Sunday, December 31, 2017

Last Day Of 2017

FIRST AND FOREMOST....HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE TO ALL OF MY FAMILY & FRIENDS!!!

So far, regarding my accountability list for 2017 has been doing ok.   Out of originally 31 items, pretty much the majority of them were completed.  There are now just the ones that are on going to carry on with, which at the end of this post I will finish off with a new list to begin with in 2018.

But today, I would like to talk about a challenge that I have thought out for myself and now bringing it out onto the table.

#ArtADay2018ForHealth


I will be blogging daily, every day this time for the entire year, and not give up like I did last year.  Well that is my determination anyway...my intent of this is to do my best to keep moving and do at least a little bit every single day, exercise more,eat healthier, and be healthier, I do not want another repeat of this year that is for sure!!!

My idea of Art A Day 2018 for Health are the following.  It could be at least 18 minutes of making something, anything, like an ATC, or alter a rolodex.  It could also be a journal page, or a master board.  Perhaps a painting on canvas (large or small), or playing with my spirograph.  As long as I make something.  I would ideally prefer the project to be finished, and posted by the end of every single and posted for my readers.  However realistically we all know that life happens and things can get in the way of such an on taking, right?  For example I have 2 day surgeries coming up very shortly in the month of January.  On the 5th of January, I am scheduled for the carpel tunnel release of my left wrist.   And on January 20 I will be facing the music and going for a colonoscopy.  I have had far too many reasons NOT to get this done in the past year.

So, #ArtADay2018ForHealth will commence as of midnight tonight.  I would like to challenge you all to do the same, or similar, or an average of.

My most recent project found me collecting toilet paper rolls for the last 12 months!  Fun Fun Fun!  Blows me away at how many I ended up with.  To give you an idea, I needed 9 rows of 14 rolls.  WOW!  I saw a fabulous video on Facebook of ideas of things to make with them, one of totally tickled my fancy, so I started the process on Friday.  The project is a marker/pencil crayon holder.  I really love the idea of being able to find anything you need or want in a split second or a couple of split seconds.  So how I decided to engineer this is to put rows in proper rainbow colored instead of the colors being amuck every where like the video showed, and I decided to expand it.  The one on the video showed maybe 6 rows across and 6 rows down.

I started with a bunch of plain boring looking toilet paper rolls



So I took the acronym (that my good friend Kat taught me), Roy G Biv and went to work.  This is what I have completed so far.  







I have painted all of the rest of the rolls and they just need to be glued together.  Except I need to repaint the violet ones. But I am probably more than half done.




I will likely have this completed by midnight tonight, so that I can end the year with completing a project.  So then all there will be to do is to find a place for which I think I have one on one of my shelves, so that it will be handy.  And then to load all of my markers and pencil crayons into it.  If all goes well, I may make one for my crayons.

insert photo of finished marker holder.

Last but not least for this post..here is my new accountability list for 2018.

ART RELATED

1) Swap Bot projects to fill in gaps for when I have no other art to do
2) On going group projects either with my own group or my other main-stays
3) Greeting card challenges and send more home made birthday greeting cards by snail mail
4) Cut down more cardboard boxes to ATC size
5) More water color painting at the very least on ATC size
6) Update profile on swap bot
9) Work harder on putting all ATCs received from beginning of time into binders
10) Organize all stash better
11) Trade more in Sharon's group
12) Keep art desk and room cleaner
13) Revisit and finish any incomplete project

HOME RELATED

1) Sorting of all paper work for income tax etc
2) Go througn all photos, name them and burn them onto DVDs
3) Be a better housekeeper

HEALTH RELATED


1) Fight sleep better
2) Exercise more



ON GOING ALL THE ABOVE ALL OF THE TIME








Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Accountability List for 2017


How am I doing on my accountability list? See below!

1)  Make a spring flip book for Bev P over on Swap-Bot, which should actually get done today and in the mail tomorrow.  Its due May 5th and should have already been worked on. - CHECK!!!  Done and Mailed on May 3, 2017 - DONE

-I have since made a Halloween flip book for Bev P, I just now have to mail it. - DONE

2)  Finish Bonnie's pocket letter and mail the dies to her from Bev. - DONE
-I currently have a Christmas pocket letter to make and to mail to Bonnie 
- DONE

3)  Mona Lisa ATC's for ATC Exchange Circle    - DONE
-I currently have 16 Christmas ATCs to make for Paper Art Creatios ASAP -
DONE
 and 2 Harvest Halloween ATCs to make and to send to Marie Schroller = DONE

4)  Make a pocket letter for Michelle on the Canadian Pocket Letter Group.  - DONE

5)  Make a pocket letter for my Mom for Mothers Day, shame on me,  MY BAD this never did get done, I guess I was being delusional?

6)  Make a pocket letter for Laura Toll.  I have already hinted to her that I was going to send something to her "Aunt Laura " oops that was accidental intention because I was supposed to say Aunt Linda.  But it made Laura laugh so that was good.... - DONE

7)  Make a pocket letter for Aunt Linda. - DONE

8) Word die cuts for my partner in pre cut die cut swap group. – DONE

9) Make a few corner book marks and put one in Pats Pocket Letter and mail it - DONE

10)  I have fallen so far behind on the Heart Art Project that I don't know if I will be able to get caught up.  This is not going to happen.  – SADLY GAVE UP – EXPECTED TOO MUCH OF MYSELF – MY BAD

11)  I also have a WHOLE WHACK of die cutting to do especially for my good friend Bev .DONE

12)  On going Swap bot projects.CONTINUE TO DO
-I am trading and swapping on swap bot all of the time.

13)  On going big group projects.CONTINUE TO DO
-I did a few big group projects but I don’t want to do big projects very much –
DONE

14)  Cut up all card board boxes down to ATC size to use for backings.
-Have since done a whole whack more, AND NOW HAVE MORE TO DO YET AGAIN

15)  Get back into water color painting! love this much but I have been getting artist block.  MUST PAINT

16)  Sorting all paper work we have into order by date for tax purposes. -on going – CONTINUE TO DO

17)  Update my profile on Swap-Bot – this has not been done yet either – MUST DO

18)  HALLOWEEN HOWL DUE AUGUST 31 - DONE
-Have since done another Halloween Howl
- DONE
20)  On going sorting and putting all ATCs into order by artist in binders.  MUST DO

21)   Collecting all of our contacts and info and writing them all down by hand and putting them into the roster manually...just in case if there is ever an information hiway crash...but for the real reason is that Google is messing around with our info believe it or not... - DONE

22)  Going through all of our photos and burning them on to dvd's – MUST DO

23)  On going sorting my craft stuff and keeping it reasonably tidy.  For example sorting whatever clear stamps I have that are not in binders and put them into binders.  Lots of other more interesting things to do in the Art Cave – MUST DO

24)  Being a better house keeper.   This is hard to do when you are sick – MUST DO

25)  Collect all the paper work necessary for an important meeting this week.DONE

26)  Scan All of my available to trade ATCs to trade individually and put them in my files on Sharon's group, and the big group.  DONE – BUT HAVE MORE TO DO – MUST DO

27)  Trade more on Sharon's groupMUST DO

28)  On top of all of this I need to spend more time again on the lessons I am taking over at the learning hub. MY BAD – I HAVE GIVEN UP ON THOSE, THEY ARE NOT REALLY USEFUL TO ME

29)  Over all being more creative especially on rainy days!  And making sure that I am completely all caught up on my promises!
-getting better at this – WATCH FOR 2018 ART A DAY CHALLENGE

30)  Exercising little by little everyday either doing the moving easy program, walking or jogging around the house, or playing fetch with Spencer & NOW  COCO.   MUST DO!

31)  Clean Desk – DONEON GOING…MUST DO

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

How am I doing on my accountabiliity list? See below!





1)  Make a spring flip book for Bev P over on Swap-Bot, which should actually get done today and in the mail tomorrow.  Its due May 5th and should have already been worked on. - CHECK!!!  Done and Mailed on May 3, 2017

-I have since made a Halloween flip book for Bev P, I just now have to mail it.

2)  Finish Bonnie's pocket letter and mail the dies to her from Bev.
-I currently have a Christmas pocket letter to make and to mail to Bonnie

3)  Mona Lisa ATC's for ATC Exchange Circle  
-I currently have 16 Christmas ATCs to make for Paper Art Creatios ASAP and 2 Harvest Halloween ATCs to make and to send to Marie Schroller

4)  Make a pocket letter for Michelle on the Canadian Pocket Letter Group.

5)  Make a pocket letter for my Mom for Mothers Day, shame on me, this never did get done, I guess I was being dilusional?

6)  Make a pocket letter for Laura Toll.  I have already hinted to her that I was going to send something to her "Aunt Laura " oops that was accidental intention because I was supposed to say Aunt Linda.  But it made Laura laugh so that was good....

7)  Make a pocket letter for Aunt Linda.

8) Word die cuts for my partner in pre cut die cut swap group.

9) Make a few corner book marks and put one in Pats Pocket Letter and mail it

10)  I have fallen so far behind on the Heart Art Project that I don't know if I will be able to get caught up.  This is not going to happen.

11)  I also have a WHOLE WHACK of die cutting to do especially for my good friend Bev.

12)  On going Swap bot projects.
-I am trading and swapping on swap bot all of the time.

13)  On going big group projects.
-I did a few big group projects but I don’t want to do big projects very much.

14)  Cut up all card board boxes down to ATC size to use for backings.
-Have since done a whole whack more!

15)  Get back into water color painting!  I love it so much but I have been getting artist block.  I have not done this yet…..sigh


16)  Sorting all paper work we have into order by date for tax purposes.
-on going

17)  Update my profile on Swap-Bot – this has not been done yet either

18)  Get caught up on Heart Art  (Not going to happen)

19)  HALLOWEEN HOWL DUE AUGUST 31
-Have since done another Halloween Howl

20)  On going sorting and putting all ATCs into order by artist in binders.

21)   Collecting all of our contacts and info and writing them all down by hand and putting them into the roster manually...just in case if there is ever an information hiway crash...but for the real reason is that Google is messing around with our info believe it or not...

22)  Going through all of our photos and burning them on to dvd's

23)  On going sorting my craft stuff and keeping it reasonably tidy.  For example sorting whatever clear stamps I have that are not in binders and put them into binders.  Lots of other more interesting things to do in the Art Cave

24)  Being a better house keeper.   This is hard to do when you are sick.

25)  Collect all the paper work necessary for an important meeting this week.

26)  Scan All of my available to trade ATCs to trade individually and put them in my files on Sharon's group, and the big group.

27)  Trade more on Sharon's group.

28)  On top of all of this I need to spend more time again on the lessons I am taking over at the learning hub.

29)  Over all being more creative especially on rainy days!  And making sure that I am completely all caught up on my promises!
-getting better at this

30)  Exercising little by little everyday either doing the moving easy program, walking or jogging around the house, or playing fetch with Spencer.

31)  Clean Desk

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Pocket Letters

What is a pocket letter, exactly?  Before I take this any further, the creator of Pocket Letters was Janette Lane, and you can find where I got my information on pocket letters by clicking here to go to the Janette Lane Blog.

Most of you have probably heard about them by now.  Or perhaps you are still trying to figure them out...Or maybe you have even already tried making one; and either you liked it or you did not.  Lets say that hypothetically that you have made one and that you did not like making one if you have tried to.  And so if you did not enjoy making it, I can understand why, they are some one intimidating, and if you have received a beautiful bulky pocket letter that someone sent you and its chock full of goodies that you may or may not have and to boot has cost the sender a small fortune to mail it to you.

The very first one I made was described as above, and I did not make another pocket letter for a very long time after that for a few years in fact.  That is, until recently a good friend got me curious about them once again.  So I made a couple of more, one was too bulky and far too many goodies, and the other was not near good enough and not near as many goodies as they should have been.

Good grief, how do we come up with a happy medium?  Quite frankly in my opinion if the pocket letters are too big and bulky it becomes far too costly to send and that people who send them as such have missed the boat. (Pardon my expression)  Especially if you are sending over seas...a small fortune perhaps? Likely.  So I went to Janette's site and found this...

On her site, there is a brief explanation of what each pocket is for.  So I went ahead and made my own template for my own use which looks like this...


I have since changed a few things but I will explain what I have come up with for each section, pocket by pocket.

The very first step I make is I choose a colour or pattern of paper that you think your pocket letter pal might like, it can be a solid colour or a pattern of what you think it should be.  It could be a theme or not, So for example, if you know your pal loves to travel, you might want to make the front of the pocket letter using travel themed paper...but the beauty is that it can be whatever YOU want it to be, as ultimately it is YOUR choice because you are the one sending it.


For this pocket letter, which I just finished yesterday;  it looks like it could be for a theme.  But whether it is or it isn't doesn't matter., what matters is the rest of it which is in the back.


Pocket # 1 - is simply a "letter", it does not have to be long, it can be hand written or typed out, my penmanship is terrible, so I type mine, and I used a general form letter so I don't have to keep writing or typing out the same thing over and over. I don't send out that many pocket letters anyway and I change whatever I need to in the form letter as I go.  And I label the front of that pocket simply LETTER. You can put the label right on the paper in that pocket which is what I do or right on the outside of the plastic sleeve, I have done that too.  But by trial and error, I like it on the paper and inside the pocket.

Pocket # 2 - Janette has this pocket labelled for ephemera (for pockets 2 & 3 is doesn't really matter which order these go in.   So I have # 2 labelled as "Stickers". If your pal is crafty and you know what things they collect or like, such as used postage stamps, or die cuts, you can put them here.  If your pal is non crafty and your not sure what they like you can put something useful in this pocket like decorative bandaids.

Pocket # 3 - Janette has this pocket labelled stickers, but I have it labelled as "ephemera."  Again, for these two pockets it doesn't matter which order they are in.  It just so happened that I mixed them up by mistake and didn't want to waste what I have done.  Other things that you can tuck in here might be single wet ones, or band aids (that is if you did not use them in Pocket # 2) perhaps an ATC made by you, a poem, a photograph, a keychain, mini notepad, flat makeup samples, coupons, etc.

Pocket # 4 - This pocket is a little bit more involved.  Janette suggests calling this pocket a "mail tag" and make the tag so that will fit in the pocket.  But I have decided to change this to About You in an attempt to keep it simple.  She also suggests to pick a few short questions to ask your pal.  So is what I have done to both the front and the back of the tag.

                                 

As you can see, its quite a simple design of a stamp, a sticker and a butterfly die cut on the front and on the back I have pre-typed the questions using font size 7 or 8, cut them out and glued them on the back.  I also used a couple of cute little stickers here to decorate it.

Pocket # 5 - This pocket is simple what I have done is googled popular 3 word "quotes" and chose 9.  Then I manipulated them in my open office to ensure that they were all 2.5 x 3.5 in size, and then cut them down to fit the pocket.  I only put one in per pocket so I have others for future use.  You can see the sample of this on the numbered photo above.  Its the centre pocket.

Pocket # 6 -  For this pocket what I have done is similar to what I did for the tag pocket.  Janette calls this one, "About Me".  So what I have changed here, is I simply answer the questions, that I ask my pal in pocket # 4 ...the about you...pocket. Why repeat anything that might be in your letter which is in pocket # 1.

Pocket # 7 - This pocket is called "Misc."  I suppose that miscellaneous is kind of the english word for "ephemera".  things that you can tuck in here might be single wet ones, or band aids (that is if you did not use them in Pocket # 2 or 3) perhaps an ATC made by you, a poem, a photograph, a keychain, mini notepad, flat makeup samples, coupons, cute sticky notes etc.

Pocket # 8 - I call this pocket, "What is a Pocket Letter?" For what Janette suggests here, I would think it would mainly be for people who do not know what a pocket letter is or have never received one or is not crafty.  She has a free printable here.  But what I have done is similar to the about you and about me pockets, I have pre copied and pasted onto one page in Word so that all I have to do it print on pretty paper, cut it down so it will fit the pocket. I have 8 left to use for future pocket letters.

Pocket # 9 - And finally the last pocket is saved for a flat pack of tea, or a flat pack of coffee sample.  I call this pocket, "coffee or tea on me" I am seriously considering getting a couple of Tim Horton gift cards with just enough money on them for one coffee or tea to keep the package as flat as possible.

So here you have it...my complete dissection of how to make a pocket letter so that they not only look great, but are quick and painless to create.

cheers

Dar



Saturday, May 6, 2017

Accountability List

Here is an update of my ever growing accountability list of stuff to do.

✔1)  Make a spring flip book for Bev Pisko over on Swap-Bot, which should actually get done today and in the mail tomorrow.  Its due May 5th and should have already been worked on. - CHECK!!!  Done and Mailed on May 3, 2017

2)  Finish Bonnie's pocket letter and mail the dies to her from Bev.

3)  Make 4 Mona Lisa ATC's for ATC Exchange Circle

4)  Make a pocket letter for Michelle Phillips on the Canadian Pocket Letter Group.

5)  Make a pocket letter for my Mom.

6)  Make a pocket letter for Laura. 

7)  Make a pocket letter for Aunt Linda.

8) Word die cuts for my partner in pre cut die cut swap group.

9) Get Pat's pocket letter ready to send.

10)  I have fallen so far behind on the Heart Art Project that I don't know if I will be able to get caught up.

11)  I also have a WHOLE WHACK of die cutting to do especially for my good friend Bev.

12)  Cat or Dog ATC.

13)  Cow or Horse ATC.

14)  Cut up all card board boxes down to ATC size to use for backings.

15)  Get back into water colour painting!  I love it so much but I have been getting artist block.

16)  Sorting all paper work we have into order by date for tax purposes.

17)  Update my profile on Swap-Bot

18)  Get caught up on Heart Art

19)  HALLOWEEN HOWL DUE AUGUST 31

20)  On going sorting and putting all ATCs into order by artist in binders.

21)   Collecting all of our contacts and info and writing them all down by hand and putting them into the roster manually...just in case if there is ever an information hiway crash...but for the real reason is that Google is messing around with our info believe it or not...

22)  Going through all of our photos and burning them on to dvd's

23)  On going sorting my craft stuff and keeping it reasonably tidy.  For example sorting whatever clear stamps I have that are not in binders and put them into binders.

24)  Being a better house keeper.

25)  Collect all the paper work necessary for an important meeting this week.

26)  Scan All of my available to trade ATCs to trade individually and put them in my files on Sharon's group, and the big group.

27)  Trade more on Sharon's group.

28)  On top of all of this I need to spend more time again on the lessons I am taking over at the learning hub.

29)  Over all being more creative especially on rainy days!  And making sure that I am completely all caught up on my promises!

30)  Exercising little by little everyday either doing the moving easy program, walking or jogging around the house, or playing fetch with Spencer.

31)  Clean Desk - always on going.

32)  Make home made embellishments

I am slowly plugging away at my list....I will get there sooner or later...never a dull moment.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Flip Books

My sister in art Bev and I have been chatting a lot recently about Flip books.  I've done a lot of different things in art but I have never made a flip book.  She sent me a few links to look at some ideas for what a flip book is.  Then I tried this video, not sure if it was one of her links or not.  So I tried it...and actually loved the challenge of making this one.  Here are the photo's of how they looked.


The photo of the page with the birds is the front of the book.  The photo of the page with the flowers is the back of the book.  The photo of the stacked envelopes are actually the inside of the book.


I was kind of disappointed that none of the pages lined up properly, but then this was my first ever attempt not only a flip book, but also binding one...which the below photo shows you how that looks.


Pretty impressive looking for my first home made bound book, right?  Well in the end, I decided not to use this one because I had absolutely NO CLUE how to decorate it or what to put in the envelopes. I will however try this one again sometime, but will decorate the envelopes before actually binding them into a book format.

Then I took out my friend, another sister in art, Carmen's flip book as I was her partner for the Flip Book Swap on Swap Bot, and basically just kind of followed her pattern for my partner Bev.  I really hope she likes it.  Here are the photos of what I came up with.

 

 

 

 

This was a lot of fun to make.  I thoroughly enjoyed it....I just hope that Bev will like it.

Aloha!

Dar















Sunday, April 30, 2017

WOW!!! Time Flies!!! (And Checklist)

Here it is...the end of April already!!!  


Its been a few very difficult months, but now that they are behind me it is my intention to do more crafting every single day!   Filling out the forms for ODSP was very emotional especially the part that you had to fill out how everything affects your life.  I had to write pages and pages of emotional stuff that I just want to forget about and move on with my life.

As far as being creative is concerned, I joined an ATC Artist Trading Group on Facebook, other wise known as "The Big Group"  Its actually too big for me, but I am hoping to find homes for as many as my older ATCs that I can.  But here are some jobs that I need to complete this summer or as soon as possible.

Here is the order of stuff I need to do...

✔1)  Make a spring flip book for Bev Pisko over on Swap-Bot, which should actually get done today and in the mail tomorrow.  Its due May 5th and should have already been worked on. - CHECK!!!  Done and Mailed on May 3, 2017

2)  Finish Bonnie's pocket letter and mail the dies to her from Bev.

3)  Mona Lisa ATC's for ATC Exchange Circle

4)  Make a pocket letter for Michelle on the Canadian Pocket Letter Group.

5)  Make a pocket letter for my Mom for Mothers Day

6)  Make a pocket letter for Laura Toll.  I have already hinted to her that I was going to send something to her "Aunt Laura " oops that was accidental intention because I was supposed to say Aunt Linda.  But it made Laura laugh so that was good....

7)  Make a pocket letter for Aunt Linda.

8) Word die cuts for my partner in pre cut die cut swap group.

9) Make a few corner book marks and put one in Pats Pocket Letter and mail it

10)  I have fallen so far behind on the Heart Art Project that I don't know if I will be able to get caught up.

11)  I also have a WHOLE WHACK of die cutting to do especially for my good friend Bev.

12)  On going Swap bot projects.

13)  On going big group projects.

14)  Cut up all card board boxes down to ATC size to use for backings.

15)  Get back into water colour painting!  I love it so much but I have been getting artist block.

16)  Sorting all paper work we have into order by date for tax purposes.

17)  Update my profile on Swap-Bot

18)  Get caught up on Heart Art

19)  HALLOWEEN HOWL DUE AUGUST 31

20)  On going sorting and putting all ATCs into order by artist in binders.

21)   Collecting all of our contacts and info and writing them all down by hand and putting them into the roster manually...just in case if there is ever an information hiway crash...but for the real reason is that Google is messing around with our info believe it or not...

22)  Going through all of our photos and burning them on to dvd's

23)  On going sorting my craft stuff and keeping it reasonably tidy.  For example sorting whatever clear stamps I have that are not in binders and put them into binders.

24)  Being a better house keeper.

25)  Collect all the paper work necessary for an important meeting this week.

26)  Scan All of my available to trade ATCs to trade individually and put them in my files on Sharon's group, and the big group.

27)  Trade more on Sharon's group.

28)  On top of all of this I need to spend more time again on the lessons I am taking over at the learning hub.

29)  Over all being more creative especially on rainy days!  And making sure that I am completely all caught up on my promises!

30)  Exercising little by little everyday either doing the moving easy program, walking or jogging around the house, or playing fetch with Spencer.

31)  Clean Desk

I MADE IT TO 30!!!!   CAN I GET TO 40???

Now that I have put everything that I want to do and need to do for all of the world to see makes me accountable for it all!

The reason I have not been being so creative is because I have been hit with a bad cold so bad that my glands are swollen to the point where I can not even hear properly.  If it stays like this,  I will have to consider a hearing aid to help.  I sure hope my ear clears up as I am already deaf in my right ear.  Its now been two full weeks that this nasty cold has been keeping me down.  But I am tired of it. Tomorrow I will be making an appointment to see my care provider as soon as possible.

So, I am going to quit writing and get creative....

cheerio!

Dar


Saturday, April 15, 2017

Artist Block

I am sure that everyone gets an Artist Block from time to time.  What is an artist's block?  Its like a writer's block, your brain just runs dry for any length of time.  According to a google search, this is what they say about an Artist Block. 

"Any creative person has a time when the ideas seem to run dry, and art inspiration becomes sorely lacking. It's a common dilemma that links all of the creative fields together, and plagues every artist. ... As an artist, I've come up with a solution to overcome my artist's block, and it never seems to fail "


I can always count on my good friend over at JaspersGems to come up with a cool project to work on.  She found a video that she challenged herself to do this weekend.  You can find it here at Shira Studio by Shira Manor.

This is really the first time that I made a master board using layering to create ATCs, and actually know that it is called a master board before the cutting stage. The video is short and sweet, and I had most of the products that she had. So, I told Bonnie that I would do it with her.  So here are the photos of the Artist Trading Cards I made.  They are totally not the same as Bonnie's, OR Shira's for that matter as we all of different stencils and stamps to embellish the master board with.





From these photos, you can see the gradual process if you have seen the video you can actually see it building to something.  






Here they are almost finished and dry.  I really love how they turned out!  But You won't even believe what happened to me...In all of my 8 years of crafting, I have NEVER, not even once spilled anything all over a project I have been working on....but the inevitable happened yesterday.  As I was messing with the best glue I have ever used in my life because it dries in no time at all...and its cheaper than Mod Podge.  Its called Gloss Podge Brilliant, by Demco.  If you do a google search you will find it...Anyway, I knocked over my bottle of glue and it went ALL over my project.  Luckily it didn't get anywhere else, and I am so happy I have been using newsprint on my desk again in front of my computer where I do my artsy stuff.  Boy oh boy I was not a happy camper...let me tell you...I managed to save most of it and was able to put it back into the bottle. But I did lose a lot, too much in my humble opinion...le sigh...


    
 

 

 

 
Regardless, it was quite a fun project and the best part is I actually made something from start to finish.  Thanks Bonnie, I really hope that this means my artist block is over.  

I have been keeping today with my badly neglected house work. My next step is to vacuum the house, my art cave definitely needs and also I need to clear up my art space, just so I can make a mess of it again.....

cheerio!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

SPIROGRAPH



Who doesn't remember the infamous SPIROGRAPH???  I remember having one as a kid, do you?  Did you have one?  Were you successful in ever making it work the way they advertised it?

This is the one that I remember is a red box with a blue tray that came with all of the plastic shapes with tiny little holes in it.  It also came with 4 different coloured pens, some cardboard for the backing and pins to hold everything down.


I actually found one of these original ones somewhere, probably a yard sale. I made several attempts, but there are a bunch of things missing.  So I tucked it away at the time. I for one, could ever master it anyway, but then; back then, I don't think I was ever as art minded as I currently am now.

So, the reason this all came up more recently is because my good buddy Aubrey remembered me talking about Spirograph and he called me one day all excited and he said "you would not even believe what I found!!!"  And I was like, "what did you find?"  He said, "Spirograph at Michael's on sale for TEN BUCKS!" LOL!!!  He was absolutely adorable about it.  This is the one he bought for me.

He said he actually bought two....silly boy, I said why?  And his response was that he wanted one too!  lol And that they were such a great price he could not resist.  Anyway, this was such a while ago, last summer, I think.  We actually finally got to see him on the weekend, and he brought it to me...What a sweet heart!  I asked him if he played with his yet, and his reply was that he was waiting for me to play with it first...lol...so, here you go Aubrey, this is my first attempt!

It sure looks like a kindergarten drawing, doesn't it?  Anyway, I am having trouble keeping the rings down hard on the surface I am creating on, and so the wheels keep skipping.  The pins never truly worked for me either.

But don't worry, I want to be able to make amazing designs like this...

and this...


and this...


So I won't be giving up anytime soon.  I will be trying the pins again maybe tomorrow!

In the mean time, if anyone has any ideas for a good solution on how to keep this sturdy, I am ALL EARS!