have a Paint your own pottery studio and I couldnt wait to hand in my notice! Of course Robert's feet were firmly on the ground and brakes were applied. Discussions took place into the wee small hours, figures were worked and re worked. And then to cut a very long story short and many challenges later Fired 4 U was opened officially on 8th July 2006 although we had been open for 3 days before we did the official opening. I just couldnt wait to get going