More containers!

I'm hooked on this repurposing of containers. The short one was full of cashews and is covered (using Scor tape) with a commercial print I had in my scrap drawer. The taller one was bread crumbs and covered with a fabric I made by distorting a picture of pansies in Paint Shop Pro and then printed on fabric. The bread crumb container was just lined cardboard so I used gel medium to attach the fabric and it worked very well.

Birthday gift for my 8 year old niece

It's a little pink hard covered journal that I picked up at Blick and altered. The Always Believe bit is printed on deli paper and embossed. I xyroned it and almost didn't get it off the backing in one piece and of course it went down slightly crooked so I bordered it with some fabric. The mushrooms and fairy are chipboard I painted (from http://www.alphastamps.com/).


Inside I pasted this dedication:

February 2, 2016

Dear Faith,

Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen! Keep your eyes open for it because the "something wonderful" may not be large or obvious. It may be tiny and hard to see. Sometimes it's just as simple as a hug or a  kiss from someone you love. Sometimes it's noticing a leaf that looks like a crown or a hummingbird! Sometimes it's meeting a new friend or sharing something fun with a friend you already love. You have to be alert and really look for wonderful things and appreciate them when you notice them.

I'm giving you this book so you can write down the wonderful things that happen to you. That way it's easy to remember them and you can remember them if you ever get sad. And look forward to the next wonderful thing that is just around the corner.

This isn't a secret book because wonderful things are supposed to be shared! Maybe someone like your Mom or Grace can even help you notice something wonderful? Enjoy your book and enjoy being on the lookout for your next lovely surprise!

I love you dearly!

Finished inside front cover and first page, added one page

Inside front cover - love the fairy from Alpha Stamps. I used gold stickles on her skin, colored her hair with a chalk pencil and her clothes with a gel pen.

This is the first page that I'm not very happy with but I'm not going to belabor it. It's gone about as 'fer as it can go!

This one I'm happy with even though it's simple. The phrase from the AAQI Shipshewana Retreat was perfect for the gold background I made using leftover paint. I printed it on glossy photo paper and then edge cut it to add interest. Then I used Barb from Joggles "page frame" idea. Really like it.

Two more pages

I don't think I'm alone in the idea that an art journal page can be a work in progress for quite some time! This next one is a fabric collage inspired by Stencil Girl Thank You For Your Order postcard (have I mentioned I'm addicted to stencils these days?) that came with my recent order. This one was easy since I had all my scrap fabrics still out from the closet door project. Instead of gel medium though I used score tape - a marvelous double-sided tape that comes in lots of widths.

This next is actually my first finished page - I just wasn't sure it was finished until now.

It has a painted background using stencils. The quote is computer generated and the sun? in the upper left is Perfect Pearls (imperfectly applied).

Closet doors . . . done!

They're sliding doors (originals from the 40's) and were really quite boring in plain white. The project took quite a few hours over 7-10 days (way more than it would have taken to paint them!) and most of a 32 oz jar of gel medium. It was VERY fun and I can't help looking around the house for something else to collage because I didn't use up but a tiny percentage of my fabric scraps . . . but I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.

New Year and another new project

First, progress on the closet doors. One is finished and back up. The second is in the works and I'm doing it on site because I couldn't take it off without emptying the closet and climbing inside and I just didn't feel like doing that.

First, the finished first one:

Then the finished one hanging and the second one in progress . . . about 40% done.

I'll get a better picture tomorrow - hopefully after a little more work on it is done.
















My new project will be the art journal I've been telling myself to get started for over a year now. I am using a Canson Mixed Media spiral bound book. I painted the cover with black tempera paint and used a leaf stencil with green acrylic. I tried to hand letter with a white paint pen and failed miserably so did it on the computer . . . and it looks way better than my chicken scratch/paint blobs.

I have two pages in progress.