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!