Monday, August 30, 2010

Life happens

My family is going through some serious things right now. There have been two serious accidents in the past 2 weeks involving different members of our family. Between the already hectic schedule we had going and these new life developments (don't worry--my kids, husband, and I are fine) I just can't get on much and post.

Because sometimes life happens.

This is one of those times.

I'll be back as soon as I can, my dears.

Keep on crafting and if you have a free moment, think some good thoughts for my family please.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Link-a-Dink!

With the busy, I missed that on Tuesday my You've Got Mail! journal cover tutorial was linked to over at the 3 f's blog!

Here is Ajjah's blog badge:


aJJah


Isn't it adorable!?!
I totally need to get one together for this blog, too.

Her blog is just as adorable as the badge, too. I'm definitely going to have to head back to read more later.

A big thank you to Ajjah for linking up to my post.

Now head on over and show 3 f's some love!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Spontaneous crafting

My husband replaced a part of the sound system in our living room the other day. After he was done, my son found about 10 inches of speaker wire laying on the floor where he had been working.

Rather than throw the plastic coated wire away and grumble about how it got left behind in the first place, I had a bright idea.

Why not bend it up into the shape of a mushroom?

Three minutes after I had this bright idea, I was pinching the bottom of a four inch mushroom shape closed. But why stop there, really?

We happen to have a bunch of different colors of electrical tape just begging to be used for a project like this.

So, I grabbed the tape and wrapped up the mushroom shape to get this:



Ten minutes of spontaneous crafting and I've got a cute little wall hanging.

(And, for those of you keeping track, I just saved 6 inches of wire from going to the dump. Eco-friendly craftiness, anyone?)

Keep in mind that while the tape makes the wire shape a little bit more sturdy than bare wire, this shape isn't indestructible. In fact, it is quite destructible. So if you make one too, then you may want to use it as a decoration.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Wreck This Weekend: Post Five

Another weekend is here to wreck. Welcome back!

The Wreck This Weekend Mini Series has been a great motivator to getting pages in my journal done. I'm really glad it's a weekly feature for the blog.

Here are the pages I've been working on:

August 1st
Kid friendly batiking prepared me for this page.

August 2nd
The black paint is me trying to do something a little differently. I'm still not sure if this different is good or not...

August 3rd
Dirt is awesome.

August 4th
I used a bunch of different coins and two necklaces for this page. One of the coins is a Latvian 1 lats coin with a mushroom on it. Can you find the coin?

While you're looking, try to find the smooshed penny with Spongebob and Patrick on it, too. It's like Where's Waldo, you know, except with pencil rubbings and not some happy little guy in a stocking cap.

August 5th
This one is a work in progress. 

Finding stains is hard work when you're actually looking for them. Maybe I should try not to stain the page. Then I'd be sure to find some stains for it. Either that or I could give it to a pregnant woman to wear as a bib. There's nothing messier than a preggo eating a meal. At least that's the way it was for this preggo anyway.

Because I feel bad for having a half finished page for this day, I'm adding another half finished page. I have been slowly accumulating stickers for this one. I'd have to be crazy hungry to eat enough fruit to fill this page with stickers in one day so it's going to be a work in progress for a little while.

August 6th
Something about pushing really hard on a page while drawing is cathartic for me. I'm not sure why this is, but it is.

August 7th
Any excuse to cover my hands in paint. This one was fun. I got to mix up some paint for it, too. :)

(Sorry for the picture quality from August 2nd on. I had to use my back-up camera and it's not as good as the Canon Rebel is.)

What did you do this weekend? Been wrecking anything? :)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

What's Your Creative Style?

As you know from my Blogtastical Goodness page, I read the How About Orange blog pretty regularly. It's a fabulous blog with posts that usually contain something that you can take away into your own creative life. Font types, projects, labels, tutorials, or even quizzes like the one I'm going to share with you from Psychologies magazine. (Plus, the blog celebrates the color orange. I support supporters of orange.)

Because I took it.

And it seems to be pretty accurate.

I mean, the title for my results is: Creativity enriches you

Yep. That sounds about right. 


Here is some more of what the What's Your Creative Style? quiz had to say about my creative style:

Creativity is separate from the real world for you. But it’s a magical world in which you like to immerse yourself. When you’re involved in it, you get the wonderful sensation that there are no limits, that anything is possible...

Mushrooms and ninjas, anyone? Maybe we could throw in a little "Fa la la" there to represent the third sentence, too. I think this explains my obsession with them a little bit, though.

You know, mushrooms that are commonly used in scenes depicting magical worlds and ninjas that are just generally fabulous and also magical.

Did you rush off and take the test? What was your result?

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Weekend of Fun

I didn't Wreck This Weekend. Next week, my pretties. This weekend I took the kids to the State fair instead.

This was the boy's first year riding rides and playing games like the big kids. So that's just what we did.

And we saw mushrooms...

This would be the fun house. I know, I know. This picture makes it look like the happiest prehistoric jail on Earth. Alas, it's just a fun house.*

...and fellow ninja supporters.

You can't help but to admire this person's commitment to their support of ninjas.

It was a good time. :)

What did you do this weekend?


* Never thought that I would EVER write those words in a sentence ever. "Alas, it's just a fun house." It just doesn't seem like those are words that should go together...

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Wreck This Weekend: Post Four

My apologies for being away this past week. My husband tore his meniscus and had knee surgery last Tuesday so I've been a bit busier than usual. I've missed you so...

* * * * * * * *

I'm very proud to show you these journal entries for this week's installment of the Wreck This Weekend Mini Series.

There is one page in particular that I'm quite smitten with. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least--but I don't want to spoil the surprise so I'll let you read on for that one. Even the simple pages ended up giving me satisfaction when they were complete. I'm not sure why this surprises me, but it does. I did not give some of these projects the credit that they were due creativity wise. Just because it's something you used to do in elementary school doesn't mean it's silly or simple. Sometimes quite the contrary.

Also, if you haven't tried art journaling before, I fully recommend it. It's very theraputic. I love my Wreck This Journal because it gives me prompts for projects. That's a big part of my problem at times...I don't know where to begin. Once those creative juices are flowing, I'm good. It's just that sometimes I'm a slow starter. Anyone else have that problem?

Alright, that's enough jibber jabbering. It's time to Wreck This Weekend!

July 25th
It's surprising exactly how easy it is to find four letter words. For instance, there were 3 four letter words in that last sentence. There are the four letter words that you can say on TV and then there are the ones that you can't. I couldn't resist the urge to paint one word in particular using bright orange paint before covering it with other four letter words. I mean, do what makes you happy, right?

July 26th
My son was kind enough to lend me his nerf gun and some darts...although I'll have to replace the darts. They became casualties of the craftiness...

So, I missed on purpose a couple of times because the bottom of the page looked a little too white. Believe me, it looks WAY better with the intentional misses.

My painted fingers

July 27th
I didn't have a whole lot of time on the 27th. Good thing there are quicky pages in the book like this one.

July 28th
I love this page. Love it, love it, love it. Did I mention this is my favorite page? :)

And the best part is that this page happened completely by accident. I dripped a bunch of spots of paint onto the page, closed it, and when I opened it this is what I found. I was not going for butterfly, believe it or not. I really did just randomly drip a bunch of paint all over the page. Yeah. I'm as surprised as you are. Probably more.

July 29th
After a lame attempt at drawing a bed on the bottom of this page, I found an old Dr. Seuss book that the kids have a double of and cut out a page with some sleeping turtles on it to glue over the lameness. I like how it turned out.

July 30th
The funnel totally leaked out the bottom. Good thing I drank water out of it and not cranberry juice as I had originally intended...

Ahahahahahaha! I lifted my pinky while I was drinking! I didn't notice that until posting these pictures. How proper of me. Perhaps I should make up some tea.

July 31st
That was a lot of work for such a mild result! But, on the bright side, at least I burned a few calories that day.

There is still plenty of journal left so come back next weekend for another Wreck This Weekend Mini Series post!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Wreck This Weekend: Post Three

More Wreck This Weekend Mini Series you say?

You're right. I agree.

I think this weekend could use some wrecking. So let's do this.

July 18th
This one made my mouth tired. If you try this, hold the pens/markers in your teeth. Way easier than using just your lips.

July 19th
Writing the same word over and over again is amazingly therapeutic

July 20th
Things found around my house

July 21st
Another exercise in which I learn what a journal tastes like...

July 22nd
My first urge was to just scribble all over the whole page, but then this occurred to me. I think I like this better than scribbles.

July 23rd
I'm so happy I managed to get my favorite color a page to itself. :)

July 24th
Office supplies really can be artistic!! I was doubtful at first.

Hidden secret messages and ninjas seem to go together. Plus, I like ninjas.

The hidden message, unhidden.

And those are my wrecked pages from week three with this journal. What have you been wrecking this weekend? Journaling? Crafting?