Flowers are a great way to liven up any space, and they also bring a lot of benefits. Aside from adding more oxygen to the room, looking at nature (even just tiny house plants) have been proven to significantly reduce stress levels. The calming nature of plants have also shown to increase productivity, memory performance, and attention span. While there are many spaces in Singapore where you could find a bit of green, it’s always a good idea to bring nature indoors. While you’re at it, why not spruce up your boring planters with a bit of DIY magic? Here are a few DIY ideas to that will help jazz up your planters.

1. Flower Decoupage
One thing you could do to liven up your terra cotta is to do a bit of decoupage. All you need to do is to paint your pot a plain color (off-white works well for this) and cut out shapes from colored napkins. Once the paint is dry, stick the napkins with mod podge, and then add another coat of mod podge to the whole thing to seal it.

2. Fabric Decoupage
If you don’t want to decoupage with flowers, there are other materials that you could use. For example, take fabric. You could use fabric of any pattern, as long as it’s not too thick. Light colored, cotton fabric is a safe choice. Simply put a layer of mod podge on the terra cotta, then wrap the fabric around the pot, making sure to create an allowance of about an inch at the top and bottom of the pot. Then add more decoupage on the cloth, and press out any bubbles under the cloth with your hands to ensure a smooth layer.

3. Faux Antique Terra Cotta
Other than adding decoupage, another thing you could do to terra cotta planters is to make them look older than they actually are. To make your pots look antique, simply spray the pots with fleck stone spray paint, then sand the pot. For an added illusion, dab on some dark green and brown paint to mimic dirt and moss.

4. Chalkboard Paint
Using chalkboard paint gives you an extra bit of function to your pots. If you’re planting herbs, you could write down the names of each herb to remember which plant is which. To avoid overwatering, you could even write down the date of when you last watered your plant. If you’re giving your plant as a gift, you could write a short note, or draw a small doodle.

To use chalkboard paint, simply put two even coats of paint on the planter of your choice. Make sure that each layer dries completely, then put chalk to paint and get creative!

Every day is different—you can’t expect the same level of mental agility every single day.  Sometimes your brain is wide open, and ideas seem just to overflow. Other times, you feel stuck in a state of mind that gets you nowhere.

Whenever you’re struggling to sustain the intensity of your creativity, just remember to keep a positive mindset and heed these advices to allow your brain to adapt and get those creative ideas coming.

1. Go for a Walk

There is nothing like a going out for a relaxing walk on a beautiful day. Bathing in natural light and listening to the sounds of the surroundings helps a lot in clearing your mind. Ditch the earphones and let the natural sounds in.

2. Break Out of Your Routine

Sometimes, we find ourselves stuck when it’s time to broaden our horizon. Oftentimes, we feel so comfortable with the norm that we lose the creative spark we once had when we first experience something. Shake things a bit by doing something different, like finding new sites to explore, trying a new hobby or even as simple as checking out a new store to buy an outfit. Who knows, you might discover something more interest that will get you going in a new direction.

3. Avoid Pressuring Yourself

Pressure can kill creativity. It’s even worse when you pressure yourself to do well. The process of making creative ideas is at its best when you’re having fun doing it. So instead of pushing yourself to make every work a masterpiece, relax and have fun, and just allow the creative process unfold. You’ll be surprised that the quality of work is much better when you’re enjoying the experience.

4. Quit Being Logical

The part of the brain responsible for generating creative ideas is not the same as the part responsible for reasoning. Inspiration and creativity is not logical. Most people have easier time accessing the creative part of the brain when in a relaxed state, engaged in some mindless task or just casually sharing ideas with someone.

5. Get Moving

You feel better physically and mentally after working out. This is because your body releases endorphins, making you feel better. When you feel positive inside out, this opens up your mind to receiving new inspiration, resulting in more creative ideas.

6. Spare Some Time for Brain Games

Brain games stimulate intellectual action and force it to solve problems by looking at them in diverse angles. It encourages the mind to try different approaches, which will eventually serve as inspirations for more creative ideas in the future.

If you want our creative juices to flow freely, you will have to unclog some ‘pipes’ and create more for creativity to grow. These six things may not be ideal for some, but they’ll surely free up some space in your head for your creative side to start running again.

If you’re moving and trying to sell your house, or even if you just want to revamp your home for your own satisfaction, then repainting your house is the very best way to do it. Since the walls are the biggest and the most visible surface of the property, this is the best area to use in making great impact to the appearance of the place.

When you go for this house painting project, you will have to choose between these options: to do the project on your own or to hire a professional painting services contractor to do the job for you. By far, the best option to go for is to hire professional painting services.  Why you should not try painting your home yourself? Here are the reasons why.

Lack of Time to Do the Job

First of all, only a few homeowners in Singapore have enough time to do their own home painting tasks, as this project requires considerable amount of time to complete. But if you hire painting services singapore professionals to do the job, it’s their only job for eight hours a day. Therefore, enough attention is given to project and there’s only minimal time where your home looks untidy, uneven or blotchy.

Non-Professional Quality of Finished Product

Since you’re not a professional house painter, the result of your home painting won’t be as good as with that of a professional’s. Singapore professional painting services are trained and well-experienced to execute their job. This is not about discouraging your painting skills, but the fact that professional painters do this on a daily basis gives them more knowledge on how to skillfully execute the task.

Painting walls is harder to do than what you actually think, and doing it on your own without proper training will inevitably end up with air bubbles, streaks, uneven strokes, marks of raindrops and ladder where you leaned it against the wall. If you’re painting your Singapore home for the purpose of selling it, then the unnecessary painting marks will surely affect the salability of the property.

Caution Awareness

Another matter to consider when you choose to paint your home yourself is your safety. If you need to paint, let’s say, the roof, you will have to climb a ladder with a heavy bucket of paint. This could be very dangerous as you could get struck by strong wind that can cause you to fall and become injured. If you let the professional Singapore painting services to do the job, they have the right equipment, knowledge on how to maneuver easily while on the ladder, and there’s someone assigned to climb and someone to hold the ladder. Doing it your way will surely put yourself at serious risk.

More Expenses

Though painting your home by yourself can help you save a lot, you might be astonished how it will eat up all your initial savings because of the frequent maintenance needed along the road. Furthermore, the money you saved from labor fee will still lose on the paints and panting materials you buy, which professional painting services can get at discounted prices. Also, doing the task your way will require you to purchase materials, like ladders, brushes, rollers, roller pole, etc., that will only be used once.

At present, oil painting is one of the frequently used forms of painters. One of the major reasons for this is that, the depth of it is hard to find in other kinds of medium available. Another reason is the glow and the life that the oil gives to the picture is truly exceptional. The oil builds mystery towards the subject, which definitely captivates the viewers. No matter what kind of painting it is as long as it is made through oil, it has quality that definitely attracts art lovers.

If you are an art gallery lover particularly if you are an oil painting collector, this article may somehow help you, as it talks about the best place to find inexpensive oil paintings in Singapore island.

China – one of the countries that produce inexpensive oil paintings for many Singapore art gallery is China. The country has very talented Chinese oil painters that do oil paintings reproduction. Most of the oil painters of the country are trained and nourished when they were still studying the profession. That is why Chinese painters could easily handle different classic style commissions not only the Chinese paintings. Authentic artwork is definitely expensive, so having a reproduction is a great way to have the most wanted oil painting masterpieces at more affordable rate.

Craft Shows – during the show lots of local artists are selling their masterpieces at very affordable rate. Buying oil paintings from the show also enables the artist to get present as well. Aside from oil paintings, there are also other paintings using other art galleries in Singapore that is being sold. Hence, if you totally love art then you could absolutely get an artwork that you could add up to your collection.

Flea marketplaces – this might not be a great place to purchase art, however, this is a great place to purchase inexpensive oil paintings. The home decor paintings available in here are usually second hand but still in good condition and appears to be brand new. If you are lucky enough you deal out authentic oil paintings at very affordable rate. With this, in order to get the artwork that you want, you must have right timing or from time to time, you check the current paintings works being sold.

Online – at present, many buyers are opting Internet to be the easiest way to get the things that they want. When it comes to oil paintings, there are also online art gallery that offer inexpensive oil painting from Vinci Art gallery which is based in Singapore. However, when purchasing online, you must ask for certification that the oil paintings they are selling are authentic and not reproductions. With the so many online art galleries available online that sell oil paintings you need to make sure that you have the legitimate one, as there are so many scammers present. In addition, you need also to compare shops in order for you to be able to get best deals. It is because though the shop already has affordable oil paintings, there are still others who have more affordable costs. Therefore, it would be great to do first research.

Garage Sales – Some communities, villages or families conduct this activity. Hence, there are cases where in oil paintings are included to the stuffs they are selling. In here, the costs are truly affordable because most them the things included on the sales are junk to them. You are definitely lucky if you are able to bump a garage sale that offer the oil painting you are looking for.

These are the possible places where you could find inexpensive oil paintings. When purchasing oil paintings you need to be very careful about the work you need to make sure that they are done properly in order for your money to be worth it.