Ah.. crazy wrecked journal part 12? lol

I have done a few wrecked journals before now with online groups and with assorted others but I started a new one with a freind last week. I did the cover and a few pages.. thought I would post em here.

This is my favorite pages. They are butterfly wings (duh) that are pages themselves. They have shadow wings underneath that are a whole other entity in themselves. I am thinking of finding some glorius quote or poem of freedom etc to write on those lovely wings. And, perhaps another quote to write on the shadows, about living in the shadow.

looks better in person...at least I think so. But it does not matter because this is a wrecked journal. Its not about making pretty, its about making!

And why are my pictures lying on their sides? Because for some strange reason blogger won't let me flip em over yet... maybe later they will. At the moment it won't even let me edit my text, (hence the these this problem above).. better be extra careful what I type.

 

Mini Art Journals, I can make 4 for a dollar

 

 

I buy lots of composition note books during the off season for as little as a quarter at walmart and other stores. (I even recycle used ones into journals, the used ones, filled with writing and other tidbits are a great starting backdrop for art work.) 

I made about 8 mini books today, and this is how. First I took a second book and used it as a template. I place it roughly halfway down, draw a line with a pen and careful copied the corner as well. I reversed the top book and drew the other curved corner.  It does not have to be perfect, halfway etc. When you go to cut the book on your saw keeping it too this line is a challenge, but chances are it will be fine no matter how you do it.

 

Next you will need a scroll saw and some masking tape. Tape the edge of the book closed by the triangle on both sides. Cut into the triangle holding the book firmly down, just till you meet the line where the other side of triangle forms. Then cut into the other side of the triangle. This time you can continue cutting straight down through the book. If you don't do it this way its impossible to trim the corner later on the saw.

 

When you are done you will have a few mini notebooks for whatever you need. I use them to also keep a work diary as well as information of professional contacts. And yes you will want to decorate the covers!

 

Made this one for a little friend who will be visiting me next week. Not happy about the ties on either one, hopefully find a more appropriate fiber soon.
 

I started decorating this one using purchased paper (so unlike me) but it was so pretty. These papers come from Michaels 6"x 6" designer paper pad with 24 sheets. I barely used 3 to do the back and front. The paper is reversal, has lovely prints on both sides.

I added tissue tape to all the edges to finish it off, and a few decorations and one of those hard to find posts to use as a closure, but may add more later. This book seems a tad light on deco for me.  

 

I will then be gluing 2 to 3 pages together using medium (or elmers) to make them thicker, and using either gessos, paints or papers to cover lines as needed. (Sometimes I just collage and the paper does no need to be thicker) I like seeing some lines, so its not a must do for me. This handy dandy journal will not fit in my litle traveling artist bag, and is great for making for clients to use in program. I used to give them large compostion note books, I think these smaller ones will be even less threatening (if thats even possible) than those.  

 

Re-cycled greeting cards into Journal.. Simple!

I saw this technique on youtube somewhere, thought it was cool. I tend to save all the thousands of greeting cards I get and its nice to do something with them. You know when you buy greeting cards at the drugstore they really add up over time, and that makes it hard for me to throw them out! My mother sends me the most cards, any holiday, any reason. So, I think of these cards as my inheritance.

They are made on such sturdy paper and many of the images are lovely.
On youtube you can find the same tutorial I did at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyi3Ve93We4

But, basically I covered all inside writing with paint and collaged the fronts of all the cards. If there was an image I liked, I kept it out! The cover looked complicated but it wasn't and neither was the binding. This is pretty simple. Next time I will make it to preserve all those lovely cards from family and friends that I just want to keep in a book.

Here is some pictures!  This is made with greeting cards, paper scraps, elmers, craft paint, tissue tape (1 dollar at AC Moore) and embroidery floss.

The cover is still boring, haven't gotten up to decorating it yet!

This is one of the pages, I tend to use quotes of some sort since I love so many and find them inspiring.

This quote was chosen as I am having a hard time looking at restraining myself from posting about various political views on FB. I need to look at it often.

Yes its childlike and not written well, and thats ok. Art does not have to be perfect, close to perfect or any where near perfect.

Trying to find creativity... Mosaic Vase

I am having a real dry spell it seems lately. I don't seem to feel like doing much but I know I need to, so I determined the way to bring me out of it was to do mossaic. Mosaic is a tension reliever for me nand this vase is my end result. Its a vase my mother gave me years ago, she had purchased it for a few dollars at Woolworths. She used to buy lots of gifts at these stores that are really about giving a gift rather than about buying something a person wants or needs. So she would come over frequently, and always have many gifts in her hands. It was overwhelming with the amount of items she would show up with, and kind of makes you a horder if you hold on to all of them. The problem of getting rid of them all is that its a gift from your mother! This vase I kept though because it had a great shape but I didn't care much for the pheasant on it.

The tiles are irregular van goghs I purchased online from Happycraftn's Mosaic Supplies. I used elmers glue to adhere them and  "Premixed Ceramic Tile Adhesive and Grout" from Home Depot to grout it. The tiles are very cool because they are very light weight, I also did the same on top of a small stool and the only added weight was from the grout.

I also added a few glass pieces (dollar store) and half marbles (happy crftns).. although I should have added many more.  I also didn't really photograph the best angle!

So.. this mossaic is not very creative but it helped get me out of my funk a tiny bit.

Mini home-made clip it

This is my home-made clip it. I saw this somewhere on the net and its quite handy. These things are pricey to buy, although I did see one at Michaels for about 28 bucks, mine is more charming and cost me a buck since all I had to buy was the lampshade.

I made mine with an old candlestick, a tiny lampshade, a cork and some paper clips.  My bling, charms etc go in tiny bags that I clip on with large paper clips... the smaller ones do not work well. I like this because it sits on my desk with many things that I am always looking for. I still have tons of supplies all around me in boxes and such, this is just to have some things handy so I don't have to dig.

I picked up two old wooden lamps on the street with  beautiful shades, may make a floor or table clip with one of them. It would be much larger and would be able to hold large papers and things like that. I could be so organized! And if I actually had a practice space that I could keep things in all the time, it would be perfect there as well. I would gut the lamp, replace it with a wooden dowel. You want the lampshade to be able to turn and not tip off. There are lots of tutorials on the net how to do this, go witht the simplest!

My problem is destroying a perfectly good lampshade and finding a place to put my finsihed clip it when its done. I have no space, but... maybe if I had a huge clip it I could have more space... hmmm.

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The fabric is cut off the shade, relatively easy to do but kind of sad. I picked up this shade at a thrift shop. They had lots of candlesticks at the thrift shop too, this one came from my hutch.

Potion bottles aka Altered bottles...

I finished these altered bottles the other day. The last batch were mostly done with polymer clay and these were done with papers, fabrics, beads etc.

The tiny face on the foremost bottle is a milagro

Same bottles, different angle. The leaf is a bead!

 The large bottle was done using a texture paste and was started a very long time ago. I saw an artist  do something identical to this over on youtube, but mine is painted differently. I painted her with a vareity of inks.

I gave the small bottle small loops so they can be worn around the neck, or carried by a tiny person.

Prayer Flags

Working on a collection of prayer flags. I made tons of these a few years back with my clients.. very nice. You put your positive thoughts and feelings into these flags and hang them outside.. allowing the wind to take those good thoughts out into the universe to manifest. Its like gardening.

This first one is made from ribbons. I don't know why it would suddenly not hang straight! This particular flag idea came from something I saw on pinterest.

This second flag is made from muslin. The strips are also muslin ribbons that I made.

Button stack paper flowers

This is something I saw on pinterest, and the only way i am going to deal with my pinterest obsession is to make every thing I like on there which will surely drive me crazy.

So I saw these cute button flowers... Basically its a paper flower sandwiched by a few colorful buttons, and sewed through, tied off on top.  I started that way and found putting the string through the buttons quite tedious, so I began to cheat. I strung the string through one or two buttons, and glued them on the flower.
I like having another button below because it gives the flower height.
The only thing (I think) I did differently than what I saw was   I gave the pedals a little pinch and then doused them all with a mixture of "Deco art multi purpose sealer" and "gold "Pearl Ex" pigments so they would look less bumpkin... although they still do.. have to do something else to them...hmmm

Tin / metal soda can flowers

Pinterest is driving me insane. I keep finding these wonderful little ideas and they torture me, because I got to retrieve one idea to do it.. and I find 5 more calling out to me just as loud. So, today I decided I would do a few of several ideas.. but for some freaking reason I decided to make these flowers from tin cans, and had to do them first.

Let me say .. these guys look so much better in person, esp that one on the right, and I suspect they will make marvelous fridge magnets because of their fullness.

 I made one from a beer can, and another from a mini diet coke, that is what this can is in the picture.. they are pretty small.
We rarely have cans since we don't really drink soda or beer... but I had the beer can sitting in my house for the past two months ever since I made these awful cheddar cheese soup. The soup was so yucky.. I figure I have to do something with the can.. so here it is.



Using my tin snips (if thats what they are, scissors cut this stuff pretty well too...) I basically cut thriough the pop top opening, and cut off the top. I cut it down the side, and then cut off the bottom. So then you can lay the can flat like the picture. from there you will need a few circles of different sizes. I just freely cut them out... I am not a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination.

It should look like this one..   

 I punch a tiny hole in the center of each one with my cropodile (you could also use a hammer and nail to punch through). For the larger circle I made a slit in it so I could reach the middle with my cropadile.

Then I cut slits around each circle,some I did more some less, the smallest circle I did about 3.
The slits you make are the beggingings of your pedal, so then you just need to round the tips like how this is started.

I then curled each one a little bit on the sides, and dented it slightly in the middle. They should look a bit like flowers when that is done.







I put a tiny brad (paper clasp) through the smallest and fed the next larger onto that one and so on. Close the brad.,.. and there ya go!

You could spray paint these guys but I love the way you see the advertising. I may make some with my lovely irish oatmeal can next.

Homemade easy satin flowers w/tutorial

The other day I had the dreadful misfortune of having a frozen laptop. the only way I could think to fix it was to unplug everything and let the battery drain (did not know how to remove it) and had absolutely nothing to look at all day. So, I made these flowers. I think this is something that should be done with ventilation, or outside... just saying... I did mine in the house, closed windows (its freezing) no fan and actually I am feeling much smarter today.. go figure why.

I really enjoyed the process... which of course had to be simple for me to do.

You need: satin ribbon (must be satin) which I picked up dirt cheap at Michaels (2.50 a roll). Scissors, hot glue, and an embellishment if you desire, and a heat gun optional

Here is how... I cut squares off a roll of  satin ribbon  Each square gets a slit in each side, like this

 (I outlined the slit in black so you can see) It is simple, don't let my picture fool you, its a simple cut into each side.

 

Next you will need a candle, like a small tea candle. You do not want a wax puddle building so, blow it out when you aren't using it.
You will be holding one edge of the ribbon and gently singing the other edges. Do yourself a favor and don't rush and try to do all the edges at once, the satin gets very hot quickly and will burn your fingers as I did several times.
Have something to drop them on too, like a craft sheet or metal sheet. I used a placemat, which was fine until later when I did something regretable :P  Best way is to singe one side, move on to another piece and do a bunch, then go back and do the other sides.  You will see that the ribbon curls slightly making it look like a petal. They may stick slightly, but as they cool and dry you will pop them right off.

I then would glue 2 together at the center. I found warm (hot) glue was the best way to go. I later added a 3rd and some of them a 4th set of petals.  I added embellishments later using a glue gun again (recollections make a nice little set of flower middles for about 2 bucks)

After they were all done I continued to play with fire, burning off the webs. Brought me back to my ukranian egg dying days :) You could use a hair dryer instead for doing that.

My final thought was brilliant (in a way). I felt the flowers looked to "made' so I took my heat gun and gently heated them from above whilst they sit in a tray. This was great, made them curl in a bit and look nicer. Bad part of that idea was doing it on a plastic placemat... melted the plastic.. but no real harm done, just one ruined placemat. 

So now I have lots of flowers for my never ending projects.. :)  If I was willing to spend 2.50 I would buy some green ribbon and make leaves, I just have a hard time trusting myself in Michaels.

Botanical box I received

I

 just got this botanical matchbox in the mail from Dawna over at Millande, its really pretty. I am still waiting on another one. I have had such bad luck it seems in receiving swaps so I am pleased as peaches this one has arrived!

Simple little book, easy binding!

 

I made this little book the other day after seeing a technique for binding. It took about a minute to make and a tad longer to decorate.

I happen to have a bunch of scrap paper (you know how people have legal size paper they cut down to letter size, I steal their scraps)

I made this book from those scraps, a couple of safety pins and two atc's I had colored the other day with alcohol ink.  The book has about 32 pages.  you can make it by folding the paper in half, and putting a safety pin top and bottom. After you have a few signatures you will feed a ribbon through it. I taped my ribbon to the inside cover.. for a clearer explanation here is a video tutorial.

For a youtube on how... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm9VXxiyZV8 ...

For decorations I used one of my homemade feathers, it was real easy to re-work it and make it into two small feathers (takes like ten seconds and a wire cutter) Also used the sample off holtz ruler ribbon (I am thrifty) some ball chain (which I now have tons of) a holtz sprocket and another sproket I made myself from shrinky dink, an old key, negative, gems and a milagro.

Those magnets everyone makes with words

Always wonder why I never see words on them.. so I made some with.

These guys look so much better in person. The marbles are pretty big, from the dollar store. The background is the dollar store mardi gras napkins which look really beautiful on these marbles.. almost a shame to add the words, but really pretty (in person) with the words!

Paper text Feathers, using tissue tape (aka... the easy way!)

The world became a kinder, gentler place (in my head) the day I discovered tissue tape. I never have that many ideas of what to do with it, but its just a wonderful thing. So when I saw the text feathers floating around the internet I thought what better way to make them then to use tissue tape!


You need 3 things: tissue tape, scissors, and jewlery wire wire. I like the jewlery wire cause it bends easy and I have about ten rolls of it, but you can also use that thicker crafty wire if need be.

Simply cut a piece of wire about 3 inches. Cut a small piece of tissue about the size of a dime and wrap it around one end to make the quill. Squeeze it on there, you know how tissue tape can be, you can get it to stay there forever if you just squeeze it good.

Then cut another piece thats about the length of the wire. You will not be covering the quill again, and you want it to pass the end of the wire a wee bit. Lay it on top of the tape like this.

Now cut another strip the same length and carefully line it up with the first piece on the other side of the wire, making a wire sandwich. Press it down all around, emboss the wire with your fingers so it stands out. Don't worry so much if your wire moves because feathers often have wider barbs on one side than the other.

Now cut a large curve on the bottom, and taper it up to a point to the top of the wire to make it look like a feather.

From here its just cutting. You will make tiny slits starting at the base. the scissor should be pointed downwards. the best thing is that you can easily cut without fear of going all the way through, thanks to the wire. Cut tiny slits all the way around, be very careful around the top, remembering that you want the barbs to face upwards when complete. I like to give the feather a twist when its done so it bends to one side (looks more natural) and ruffle the barbs. Hope you like it!

How to make feathers, or a gorgeous leaf.. using a paper napkin

I saw a beautiful feather on Pinterest someone made, without a tutorial so I  came up with a few ideas of my own.
This one is using a paper napkin (mardi gras napkins from the dollar store) glue, brush and copper jewlers wire (we all have this stuff!) and scissors. This wire is good to use because when it is done you can bend the feather, and you can trim it easily with a scissor if need be.

Here is what I did.. I cut a small piece of (1 ply) napkin and with a tiny bit of glue, and dry fingers, wrapped it around the end of a 6" piece of wire to make the quill.

Next I cut two longer rectangles, the length of the wire minus the already wrapped end. I placed the wire down the center of one of the rectangles, and ever so gently brushed elmers glue on both sides of the wire.  I then laid the second piece of napkin on top, making a wire sandwich, and smoothed it gently. Allow it to dry for several minutes.

After it dries you can trim away the sides into a leaf or a thinner feather shape. You can make a more complicated feather shape but I would suggest you start out with a leaf and trim it down to a feather. You can see feather shapes in googles images if you are perplexed about what they look like, I found one shown below.

I started with this shape and gradually trimmed it thinner along the sides.

When it is dry you can carefully, and slowly clip the barbs (?) The cuts should be downward at an angle towards the quill. If you look at the real feather diagram below you will see on that feather that those cuts will not be uniform throughout.

 

I actually cut one in this shape as well, not sure if it is better or not. In this picture you really can't see all the cuts made into the sides to create the barbs, but they are there!