Kee~rativity

T-Shirt Upcycle

2011-10-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

What to do with a cute but ordinary t-shirt for my cute but extraordinary teen daughter? Upcycle baby! Lissie really likes Steam Punk designs and Cupcakes, so the challenge was set. I did both of these shirts last night. It was quick, easy, cheap and fun! From start to finish, it took me about two hours.

1) Find some T-shirts that need a little bit of love....First came the darker pink shirt. I decided to go with a cupcake on that one, so the fun began by drawing out some samples...

2) We have a winner! Poor winner was then cut apart to be used as a pattern.

3) I went through my felt stash and chose a sparkly white and a charcoal gray for the icing and cake part. (By the way, I love, love LOVE those scissors. My family knows that they never get used for anything but fabric and ribbon so they are SHARP!)

4) To bring my little friend to life, I embroidered a face and then appliqued him to the shirt using a running stitch.

5) Tada! Done already and my episode of NCIS is not even over yet!

6) The real test came when Lissie saw it...the verdict is in....it was love at first bite (groan! I had to get a cupcake pun in...sorry, I will behave now.)

Shirt #2 Light Pink

1) First I picked a stamp image that I know Lissie like and used a permanent ink called Staz-on to stamp it on the shirt. I could have left it like that, but decided to embroider it using 1-3 strands of floss depending on which part it was. I love to embroider and it is so quick to do. Thread a needle and hit play on the DVD player...

2) Finished the first one and enjoyed another episode of NCIS (Told you this was a quick project). As you can see below, we have an embroidered balloon.

3) Test #2 passed! My Steam Punk loving chickadee lurves this shirt! Score two for Mom! What do you think?

Digital Design.....

2011-03-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hold the phones folks! I have to eat a big old helping of crow pie. After years of saying, "I'll never go digital...I am a tactile scrapbooker....well, I tried digital. And I liked it. A lot. A whole lot. While it won't replace paper art for me ~ let's just say wow!

Let me start at the beginning. A couple of weeks ago, one of my friends called and asked me if I was busy for the next two Mondays, and if not, did I want to take a class up in Red Lodge with her. I said sure. (Always fun to get out of town.) She called back and told me she signed us up for a Stampin' Up My Digital Studio's class. My first thought was...uhm crap. My second thought was, well, at least we get out of town for a couple of hours. Imagine my chagrin when I was fascinated. Boy has it come a long, long way. You can add drop shadows, texture, digital stamps....so many possibilities.

I think that it actually makes me feel freer to paper scrap, because I can throw most of my HUGE backlog of photos onto digital pages and then do my favorites on paper as well. Here are my first two attempts. Here for you is one of my favorite pictures of my little Sis and I , and the second one is my daughter. Best part? I have it on my laptop, so I can play anywhere.

Pretending Spring has Sprung

2011-01-30T21:23:00.000-08:00

I will not look outside. You can not make me. It is 1 degree. You read it correctly. 1. Gets better, according to the news, it feels like -15 with lows tonight predicted at -25. That is RIDONCULOUS! So in protest I have decided to think Spring by posting more pictures of items made for my Stampin' Up friend. (see last post for her website) Unless otherwise stated, all products used were from Stampin' Up.

This is a simple Ikea mirror stamped with black Stayz-on and an awesome birdhouse stamp from the new mini catalog. I trimmed it out with blue and cherry bias tape ribbon, topped by one of SU's new bezel slides. Underneath the slide, is a stamped egg from the same set and a tiny butterfly embossed die. In the corner of the mirror, you will see a decorative element made from the corner punch and then run through an embossing folder. The brown ribbon in the bottom left is not part of it, it is just sticking up from another project.

This is a plain wooden plaque that I base coated in an edelweiss blue. I tore the bird and nest out of a piece of scrapbook paper and edged it in old olive ink. Using my watercolor crayons, I gave the bird a little color. The eggs were already that glorious blue, so I used some mini pearls to "jazz" them up. The word Chirp was cut from old olive cardstock and a pearl was used to dot the i.

This was a paperweight I got at Hobby Lobby for a great clearance price after the 4th of July. It had a strange rooster with fireworks in it, so I tore that off and replaced the backing with chipboard. The background was another piece of scrapbook paper. I used an alphabet set from the catalog to stamp the word Create and free hand cut it out. I used a little bit of the water color crayon on the flowers and then glammed them up with a little gold smooch ink.

This started out as a wooden cut out one of my friends was getting rid of. I rubbed several colors of craft ink from the rich regals collection on the wood to color it. I then "fussy cut" some of the left over scrapbook paper to cover the edges. The saying was embossed onto cardstock and then cut out. A little glitter always adds some fun, so I rolled the edges in the new chunky vintage glitter. Slap a magnet on the back and the pear has a new life.

These blocks were floating around my craft room. I think that I got them from Oriental Trading originally. They were already white washed so I simply cut squares for the front, one of the bird house and two of the birds and mod podged them on. I added strips for the sides. Using the same alphabet die as the Chirp, I added the words. Small finishing touches, wrapped the Dare block in ivory bias ribbon and brought the ends up through the center of a flower that I had stamped. After they were through, I threaded a button onto them and tied the ends. The whole set of blocks took about 20 minutes.

This one also started out as a simple piece of wood with scrapbook paper podged on. I cut a topper out of old olive and used the lace edge punch. I wanted a little subtle dimension, so I stamped the edges with a floral scroll stamp and then stamped and embossed the hummingbird from the same set. The word Fly was cut with the Big Shot.

These are what I have so far, however, I have many more ideas floating around in my brain. Hope you enjoyed a little taste of spring while winter is howling around outside.

A Rose Wreath by any other name....

2011-01-25T23:03:00.000-08:00

     I have been trying to get back in the groove of posting on this blog. I have been holding back because of several reasons, some stupid, such as not having step by step pictures, and others not so stupid like my son being sick for so long.
     I even toyed with the idea of letting it die. But I would kind of miss it. It really is a creative outlet for me. So, one of my goals this year is just to post and trust that if anything is not clear, you will just ask. Many of you email me privately anyway instead of commenting, so let me know if that works for you.
     Many times just looking at a picture will spark creativity, so I am going to just try and get my mojo back by going at it one step at a time. Some posts will have instructions, some just a few pictures and a thought. Hope you enjoy. Happy 2011.

     Dipping a toe into the blog pond today with a quick wreath I created in about 30 minutes for a friend of mine. She is a Stampin' Up demonstrator http://www.ddstamps.typepad.com/ and lent me some goodies to experiment with. She was doing a display and wanted to have some out of the box uses for the new products from the mini catalog. Let me tell you...so much fun. This was right up my alley, no restrictions other than I use their products. I will post some of the other things I did later, but I wanted to get this one up.

Items used.

Green floral wreath from the Dollar Store

Muslin

First Edition Designer Series Stampin' Up paper (SU)

Old Olive Card stock SU

Cherry Cobbler Card stock SU

1/4 Hole Punch SU

Scallop Circle Punch SU

Ornament Punch SU

Table Setting Die (Big Shot) SU

Old Olive Ink SU

Cherry Cobbler Ink SU
Elements of Style Stamp SU

Cherry Cobbler Button SU

Other: Stylus, hot glue gun

I tried to give you a close up of the flower.

Let's break it down into steps

Tear muslin into 2 inch strips and hot glue around the wreath to cover the green. I left mine a little frayed. Tear one strip 2 1/2 inches wide and form the loop for hanging. Glue the two ends together and then decorate with the button. You can sew it if you like, but this time I just glued.
Punch 3 ornament shapes per flower (9 total) out of the old olive. If you don't have that punch, free hand a leaf...just think of a long heart.
Using the stylus I "carved" lines into the leaf, no rulers, you want it to look natural. I then inked the edges/lines with the old olive and stamped the floral image background from the stamp set over the whole leaf for dimension. Continue for the next 8 leaves. I promise it goes quickly!
With the Scallop punch, I cut 6 scallops from the cherry cobbler. Set 3 aside. Lay the other 3 out because they are the bases for your roses.
The table Setting Die has a spiral cut circle on it that you can use for the rose. If that item is not in your toy box, simply cut three 4 1/2 inch circles out of the First Edition paper (looks like a dictionary paper.- lurve it!!!) Then simply cut them in a spiral and ink the edges. Don't get hung up on them looking perfect. We are creating a flower and want it to look natural.
Now the fun begins, start at the middle of the spiral and pinch the end to form a bud. Continue to curl and twist the paper around to form a flower, adding judicious bits of hot glue as needed to hold in place. When the flower is formed, glue to your cherry cobbler base. Make two more flowers.
You may notice gaps here and there. This is where your other scallop circles come into play. Simply cut them apart into petal groups and use your stylus to break the stiffness down. You do this by laying it on a mouse pad and rub the stylus in circles on it. You will notice your card stock change texture and curl a little. Use a dab of glue to fill any gaps in the flower.
In the home stretch! Place three leaves in a triangle and glue a flower in the center. Using your 1/4 inch punch, add a few circles in the center of each flower. I chose to break those down with the stylus as well.

This really was easy peasy...promise!

Hope you bring a little spring into your winter and give it a try!

2010-11-25T19:37:00.000-08:00

Wowser! Wouldn't this be great!!! I never win, but hope springs eternal and this is one generous give away!
Thanks for the chance!

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

To get my oldest son out of the hospital (he has been in 5 weeks on Monday) and be able to have my husband and four kids togther instead of being in different states. (We are in UT at Primary Children's and my family is home in MT) All together and at home. :-)

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition?

We all get up at 6 and open presents by going in a cirlce. It is a fun time to see what everyone got and appreciate how lucky we are to be hanging out together. Then we make a big breakfast together.
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

A scrapbook retreat.

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

We make ornaments together. We challenge ourselves to use craft supplies that we already have. We also drive around to look at lights and look at the scrapbook pages of past Christmas celebrations.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

Yatzee, Parcheesi, Battleship, Life, Payday, Uno...to name a few. loll

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

Getting up early with my kids and playing the new family board game together later in the day.
7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip?

We already are this year. Because of Alex's hospital stay we will be in Utah. Luckily my in laws live in a nearby town.

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

An XBox Hard Drive
A Kinect
The Kinect Dance Bundle

Witches flying through the sky.....

2010-09-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

This is a song that my Mother-in-Law sings with our kids once it starts to get close to halloween. Now it pops into our heads when the leaves start changing and the weather gets crisp. Strangely enough though, there isn't a witch to be seen in this post. However before you cry "false advertising!" There are some very cute fall and halloween cards to inspire you to dig into your paper and break out your creativity or as we say on this blog your kee~rativity. loll

BTW doesn't this pretty pic of one of the trees in my backyard make you want to jump in some leaves? I LOVE fall! It is my favorite season! It is gorgeous, just cool enough to wear long sleeves and cuddle up in a blanket to read. No dripping heat or nasty windy freezing days, just fall sweet fall. Enjoy.

This cute little fellow was made with the old velvet paper backed floral ribbon that used to be used on wreaths and flower arrangements. I started with your standard sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of cardstock. Cut this in half so it measures 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 and fold to get your card. I inked and tore it up to lay in strips across the card and added eyes made from circle punches. Don't forget the hint of white pen on the black part of the eyes, it really makes them stand out. I added a little "headband" of torn Halloween paper and some leftover sticker letters to spell EEK down the side. This is a great way to get rid of your random leftovers.

This fall card is very simple and fast ~ but looks like it took a long time. Again start with your standard sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of cardstock. I chose a nice rusty fall colour. Cut this in half so it measures 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 and fold to get your card. The leaves and pumpkins are stamped on watercolour paper with a permanent ink (very important). Then I took watercolour crayons (you could use crayons, pencils or your kid's paintboxes) and very quickly and lightly coloured the images before I wet the paper. Run a wet brush over the images to blend and then while the paper is still wet add your deeper colours to your images to create depth. Mount it on chocolate paper and finish off with a grosgrain ribbon. The longest part of this card is cutting out the leaves. If you don't want to cut them out, use a punch or tear them in a strip.

Once again start with your standard sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of cardstock. Cut this in half so it measures 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 and fold to get your card. The base of this card is gray. Same floral ribbon as before, but this time I left it uninked and alternated it with strips of halloween paper. I cut a simple rectangle and free handed a "doodle" edge and Boo in white ink. A simple orange flower sequin and a black glitter brad give it the right finishing touch.

This card looks more complicated, but really goes together quickly. If you notice all of the cuts are straight which speeds things up. The base card is orange. Using the same cutting directions, I started with your standard sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of cardstock. Cut this in half so it measures 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 and fold to get your card. I built from the bottom up. Start with a black rectangle the width of your card and use a scallop punch along the bottom. I used a Stampin' Up one, but if you don't have that punch, use a different one, pinking shears or simply tear. After that is adhered down, move up to your next layer. Starting with a smaller rectangle of halloween paper, I added torn velvet floral ribbon to the bottom. I simple wrapped some fuzzy multi coloured yarn along the top and adhered all of it down. Along the top of this rectangle is a grosgrain olive green ribbon running across the card and finished with a little bit of halloween bling on the side. Another smaller rectangle of black with purple sequin flowers. The entire card was made in minutes with scraps from the bin. Love recycling!

Another fall card with the watercolour technique from above this time I started with a base card of chocolate, cut from an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper to measure 4 1/4 by 11. Sometimes it's nice to change up the way things fold. A rusty orange was adhered over this. Next I built the card in layers. Another chocolate rectangle. I tied a ribbon around it before I attached it to the card. Along the top are four simple epoxy bubble stickers. They photographed strangely, but on the card are they give a simple bit of shine. Next layer is a rusty red rectangle, scalloped along the bottom and layered off center on the card. Next is yet more chocolate ( a girl can never have enough chocolate!) topped with a yummy little watercoloured pumpkin. Stamp a sentiment on the bottom and you are good to go.

A little fall fun to get you started. Now I am off to curl up with a good book and watch the leaves fall....

Butterfly Mobile

2010-09-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

After a couple of scary, stressful crazy months, (all ended well) I have blown the dust off of my sweet (read that "suuuweeet!' craft room) and put on my creative vibe again. Welcome back my friends.

Inspired by summer slipping away and the happiness of blue and green together, I finally made the butterfly mobile I have been craving for so long! I was creatively juiced by one I saw in Papercrafts magazine a year or two ago. I loved how the butterflies moved in the breeze.

First you have to gather your materials. I like to try and create mostly with what I have on hand so I looked around...

You could certainly cut butterflies by hand, but I was surprised at how many butterfly things I had once I started looking. I also pulled out some ink, stencils and glitter glue.

Then the fun began! I went through my paper scraps and found all of my delicious blue and green shades. I also used paper from the Little Yellow Bicycle "Vita Bella" line. Time to stamp, cut and pile up those butterflies. :-)

Remember to cut doubles! This important for a later step. Once you have a joyful stack like this, they need a home. I used a lampshade that I found at a second hand store. It was $2.00. It was also covered with enough hot glue to build a shelter and scary fabric and fringe from the 80's. A little therapeutic ripping, tearing and destroying, showed me the lovely brass frame of the shade.

I couldn't get all of the glue off of the frame...even using tricks like soaking, freezing and warming up the metal. So instead I used it for a creative springboard. I sprayed it antique white. I then peeled little bits of the glue off so that it looked like an old iron frame. Love it! Thanks crazy 80's hot glue lady!

Next I needed a support for the butterflies, toyed around with using fishing line, but I then found this awesome pearl cotton thread.

I cut several lengths and then started laying out the butterflies. I had some shiny flower sequins in blue and green that I used for sparkle and spacing. I wish that I could give you a formula, but it is really all about personal preference.

You could start gluing while they are on the table, but I found that hanging the lampshade and tying the threads to that first worked a lot better.

Step one ~ Tie the threads

Step two ~ Glue some rhinestones back to back on the bottom of the threads to weigh them down. I used flowers and circles both, but stuck to white, green and blue.

Step three ~ Start gluing your butterfly pairs back to back. I used a line of scotch paper glue just down the center so that I could "open" their wings. Start with your largest butterflies first, then fill in with the sequins and smaller butterflies.

Time to open up their wings and let these babies fly.

I liked the bit of lift and life it gave the mobile to open the wings like this.

Next come the details that set this apart.

Don't you just love your glue gun! I mean healthy love, not like the previous owner of the lampshade. LOL...This one has the option of removing the cord once it heats up so that you can maneuver it a little bit better. I found this great ball fringe and netting at a quilting store. They are actually the same fresh spring green, but the photo doesn't do it justice. Now onto the details.

Ball fringe glued. Three larger butterflies hung at various levels (and angles) in the middle and netting wrapping the upper part of the lampshade.

This is from the underside. I needed a way to hang the mobile, so I worked with the original structure of the lampshade. I punched a scalloped circle out and glued it to the part of the lamp that usually attaches to the base. I looped some of the netting through a bead and used a ginormous needle to thread it through the original hole. I just went right through the paper. Seriously, you should SEE this needle, I have no idea what it was originally used for. Now, it lives for crafts and not making people cry....Now, one more look at all of this happy flutterly cuteness together...and the whole project cost me less than five dollars because used the materials I had.

Believe it or not, the whole thing took just one evening...about 4 hours. I did have some butterflies previously cut, but I added that into the 4 hour time bracket. Your imagination could go wild. My artistic daughter is making one that has skulls, pirates and her drawings on tags. My clever niece made some of these with scalloped circles...but really you could use any shape that makes you happy. The trick it so make the strands heavy enough that they will be straight, but light enough to move in a breeze. Enjoy!

2010-03-04T21:12:00.001-08:00

test two

Recent Work

2009-07-24T02:15:00.001-07:00

Here are some recent canvases that I have done for other people. With all of the house projects we have been cramming in this summer, my poor little studio is getting dusty...Enjoy!

Banned Books

2009-07-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

I decided to put this on the keerativity blog because it involved books, (mmm, yeah, I am aware that made absolutly NO sense at all.)
In retropect, looking at this list and all of the ones I have read, I am left with the question, am I a rebel or merly open minded towards literature and very annoyed with small minds that ban books?

Little House on the Praire...REALLY people, get a grip! Do yourself a favor folks, read a banned book today. There are some fabulous ones on this list. At the same time, there are a few on this list that I have read and hated. The point is, that we should decide for ourselves if a book is worth reading. This came from my MIL's blog, who in turn took it from her friend.

Banned Books

My friend Susan K. had this list on her blog. It's a list of the 110 most banned books. Take a look at the list and do this:

Bold the ones you've read. Italicize the ones you've read part of. * the ones you specifically want to read.

#1 The Bible
#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
#4 The Qur'an
#5 Arabian Nights
#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
#8 The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
#9 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
#11 The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
#13 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
#16 Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker
#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne
#21 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
#23 The Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
#24 The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
#25 Ulysses by James Joyce
#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell
#28 1984 by George Orwell
#29 Candide by Voltaire
#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#31 The Analects by Confucius
#32 Dubliners by James Joyce
#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
#34 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal
#36 Das Capital by Karl Marx
#37 The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
#38 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
#43 The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#45 The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys
#48 The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
#52 A Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
#57 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
#58 The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
#60 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck
#64 The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
#69 The Talmud
#70 Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
#71 The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
#75 Separate Peace by John Knowles
#76 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
#77 The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
#78 Popol Vuh
#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
#80 Satyricon by Petronius
#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright
#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle
#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
#91 The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner
#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
#96 The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud #98 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown #100 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
#102 Émile Jean by Jacques Rousseau
#103 Nana by Émile Zola
#104 The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
#108 A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
#109 The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Inspired by...

2009-05-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

Inspiration is a muse that each of us seek in different ways. For me, I have to be surrounded by bits of life. Each of them can touch me in different ways.

* Maybe it is my soul that is touched by a bit of light and shadow. The way I place my furniture in my creative space is directly related to the way sunlight and shadow play on the wall.

**Maybe my creative juices flow when a bit of texture, color or shape touch my senses.

***It might be an odd little object that was discarded from a previous owner. It sat homeless, until it touched my emotions.

****Sometimes it is an object that touches my sense of humor. It makes me smile for whatever odd reason.

Each of these things are a part of the puzzle that is me. When they are placed together as a whole, they help me to encourage Inspiration to stop flitting around and visit for awhile. Do her job as a muse and together we create, and dream and create some more. Below are some of the things that help inspire me.

Two of my favorite things, Chocolate and vintage signs! Yum for both the tummy and the eyes!

This makes my soul calm. I am reminded that we not only have a Father in Heaven that loves us, He cared enough to make a world that is beautiful as well as functional.

The most tender green you will ever see. This is the color of creativity, rebirth and renewal. The only time this green doesn't work is when you see it in the fridge on food. :-0 Then it is time to get out of your studio and clean out the icebox! Loll

My favorite flower, look at that color saturation! This was taken by jillclearyinc

I remember practising drawing by studying Leonardo's work...yes we are on a first name basis! :-)

I like to burn candles while I work...something about that small steady flame is comforting. No, I am not a fire bug, I leave that to my husband with the BBQ.

These little owls make me smile with their whimsy. I would love to own the fabric they are printed on.

Crafty Chicas!

2009-05-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

My friend Les has a wonderful blog called Dragonfly time. It is easy to lose a good chunk of time while you are looking at all of the fun pages and card ideas on there. Her blog has reached 45000 hits (yes you read the number right) and she is doing a fun give away.

http://dragonflytime.typepad.com/dragonfly_time/2009/05/new-ideas-and-some-more-layouts.html

Little Spring Inspiration

2009-04-26T21:25:00.001-07:00

Our April stamp group meeting brought a little "spring" into our lives! This was the cute project. I really love those blocks! It inspired me to make my own twist on them that I could display year round. I change a few things, chocolate brown blocks, silver edging, more pearls...The other things I have done were a card for a birthday party, I designed it for a demo I taught a while back, but it has turned out to be one of my favorites that I keep making again and again. Always a little bit different, but using the same elements. The necklace is one that I designed for my baby sister when she was here in March. It is all soft blues, crystal beads, pearly white and silver. I am learning that we can't rely on the weather to let us know winter is gone. We need to create it! ;-) Happy Spring everyone!

Simple Cards

2009-04-20T22:34:00.000-07:00

These were some simple cards I put together for a friend. It was fun to take the same pattern and make it look different just by varying the papers and ribbons. The metallics didn't show up nearly as well as I would have hoped. In fact, I am not sure in general what happened with these pictures...sorry for the quality of them. I liked how the get well card had turned out. It is one I did last year for a get well swap. I had forgotten it and just recently found it. You see, I have the sad problem of making cards and giving them away as gifts, but never sending them! ;-)

So very far behind...

2009-04-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

I have been behind in posting new items. Here are some pages that I have been working on for a friend. They were fun ones to do, from the M&M factory in Vegas. There were some techniques on them that I thought I might "lift" for future cards too. The yellow is backed with chocolate (what else?) paper. All of the scalloping was done with my awesome Stampin' Up punch. I love that thing! It made it really quick and easy. The letters were cut with a Cricut Keystone cartridge and all of the "M&M's" bordering the page are actually metal snaps that I set with my Cropidile. I don't usually tend to be a tool junkie, but they really made this page come together very quickly. I'm going through my books and projects photographing pages, cards and items, so soon we'll be able to get this blog hopping. :-)

Stacking box

2009-04-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

I need to take the photos off of my camera so that I can blog more often! I was looking through some pictures that were on my computer though and came across this cute box. I learned how to make these from my friend Sheryl. It is amazing what a few scraps of chipboard and some paper can turn into. I made this one to hold a thank you gift for my friend PD. It is great, first you build the outer box and line it. Then you fold and place the stacking drawers inside. Fill the drawers with treats, put the lid in place (which of course you have made!) and it all fits neatly together and closes up tight. I have made a lot of them to give as gifts, depending on what paper and embellishments you pick, they can look so very different. These really are easy, as long as you follow directions, a couple of years ago Shon even had me teach his young men's group at church (14-16 year old boys) how to make them for their moms for Mother's Day. If anyone would like to know how to make them, let me know.

What's all the Hoop-la about?

2009-03-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I was garage sale-ing with my mother in law Joan and found a big bag of wooden embroidery hoops for $1. That's right, 20+ hoops ranging in size from 3 to 40 inches. Whoo hoo! Did I know what I wanted to do with them? No. Does that ever stop a crafter? If it does, than you lose the right to call yourself that. So much of art is instinct, and something about these simple wooden hoops called me. I instantly used the biggest one to make a canopy over my daughter's bed. The rest, hibernated on one of my craft shelves until the need for some cheap wall art for Lissie's room arose. Take the above hoops, some craft paint, scrapbook paper and vinyl skulls...(drum roll please) and presto! Cheap wall art for my pirate crazy princess! The best part is that when she is tired of pirates (according to her that will be never) I can change it out.I used a great embossing powder called ultra-thick pewter on the chipboard scrolls and flowers so that it looked old and pitted. Stamped a little flourish on the skull. The paper is a rich chocolate brown flock. Drop a little diamond in the center of the flower and you're done.

This great paper needed nothing more than a frame. There is a little bit of glitter on the butterflies. I added the littlest skull to some black paper filled with pirate sayings and drawings. On the butterfly paper I traced in some of the silver and free handed the other. I added glitter to the butterflies in black, chocolate and pink.
Just in case we forget who Lissie is. :-) I combined two great papers and then added the banner. I threw on some flowers with rhinestone brads and added pearls down the side.
This one was easy, I punched circles from various scraps from the other hoops and then added the word pirate over top of it.

This one is my favorite. :-) When Lissie is tired of it, this one will go in my scrapbook room. The crown is done with the ultra thick embossing powder again, with pearls added. The wings are a material called grungeboard. It had a great texture already and I just rubbed ink over top to bring out the pattern.

Here they are hanging on her wall. Pretty fun art for a $1's worth of embroidery hoops and supplies I had in my stash.

Fleeting...

2009-03-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

How quickly time passes! I found these pages I did a couple of years ago of Joey. He was only seven. I think I am biased, but man, is he a cute little boy! :-)

A little birdie told me...

2009-03-04T17:47:00.001-08:00

I found this picture of Toby when he was two and had to throw together a quick layout to show it. It is pretty simple, just some doodling and that cutest boy. Can you believe he is turning nine?

I am starting to photograph more layouts, so we'll see some more on the site. With spring in the air, there have been all kinds of projects flying around! I have been appliqueing some owl pillows, making wall art and of course, scrap booking. Watch for some updates!

Shiny things are good...

2009-02-26T21:07:00.000-08:00

Somehow the text for this blog was posted all the way under the pictures, probably because I started it forever ago. Whoops, sorry, you'll have to scroll down. :-)

2009-02-26T21:05:00.000-08:00

The top bead on this one is hematite, it catches the light nicely. I like the simple shape of the bird and the little unexpected pop of turning the tear drop bead upside down.

I wear black almost all of the time. It is my favorite color and makes it fun to wear funky jewelery because it sets it off. I made this chunky turquoise and silver necklace to wear one Sunday.

This is one I made for my friend Sherry. It is made out of raw silk ribbon, leather, glass, copper and a hand stamped clay pendant that her friend had made. I love how all of the organic elements came together.

2009-02-26T20:58:00.000-08:00

Take one pendant, cute but a little boring

Earring components...cut the loop off and sand it a little bit to bring the copper through the design...

Epoxy the earring onto the pendant, add a little diamond glaze to set it and you have a whole new necklace! (The milky look is the diamond glaze before it was dry.) It dried clear and the silver leaves look like they are floating on the blue.

2009-02-26T20:54:00.000-08:00

This is a clear acrylic disk that I used alcohol ink on the back, then stamped on the front. The image seems to float. The earrings are glass beads with a silver cap

Again, playing with the alcohol ink, this time in coppers, with candy bright glass beads to set it off.

A little "twist" ring made from mini pearls with silver spacers and a silver bead dangle on the end.

Feelin' the need to bead :-)

2009-02-07T01:34:00.000-08:00

I have a weird quirk (okay, one of many...) I do not like expensive jewelery. I appreciate the thought behind the expensive pieces that I have been given, but I would much rather wear vintage jewelery or make it myself. I do love it when I am given vintage or funky jewelry (wink, wink) My family has always given pieces of jewelery for milestones. We have christening rings and necklaces, pearl necklaces that were given to us for our 13th birthday, etc. I treasure those. I wear the ones that still fit. (Have you ever seen how tiny a christening ring is?) I treasure the diamonds from my grandparents...but I will never wear them. (I do wear the pearls) I never wear gold, the closest I get to it is antique brass fittings. When I was in college, one of the things I did to make ends meet (and feed my Haagen Daz habit) was make jewelery. In fact, I made a necklace for Shon before I even knew him. My roommate was dating his best friend. She was a sweet harmless flirt and kept mooning about our apartment talking about this cute guy from MT. She asked me to make him a necklace. I don't thing she ever mentioned his name, or if she did I didn't listen. I made the necklace and she gave it to him. Imagine my surprise months later, when we met and he was wearing it! Hmm...sounds like it was meant to be! Over the years I have built up quite a collection of beads. I love to open my beads up and create whatever look I want to go for. Several years ago, my sister in law Amy gave me this amazing display/storage case. Just looking at it inspires me! Sometimes I want to get fancy, sometimes simple is best. Unless it is from the 70's or older, I don't usually use plastic, I like to take pieces apart and recreate them. Sometimes as wall art, sometimes as wearable art. Here are some of the things I have been playing with....

Beautiful Berries

2009-01-20T10:17:00.000-08:00

So much of creating for me, comes from being inspired by beauty all around us. A well written phrase can move me, light and shadow can bring a smile and the color of berries against a January sky, brilliant orange pops against blue, framed out by a bramble of winter naked branches...well that makes me ache to create. Below are some pictures that I took in our backyard a few weeks ago. Hope they bring a smile to your day too!

Diggin' through the scraps

2009-01-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

It seems like I have been working on a pile of Toby pictures lately. I have one little stack of pictures from the time period when I used to do 81/2 by 11 family albums. Unless I am doing a specialty album, now I usually use 12x12. So it has been fun...and a bit of a challenge as graphically I re-adjust to a smaller and rectangular format. I found these pictures from about four years ago that were just fun and quirky. One of my resolutions was to use up some of the older things of in my "stash". I found these Genuine Boy titles from Tree House Memories. I combined them with a journaling rub-on from EK Success. I cut the "Quirky" from the EK rub-on and added over top of the Genuine Boy title. The photo makes the title look like it has a lot of red in it, but I think that the flash from camera made it look that way.

Another resolution was to use up some the the dreaded "scraps" that seem to grow overnight. My goal was to only use two sheets of white for a background. The rest had to all be either from scraps or stash! Digging through the paper scraps added a little interest with color and simple shapes.

I dug out my Heidi Swapp date stamp and the Provo Craft alphabet stamp mymother-in-law gave me for Christmas. (see both below) to add Toby's name and the date. In this case the rub-on said everything that I wanted to about Toby's quirky personality. Remember, you don't have to use every part of the rub-on. I cut it apart, rearranged and GASP! even threw some of it out.

The whole thing was quick and I was please with the result. I love doing "art" pages in my memory books, but I would never get all of my pictures scrapped, if I did that for every layout, so I tend to mix it up. I do 7 or 8 layouts that are pleasing but simple and then go all out on the ones with activities that I am totally in love with or photos that inspire a special idea.

The alphabet stamp and date stamps are fun to use, you can spell things out, use part or all of it. **If you are obsessive about things being perfectly aligned this might not be the alphabet stamp for you. Since you rotate a dial to line up your title, it is very difficult to get it straight. But if you like a funky, eclectic look, they are a lot of fun.

Glass Ornaments

2009-01-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

I made these to use as gifts for our Sunday school teachers this year. They are one of those great crafts that looks really hard, but in reality just take a little bit of patience. If you use an "assembly line" they go quickly. I was able to do 20 of them start to finish in about an hour and a half.

I used one of my favorite Christmas sets from Stampin' Up called "Miracle of Christmas". I love how the baby Jesus looks so peaceful in it. The concept behind these ornaments is simple. There are a few basic supplies needed,

Clear ornaments

Acetate (or in this case I just used a plain old page protector)

Stayz-On ink (black and brown)

Alcohol ink (in a pinch you could use colored sharpies.

Ribbon (I used brown)

Thin silver cord (Very thin, mine is only a few millimeters in diameter)

Circle cutter (I used a coluzzle, but you could trace your circle or use the cutter of your choice. **a punch will not work on the page protector)

Step one:

Stamp the baby Jesus onto your page protector. I stamped several to save time.

Step two:

Using your circle cutter of choice, cut out each baby. The size you use will be determined by how large your ornament is.

Step three:

Flip your image over and color on the back. I used a paint brush with my alcohol ink. If you color on the front, the alcohol ink or sharpie will "lift" and blur the Stayz-On ink.

Step four:

Punch a 1/8 inch hole in the top of your circle. Thread a 3-4 inch piece of silver cord through. This will suspend your image in your ornament, instead of it laying on the bottom.

Step five:

This step seems tricky but is very easy. Roll your clear circle into a tube. Next, drop it into your ornament. Make sure you keep hold of your silver cord, lay the cord to one side of the opening and pop your lid in place.

Step six:

Stamp the sentiment of your choice and cut or punch it out into a tag shape. Use a fabulous ribbon to tie it to the top of your ornament. **If your ribbon is really thick, use a little piece of silver cord tied through your tag to create a loop. Then thread the ribbon through the loop first.

Congratulations! Your ornament is done. These are very striking because the image looks like it it floating in your ornament. Depending on the image you use, you could add glitter, fake snow, beads or raffia to the inside of the ornament too. **Watch for static cling! If you want to add glitter or other light objects, you should wipe your circle with an old dryer sheet before you put it inside your glass bulb.

Definitions:

Alcohol ink: acid-free, fast drying, transparent dye inks specially formulated to work on glass and metal. They also work well on Use on glossy paper, dominoes, shrink plastic, and other slick surfaces. They have the added benefit of being acid free and fade resistant so they are safe to use in scrapbooks.

Preschool page

2009-01-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

This page was done in the 8 1/2 by 11 format. The background is a printed vintage ABC page, layered on top are some ransom style alphabet letters and the word school torn out of a magazine. The tag is mixed media starting with a shipping tag which has been aged down with walnut ink. The words are stamped in Stayz-on ink (one of my favorites, it is basically a Sharpie in an ink pad ~ it stamps on anything, even glass and metal) Toby's name is stamped onto cork which had been rubbed with the walnut ink crystals to also age it. At the top of the tag is a metal tab that says dream and the whole thing is topped off with a piece of a vintage measuring tape. The journaling is done on two post-it notes stuck into a mini file folder that has been stapled onto the page. The date was stamped with Stayz-on onto a metal office file folder prong. This combines three of my favorite things, my son Toby, office supplies and scrapbooking! Life is good!