During the angsty teenage years, I remember sitting cross-legged on my twin bed, snipping my way through a stack of Glamour magazines, isolating words that captured how I was feeling about friends and boys and parents and the past and the present and the future. I would save the wispy paper scraps in a letter-sized envelope until I had enough verbiage to cover an entire page. Then I would bust out the Elmer’s glue and create a stiff collage of self-centeredness.

Responding to today’s make something “key” theme, I borrowed a few elements from those days. But …

• Instead of Glamour, I scooped up a couple issues of Family Fun, an edition of Sports Illustrated for Kids, and a rubber stamp catalog. These are materials at hand on our coffee table these days.
• As I searched for words to snip, I narrowed my focus to the year of creativity I’ve undertaken through 365: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life. The words are not so much about me as about the process and discipline I’m learning through daily practice.
• Rather than blanket the page, I laid the clippings out in the shape of a skeleton key, leaving a lot of white space to surround the words.
• And instead of adhering the words to the page, I simply set them in place, temporarily, letting them curl and overlap and be a bit off-kilter. Then I snapped a photo. And now that this post is complete, the whole kit and caboodle will go into the recycle bin.

It feels good.