Flowers??? How thoughtful

Sometimes I find myself wandering around those big box stores admiring the pretty "spare parts" 

the wonderful flowers that look flawless.....

I pick them up and do my best to try to figure out how they were made....

I of course picture a big factory where these flowers are churned out by the thousands... 

I CAN do it! 

So I decided to try.... 

1. Pick out your fabric.... Satin seems to work best but you can use any kind you want.

2. Cut circles from your fabric.  These can be as big or small as you would like, but you want them to get progressively smaller.

3. Light your candle.

4. Burn just the edges of the fabric.  If you're using satin you will notice how the edges start to curl up.

5. Layer your burnt circles with the largest on the bottom.  There are many ways to finish off the flower.  You can glue the circles together, you can sew them, you could punch a hole in them and use a brad to hold them all together.

Voila!  You have a beautiful hand made flower to add to your art project! 

I like to make them while sitting on my couch watching my favorite show... then they are all ready to go when you start a new project!

Saturday finds

About two months ago I stopped working the graveyard shift, and now have to be up at 4:30

in the morning 3 -4 days a week.  

However I'm off on Saturdays! 

So at 6 am I get up, make a cup of coffee, and head out to see what I can find to use in my art!

Today I ventured up to a 55+ community and ran into a couple of estate sales.

Sometimes they creep me out.. but I'm in search of maps, and vintage metal findings,

books, ect...

Today was a bit of a treasure trove!

Maps, pictures, a copy of "Little Women" with a signature and date of 1949. 

The pictures are all old black and whites, 

 

 

 

and there are actually about 5x's the amount of 

postage stamps as you see...

The maps are from Germany, and most dated in the 80's

There was also this little hand held scorecard for Bridge

All are enough to get the creative juices flowing...

The bonus is that the stamps I found have some value... I paid 50 cents for them, and I found one worth 15.00!  I'd say that's an investment... If I could find anyone to buy it of course!!!

What do you look for at yard/estate sales??  How do you plan to use them in your future projects?  

Please feel free to post your pictures, or link up to the treasures you have found!  T

Thanks for looking, and come back soon!

No Art Days!

Yesterday was one of those... No Art Days....

My work week starts on Sundays right now, and I work 12 hour shifts... It makes creating on work days difficult!

And yesterday was one of those "I'm too tired to even eat dinner" days!!!

Today however.... I was wide awake at 4 am and had 2 hours before work.... 

I still didn't create... I did however get to the gym... 

OHHHHH how wonderful that felt... 

Its just the start I needed to get the juices flowing, and hopefully keep me up those few extra hours tonight so I can create!  

On the agenda is a Graduation Card for my brother in law, (Master's from Duke!!!) and of course a Mothers Day card for mom... and A birthday card for my sister!!!  

That should keep me busy for an hour or two!   And on top of it I'm gonna get hubby to help since one of the cards is for his bro! 

Sorry I don't have any pics today... Hopefully tomorrow I'll have lots of pretty pictures of cards created!  

When do you have the time to create??   

Translating a hobby!

#5 Hobby

My list of journal prompts from Mary

includes this beauty...
When I was at a recent meet up one of lovely ladies triggered an idea for this page. 

You see art journaling was not my first love... In fact, I had a whole life as a sewer and quilter prior to this adventure.  I even tried to sew a pair of pants once... that was a MAJOR fail!  

I am a lover of all things sewing though...
 I would love to have a dress form just for the inspiration it might lend to me!

I was super excited to use a leftover apron pattern in my art journal. 

I modge podge'd up the page and slapped that bad boy down!

Then it tore... and it didn't fit quite right... 

So I added some more pieces, and I stamped it up some using my Ranger distress inks!

It was starting to look better.... Then it hit me... since I was already going for a little sewing theme, why not actually sew on the pages??? 

So I pulled out my embroidery threads that mom had given me last time she was here.. and I went to work on the edges! 

Then I added a little sewing in the middle of the page with a piece out of my scrap dictionary about a "pattern." 

On the opposite side I used some glitter glue to write "Sewing Machine" 

and some ribbon that looks like a tape measure.  

Finally I added a quick sewn paper flower that I adapted from this tutorial.

I hope you enjoy!
What is a hobby that you would journal about?? 

Quickie card

Mom and dad headed home today 😞. It was a great and eventful trip!!

While mom was here I showed her some of my craft room, and the seemingly endless amounts of supplies I have accumulated. She wanted to learn how to make some cards, so we sat for a while and I helped her with ideas, and made some cards of my own.

This morning mom said we need to make a quickie birthday card..

This little lovely was made using ranger inks, plain cream card stalk, some smash book washi tape, and a sentiment I downloaded. The bee was stamped using black soot and then covered in clear embossing powder, heated and then I added a layer of wild honey ink on top. The flower was a quick punch and fold, and seen together.. Super cute, and super fast!!!

What's your favorite quickie card?? And what's your go to technique??

Journaling with a group

If you've checked out my bio at all you know that I moved to Arizona from Florida a few years ago.  And while I wasn't much of an "artist" while I was in Florida, I fancy that I have much more of an artistic streak now.  And while I have my very safe haven of my studio craft room I have found that it's important to have someone to bounce ideas off of. 

Since my work schedule has been all over the road for the last 4 years, it's been hard for me to stay with a group! 

First there was a group of quilters/ sewers that I met through a friend.  I was (and still am) a novice to the world of quilting, and it was great to have some older women who could give me tips and tricks to get things done!  Sadly this group met on Wednesdays, and when my work schedule changed so did my ability to go.

Then last year I wanted to try my hand at cake decorating.  I signed up for a class at a Joanns, that was cancelled, and rescheduled, and then cancelled again.  I finally got into a class and it was awesome to have others that were learning the same thing as me.  However when the class ended, and I signed up for the next one, it was cancelled, and changed, and cancelled and changed again.  I got annoyed and moved on to something else.

January is usually a month of resolutions and beginning new things.  As I looked around my studio I saw a lot of remnants of started projects, and thought what can I possibly do with these?  Enter art journaling.  It is a perfect outlet for trying new things, and of course using up some of those old things too! 

After about a month of going it on my own I turned to meetup to find a group of likeminded artists friends that I could bounce ideas off of, and get inspiration from their work as well.  I found a great group that meets periodically at the local starbucks.  How wonderful to know that there are others doing what I'm doing, and they are willing to share their knowledge with little old me!  What tools have you used to jumpstart your art??  Where do you go for inspiration??

Challenge #15

I had to read the rules twice before I determined that an art journal/ smash book entry would be fine! 

This is my first entry to the saturated canary challenge I am super excited to start using these fun digi stamp creations by Krista you can find them in her store here. 

This is my big beauty!  

I used copic and prismacolor markers to color her.  

And her close up!

The background for the page was painted with a wash of glitter watercolors, and the raindrops are of the same.

Some of the raindrops have a little Ranger Distress Crackle paint on them.  

Thanks for taking the time to stop by hope your are enjoying creating something today!

Journaling your favorite book

I woke up super early... Super excited about Mom and Dad coming to visit!! And it's also Mom's birthday... I will post about her present later...  What an adventure that was!  The house is all cleaned (or hidden!) Except for the studio that I just don't have the patience to clean now!  And since I was up so early I decided 

to tackled another prompt....

13. Favorite Book.... 

 I first read Gone with The Wind when I was 10 or 11 years old. Most likely I didn't understand parts of it, but I remember that I had gone on vacation with my family (I don't remember where) and I stayed up all night sitting on the bathroom floor, in the hotel, reading this amazing book. 

 

 I was simply mesmerized by all the flowing dresses, and the romance! I have read it quite a few times since, but that first time was the clencher, of all the hundreds of books I've read since, this has remained the most precious to my heart.

 I had some fun doing this page in my journal. I even copied the beginning of the book onto the background. I used Distress Inks to make the "weathered" look 

and the library card is from a pack of colorbok Antique Paperie die cuts. I added the info about the book that I found in Wikipedia. 

What is your favorite book? How would you journal it?