campfire notebook.

A 100 Days of Art Project

The 100 Day Project is an annual, global initiative where you simply commit to the act of creating for 100 days. The 2025 iteration began on February 23, 2025 and wrapped up on June 2.

I’ve participated in the past (read about it here) and adhered to the “rules” by doodling on a sticky note each day. What to do this year?

Project Selection

On a whim during the Christmas holidays, I had bought a toy dinosaur from a local thrift store. I painted it black, then a holographic, glittery green-black that reminded me of oil slicks on mud puddles. There was no point to keeping it, other than to make me smile every time the sparkle caught my eye going from my basement office to the upstairs.

In the new year, I began thinking about 100 Day Project topics in earnest: Possibilities like granny squares or small sketches. These would have been enjoyable, but what drove the project choice away from these crafts was the world around me; aside from the oppressive icy darkness that January and February can bring, contemptible forces fully emerged, unabashed.

With the threat of increasing insulation, I felt the need to not only be joyful, but to connect with others in some manner.

After running through project ideas at supper one night, the dinosaur on my stairs caught my eye, and it all fell into place.

Approach

Given the steps involved in creating the dinosaurs and the drying time that would be needed, I opted to batch paint, decorate, and distribute the dinosaurs. (Although, even on days I wasn’t actively creating, I was usually doing something towards the project: sourcing materials, considering approaches, or scoping out locations to hide the finished dinosaurs.)

• Thrifted 100 plastic dinosaurs from Value Village.
• Painted each dinosaur matte black (1-2 coats)
• Applied top coat (Dragonfly Glaze in green-gold-red shift; 1-2 coats)
• Wrapped in embroidery floss (either existing stash or thrifted)
• Final protective clear coat of Mod Podge Outdoors.

Once painted, my next step was figuring out what to “dress” them with. The one sitting on my stairs has a bespoke crocheted rainbow sweater, but I realized that crocheting 100 articles of tiny clothing were not going to provide the mindfulness I wanted.

Looking through my craft stash, I spied the mounds of embroidery floss: Colours that weren’t particularly suitable to any specific pattern, but in enough quantity that I felt strange simply throwing it away. I thought of another craft I tried years ago that used floss.

Worry dolls originate from Guatemala, and are made for children to tell their worries to. I remember making them as a child with match sticks and bits of floss, and the act of wrapping each dinosaur in floss seemed appropriate.

Maybe those who would discover them across the city would tell them their worries, and find comfort.

The Dinosaur Distribution System

Finally, I had a basket of dinosaurs to release into the city. This took several hours across a few trips: Driving to a spot, recording a short video of the dinosaur in their new home, and marking the spot on a Google map. You can check out the final locations on the map or watch the final video. (Note that the five dinosaurs located “in the harbour” are not at sea, but rather are in “private collections”, i.e., I kept one and gave four more away.)