Category Archives: crafts

The Art of Wild Abandonment Bloghop Post :)

04 Friday May 2012

Posted by in altered books, art, crafts, painting, projects, woodwork

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Welcome and greetings if you are following the Art of Wild Abandonment Bloghop! You probably arrived here from the amazing blog of Paty Shaulis. Her artwork is exquisite!
If you didn’t start at the beginning of the bloghop, you can join in the fun by visiting http://clairesmillie.wordpress.com/ and learning all about it.

Make sure you scroll to the bottom of my blog post to get the link for the next hop on the bloghop!

I and hundreds of others recently finished the e-course, The Art of Wild Abandonment, taught by Junelle Hallstrom Jacobsen and Christy Thomlinson. The projects were crazy and colorful and we learned all sorts of new ways to get our hands messy and express our wild creativity.

In addition to learning how to draw radishes and owls and sheep, altering a purse with paint and turning a roofing brush into an art brush holder, we painted wood blocks! Here is my version of the wood block project – Bloom!

It started with a couple wood blocks my dear husband cut for me.

Supplies gathered to decorate the blocks – my sketches, paints, modeling paste, ink pad, oil paint stick, wood blocks and, not in this photo, a flower and a coffee bean.

Once I got the blocks painted, the rest followed quickly.

I decided to make a 3 tiered cake with swags of thick sweet icing around the side. The word I chose for the top was Bloom. It’s the perfect word to describe what happened to so many members of the class. We all bloomed!

A view from the top of that sugary cake.

But wait, what is this on the bottom of the blocks? Another design?

A view from the top of the blocks flipped over. But then what happened to those sweet swags of white frosting?

Is that… a sheep? 0_0

More sheep!

And a sheep on top!

It’s a whole hill of sheep! Bloom Hill, covered with sheep!

But let’s check out that cake again. The sheep are upside down. And what is that under the rose on top?

The sheep’s hooves!

To make the hoof prints, I glued a coffee bean to an eraser and used it like a rubber stamp.

Eat cake! Draw sheep! Bloom!

Have fun hopping to the next post about The Art of Wild Abandonment on the wonderful blog of Janet Terrien Bracewell. I love her art journal!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. :)

A huge thank you to Junelle and Christy for teaching the Art of Wild Abandonment. It was a really fun e-course!
And Thank You to Clairesmillie for coordinating this bloghop!

One last pic – my owls.

Paper Ballerina

23 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in crafts, projects

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She’s turning four soon. Today I made the first ballerina that will twirl from the banner for her birthday party. The directions were in the 2011 November/December issue of Marie Claire Idees magazine, my favorite craft magazine, even though I can’t read French.

Paper ballerina - made from card stock, a piece of honeycomb bell and pink glitter.

Printing on tissue paper for mixed media work

17 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in art, crafts, projects, tutorial

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I am making my first piece of mixed media art and wanted to use printed tissue paper in the background. I took quite a gamble using my new printer because any time you play around with something like this, it’s possible to void the warranty. Despite that risk, I did it anyway.

The design I used was from a class I took by Jeanne Oliver. She’s an amazing teacher and if you ever get a chance to take one of her classes, do it! When I get my piece done from her class I will post a photo of it.

I ironed a sheet of tissue paper to a sheet of freezer paper, with the shiny plastic side of freezer paper against the tissue paper.
The paper was loaded as usual and printed with settings for a regular sheet of paper.
The printer didn’t jam, even while printing over the wrinkles.

Tissue paper ironed to a piece of freezer paper prints beautifully with the ink jet printer.

Tissue paper is carefully peeled off the freezer paper after printing.

The same piece of freezer paper can be used three or four times. I made the mistake the first time of thoroughly ironing the tissue to the freezer paper. It was impossible to remove the tissue after printing without tearing. I had to use the iron to melt the plastic holding the tissue to the freezer wrap.

If the tissue sticks too much, the tissue side is held carefully against the hot iron edge to melt the plastic that adheres the two pieces together. Tissue and freezer paper are peeled apart.

The first tissue print was a bit lighter than I wanted. I removed most of the background color of the file and increased the contrast in photoshop.

The sheet printed with isolated text layer in photoshop printed crisp and dark.

These maps printed on tissue paper are from scans taken from a 1935 World Atlas.

My favorite of all - my sister Donna's beautiful calligraphy of Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

I’m using a Canon Pixma MX882 printer. The printed tissue paper stood up well when placed on a surface brushed with matte medium and then brushed over with more matte medium.

Easter Eggs 2012

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in crafts, Easter, funny, words

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The egg decorating kit looked spiffy, with pretty colors and cute rub-on decals of chicks, eggs and bunnies. But the decals didn’t stick at all. Not happy there. But we don’t give up easy so we rummaged around in my little box of scrapbook stickers and found a couple old sheets of rub-on decals from Valentine’s Day years ago. We had to think like an egg in order to figure out which words might work on an egg. Quite the stretch. Here are our eggs, which we put all in one basket.

Easter Eggs 2012, decorated with rub-on decals - click to see a larger image.

My personal favorites?
“Most embarrassing moment” on a cracked egg.
Also the egg with “And so the story goes…” Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The egg of course.

Easter Eggs 2012 with words - decorated with rub-on word decals. And so the story goes...

Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree

07 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in crafts, Easter, flowers, home decor, miniature

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Last year I finally had time to make an Easter Egg tree and I’m happy to display it again this year. I’ve been wanting to make one for many years. I have a couple precious decorated eggs left from the tree of my childhood and some day I will restore the eggs and call that tree my Heritage Tree. For now, this Hanging Plant Easter Egg Tree will adorn my dining room table.

The tree was from Pottery Barn. The eggs are plastic, cut into little baskets with a craft knife. I made all the hanging plants from bits and pieces of full size artificial plants. The hundreds of tiny leaves were cut out individually with manicure scissors. Crystal beads were glued strategically from the tips of petals and leaves to look like they were freshly washed with a light spring rain. It took several weeks to make these eggs, working on them when I could during evenings last year.

Easter Egg Tree - click photo to see a larger image.

These little hanging plants are made from bits and pieces cut from artificial plants and flowers tucked into plastic eggs. Click on photos to see a larger image.

Egg Tree - The Purple Egg.

Egg Tree - The Spring Green Egg

Egg Tree - The Little Blue Birds Egg

Egg Tree - The Yellow Green Moss Egg

Egg Tree - The Blue Forget-me-not Egg

Egg Tree - The Orange Marigold Egg

Egg Tree - The White Lily-of-the-Valley Egg

Egg Tree - The Pink Peony Egg

Egg Tree - The Yellow Daisy Egg

Egg Tree - The Miniature Pink Rose Egg

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.

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

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.