We enjoyed an amazing week over here at the All Things New Again Blog.

For starters, my Granny to Glam Entryway Makeover was featured in a Huffington Post article about hot paint colors for 2016. Here’s the link. (We’re #6!)

The next day my Wine Bottle Art tutorial that I also posted on Hometalk was featured on the home and garden website’s Facebook page. My Hometalk post skyrocketed from about 20 views to almost 20,000 in just a few hours.

Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Amazing enough for a girl to get what my grandma called A Big Head … except for one little thing.

I started reading the comments about my work.

The very first comment on the wine bottles was a big “thumbs down” emoji from one Facebooker.

No worries. She probably meant to post a “thumbs up” but just hit the wrong button. Right?

“I don’t care for this at all,” sniffed another lady.

Fair enough. It isn’t for everybody. I know.

Then there’s the lady from Florida who was the winner-winner-chicken-dinner for mean comments of the day.

“As an artist,” she began, “all I can say is this is an EPIC FAIL!”

She typed the words EPIC FAIL in all caps like that.

Here’s the thing…. I have EPICALLY FAILED at many—many—things in my lifetime.

• Sports.
• Jobs.
• Relationships.
• That chicken and cous-cous recipe I tried once.

My brother-in-law STILL teases me about that one.

I’m not even done failing yet!

But an EPIC FAIL over a few wine bottles that I drizzled in Unicorn Spit and glittered the heck out of? (That I made for my sister and she really liked, by the way.)

Not an EPIC FAIL in my book.

Not even close.

No matter what the Mean Artist Lady from Florida says.

It really bothers me that people feel the need to make critical and downright nasty comments about other peoples’ art.

But what bothers me even more is when creative people stop creating art because of it.

Or they never even try at all.

Have you ever been reluctant to try something because you didn’t think you could do it or you worried about what other people might say?

We hear it in our painting workshops all the time.

• I’m not creative.
• I can’t make art.
• I know my husband/mother/father/sister/brother/kids won’t like it.

I’m here to say:

STOP believing these lies.

• You ARE creative.
• You CAN make art.
• Not everyone is going to like what you do. DO IT ANYWAY.

My dad’s 1st grade teacher told him he wasn’t creative.

Who tells a child this?

My dad spent decades believing this lie.

My dad can find the most random, beat-up old object and—no matter what it is—he will figure out a way to make it functional, beautiful and new again. He just sketches out the design on a napkin, goes out into the garage and comes back 10 minutes later with the most clever ideas, perfectly constructed.

That takes creativity!

Not only is my dad the best artist in our family, he also helped me with my math homework every night when I was a kid. He somehow, magically, figured out a way to get all those numbers to stick in my head—at least long enough for me to pass my tests.

That took creativity!

You may not be the World’s Greatest Artist. None of us are. (Not even the Mean Artist Lady from Florida.)

But you are creative. Let me say that in all caps.

YOU ARE CREATIVE.

If you ever baked a cake or entertained a child on a rainy afternoon or figured out a work-around through a traffic jam, that all takes creativity.

You are loaded with creativity, baby!

Even if your family members or your 1st grade teacher or some mean strangers on the Internet don’t think so.

Even if you don’t believe it yourself.

YOU ARE STILL CREATIVE.

Please don’t be afraid to use your creative gifts.

Please don’t be afraid to try something new.

We wrapped up a series of Snowman Pallet Workshops last month. Every single person who came through went home with an incredibly cute snowman. And every single snowman looked different.

You might think a snowman is a snowman, but I’m telling you, these guys all had their own little personalities … because they all reflected the creativity of the artists who painted them.

That’s right. I just said artists.

Every single person who comes through our workshops is an artist.

If you pick up a paintbrush, you are an artist. It’s as simple as that.

I promise you—I PROMISE—nobody at All Things New Again will EVER say that you are a failure. We won’t even think it! We will teach you what we know. We will answer your questions.

We will encourage you every step of the way.

Because artists like us need to stick together like that.

Don’t be afraid to try.

You just might be amazing.

<3 <3 <3

~ Courtney