FILMING TABLE IS BACK!!!

Good morning, friends!

No card again this week. Bob leaves tomorrow then I can get back to schedule. 

After a 4-day writing retreat last week, Bob and I finished setting up my filming table!!!

You can see my adhesive cart to the left. I still need to sort the top out and put all duplicate adhesives either in the drawer or down on the bottom rack. 

More to come but not crafting today.

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

 

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY Returns! Whispers Of Me

Over the past few days my sister and I have been watching endless runs of art journaling videos. Ones we've been most captivated by LorriMarie Jenkins. Check out her channel if you really want to be inspired. She takes you through step-by-step through a series of videos for EACH project. For now, I'm on Altered Book #2. A lot of the things I already know but I just love watching her.

The videos have inspired me to pull out an ancient project and get it finished! You can read complete posts about the Whispers Of Me project

HERE and HERE

If you read the posts linked above you'll see I started this book about 14 years ago as a teaching venue for a class I was teaching. That's a LONG time to have a project in process.... and not going anywhere. As I look at the picture, I'm not sure I'm happy with the cover.. or some of the project itself. I'll know more when I look at the book later this week. I may wind up rescuing pages from inside and starting with a fresh book. Because I started this as an alphabet book (this was an old dictionary), I'll need to be able to incorporate at least 26 2-page spreads. But then again, maybe just 1-page spread per letter will work. 

See, I don't think I was happy with the direction the book was going and may be why I stalled. 

To see more pictures, check out the second link for sure. There are a couple in the first link where you get more background. 

I will be working on two Mixed Media projects for this month. The other is a February Fabric Junk Journal Challenge. Look for hashtags on IG - #FFJJC to see all the creativity. You can also jump in. Watch the video below for all the details.  I'm not sure how much of it I will do as I still have a book to finish writing but I really want to play in this one so we shall see.

I have cards to get done so should have something tomorrow. I've finally begun to find my desk!

Creative Blessings!

COLOR CHALLENGE - July

Bright colors perfect for any July 4th picnic! I knew immediately I wanted to use Pacific Point, Soft Sea Foam and Real Red

I used Sketch #142 from Operation Write Home

And came up with this:

My photo colors are WAY off with this larger digital camera. I'm really missing my small Fuji for the truer colors.  What appears to be a yellow is actually the Soft Sea Foam. The shorter banner in the middle is Whisper White.   The embossed background is from Branches & Leaves (Sizzix)

I used the stamp set COUNTRY BORN - part of the 30th anniversary collection from Close To My Heart when my bestie Brenda (pinkdisneychick) was with the company.

RULES:

There aren't any rules. You may use any company product you like. My only request is if you use a stamp or something special, link to the company so we may add to our stash, too :-D 

Okay.. 1 rule - no back-linking. Make a new project in any form. That's pretty easy.

KEYWORD: KCCJuly18

There's my card for this month. What will you create. Grab the button on my side bar for your blog, make something using the colors and link up below so I can see what you make!

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - An Organized Space

Good morning, everyone!

While I hope to be playing with projects soon, I decided the mixed media area first needed a bit of clean up. I don't have before pictures. Didn't think about them. I just dove in. But I'll explain with the first picture.

This is a full shot of the mixed media corner. Left to right: paint storage, wrapping paper stool (with casters making it easy to move out of the corner) a 2-door cabinet that houses most of my texturing supplies, blank journals, geli plate, etc, main mixed media storage, art books.

Before I started I couldn't open a single drawer without moving something. Getting to the cabinet required LIFTING the stool up over something then reaching over to open the doors to get what I needed.  This is MUCH nicer, don't you think? LOL

So, spot by spot:

I apologize for the bit of glare. Very sunny day. :-D

The main part of the paint storage is an old stamp display shelf unit from Michaels years ago when I worked in Peoria, IL. We got to pick them up for $20 a piece. I was out of town at the time but a good friend/ co-worker put my name on one. She figured if I didn't want it, she could take it. I thought that very sweet of her. The filing cabinet below holds various types of applicators in the top drawer, while the bottom one is full of all kinds of receptacles and palette trays.

Next to the bookcase, this is probably my favorite part of the entire space. The bottom 8-drawer unit was picked up at an auction for $5. I think it's an early Ikea peace. The top drawer holds larger Tim Holtz items, Drawer 2- tissue paper, Drawer 3 - packaging paper (like they wrap the breakables in at Hobby Lobby), Drawer 4 - Chip board, Drawer 5 - Mat board, Drawer 6 - foam core, Drawer 7 - manilla folder type weight and Drawer 8 - card board.  If the drawer is full, I don't keep any new coming in. I use it or recycle it.

The 2 towers on the right hold all Tim Holtz embellishments by theme. The bottom cigar box on the bottom holds bands Bob saves for me and I've not decided what's going in the top one yet. I've had that blue cigar box since I was 12. 

Bob found that little black drawer unit on top at a flea market. It was originally from an auto parts store. There are 4 drawers. I'm using them to store small alphabet/ numbers/ symbol keys from laptops/ keyboards.

The 2 towers on the right hold misc. assemblage (similar to TH) from other companies like $ tower baskets at Michaels, etc. The alarm clock no longer works. I got it at a garage sale for $1. I figured when the mechanism stopped working then I could do a scene in the inside ala Tim Holtz style.

Bob added these two shelves for me. The first one rests on top of the towers. I have TH books, fabrics, journals, papers. The jewelry box holds mostly keys/ locks. The top shelf is mostly TH. Though the white rolls on the far left are snake skins from our resident Black snake. One is over 8' long! I plan to bleach, die them in mixed media. 

Finally, my art journal/ art book shelving unit. A bit of glare form the sun. The window to the right out of the picture is 48"w X 36" h. lets in tons of light over my altar.

Top shelf - class yearbooks, weight loss I keep for reference, Tony Robbins complete motivation set, smaller journals

Second Shelf - handmade journals from past years, journal prompt books. The picture in the front on the stand was given to my by my upline when I sold UnderCover Wear. 

Third Shelf - art books such as lettering, altered art, workshop type books,

Fourth Shelf - the blue binder on the far left is all of my OneStroke practice books, then a basket of art papers such as water color pads, graph papers, etc. The rest is Writing prompt kits such as the Writers Toolbox and 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women

Bottom Shelf - all art magazines I've kept for various reasons.

My goal is to keep all of this accessible so I can finally begin making art. I do have a large file box that will probably sit on the floor in front of the book case to house all of my magazine clippings. That project is still needing done. Also my 12x12 scrapbook binders that latch for holding mixed media pieces from packaging. I have 3 of those. They are easy to move as they all snap close and have handles, similar to a suitcase. 

Next project is to put my antique wardrobe back in order with Spiritual supplies then start on the office corner.

How do you keep your mixed media supplies in order? Do you bother? Are they mixed in with everything else you do in your studio? I'd love to know.

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Crazy Brave

Okay, so the pages are totally out of sync from the month they were supposed to be. POWERFUL was actually the March challenge but somehow they didn't wind up in my book in the correct order. I think I'll try something different next year.

But anyhow... I like that this spread is about choice. That having GOALS, knowing what I want to accomplish is one thing. Regardless, there will always be obstacles or nay-sayers. How I CHOOSE to work with them is entirely up to me. 

While I'm not crazy about how this spread turned out, I am happy with the message to myself

I CAN exceed Expectation, I can determine how I work with my strengths and weaknesses to ACCOMPLISH my GOALS.. and I need to GET TO WORK if I'm to meet those goals.

Bob is only home a few more days so I'm off to be Crazy with him while I can. ;-)

Creative Blessings!

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Crazy Brave

Somewhere along the line, when I put the book together, I got calendar pages out of sinc. This was supposed to be February's prompt. Given the subject though, I think the challenge fits any month of the year.

New Years resolutions are great when we make them. Goals are even better. The plan is to make this year the one where I am UNSTOPPABLE. Even though I may drift from my goals, I don't have to abandoned them all together - I pick myself up and get back to work. Falling off the wagon doesn't have to be permanent - unless I CHOOSE it to be so.

Well, I DO NOT choose that path. I'm stubborn that way. What I want to achieve may take a little longer but I believe in accomplishing what I start out to do... no matter how long.

Not the best picture. I just could not seem to get things in a flow yesterday. May have something to do with my first Monday with Bob back home. I did find my larger doll stamp and used her this time on a 2-page spread. My husband was quick to point out that my shoes are going the wrong direction... well, they weren't for the stamp! LOL Maybe I'm going to make this journey backwards. 

The shoes mark the path along the calendar year. You'll see that I have a GOALS image along the way - reminding me that if I'm not where I thought I'd be, I can readjust and KEEP GOING! There are several signs along the way reminding me DON'T Stop. This is part of My Story at the end of the year. The SUCCESSES, Stumbling Blocks and Drop-Off's along the way all make up MY STORY. 

You'll see a rainbow in the top left of the My Story image, then there's a smaller sticker. This is left over from my UndercoverWear days... a motivational sticker by The Booster.  The sticker says:

LIVE YOUR DREAMS

After I had all of the elements in place, I just played with my Recollections Watercolors. 

This isn't one of my best spreads but the message is there in spite of having an off day. 

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - En Masse Journal

Good morning, ladies.

I'll be back around noon with a progress picture but I wanted to get something here so you'd know to come back. I should have been working on this post yesterday but I was busy clearing off the work table. The space needed cleaned/ reorganized and I'm still on the hunt for those dies.  4500 steps later, the work table is completely clear. I'm going to glue the junk journal pieces into place, take pictures then load them on Kizoa. I should have that all done by noon.

In the mean time, if you con't remember the En Masse Journal, click HERE to go to the original post.

This is the pile I've been collecting for the past week. As I came across something, I clipped the item down then tucked it into the journal so I wouldn't lose anything.

I started by dividing everything out into categories:

Window Envelopes.

I don't include the whole window area. I just like the different insides. So I punched them out with my Fiskars Octagon punch.

After gluing them in, I realized I had two pages for this. One has them punched out with the banner punch. Not sure if I'll combine or just fill both. 

I did the same thing with company labels:

After gluing them all onto one page:

I realized I had separate pages for food labels and company labels. Oops. Oh well, they will fill up fast.

Postage stamps:

Became this:

While this might seem like an odd project to some people, this is an interesting way of documenting a life. With a flip-through future generations will see the type of products we used, stamps, and all sorts of ephemera that show how we lived, what our interests were, etc. This is our Smithsonian. :-D

Creative Blessings!

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Crazy Brave!

I'm doing my best to stay on track. Aside from my day planner to keep me focused on the various challenges and art projects I want to participate in, I have an art planner where I list just challenges. To make sure I don't miss anything I have a monthly write-on/ wipe-off board so I always have things in view when I walk into my studio.

This week, we step into the Crazy Brave & Wicked Strong calendar. I'm not going to worry about whether or not I'm in the current month. Rather, I just want to enjoy playing.

This January spread talked about our Journey or Course and how we navigate the road blocks and turns helps form the outcome. I thought the quote I chose worked perfectly, as well as representing the twists and turns in the flourishes

This Prima doll stamp will be a constant in the layouts as I go. I used Stampin' Up! Stampin' Blends as well as the Watercolor Pencils to color her as well as the leaves. The flourishes is from Stampendous - Flourises v2. The flowers are from a retired SU stamp set 'Morning Meadow. I drew in the leaves with an Old Olive watercolor pencil.  The quote isn't really visible and I'm not sure where the stamp set is from - after a google search I see that some, but not all of the stamps are from Tim Holtz.

The quote says... 

THE 

JOURNEY

IS NEVER

TRULY

OVER IT

JUST

CHANGED 

COURSE

 Last year, I came across a calendar by Suzy Toronto. Check out her website - lots of FUN stuff and great gifts!

The monthly pages were just as colorful as the front cover and each month contained a full calendar page as well as an 'empowerment' type of thing. Well, the 2017 calendar is still on my shelf. I didn't use it last year because I'd lost track of it... finding the item about August as I was doing the deep clean. Then I found a 2018 and decided THIS was the year I would play.

Here's a sample of one of the inside pages?

I wanted to combine this fun calendar with thought provoking messages with the lovely set of 36 Gel Pens Bob got me for Christmas. You can order them through the link but Bob found mine at Walmart.

I've already ordered a pen case from Scrapbook.com  I have one of these cases for my planner pens. The case holds 48 so I'll have room to add my white signo as well as a couple of black art pens, a graphite pencil, sharpener and eraser. 

I wanted to turn this calendar into a workable art journal with 2-page spreads. The only paper I had was a 9x12 Watercolor pad. I cut the pages down to 6x12", cut the calendar pages in half and coil bound everything. I bound each 2-page spread with a paperie tape from ms sparkle and co. I'm not happy with the tape but we'll see how it holds up.

Here's a blank spread:

In the finished journal:

I just got this idea last night so I don't have a spread done for this post but I'll double up somewhere throughout the year.

Since Mondays are primarily Mixed Media, I'll be showing the current month spread on the last Monday of each month. That gives me the entire month to work on each layout a little at a time

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - En Mass Journal Returns!

Back in February of last year, I told you about a Junk Journal project I was starting - En Masse Journal. You can see the first post of how the journal began HERE.
The next post went along rather smoothly and on time (gasp!) HERE.
From there, I'm not sure what happened but the journal never made another appearance - because something got in my way (surprise surprise!) and I never got back to it.

So out it came for this week. Originally, I'd planned to run this the 4th Monday of each month. So I think I'll stick with that.
So here we are - October 23rd and I'm diving into one of the color sections of the Journal.

Originally, I had punched out all of the tabs for the journal, but had never sat down and labeled any of them. The initial pile looked like this:

I went to add them to the journal last week and they've vanished. Something in the back of my mind says I threw them out when I was decluttering the space, not realizing what they were for and determined that when I remembered I'd just re-punch them... so that's what I did. 

But this time... I labeled them and put them in place in the journal.. allowing a 2-page spread for each.  Here's a shot of the new tabs in place:

I used the tab punch as I had before for the categories. But the COLOR and ALPHABET tabs were punched from the new SU set  TABS FOR EVERYTHING from our current All Occasion catalog. I used Recollections cardstock for the colors. The letters were stamped using a retired SU set - Collage Alphabet, which I purchased from my stamping friend, Maggie  (aka Maggie's Cat House blog)

While I've not actually begun working in the journal, I can now that the categories and colors are in place. Each 2-page spread is interpretive. I can play however I want. 

I'm going to attempt to list the categories here - in no particular order just in case blogger throws me a curve in posting:

Circles, Finger Paint, Animals (wild), Tea & Coffee, Paper Dolls, Tags, Yarn & Fibers, Postage Stamps, Stars, Business Cards, Zippers/ Fastners, Textures/ Rubbings, Cowboys/ Western, Squares, Photos, Punches, Fabric, Washi Tape, Store Receipts, Faces, Triangles, Hardware/ Washers/ Gears, Glitter/ Sparkles, Colored Pencils, Buttons, Lace Doilies, Song Lyrics, Horse & Tack, Candy/ Food Wrappers, Quotes, Labels, Woven Paper, Markers, Rectangle, Leaves, Paper Scraps, Beads, Flowers, Crayons, Lists, Window Envelope, Security Envelopes, Dogs, Cats, Fruits, Vegetables, Birds, Books.

Then I added Holidays/ Seasons because I had pages left over in the signatures:

Snowflakes, Time, Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Wedding

As well as things I love:

Planners, Baby, Teddy Bears, Negatives, Flags, Witches, Water, Football, Hearts

There are also 4 FREE pages to whatever I might find that would make a good category.

I'm enjoying playing again.

First off, I apologize for falling off the wagon on the 13 Days of Halloween. I just ran out of time. I had the projects but could not get them posted before I had to focus on packing and leaving for the conference. Then my BIL/SIL visited for a week. Rhonda and I spent the best part of two days in the studio. I managed ALL DAY on Thursday where I put together my October Daily album together from start to finish! Well, except for actual inclusions - but the base of the book is done. I'm still debating whether to use it for this year or put it away and I'll be ready to go next October. We shall see. I'll keep you posted.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

SHOPPING HAUL

Last Thursday was Bob's birthday. He wanted to go to Springfield to shop for a gun barrel. His birthday wish put me in proximity to lots of shopping options. I did 'shop with intent' as I'm learning with the S2S thread on Splitcoast Stampers and through the ScrapRack.

I'm building my stencil supply and couldn't pass up these lacy designs in the Christmas section at DEALS. Over time I'm sure the glitter will flake off but that will not hurt the stencil any.

Mostly, I was on the hunt for things I could use in my 2016 Glam Planner. I'm saving the planner specific items for another post but here were some of the little extras I found:

These are actually tiny vials of nail art. There are punch shapes, angel hair flakes, fine glitter, micro beads and chunky glitter. I found these at Dollar Tree and my first thought was cute additives for shaker cards. I picked up several of each.. Some will be included in a Spring Giveaway coming up after the new year.

I got these from the $1.50 tower bins at Michaels. They are adhesive border strips in pretty metallic. They'll be awesome on cards or decorating my planner. I bought one of each of the colors available.

Everything in this picture came from Hobby Lobby except the embossing folders. Not sure why they got in this picture. LOL I bought a 4-pack of Tim's distress ink spots at Michaels a couple of weeks ago on their Halloween 50% off (which is still going on in case you want to make a trip). So I needed the tin. The foot ball stickers and notepad will go in with my planner stuff. The heart charms I picked up in case I do any more book promotions. Just wondering where these hearts were at when my book came out last year. They would be perfect as a give away since a heart on a chain is a token in the book.

And a close up of the two embossing folders I got at JoAnns:

I thought both of these would be great for a more elegant style card.

I always pick up 5 packs of the Studio G pop dots when I'm at Michaels. I won't run out for awhile. The smaller tape runners and package of glue dots are for my planner kit.

And lastly, I found these cute candy-stripe med. clothes pins and the gold washi tape at TJ Max. I plan to string the clothes pins on twine for hanging our Christmas cards this year. In past years we have always taped them around the doorway of the living room. Between the blower for the heat kicking on and the cats thinking everything belongs to them, this is no longer an option. The clothespins will be perfect. 

And if you think that's all the washi tape I came home with... well.... The rest I'll be showing in a planner post later. I will tell you two things.

DEALS had an excellent selection.

TARGET  has a new stash hitting their $1 bins. If they've not materialized yet, they are in the back room waiting to be put out. I found an errant one in the office supply and the guy checked... only to inform me it hadn't come out yet and that someone had probably picked that one up at another target and brought it back to this store. Hmmm... why would anyone buy Washi then RETURN it? LOL Whatever.. just if you are into Washi... keep an eye on your local Target $ bins. 

That's all I have for today. I'm already behind on stuff.. as is usually the case when Bob is home. But I wouldn't trade my time with him for anything on this computer. Life is too precious. 

Creative Blessings!

Kel

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - Documented Life Project

I am on track to begin the Documented Life Project through Art to the 5th with the rest of the group this year... instead of 3 months into the year. The above was my DL planner for last year. Well, one of the four. I used composition books - one per each quarter of the year. By the end of the year I found it frustrating to go back and find things I'd entered in earlier dates that I needed to reference.

What I liked about last year's planner:
The size and basic layout

What I didn't like:
having to break up the year into quarter books.
My small desk area wasn't really equiped for the full dayplanner but a long, narrow notepad I could do.

My challenge was how do I get an entire year into ONE planner when I don't traditionally work 'By the Week'. My Day job has to be done in 'Daily To Do' tasks.

What I wound up doing was using a long, narrow notepad for my Daily To Do. I would put the date at the top, do my daily tasks then at the end of the day use Washi Tape to incorporate it into the journal.

So with a new year of DL approaching I took to YouTube looking up all kinds of things having to do with planners. I figured I could take any planner idea and adapt it to meet my DL planner needs.

I came across THIS video by Danielle Batog about using a deconstructed compostition book. DUH!

So I set about cutting a composition book down the middle. I then decided on my cover for this year. I loved the papers from DCWV Once Upon A Time I used last year. This year I decided to use my favorite slab from Colorbok - Rosewood. I pick up a new slab at Walmart about every other month.
I chose to use some of the swag from the slab this time and picked out Cherish the Moment for the cover accent.

I covered the front and back covers of the comp book. Added border trims from the same slab then covered the entire thing in clear contact. This will help protect the DL planner from anything that might mar the beauty as I cart it from place to place... though I'm not seeing 'carting' being much of an option unless I'm traveling overnight.

Inside, I have a 2-page calendar page:

I had this anchor stamp in one of the sets I purchased from Close To My Heart earlier this year. The anchors note the days my husband is on the boat. This allows me to plan my travel schedule at a glance. 

Aside from the calendar pages, each of the weekly pages are edged on the hole punched side with washi tape then covered in a 1.5" wide strip of clear contact paper. This acts as hole reinforcement. The binder rings are the 2". 

Tomorrow, I'll show you more of the inside 'weekly pages' - which I think I can work with as well as how I'm doing my Daily To Do (DTD).

Then on Wednesday, I'll show you how I'm conquering (at least that's the plan) my absence of actually doing the art challenges last year.

So stay tuned... 2015 is full of Creative Blessings!