book club circle journals

Catching up on the past few months of circle journals.  This first one "wish you were here" was for a travel related journal.  I made the paperclip with wire & made a faux polaroid picture using one of my vacation photos that I manipulated in Pic Monkey. I made the title using Photoshop. 

This next page was for a journal about dogs.   The sentiment is mine: "I've always thought I'd love a St. Bernard that remained the size of a puppy."  Perhaps I could justify a small St. Bernard (I love them!) if it were to be the size of a shoe box?  For this page, I used scrapbook paper, the yellow paper has a bit of gesso & some sort of spray on the bottom over a stencil, inked the edges of the paper & called it good.

I may have a new circle journal page at the end of the week.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

These are great for breakfast!  The oats make these hearty.  My picky kid loves these! 

Apple Cinnamon Muffins  yield: 12 muffins
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons soft butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup grated apple (or just diced really small)
1 cup milke

Preheat oven to 375

In one bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda & salt.

In separate bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy.   Mix in egg, vanilla & apple.  Mix in milk.  Combine wet & dry ingredients.

Spray muffin pans with oil (or use muffin cups in your muffin tins).  Fill muffin cups evenly with batter.  Bake 12-15 minutes.  Test with toothpick to see if center is done.  Let cool for about 5 minutes before taking muffins out of tin (& eating).

happy smiley faced box?

I'm not even sure what to call this creation.  Perhaps happy smiley faced box painted with acrylic paint? 

book club circle journal

 

We've been exchanging circle journals for maybe 5-6 months in book club.  This was a page I made a number of months ago for a journal where we were tasked with create an imaginary world.  I actually found myself creating a girl and the world created itself.  It all started with one of the girls among the several I drew while having my car repaired. I went to the nearby Fedex Kinkos and asked them to shrink the head size for me.  I think I had them go to 75% and 50%.  Back at home, I cut a dress from a small bit of map & some wings from some patterned scrapbook paper. I believe I inked the edges of the wings.  I trimmed her hair to make it look a little neater, then I glued her together.  I then applied some Diamond Glaze or or 3D Crystal Lacquer to make it look as though she wasn't created from different bits of paper and give her some dimension.  The background is a watercolor wash with faux flowers and bits of bling.

work in progress - complete!

 Almost done!  Added the bird, the hearts, the words and some small doodles in the lower left corner.

My next step was to add some beeswax!  I hadn't used beeswax prior to doing this last week.  I liked the way it made her face look a little more like part of a painting rather than a separate piece of paper I glued down to the canvas.  If I were to do it over again, I probably would have purchased a melting pot from Ranger Ind. and a natural bristle brush of some sort instead of a quilting iron since it seemed like forever to put the little pellets of wax down & then wait for the wax to melt using such a small iron rather than brushing it on.  Oh well :)  After applying the wax, I went over it with my heat tool.  That seemed to smooth things out a tiny bit. 

done!

The kid didn't want me to put beeswax on it.  I guess it sounded like a weird idea.  It was indeed strange.    She's still wanting this piece for her room, so I guess it didn't put her off that much :)

Question for you:
What have you been working on lately? I'd love to see or hear about what you've done or made.  Please share a link to something you made recently, be it at your blog, Etsy shop, Flickr, Facebook or wherever.

update

Alright...time to dust myself off & get back onto the horse, so to speak.  I burned out on trying to do a full project every day, even though some were really small.  For a few days after day 10, I kept thinking I would get back to doing it.  Nope.  I would have liked to have finished the full month but I didn't. 

Lesson for next time?  Maybe do a little more preparation in advance or do some sort of project where I add to it every day.  I saw a really cool 30 day embroidery project where someone made a grid and added a complete new square of embroidery every day.  I really like that idea.  Maybe even for art journaling or doing an inchie to add to a page each day?  Hmmm...still time to think on that one.

Even my work in progress ended up underneath some other bits and pieces.  I will get back to it/her.  I have a few ideas for her, yet.  I'm hoping to get a little work done on this project by next Tuesday at the latest.  Hopefully a little sooner.

I made this skirt for my daughter. I put together some ideas from a few different girls skirts I came across on Pinterest.  It was one of those projects where I wasn't quite sure how it would come out so I made sure not to get her hopes up but we were both happy with it. It was simple but still took a little planning since I'm still new to sewing.  I ended up making her a reversible headband with the same fabric on one side and bright pink on the other using this pattern from Happy Together Creates.   

We're doing a  few projects in book club.  For our swap of the quarter (trimester?), we're doing a prayer flag exchange.  I've started but...well, I better get moving on it since it will be really hard if I wait until the last minute.  We're also doing a circle journal.  For now we're each getting someone else's journal/scrapbook to take home for the month and do a page in it before bringing it back the next month.   This is the page I made for Elena's journal.  I used the song lyrics from Japanese Bowl by Peter Mayer. Here's the song along with Peter's explanation.  Worth a listen! 

How I did it

To the chipboard background I applied a mixture of 3D Crystal Lacquer and some of Terri Sproul's Shimmer Powder in aquamarine.  That created a really nice shimmer & some of the grayish-black areas in the background.  I stamped the diamond pattern (note to self: next time use Stazon or heat set with embossing powder).  I did a tape transfer of the song lyrics and applied that with...I think with Crystal Lacquer or some sort of medium.  Added a bit of tape the the lower right corner.  For the winged heart, I used chipboard pieces I had in my stash.  I painted them and brushed on a bit of gold Perfect Pearls to the heart. I cut the wing on the right side and then mixed some gold Perfect Pearls into some 3D Crystal Lacquer.  It served as both an adhesive to the wing and also as a medium for the gold. 

day 10 of 30 days of creativity

Few are the giants of the soul who actually feel that the human race is their family circle
-Freya Stark

art journal page: masking tape, acrylic paint, pens & scrapbook paper. 

day 9 of 30 days of creativity

Spotted this on the way to the Y with my kid this morning.  I had one of those moments where I wondered if this had always been there since we go to the Y every Saturday morning.   Fun & quirky.  When we left,  I had to take a picture.  I just played around on PicMonkey to get this funky background. 

day 8 of 30 days of creativity...a day late

art journal page

Day 8 a day late.  Art journal page with acrylic paint, pen & washi tape.

day 7 of 30 days of creativity

day 7

So, I'm posting a day late but I really did make this yesterday.  I just didn't want to share it on the chance that someone from my book club might see it since it is part of the circle journal I just started.  I handed it over with my journal last night so I can't go back to take a better picture, unfortunately.  

I started with a piece of scrapbook paper from my stash.  The stuff that's really pretty but I didn't think I'd ever actually use & would have to part with the next time I purged kind of paper. Yay! I put down some white acrylic paint & built from there using blue acrylic paint, some glimmer mist over stencilss, some ink & stamps, some pens (Pitt brush pen, White posterpaint Sharpie &, hm, maybe a Pigma Micron or some such permanent pen), rub-ons (which I also thought I'd never end up using), more acrylic paint, some bling, some Stickles &  more Glimmer Mist.  Using printer paper, I finished it with the quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, "what could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?"

day 6 of 30 days of creativity

Played with some lettering.  Used a Pigma Micron pen for the words and Pitt brush pens to add some color.

day 5 of 30 days of creativity

drew picture

traced picture onto tracing paper

cut off a portion of the Mastercarve Artist Carving Block

scribbled over the back of the tracing paper with the drawing on the side facing the block

carved the stamp

the original house sketch, the imprint & the stamp

I had planned to leave the window dark but I like being able to draw in window details, curtains & such.  A bit more fun that way.

Work in progress Tuesday

Haven't had as much time with her this week.  I painted her hair brown and added a bit of glitter to her eyes.  You can click on the picture to see it larger & will see the impact of the glitter on her eyes.

day 4 of 30 days of creativity

day 3

I seem to be in the habit of wearing out the right knees of my jeans more than anywhere else.  I had planned on patching a pair of jeans and calling that my creativity for the day but my jeans were a little too well worn all over.  I ended up repurposing a leg of a pair of jeans into this tote and then lined it with some pretty fabric I had in the house.  This the first tote I've sewed.  Next time I make a tote, I'm planning on cutting the fabric into a rectangular shape (rather than leaving the portion of jeans in a bit of an odd angle as in this case since they were boot cut and that made it harder to work with).  I'll need to add some sort of fastener to the tote but for today I call as done as it's going to get.

day 3 of 30 days of creativity

day 3

Super quick artist trading card made with two kinds of tape, a fortune & a heart made from a bit of glossy card stock with alcohol ink.  I pretty much grabbed random things from my desk and put them together.  Taking a picture end editing it took more time than figuring out where to put everything and doing it.

I'm finding the 30 days of creativity to be an interesting project in that so far my projects for it have mostly been things I've started and finished on the same day.  The only project that had been partially created prior was the  alcohol ink on glossy paper that became the heart on today's ATC.  After a day of making other things today, it occurred to me that I'm accustomed to making things in spurts, like the works in progress I've been posting about over the past few weeks.  Today I started several backgrounds for art journal pages and a canvas (hopefully for the long haired girl I posted a while back), added on to the canvas in progress, and started working on my circle journal for book club.  I'm going to see what it's like to continue to with both daily completion and ongoing work on continuing projects.  I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes and how it impacts my creative process.

Here's the link to @createstuff on Twitter (the organizer of 30 days of creativity): https://twitter.com/#!/createstuff  It's not too late to join!

day 2 of 30 days of creativity

day 2

Mixing my media on watercolor paper. I used watercolor crayons, water, acrylic paint, random pens and colored pencils.

Check out the daily pinterest boards for 30 days http://pinterest.com/createstuff/

30 days of creativity

I'm joining 30 Days of Creativity & committing to making something every day for 30 days. 

Day 1 of 30 Days of Creativity

Here's the link to 30 days of creativity

work in progress continued

dress & legs, etc. drawn in colored pencil

acrylic paint started, in need of a neck ;-)

She has a neck!  Painted over face with a mix of titan buff and glazing medium.  Painted her eyes.  Will probably bring her rosy cheeks back.  

 

works in progress

 

Just popping in to share some work in progress.  

These are based on what I've learned & played with from Suzi Blu's Mixed Media Girls (the book of the current cycle for the Creating Outside of the Book book club).  I haven't copied her designs, I've played with the ideas and tried to focus on some basics.  I've pretty much thought of drawing as something that's just not my thing & that I'm not all that good at it.  Seeing the other gals from my book club bringing in absolutely amazing pieces of art they drew and painted in classes with Suzi Blu, I figured I'd give the book a try but wouldn't put much hope into it.  I have to say that I'm truly surprised by my results.  We don't have symmetry or any sort of perfection but that's okay with me.  I'm just happy that my girls don't look like a poorly done Picasso imitation.  You know what I mean?

Wabi-sabi shabby tote

Stopping in to share something I made last week.  Our Creating Outside the Book club members were each given a tote bag in April and were tasked to decorate them to use to bring home our monthly kits.  I had so many ideas from dying it to adding ruffles and more.  I came across some bits of fabric I had picked up at a previous meeting and went from there with the imperfect layers, embroidery floss and buttons.   Despite having a sewing machine I love, this one seemed to call for some hand sewing.  It's intentionally wabi-sabi  in a shabby chic/primitive way.  What do you think?

Me, learning to sew?

When asked, I used to tell people that I didn't sew.  Sure, I knew how to sew by hand and did it when I had to but I had no clue how to use a sewing machine.  Yeah, I've made several mixed media projects that involved some sewing.  I didn't really think of myself as someone who sewed because I didn't know how to use a machine.  I remember talking to a lady at the CREATE Mixed Media Art retreat in Chicago in 2010 over breakfast one day about sewing and mentioning that not only did I not sew but but I didn't know how to use a sewing machine.  She seemed surprised.  She was one of many who made art quilts and whatnot who were at the retreat.  I'd always considered myself more of a paper gal who also liked to knit, crochet and make jewelry.  For quite a while, I figured that I had enough things that I could do, so why add one more?  You know what I mean.

Anyway, I'm not sure when I decided I want to learn to sew but I did.  I asked others for sewing machine recommendations.  I looked at tons of reviews and articles on what to look for in a machine.  I knew I wanted something that wasn't too cheap or too expensive.  I wanted something that could do basic sewing but also something that would allow me to do art quilting type work, if I wanted to (so something that would allow me to lower the feed dogs or come with a plate to cover the feed dogs).  I even asked my mom  if she had my grandma's machine but she gave it away.  I got overwhelmed with the amount of information and ended up putting my search on the back burner for a while.  Randomly several months later, I ended up asking some mom friends for recommendations and one of them recommended the Brother XL2600i  The price was good, the machine had generally good reviews, it comes with a darning plate to cover the feed dogs and Christmas was coming.  Haha!  It was a wonderful present to open up on Christmas.

view from above...setting things up according to the manual

wound my 1st bobbin!

threading the needle

Do you sew?  If you do, what's your first memory of learning to sew or learning to use a machine?  If you don't, is there something you want to learn to do or make?

Getting things started...again :-)

Hey!  What's up?

I've obviously been a bit absent around these parts for a while now.  I'm back now with plans to get things rolling around here again.  With any luck, I'll have an actual post about something later today or maybe tomorrow.  I'm really looking forward to sharing about: 1) learning how to use my new sewing machine (yay!)...actually learning to sew with a machine, 2) random creations and happenings from bookclub (aka the "Outside the book" club), 3) creative projects I'm working on, 4) something food related, maybe from scratch since that always seems to amuse me and 5) picture of the week (POTW).

Welcome to the next step!  I hope you'll say "hi."