THINK OUT OF THE BOX.
A powerful skill. Recipe? Get a couple of "regular and rational" attributes of something (a problem, question, thing, thought, etc.) and add a bit of abstract/thing unrelated to the topic.
Watercolour and coloured pencil on watercolour paper. Usually I paint on watercolour paper that costs about 3$ for a pad with 10 sheets. This was the first time I painted on paper that costs about 1$ per sheet. And yes, it DOES make a difference. :D