DIY stamp pad holder

I am going to admit right off the bat that this was NOT my idea.  I was trying to think of a cool way to store my stamp pads and I was leaning more towards doing something with pizza boxes since I can get my hands on plenty of those.   I did a little Google search and saw many folks were making pad holders from foam core. Foam core!  Brilliant!!!  I watched a few of the videos, I recommend that you do that too before you tackle this as they are very detailed and informative, then I decided to just dive in.  I cut my foam core back from black foam core, as it was much better quality (wish I gotten 3 of these instead of just 1) at 20"x12.5.  Then I cut my sides 2 pieces at 20"x3" and the top and bottoms are a little over 12.5 x 3" (I put the sides together on the back and measured what I would need to cover the top part o the sides too.

The insides (shelves) were 4"x20" for the long ones and 12.5"x 4".  I would change this to 3" instead of 4" now because most of what I use is Tim Holtz and sometimes I have to dig in the slots for those 3"x3" pads.  The small shelves have slots cut into them at 4.25" and 8.5" (this is seriously where you need to watch those videos) and the long ones are notched at every 1".  I am not going to give you assembly directions because these other folks do it so much better than I did, so why mess with perfection?  

Inspiration videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSBnDd3Oi-8 foam core holder with storage (very cool)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNo3jWxosIc (this lady has so much DIY stuff)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YZRp4c15NI (this one is so detailed)

Art Journal Prompts

Hello friends!

How many of you have an art journal?  I guess I have always done an art journal because I have always kept a sketch pad of random artwork, I just didn't realize it was called an ART JOURNAL.  I use it to keep artwork that goes with feelings, sometimes that is a rush drawing or quick sketch because I am just needing a creative outlet and sometimes it is a long process because I need a stress reliever.  

Last year I wanted to do an art journal that was more like a memoir, I am not going to show you too much of it, because I want my kids to be the first to read it (you know afterward).  The inspiration for this memoir book were two books called The War Bride's Scrapbook by Caroline Preston and Century Girl: 100 years in the life of Doris Eaton Travis by Lauren Redniss.  To say I love these books would be a gross understatement.  The illustrations are incredible and Lauren's book is EXACTLY what I have always dreamed of a book looking like, and how I make my scrapbooks.  Century Girl is non-fiction and  features a lot of photos from Doris's life and wraps them around illustrations. War Brides is a fiction book and features ephemera and lots of colorful artwork.  Both book are completely worth a gander (also check out all of Caroline's books).

My first illustrated book is my life from "birthish" to present day. 

Since I have gone about as far as I can go right now, I have started a second illustrated book.  This one has the theme of Michelle's Musings (that may be the title).  The "brand" is all about being random,  FBSP (fly by the seat of pants) and completely off the wall, this book will be full of that type of stuff. I have started with a "Strange Alphabet".  I call it that because each letter is an odd topic and not your typical "A stands for Apple" kind of book.  Sometimes the topic makes sense and other times you may think I am a lunatic (wait, you may already think that of me). I am more willing to share this one with the world in it's entirety where I am keeping the other one for my kids.  

If you art journal I would so love to see some of your work.  Remember there is no right way so if you don't journal, why don't you?  This is a non-judging, don't show anyone unless you want area where you can be free, creative and honest. If you are struggling with an issue, draw or paint it!  If you are excited about that promotion, draw it.  If you love that song and want to create about it, do it!!! You can use as little or a much supplies as you want.  You really only need to start with a pencil and a piece of paper...let your imagination take you from there. 

 

Cigar Box Tutorial

At the Trace Creek Crop yard sale, I found a $1 cigar box.  I HAD to have it!  I opened it and it did indeed smell of cigar (have to figure out how to fix that).  Now it was time to decorate the box.

I measured everything first.  I didn't like the way it was measuring so I went back to the technique I use all the time.....eyeballing. My eyeballing skills are WAY better than my measuring skills.  I must say they were much more accurate as well.

After I eyeballed the paper size and cut the papers to that size. I inked the pieces of paper with Walnut Stain, Worn Lipstick and Black Soot.  All by Tim Holtz (Distress Inks).  Then I misted with water.

 I didn't think the paper had enough depth so I wadded up the papers, opened them and inked again. Once again I misted with water.

The box was an ugly yellow and the paper I was using by Lost and Found by MME which was colored in pinks and browns with a smidgen of green.  For sure yellow would not work. I had brought my gouache paints with me to Trace Creek so I mixed some crimson red, dark brown, and a bit of white together. I got the perfect dirty pink color.  I painted all the edges of the box in this dirty pink.

Gouache dries quickly, so I was ready for the next step in just a minute or so.  I used Aleene's tacky glue, because frankly I think it is the best.  I put the glue onto the box and paper. I wanted a good hold.  then I started putting it on.  I am one of those folks that could are less if I get glue/paint/ink on my hands so I really rubbed the paper into the cracks and the edges and even molded the paper to fit the corners. My hands were a wreck, but the effect is well worth it.  Give it a try. You can always clean up with soap and water.

Once the paper was adhered I added ribbon onto the edges for one more dimension.   The box is starting to take shape. I knew that I could not finish it here at Trace Creek, because I would need some bling....but I did try to get as much decoration on the box as possible.  Here is what the box looked like when I left Trace Creek.

Now, once I got home I had to add to the box......I misted the box with Michelle's Musings Sterling Silver shimmer paint and allowed that to dry.  I did not want to use a heat gun because I did not want to risk damaging the box.  The next step was to paint the box with modge podge.  I used a matte finish, this will provide a more durable surface...if there is one thing I hate it is when someone makes something and doesn't protect it so it lasts.  All that hard work gets bent up/dirtied up and falls apart.  It's a shame in the fact that the work goes down the drain and that you lost the great object you made or made for someone.  Protect your work!!!!


Here is the finished product....enjoy GET CREATIVE!!!  What do you have lying around the house that you can repurpose?

Saturday afternoon book making

Tuesday night is a big evening for me.  Our local Community College is hosting an event where they are bringing in an author and letting him speak then sign autographs.  West Kentucky Community Technical College has done this before, but this is the first time I have longed to go.  It was almost a year ago that I read about the event and have counted down the days.

Who is coming to the little town of Paducah?  Why Jamie Ford.  You haven't heard of him?  Well, you need to google it right now.  Purchase the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet first and you will be hooked.  There is a second novel entitled Songs of Willow Frost that I also recommend.

I discovered Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet not long after it was published.  I read it, reread it....well, I keep rereading it.  I have the ebook, but once I found out Jamie was coming to Paducah, I bought a paper copy as well.  I pre-purchased Songs of Willow Frost from BAM! and it was delivered to my house the day the book was released.  If you pre-purchased Songs, Jamie would email you a little "supplement" type/companion book written about one of the characters in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  I read it when he emailed me, but decided that since I was going to meet him next week I would try to see if he would autograph my ebook too.

I printed the book in full form. It was rather large to bind, so I printed as a booklet.






I took a large sheet of mat board and cut me a couple of covers (8.5x6).  I covered each cover with one 12x12 scrapbook page (Bohemia by My Mind's Eye---the best paper pad EVER!!!).








 In the meantime I put together the booklet, scored the middle, and sewed the binding of the pages.  Once that was finished I inked the pages with Distress Ink by Tim Holtz (old paper and walnut stain).  I hot glued a ribbon to the "spine" of the booklet (gluing the booklet in the exact center of the ribbon).  Once the hot glue set up, I put a strip of hot glue on the inside edge of one of the covers and put the ribbon down on that side.  Once set I repeated the process with the other side of the ribbon and other cover.  The thickness of the book looks nice between the covers.  I mod podged the covers after adding some walnut stain ink to the edges.  I also mod podged the overleafs of the booklet to each cover giving it a finished look.

On the cover, I used Jamie's cover, but I ran out of color ink. I will reprint before Tuesday and mod podge the new photo onto the cover.

Not perfect but it's kind of like me...covered in flaws but handy.

Let them eat cake

I had this very large 16x20 canvas I wanted to do something EPIC with it.  I also just bought this book by Suzi Blu.  In this book, she created a Marie Antoinette. I did not want to copy her painting, but I did want to be heavily influenced by Suzi. If you have not checked out Suzi's work I highly recommend it.  Her work is exquisite. 

The first step was to make my sketch. It did not post that picture because I did it very lightly.  Suzi's work featured a castle, I wanted Versailles.  I also wanted cake, even though Marie never said the famous "quote" I HAD to have it on my canvas.

After I had my layout like I wanted it I had to insert Marie. I drew her on a vellum paper because I intended on blending her skin tone.  I drew how big I wanted her to be on the vellum paper. I used colored pencils by Prismacolor to create my tones.  I drew a face, a neck with a low cut dress line, and two arms.  I then cut those out and put them onto the canvas (do not adhere). I then drew the body around the completed body parts. 

I took the body parts off and painted the background.  I wanted a red toned background.  To me, this represented the French Revolution which is really what this is all about. I used a red-brown mixture for the ground so that it looked a tad different from the sky.  Versailles is created with gold, green and diamond color. It sparkles.

Once the basic background was done I added Marie's body (using mod podge) and began her clothing. I used fabric for her bodice and skirt.  Her sleeves are made by using color pencils and blending as much as I could for definition.  Then I took UTEE (one of my faves) and layered a good layer over the pencil work.  It made for a slick, shiny almost satiny finish.  I then sprayed her skirt with Perfect Pearls in silver for some shimmer. 

Her hair is made using modeling paste and heavy gel. I just kept layering until it was as thick and fluffy as I wanted it to be with a palette knife.  I added some tendrils by simply placing my palette knife as Bob Ross would have with a tree.  Like Suzi, I added fibers into the hair, but one step above, I added some glass glitter for more shimmer (it's all about the shine!).


Next, it was time for details. I had to add details to Versailles, which for the most part was done with paint.  I did put a stamped clock unto the castle front and embossing with Midnight black powder.  I added some transparency garland to the front and some quotes from one of my favorite books.  It was set in Paris.  I outlined the words "castle", "court" and "passionate" on each book page.

The Eiffel Tower graces the top of the castle just for fun.  Scrabble tiles spell out her name, chipboard flowers grace a stenciled design that was made with my homemade modeling paste.  In the yard, I added a doily that was distressed with Distress Ink.  I embossed a chipboard table with silver embossing powder.  The cake is made from Paris themed scrapbook paper scraps.  I think it is by My Mind's Eye.  I added the famous "quote" but decided to layer it in UTEE as well. I just love that stuff.

A ribbon and some fun pennants finish out the corner.  I thought she needed some jewelry so I added a barrette I found on the floor at the last LOHS prom to her hair, pearls for a necklace and a Tim Holtz bobble for more bling.  I hope you enjoy, because I LOVE her and I am craving cake.

Who's dressing your form

It's been some time since I have been here. I apologize.  I have had many many things to do.  I have been creating just not sharing.  Don't worry, I will make up for the delay.

Some time ago I bought this paper mache' dress form at Michael's, why?  Because I am in LOVE with dress forms!  I have been looking for the die for my sizzix machine for some time, but that story is for another day.  Today all that matters is I bought this dress form.  The form was just that, a form.  It had no stand so I just sat it up on my paint shelf and stared at it.  Two weeks ago, I decided to get brave and make my own stand.  I found a sucker stick (it was an unused one like the ones you use for the melting chocolate) and some wire.  I fashioned the wire around the end of the stick to resemble the four little feet that support a dress form.

Once I shaped the wire like I wanted I had to paper mache' over my creation. I may have done this a little differently than most would, but I like mod podge so I used strips of newspaper and mod podge to build my stand.  Each strand of paper would get drenched in mod podge then wrapped around the stick/wire. I made a base at the top of the stand by layering many layers of paper strips.  My dress form will rest on this little knob.  Once the stand dried, I drilled a small hole with scissors into the bottom of the dress form.  I inserted it onto the stand which I had coated in Aleene's tacky glue.  I then added more drenched strips around the bottom of the form and the stand, just for more security.

I let it sit for a few days then I added coloring (with Distress inks and paint) to the body and trim that my mother-in-law made in the '60s.  After that dried, I painted the stand black. I was on the fence. I thought of embossing the stand with silver embossing powder, I may do that to the other dress form I have because I am CERTAIN I will be making a stand for that soon.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it next and I made a gown for the form.  I did not like it so I ripped it off and decided to go with a tulle tutu.  I took a Tim Holtz pearl, a glass bead, and a rhinestone.  I wired them all together in a belt for the skirt.  I thought the rhinestone needed something else so I took it off and colored it with cranberry alcohol ink.  MUCH BETTER! A pearl necklace provided the finishing touch to the body.  I wish I could fashion some stilettos from newspaper and mod podge to go with this beauty.  

Girl Power Canvas

I wanted to make a canvas that says, "girls can do anything".  I started with a 12x12 canvas.  I covered the entire canvas with pages from one of my favorite books "Song of the Siren" by Philippa Carr.  This copy was printed in the '70s and there were some nice texture and aging going on. I did not have to do anything to age this before mod podging onto the canvas.  The next step was to add a bit of color. I used a remnant of a sheet of Graphic 45 paper.  It was in the Steampunk collection, but I forgot the name of this sheet.  I do believe it is out of print.  I did an overall coverage of mod podge to seal all this together.

While this was drying I began sketching the girl I would use.  Here is both the beginning sketch and the final product.  I cut her apart to use as a pattern.

I next swiped on some color. I used some of the colors from the Graphic 45 paper, a blue, brown, gold, and pink.  I swiped on a bit of the color with a brush or my fingers and dabbed it off with a paper towel.  I added some stamps, an Eiffel tower, houndstooth, swirling dots, and a stopwatch.   Some I embossed and some are just straight Staz on inks.  I just kind of had fun. No rhyme or reason, just fun.

Using my new branch die from Tim Holtz, I added a branch.  I cut this from grunge paper and embossing it with Vintage Photo embossing powder.  I found some red tulle that I tied to the branch.  Oh, and the die had a bird on it too, I cut him off and use an owl stamp to add an owl element.

The girl was mod podged directly onto the canvas.  She was in many pieces and I just pieced her together right there, covering her all over with mod podge.  Her shoes are painted on and not paper.  When she was dry I added the black lines and hair.

The bottom is finished out with some pom pom ribbon and a crocheted flower my mother-in-law made about 20 years ago.

The quote is wonderful!  Believe in your dreams and live them!!!