This That and Other Things

Hello Readers!

It's been a few days since the last post. I've slept away a lot of daylight since then. I'm back on everyone's sleep schedule now though. I sleep at night like normal folks. Not sleeping the daylight away. I hate it that the sleep cycle has a mind of its own. At any rate, while everyone else I know was studying the inside of their eyelids I did accomplish a little with the help of the muse.

The sun shined brightly as the wind blew steadily today. I was awake at 6 a.m. I made a trip to town to stock up on supplies and went to the post office to mail off the wierdy mail and Allison's shoulder pads. I love going to the post office. I can't show you the weirdy mail today, but rest assured it did get some comments from the Postmaster. He's so funny! You all will get to see the weirdy mail after it arrives at its destination. 

None of these pictures are in any sort of order. What you'll see is what has been accomplished since the last post. I've thrown in a picture of the backyard at the end of this post but everything else is of the artsy variety.

I've been working on fish picture #17.

It isn't really talking to me. It is nowhere near done. I added some color to the 'fuzzy' stuff at the bottom and the white stripes on the background since the last time I showed it to you all. Someone gave me ten little bottles of model paint awhile back and those dang things kept falling off the shelf where I had them stored. I drizzled colors on the 'fuzz' just to get rid of that paint so I didn't have to deal with those little devils falling on the floor! I've no clue where it's heading. This will show up again in the future. This one is 16x20 inches or so.

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And then there's fish picture #18 which is 7 inches square. The base is a piece of wood that fits into a shadow box. I'll have this one done before I get the other one done. I really like the yellow and purple along the bottom. That's crumpled up tissue paper and some purple and yellow sparkly balls like those peeking out from beneath the fish picture. I painted the frame of this one a gun metal gray color. You'll see this one again soon.

I played around with different papers and an origami star pattern.

This black one is a stiff paper similar to construction paper not quite as thick. The paper came out of an album full of plastic sheets with black paper in between each. This one measures about 4 inches across. It's folded out paper the same size as a dollar bill.

This one is phone book page paper painted metallic gold with craft paint. I hit it with the heat gun till the paint bubbled a little and then gave it another coat of paint. Phone book paper isn't very sturdy but the paint beefed it up nicely. I folded two stars from phone book paper. No picture of the one that is just phone book.

I've done a bit of crocheting. This tiny snowflake is about an inch and a quarter across. Easy little snowflake to make! Here's the pattern so you can make your own. I used a size 6 hook and crochet cotton string for mine. I suspect it would work fine with any size hook and string accordingly.

Book are still on the muse's radar. This one is 3x3 inches with copy paper pages numbering 20. The background on the cover is a black and white picture of an underwater scene. It had Asian writing on the backside and apparently came from a book. Someone gifted it to me with an ATC trade in the past. I drew the fish on cardstock with markers. Book is sewn with embroidery thread in the pamphlet stitch.

Not really much art involved with this one. The book is thin chipboard with orange cardstock glued to it. That's a plastic gem doodad adhered to the cover. Book measures 5 x 5 inches with orchard paper pages numbering 30. It's sewn with blue embroidery thread in the pamphlet stitch.

I have several of these plastic sticky back gems that by their packages tell me they were bought on clearance at ALCO. ALCO went out of business almost two years ago and I know they were acquired well before that! Not sure what will become of the rest of them.

The muse wanted to go little with the books....

So we made six 1.5 x2 inch leather bound books with blue end papers and copy paper pages. The leather was once sewn into an A-line skirt and the blue end papers were torn out of a book I discarded for one reason or another. So essentially, the end papers have always been end papers. 

This is your tip for the day. If you are going to throw away a book for any reason. Before it goes in the bin, tear out the end pages and any other blank pages in the book. These pages are usually made of good quality paper and are excellent for drawing on! This is especially true of hard back books.

This is cardstock with asian paper glued to one side.

This notebook (same as the one above) has a pocket to hold business cards or whatever along with a 20 page notepad. It measure about 2.5 x 4. I didn't really measure any of the books, I'm giving an educated guess.

I worked on this green bag for a few days. The light green is macrame cord and the dark green is crochet cotton thread. I used a D hook to crochet with the cotton thread and a Q hook with the cord.

 I don't think it is quite done yet. It needs some bling, I do believe.

I love how it looks up close! I worked on this bag, off and on, for about three days. I finished it this morning before I went to town. I do think it needs a bit of something more before I will call it done. It's not a very large bag. Guessing on the measurements, 7 inches wide at the bottom by 4 inches front to back and probably 9, maybe 10 inches tall.

I finally got a picture of the finished green and purple coiled crochet bag. I really like how this one turned out!

Another painted newspaper book. 3x3 inches on cardstock with 20 pages copy paper sewn in pamphlet stitch with hemp cord.

I've been trying to get the fabric yarn supplies under control. Ma brought me two dresses and a moomoo a few days ago. I got those cut apart and the seams all sewn together with the rest of the seams.

Seam yarn balls, ready for crocheting. Theses things would look fabulous knitted into a rug! I don't know how to knit though so crochet it will have to be!

 

This is an unfinished seam rug which you will see finished in a moment. And the blue stuff with tulips is the moomoo, seamless and some of it already cut into yarn rolled in a ball. That moomoo is going to become a basket. The two dresses are under the moomoo, minus their seams.

 A close up of the seam rug. All those little white strings are crochet cotton that is threaded, on a needle, through the ends of the seams to connect them. I then tie the cotton thread in a knot to keep the seams connected. I haven't decided if those strings should be snipped short or left like they are.

 Here's the finished rug. It's wonky like all my rugs are! I like how colorful the seam rugs end up being. This one is about 24 x 18 inches. There will be another seam rug to show before too long. I have five more balls of seams and some loose seams as well. That's enough for at least one whole rug and the beginnings of another.

 I found these three fish hiding out on top of the microwave in the kitchen. I slapped a magnet on the backside of them and called them done. I don't know if you all have seen these guys before or not. All three are made from a toilet paper tube, painted, covered in glitter and then the scales are puff paint. They're about 4.5 inches long.

 Alien babies hanging out in the burnt house.

I leave you with the new hen house (still in need of it's roof being finished) in my brother's yard. This is looking out my back door. A beautiful fall day!

Thanks for hanging in there till the end!

Remember....

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

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