Crafty Update

I got tired of working on the summer sampler, so I picked this one back up.  Before this week, all I'd done was the bird and the letters "er."   I'm happy with how much I accomplished!

I love the border.  It looks like lace.

This is an art journal page I made a few weeks ago.
It's a work in progress, sort of.

I made a little pocket for holding memories.  When I think of something to add to it, I jot it down on an index card and put it in the pocket.

I wish I would have painted the cards first.  It's still not too late.  I could use watercolors over the ink.

I will probably add a pocket to the back too, because the front one is getting full.








I will be joining the Totally Useless Stitch Along.   I know I'm just 8 months late, but whatevs.  lol
You're supposed to save all your orts in a jar and post update photos.
My jar (which is really a wine glass) contains 3 tiny black threads at the moment.
 I had just emptied it when I came across this site!
The next day to share is tomorrow, so I probably won't be posting until next month.  Ha.

Until Next Time....

Summer Crafty Update

This is all the progress I've made on the Frosted Pumpkin's Summer Sampler.  They've already sent us the first 2 weeks of little patterns for the boxes. I'm going to start on them tonight.  I need to step it up if I want to be finished before the end of summer!
If you'd like a general idea of what the sampler will look like, click here for a picture someone took of a completed week one.

I've put aside my poppy cross-stitch.  I plan on taking it up again after the summer.


I've also been making ICADs (Index-Card-A-Day) along with the group at Daisy Yellow's blog.  I haven't been posting to the Flickr group because my cards aren't very good.  So I shall post them here where I know only a handful of people will see them.  Ha.
I'm not good at drawing or art, but it's fun, so I do it anyway.  I'm the same way with singing.  I sing all the time, but I can't carry a tune to save my life.  lol

My favorite is the one with the houses.  It looks better in person.

(Gosh, they really are bad. I can't believe I'm posting them!)
I am also behind with the index cards.  I should have about 30 done right now, but I only have 10.

There's just so many things I love to do that I have to spread my time out among them.  Because of this I am slow at finishing any project I start.

Until Next Time...

Random Ramblings

* I've given up on the Blog Everyday in May thing. It was fun, but I can't keep up.  I just don't have time to blog every single day, nor do I see it as a priority.

* We've been officially finished with school for a couple of weeks now.  Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been very conducive to summer vacationing.  It has been very rainy and unusually cool for May.  By this time we usually have our pool cleaned and are swimming everyday. It's been too cold to even attempt cleaning the pool.  Hopefully we'll be able to do it in a week or two.

* After five months of stitching, I have lost interest in cross-stitching.  I'm about 3/4 finished with my current project.  I will finish it, but it's been hard to find the motivation.
  Here is a progress shot:
As you can see, I've only done a small amount since the last update.







* Art journaling has become my new obsession.  I've done if off and on for the last year or two, but it's been some time since I've given it much attention.  Now it seems to be all I can think of.  Ha.
As I've said many, many times, I am not good at it.  I'm not an artist and I never will be.  But it's fun.  There's just something about smearing paint on a page and gluing things down that brings out the kid in me.  It's also soothing when I get anxious.

This is my most recent page.  I'm not entirely happy with it. I think it is too pale. I think I overdid it with the white-wash. Other than that, I like it.

My favorite part about art journaling is making the backgrounds.  The hardest part is deciding what to put ON the backgrounds.  lol

This is what the page looked like before I added the writing, doodles, and other layers.

It all started out with a collage gone wrong.  You can't tell, but underneath all of that is an elephant, a beach, and a plate of green beans.  Ha!  That's the beauty of it- if you make a mistake, you can just cover it up!











* I had a lovely Mother's Day.  I will write about it in a later post, because I still need to take pictures of my gifts.  :)

Until Next Time....

*Edited to add the two newest pages

Tennessee Smash Book Pages

Last year we planned a big family trip to Gatlinburg, Tn.
We went with my parents, my brother, and sister-in-law.
It was the first real vacation we've had since before my children were born (over 17 years ago).
We went during Winterfest, which is when the city is full of Christmas light displays.  It was beautiful!   The mountains were breathtaking, but I must admit, I was glad to get back on flat land.  :)
We made lots of memories that we will cherish forever.

I've never shared any of my Smash Book pages.  I decided this was a good place to start.  As you can see, I don't use  a real Smash Book. This is the sketch book I posted last week.  I paint and decorate my own pages.  I like the freedom of blank pages as opposed to ones that are already decorated.
As you can also see, my style is messy and grungy.  I don't go for perfection.

Until Next Time,

Doodling on the Go

One thing that is important to me with any craft or hobby is that I can take it along when I have to go somewhere.  That "somewhere" can be only my backyard, or another room in the house. You can really bring your supplies anywhere you'd like with just a small box and a few supplies.

This is my on-the-go box.  It has everything I need to doodle or write anywhere. It's small, but it's too big to fit in a purse.  It does fit nicely in a back-pack or large bag, though.

Here are the contents: lots of pens and pencils, small scissors, rulers, stapler, eraser, pencil sharpener, compass, water brush, index cards, and a small water color set.  I usually keep a glue stick in there too, but it's missing in the picture.

To me, the index cards are key.  They're like mini-canvases.  I use them to write, doodle, paint- anything!

I keep my box in a back-pack with my journal, papers, and coloring books (Dover adult coloring books are great).  I have all my stuff in one place so I can just grab and go.  Sometimes I bring the whole bag, but many times I just bring my box.

Art Journaling

I started art journaling last year.
I first learned about it online and was immediately intrigued.  I knew from the beginning that I would never make anything as lovely as the ones I saw around the web.  I can't draw.  I'm not artistic at all.   Crafty, yes.  Artistic, nope. That's a whole other animal.
I loved the idea of an art journal as just a place to play around.  I've always enjoyed scrapbooking and paper crafting.  I decided to give it a try.

 I bought a sketchbook and started collaging.  I learned more about it from YouTube and other sources. Some of my early creations were really terrible!  Some were just ok, but there were others that I absolutely loved.

I'm still not very good at it, but it's a great release.  I don't have to think much- just throw some paint, glue, and magazine clippings on a page.  I might never show most of them to anyone, but it's like therapy for me.

This is my last completed art journal. (The heart is covering my name and address).
 As you can see, it is quite full.  This is the third one I've finished.  All of them in the same type of notebook.

I call it an art journal for lack of a better word.  Yes, I do make typical art journal pages, but I also use it as a smashbook.  Most of my books are a combination of bad art and various memorabilia. Ha.

Because I have a hard time fitting everything in this type of book,  I've decided to try something new.
I've begun journaling (and smashing) on pieces of card stock and then keeping them in a binder.  I've only started this week, so we shall see how it works out.