Progress and Some New Stuff

Hello Readers!

Little Books have dominated the creativeness this week.

Enjoy!

Spider Book

2.5x3.5 inches

cardstock, wired ribbon, manila paper, beading thread and some glue. Those spiders are done in flocking...not by me, the ribbon came this way. 

Spider Book

2.5x2 inches

manila paper pages, sewn with orange crochet cotton thread

Bat and Pumpkin Books

1.5x2 inches

manila paper pages...I think one of them actually has copy paper pages...napkin fused to cardstock for the covers, sewn in pamphlet stitch in orange crochet cotton thread

Four Little Black Books

1.5x2 inches 

cashmere sweater material glued to cardstock covers, sewn in pamphlet stitch with orange crochet cotton thread

copy paper pages

Gold Japanese Stab Bound Book

decorative paper glued to chipboard (cereal box), copper tape, orange crochet cotton thread, watercolor paper pages 

3x1.5inches

Spider Happy Halloween Book

napkin fused to cardstock for the cover, manila paper pages sewn in long stitch with orange crochet cotton thread

4.5x4.5 inches

Sleeping Cat 

4x4 inches

acrylics on cardstock

I'm making progress on the felt ornaments.

Last night was the halloween wing ding out at the state lake. I took the ornaments with me to work on while I was there. That would have worked out wonderfully and they'd probably all be sewn by now had I taken a needle with me to sew with!

Only the one needing a black backing need to be sewed now. When all the backs are sewn on I will decide what the hanger will be made from.

I'm thinking perhaps 1/8th inch ribbon, but that's really still up in the air. I might figure out something else that would work better. Just haven't gotten that far in this project yet.

The one that looked like a fried egg the other day now has beads sewn on it. I said I was going to do french knots and long stitches but, as things sometimes do, that plan changed when I remembered I had found a beading needle out in the burnt house and I have tons of seed beads to use it with! 

I'm leaning towards another set of these puppies with nothing but beading on them. Leave off the shapes and just do a bead soup blob dead center in them. I don't know that that will happen, but that's the plan at this time.

Here they all are together. That one with the beads doesn't really go with the other 11, does it? Not to worry though. I didn't intend for these to be a set anyway. Couple of them are headed to Scotland for the Xmas Ornament Swap that's due next month.

The folded paper stars I kept forgetting to take a picture of!

I still haven't scanned those two altered envelopes either....

Things have changed at the kitchen table since the last post!

I painted the little fish this afternoon. He's painted in acrylics. I then cut him out and he's drying as I type, glued to that red 4x4 that's leaning against the paint bottles on the table with the yellow and red 4x4 and the green and blue one.

The pink and blue fish doesn't look much like that now. He got a wash of red paint, another layer of yellow, some white a thin layer of silver glitter glue on all but his eye. 

I'll take pictures of these finished projects tomorrow.

Fred got to go to the Halloween wing ding out at the lake. He took a nice chilly swim in the lake water. We were all bundled up in heavy jackets out there so I know that water wasn't anywhere near warm! Wasn't no stopping him though when we got out there. Right to the water he went, chest deep in it~!

He fell down the front porch steps this morning and his leg has been bothering him all day. I gave him baby aspirins twice today and all he's done is lay on the sofa or the living room floor and sleep. I know his leg is sore cause when he's up and about, he favors that one back leg. That and he moans and groans while he's asleep. He only went out twice today to do his business. He ate heartily when I filled his bowl earlier in the day and he's been to the water bowl numerous times, so I know he's OK, he's just sore.

I'm thinking he thinks that taking a cold dip in the lake was truly worth the pain he's feeling today. This dog LIVES to go swimming! I was a bit surprised he actually went swimming though considering the temps were so low. 

Silly dog.

He is doing alright though. When I last let him out at his request, I told him to bring Lola Cat home with him. When he barked to be let back in, there she was, rubbing against his front legs as he sat patiently waiting for me to let them in.

I'll be back in a day or two to share anything new made.

Thanks for reading!

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

831

Everything Happened!

Yeah, alright....

Maybe not EVERYTHING happened, but a lot did!

Creatively speaking, that is.

I sewed a bit, learned a new way to make a book, been doing a tiny bit of drawing, got my fingers all colorful playing in the paint...forgot to take a picture of those folded stars and there are a couple of altered envelopes I forgot about as well.... I learned a new technique to try on paper napkins and I assembled a few little books.

I've been a busy girl.

It all started with a trip to youtube. You can learn some amazing stuff there!

Go look up jenniebellie. I think that's how it's spelled. It was she who gave the inspiration for this unfinished book. It was really fun to make though! I'll be going to see this tutorial one more time before I do the binding of this book. I'll share the link with you then. I'm a bit too spacey at the moment.

I used the bubble wrap as a stencil to put designs on the pages.

I have to agree with Ma that some of these pages are very dark! She didn't quite 'get' the idea of making random shapes and splotches on the page backgrounds. 

It's what the muse demanded!

The brayer was a fine tool in this endeavor also.

These are parts for the tags that will be tucked into the pages. They are chipboard painted in acrylics. Tags will be cut to fit the book from these pages.

Here the 38 pages collaged on one side, painted on the other. They originated as greeting cards. Mostly gotten in trades with a note written inside. Some are cardstock folded to resemble a greeting card. Some are last year's birthday and christmas cards. All in all I ended up with 38 of them of many different sizes.

The inside of the cards are all painted in like colors as the tags above. There will be pockets and whatnot added to the pages to accommodate the tags.

The outsides of the cards are mostly collaged with random pieces of colored and patterened paper to either make the greeting card thicker and/or to cover it completely. 

The strings are what will bind the pages to the cover.

The rounds in the front of the box are the parts to the flower that will adorn the front cover.

Those tubes of paint cradling the book pages are printers ink that I found at Hobby Lobby in Hutch for not much more than $1 a tube. I bought 8 different colors. It's nice ink to play with! 

The cover is also made from greeting cards (and a bit of cereal box chipboard). I've not covered the inside of the cover yet as it still needs its closure attached and the decoration put on the front. The strings tie around the middle of the spine for the binding. In the tutorial she puts beads along the spine as she ties the strings. I'm thinking that might be a bit ambitious for my first foray into this binding, but we'll see when it comes time to actually bind the book. 

I'm still working on this one! Just wanted to show it off thus far!

:)

Then I got burnt out on painting...cause all good things come to an end and the muse gets bored with the same old thing if you don't change it up on her. The chunkyathon came along over at AFA and put this book on the back burner.

I've just today taken pictures of it. I did an inventory of ufos in progress. 

I worked out in the burnt house for two days straight with Ma, cleaning and sorting and organizing and collecting crap to send off with the trash men.

In the process of that cleaning spree, I found a book on making ornaments. I made some ornaments. I started them on Wednesday. It's now Friday. I've gotten this far on them.

A dozen, not quite finished with them yet though.

I've tons of felt taking up space on the shelf in my closet so felt was the material of choice for them. The tutorial in the book calls for any thick fabric.

All are sewn with one strand of regular sewing thread in different colors.

The kittens are my favorites.

The next one looks like a soft cooked egg! I'm going to add french knots and some long stitches around the white part before it's sewn tot he red backing.  Most of the ornaments will have red backings. Four will have black.

I've still to sew a backing to each of them, put a hangar on them all and stitch in my tipsy wineglass.  A little more embroidery on a few of them and the backs will go on. 

I wanted to draw the other day. The muse did not. I fought to draw this cute little elephant and the muse cooperated begrudgingly. 

I'd already drawn three chickens shortly before I found the drawing lesson on this little guy. Markers on orchard paper. He's cut out ready to adorn an ATC or a chunky page.

There were books made in the last 8 hours.

Six ATC sized books. Chipboard with black construction paper glued on the printed side of cereal boxes. Halloween stickers, some with googly eyes, glued to the front covers. Ten manila paper pages sewn in the pamphlet stitch with metallic purple embroidery thread.

This one's my favorite of the six.

Oogidy Boogidy

That's fun to say.

In regard to that metallic embroidery thread. It takes the patience of a saint to actually embroider with that stuff! It works pretty good for binding small books but you really have to pay attention so you don't tangle it all up. 

Little books are a cinch to make so I whipped out another one. 

I took two napkins, two sheets of cardstock and the plastic wrap out of the kitchen cabinet into the laundry room. I had to fight to find the end of the iron's cord so I could plug it in. Dang thing was stuck behind the washing machine! I fired that baby up, sandwiched the top layer of napkin with the cardstock and a layer of plastic wrap in between. Bottom up: cardstock-plastic wrap-napkin-parchment paper---iron it with a hot iron till the plastic wrap melts to the napkin and cardstock binding it together into a single sheet of paper. You can fuse napkins to copy paper in the exact same way.

I then cut down the ghost....there will be a spider book next. This one is sewn with orange crochet cotton thread in the long stitch. It has manila paper pages, 20 of them. 4.5x4.5 inches.

There is no artistry in the covers of the little books shown. I had nothing to do with the artwork presented there. I can only lay claim to the book itself and the skill it takes to sew one. Practice does indeed produce improvement!

Can you spot the ufo?

Thanks for hanging around to see what I've been up to. 

I wish I could say I've been up to no good but that really isn't the case these days. 

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace, Friends!

831

A Few Chunky Pages

Hello Readers!

It's been a few days since I was here!

I haven't done a lot of art in the last ten days. I rearranged my cutting room and was busy going through mounds of art fodder and what have you. That project is 99% complete now and the muse was faunchin' at the bit to get some painting done so beings a chunky-athon is happening this weekend over at AFA (link's on the sidebar, top right) I decided some painting would happen!

I did a bit of collage too yesterday and today.

Enjoy!

Bat Chunky

I made about 30 of those paper flowers one day last week. Forgot to take a picture of the pile of them laying on the cabinet on the other side of this room I'm in. I'll show those in the next post. This one is collage on a drink coaster, painted black. There's some black paper I put through the crimper, a strip of scrapbook paper, a brass brad in the middle of the flower with black glitter on it. The bat is some kind of felt-type fabric that came off the bottom of a small kitchen appliance of some sort that my brother junked. The bat is sitting atop a round of silver mirrored contact paper. Silver glitter glue on the bat and his eyes are two tiny metal beads.

That hole in the top of the flower shouldn't be there! I was trying to get the brad to go tightly against the coaster and I wasn't paying attention when I thought the large crop o dile would work to accomplish that....nope...it didn't work out so well. I punched a hole where there shouldn't be a hole! I'm still trying to figure out how to remedy that situation. 

Lady Bug Altered Envelope

oil pastels on plain white envelope

Only half the envelope is showing in the scan. Didn't see any reason to show nothing but white paper on the right hand edge.

When I took this one to the post office to send it off to its recipient, the postmaster gave me a load of crap about it. He always gives me a hard time though so this didn't surprise me in the least. I know it's not the best ladybug I've ever drawn, but it isn't as bad as he made me feel about it! I hope the next post office run isn't as depressing at that one was! Truth be known, I'm like a duck when it comes to his crap....I let it roll right off me and don't really give a hoot about his opinion! His opinion doesn't matter to me, the person who got this envie said she was delighted with it...whether she was or not, she made me feel good about it because she said she liked it a lot!

Black and White Fish Chunky #1

Done on a drink coaster painted black. The first layer is a sheet of mylar that is irredscent. The little bubbles are mostly different types of paper. The ones with the little black dots are a thin foam of some sort. Not sure what that disk came from to begin with. My paper punch went right through it though and it worked for the background. The white strings were from a mesh fabric that I cut into strips. Not sure what it was originally for either. The black flower shaped thing on the bottom right is a tattoo ring and there's some black paper that went through the crimper before I cut it into strips with decorative scissors too. The gray stone on the left hand lower edge is a glass stone. I drew the fish on some book page paper with a black sharpie or two.

Black Crow Chunky

The base is a drink coaster painted black. The white thing the crow is sitting on is a piece of handmade paper that someone sent me in a trade a few years ago. It's quite thick and I hadn't a clue what it would be used for till yesterday when I pulled the cute little crow out of the black collage box. My sister made the crow out of a black foam meat tray and acrylic paint.

Black and White Fish Chunky #2

made with the exact same things as the first fish minus the little black stars, the glass stone and the tattoo ring. 

Red Kitty, Fang #1

Chunky page

I saw a red kitty on Facebook that had fangs and I HAD to make my own version. I think mine is cuter than the one I saw on FB...that one was a bit creepy actually! The base is a drink coaster painted black. Kitty is made from an old sweater, his cheeks are fleece, his nose and eyes are fake leather, his fangs stiff paper and the pupils of his eyes are cork pads with glitter and dimensional paint. His whiskers are white crewel embroidery colored with red sharpie.

Red Coffee Mug

Chunky page

acrylics on drink coaster

Red Bird Coffee

Chunky page

Acrylics on drink coaster

Black and White Fish #3

Chunky page

I had so much fun making the first two fishes I figured what the hey! I'll make another one. Same stuff, different papers.

Cat and Dog #1

Chunky page

acrylics on cardstock

cat and dog  #2

Chunky page 

acrylics on drink coaster

I traded the first one before I ever got it in my gallery and then not two minutes later some else wanted another one! I like the first kitty the best but I think the second dog is better than the first one. 

Cross-Eyed Kitten

Chunky Page

acrylics on drink coaster

I need to give that scanner bed a wipe down with some window cleaner! It's a mess! Might as well clean my monitor while I'm at it! You all can't see my monitor, but it's worse than the scanner bed!  All those spots and splotches you see on the scans are not really there!

Red Kitty, Fang #2

Chunky Page

Made exactly like the first red kitty except the string for his whiskers is red crewel embroidery thread. It looks orange on my monitor, but it's really red!

and beings I had a run on the red kitty....traded three of them within minutes of posting the first one, I had to make more.

Red Kitty, Fang

chunky page

made the same as #2

Sleeping Orange Cat

chunky page

acrylics on cardstock

If I get done with the work that is slated for tomorrow out in the burnt house, I'll probably do some more chunky pages. No clue what the muse will think is a good idea to do on chunkys but we shall see!

Thanks for taking a peek at the creations!

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace, my friends!

831

Fishes, Green Paintings and Some Envies

Hi Readers!

As promised:

All the fishes are made from UPS Envelopes, book page paper and markers. All are 8.5 inches long.

Altered Envelope

Plain white envelope drawn on with Markers

Altered ENvelope

Beetle is drawn and on book page paper. Colored with markers. I cut it out with the craft knife and glued it to a plain white envelope. I then painted the entire thing with bronze colored glitter glue to seal the beetle.

Altered Envelope

plain white envelope painted with acrylics. Cat is painted on book page paper, cut out and adhered to envelope

Altered Envie

Plain white envelope with markers.

Plain white envelope with acrylics and markers. I call this one Lady Godiva's Wash Day.

Blue Eyed Pink Guy

3x4 inches 

markers on manila paper

Bookmark

frog on lizard

acrylics on adding machine tape adhered to cardstock

Green Eyed Creature

3x4 inches

acrylics on manila paper

Green Headed Monster

3x4 inches

acrylics and marker on manila paper

Bookmark

acrylics on adding machine tape adhered to cardstock

mountain scene

3x4 inches

acrylics on manila paper

and some pretty sunflowers growing by the privacy fence.

I took this picture hours before our first heavy frost of the year. The sunflowers do not look this good today!

As always......

Be good to one another!

It matters!

I'll be back again soon with an update on the progress of the cutting room and perhaps some more art...all depends on the muse! If she stays away, there won't be anything to show. If she makes an appearance, there will be!

Peace!

831