Author Archives: Julia Monroe

Altered Vintage Book – Teaching and Teachers

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in altered books, crafts

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I finished another altered vintage book. The original was a book on Sunday School teaching methods and teachers. I will use the book as a journal about teaching and teachers. The entire text of Teaching and Teachers is available on google books. The book was in fair condition, considering its age.

Altered vintage book – Teaching and Teachers

I cut a window shape in the book cover and used a sheet of beautiful textured paper with silhouettes of children for the endpaper. The window frame is pieces of wood that I stained with red, green and brown paint to look aged.

Altered vintage book – Wood alphabet beads are colored and glued to the window sill to look like alphabet blocks.

I removed many pages from the books, especially damaged pages, which were set aside in order to glue interesting paragraphs back into the book later. The pages remaining in the book were glued together in bundles in order to make them more sturdy and then coated with gesso to provide a surface for journaling.

Both front and back covers were cut off the book and then reattached to the spine. I removed all the crumbling and dry rotted material from the spine and then reattached the covers. The front covers are attached using small hinges tied on with black ribbon. The back covers are hole punched and stitched to the spine with black ribbon. This binding allows the book to be opened flat.

Inside the front cover – decorative silhouette paper provided the perfect design for a book about teaching.

A peek inside Teaching and Teachers altered book. The original book was devoid of illustration. I tore out motifs from the decorative paper and glued them on some of the pages.

While applying gesso to the pages, I read each page first to see if there was a quote I wanted to showcase. For this spread, I kept the small side bar “The three-fold method” and the chapter title “Any Plan Better Than None” by spreading gesso carefully around the text.

I was a homeschool mom for 24 years and taught Sunday School for many years so I’m looking forward to filling this book with thoughts on teaching and teachers.

Easter Cupcakes

03 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in baking, candy, Easter, food, tutorial

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These cupcakes are a sweet two-bite size, baked in a mini muffin pan.

Ingredients are simple: Mini homemade vanilla cupcakes, homemade frosting, pink sugar, jellybeans, mini marshmallows, candy “eyes” and a little bit of coconut.

To make the bunny ears, I cut mini marshmallows on the diagonal and then pressed the sticky cut side into pink sugar.

To make bunny ears, cut a mini marshmallow diagonally as shown. This works even better if the mini marshmallow is already a little skewed.

By cutting the mini marshmallow on the diagonal, one side will be fat, tapering to a point. Press the sticky cut side into pink sugar.

Mini Easter cupcakes – Bunnies, chicks and eggs in grass. The bunny eyes and nose are mini jelly beans cut in half. The orange chick beak is a mini jelly bean cut in half diagonally.

Mini Easter cupcakes – bunny, chick and eggs in grass. These tiny cupcakes disappeared fast in two sweet bites!

Tiny Temporary Foil Flowers

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in candy, crafts

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The phone call was short and sweet, just long enough for me to eat a couple Hershey kisses and fashion little flowers with a vase and a bow. And then it was gone.Image

For God’s enjoyment

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Inspirational, music, Uncategorized

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I am deeply moved by something God taught me and want to share it.

Last night, I was up late working on my “Princess’s One Thousand Gifts” journal and was painting little flowers with various colors of pink on the back of my journal to find a color match. As I rinsed the little paint brush, I thought “I don’t think I’m being useful enough right now.” Painting little pink flowers on a book cover suddenly seemed so trivial, especially compared to my friends’ boasts of their large good deeds.

While I was drying the brush, God interrupted my thoughts with this question. God asked me:
“So which songbird should I kill just because it sings only for my enjoyment?”

wow.

I dropped my brush and bowed my head and tears slipped down my cheeks. Every songbird is beautiful. The ones deep in the forest, the ones perched in a tree in Africa, the ones singing in an Amazon jungle, still an undiscovered species.

A chill ran through my spine as I pondered the depth of that statement. EVERY single person is valuable to God, especially the ones who live just for God’s enjoyment, the ones that praise God while painting little pink flowers on the back of a journal late at night.

Last night I decided that I would know God wanted me to share this if I was able to photograph a songbird to go with the post. I loaded up my big telephoto lens on the camera and told God “Please don’t let me miss the song. I want to recognize it and be ready!”

Today I kept the door open a crack all day, just in case I heard a bird to photograph. There was none. So I didn’t post. Until now. Just by chance, I listened to a singer online. What a voice! Again, a chill ran through my spine at the sheer beauty and I praised God. After I closed the link, God said this: “That is a songbird for my enjoyment.”
This is the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsNlcr4frs4 Opera duo Charlotte & Jonathan.

God answered my prayer. I didn’t miss it.

The Princess’s One Thousand Gifts Journal

30 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in altered books, crafts, projects

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Recently I read a book about a woman who was able to pull out of a dark depression by realizing she had much to be thankful for. A friend challenged her to list one thousand gifts, one thousand things that she was thankful for. Ever since “gratitude journals” became popular years ago, I’ve been wanting to make one.

I’ve always wanted a space to write down just the “and it was very good” and “she was pleased” stuff. I’ve wanted to write a book that was one giant exhalation of praise and thanksgiving, words that can be inhaled like fresh oxygen, a forever document of the things I am truly thankful to God for.

I found the perfect book to alter at a used book store. The original title was “The Princess Elizabeth Gift Book”. With a little paint and glitter, I turned the book into “The Princess’s One Thousand Gifts Book”, in which I will list one thousand and more things I am thankful for.

After cutting off the covers from the book, I cut out the initial “E” and removed the name “Elizabeth” from the cover. I added old rhinestones to the crown on the cover.

The name "Elizabeth" has been removed from the book title. Rhinestones are glued into the crown emblem.

The binding is simple, just holes punched through the cover and all the blank pages within, then tied with a cord. For closure, I punched holes in the back cover and added a covered button to the front.

A cord loop from the back cover is placed over the covered button on the front. The ends of the cord exit from inside the back cover and are tied around the loop when the book is closed.

Dozens of blank pages are sketchbook paper and sheets of vintage wallpaper.

To finish the book, I added text to the title, sponged pink and brown paint on the cover and set a resin cameo in the cover, surrounded by glass glitter. I’m looking forward to listing things I am thankful for.

The Princess's One Thousand Gifts Book.

Love playing with beads

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in All Sparkled Up, beading, crafts, Gilded Girls, jewelry making, words

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I really ought to stop playing with the beads. But once they become a bracelet, they will never again live an alternate life as Words.

Love.

The beads are not glued down. One breath or tiny bump to the table sends all the round ones scrambling. Such a challenge to patience! The position is so fleeting. Then I brush them back into the bins and the surface is once again bare.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded to…

27 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in beading, crafts, Gilded Girls, Inspirational, jewelry making, sparkling, words

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…shine.

Shine!

These beads are from a bracelet kit from Gilded Girls. I looked at the pile of beads and wires and felt there was more to it than just a bracelet. Maybe it was the wing that gave me pause.
Don’t forget to slow down and shine.

Creatively Made – Vintage Journal

22 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in altered books, crafts, projects, tutorial

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Weeks ago, I took a four week e-course called Creatively Made, taught by Jeanne Oliver. What an amazing class! I thank God for Jeanne and her wonderful way of encouraging people to be creative. Each week, participants were treated to at least a dozen videos filled with wise counsel, inspiration and instruction by Jeanne and her guest artists.

I took the course to learn how to use new materials and art technique but what started out as just an educational pursuit ended up life changing. I had no idea that I was missing such a big part of my life by not making time for art and creative pursuits. I will have to explain this life-changing event in another post. In the meantime, I am finishing up some of the projects inspired by that class.

One of the projects was a “Vintage Journal” made from the parts of a vintage book. Altered book projects are new to me. At first I couldn’t bear to tear apart a book. New or old made no difference; destroying any book seems a crime! But once I saw that there were dozens of old books available, some just gathering dust and rotting in used book stores, I didn’t worry as much about using a book for a purpose other than filling my already overflowing bookshelves.

This altered book is constructed different than the one taught in the class. I kept the spine intact and connected to the book covers. To add a text block in the book, I used ribbons to tie in the pages, 3-ring-binder style.

Vintage Journal - An altered book made from a vintage theology text in German.


My paternal Grandfather was a preacher of Pennsylvania Dutch and German heritage so this particular book is a lovely tribute to him. Alas, I can’t read German so I’m saving the pages and hoping to get some of them interpreted so I can incorporate them into the book.

Vintage Journal - The closure is a miniature metal keyhole plate. The doorknob is an old glass button from my Grandma's button tin. I'm always happy when I can include a little item that belonged to my Grandma.

Vintage Journal 1 - Pages removed, keyhole shape window cut in the front cover.


The original book pages were stapled and glued into the spine so they were pulled out. I cut a keyhole-shape in the front cover. To finish the edge, I used 1/4″ silver foil tape and then painted it with gold acrylic paint.

Vintage Journal 2 - Ribbon and lace glued inside the spine.


Inside the spine, I glued two strips of lace through which was threaded ribbon to tie in the pages. I also added a brown silk ribbon at the top to reinforce the thread-bare blue ribbon original to the book.

Vintage Journal 3 - Lace with ribbon glued inside the spine.

Vintage Journal 4 - The lace inside the spine reinforces the weak joint between the covers and the book spine.

Vintage Journal 5 - There was a gap between the book covers and the spine.

Vintage Journal 6 - Thin gold-wrapped cord glued into the gap between the book covers and book spine.

Vintage Journal 8 - I cut pages of creamy sketchbook paper. I also used pages torn from a vintage wallpaper book but knew they could not withstand a hole punched joint. So they are glued to small strips of hole-punched sketchbook paper.

Vintage Journal 8 - I love the look of the deckle-edge wallpaper pages interspersed with the sketchbook pages.

Vintage Journal 9 - The bow must be tied close to the front cover, not the text block. This allows enough slack for the pages to slide along the ribbon and open fully.

Vintage Journal 10 - I have very few photos from my childhood so I cherish this one from Christmas Day, 1967. Alas, my little sister Donna is turned away from the camera. I love that she is there, even if I can't see her sweet face.

I am very happy with how this turned out. It looks as old as I wanted it to. The book was published in 1884 and I wanted to preserve the stark elegance of it but still make it mine. I’m looking forward to adding small sketches, paintings and writings to the pages.

The Chandelier Tree

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by in home decor, lighting, miniature, sparkling, wedding

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My computer is in a corner, a dark corner. And my back is to the whole room, where all the light is. So two years ago I put a little Pottery Barn Easter Egg tree in the corner behind my computer monitor and strung it with rice lights.

Last December, I bought a couple miniature chandelier ornaments for the Christmas tree and hung them on my little corner tree temporarily until we put up the Christmas tree. I loved the look so much that the chandeliers never did get put on the Christmas tree.

There is room for four more little chandeliers on the tree. I bought the beads to make them but haven’t had time. Meanwhile, I can work on the computer and my whole corner is all sparkled up. =)

I think a Chandelier Tree would make a beautiful wedding reception table decoration. It would be expensive to do a couple tables and I’m not sure how the electric lights could be powered but it would look amazing.

Chandelier Tree

Springing Ahead

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by in time

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I am sooo not ready for a time change! I need more advance notice than a day if I’m expected to “spring” anywhere. I should have been keeping track of the time.

Tonight I got out the hourglass. It takes about 59 minutes and some seconds to empty so it’s not exactly an hour. But time doesn’t seem like it’s speeding by second after second when there are no minute marks. I like that. There is just a steady stream of sand falling, falling, falling, building a little pile that peaks and then collapses and peaks all over again. It’s a soothing way to keep track of time… well… only when knowing the exact time isn’t an issue. But of course, we don’t have that luxury. So I must get ready for the sprint. Welcome Daylight Savings Time.

The Hourglass.