I haven't done an 'Inspired by' post in over a year. Sometimes I think I need to get back to the roots of why I started this blog. There are so many inspiring artists out there and they all have something to inspire us with. This project goes out to

Anastasia Ugorskaya

. If you've never heard of her, don't worry. I hadn't either until I stumbled on her artwork and fell deeply in love.

One particular collection of hers depicts

night skies inside dragon fruits

. You read that right. Click

here

to see what I'm talking about.

Materials

• 1" Thick Wood
• Paints and Brush
• Scaled copy of a constellation
• Drill

 First, tape your drawing of a constellation onto the wood. (I stained my wood by the way.) Then use a small bit to drill a hole into each star on your design.

 Using your placement of the constellation as reference, paint the beginnings of a night sky on the wood. This is where I used Anastasia's inspiration by creating a much darker sky in the middle and adding white as the paint reached the edge of my circle. I also added some spikes along the circumference because I couldn't resist her dragonfruit approach!

 Use a thin brush to paint white dots within the sky.

 Thread your needle and add the outlines of the constellation using the holes that you drilled into the wood.

Simple and beautiful! I would love to create a different constellation as gifts for each of my friend's horoscopes.