WOYWW #292 - Displaced Work Area

WARNING!

This post is a bit longer than our hostess, Julia, prefers. And I'll be more brief from now on. But this week is all about getting myself organized.... and is my only work surface at the moment.

Have no clue what I'm talking about? Each Wednesday for 292 weeks and counting, a bunch of us from all over the world invite you to peek into our creative spaces. Need a map? Pop on over to Julia's Stamping Ground for all the details.  I hope you'll join us!

This is where most of my creativity will come from for the next few weeks. My dungeon studio is a disaster. I hope to work on packing up some stuff later this week so I can at least work on my desk some down there.

This tote bag has seen a lot of variety since it's purchase almost 10 years ago. I used it for toting tools back and forth to Michaels for the classes I taught. Then the bag sat on my desk here until Bob built my permanent caddy out of 1x4s. I don't go to crops so I didn't need anything portable. At that time, I put it in my rolling art bag in case I were ever lucky enough to attend a Mixed Media art retreat. Which I would still love to do.

One of my challenges with the DL project last year was not making enough time to do the art journal prompts... which is like a major point of the whole thing. LOL  While researching ideas for my dayplanner I came across THIS YouTube video by Nadine's Mixed Plate.

Cool concept! This will allow me to have all of my tools at hand while I'm watching TV in the evening. And when I travel, I have a basics art bag to go! Let's take a peek inside...

This is the collection of goodies I unearthed from the office to select from plus what I purchased at 

$ Tree and Walmart to fill in the gaps. 

My notepad/ post it note assortment. Those ones in the front with the kissy lips... are left over hostess note pads from my days of selling Undercover Wear. ;-)

This is what I wound up actually putting in the bag. Some things are packed in the old clamb shell stamp boxes from Stampin' Up. Example is the stamping case in the upper left corner. I have a few acrylic stamps, and a square of a stamp scrubber. I still need to add a memento pad so I can use the watercolors and watercolor pencils. The 2nd clam shell box holds various adhesives and the third my variety of ink pens. I should have opened that blue diaper wipe box. Inside I have a selection of large paper clips that I have decorated the ends by hot gluing decorative buttons or ribbons.

So far I'm on track. Tomorrow I'll be showing you how my Mitten Tree project turned out for 2014 and my plans for 2015. 

Creative Blessings!

TECHNIQUE TUESDAY - Documented Life Planner

This is one of the inside 'daily' pages in my 2015 Documented Life planner. Kind of plain, right? I agree. But I'm fixing that... little by little. 

All of the Daily pages will look like this. I'll use the spaces for appointments and keep the notepad for the To Do's. I can also use these spaces for doodling and marking repetitive things such as the reindeer on the 25th of each month. The reindeer denotes that this is Reindeer Club Day. The day each month I will make one batch of Christmas Cards. No boxed cards to be mailed in 2015! 

One of the things I'm striving for this year is to take the planner week by week, day by day. For someone who has always been a planner this will be my challenge for the year. But I'm going to give it my best shot. 

I wanted to be able to work with any medium on the daily pages. Rather than a 2-step process I added a bit of acrylic medium to white gesso then spread a single coat on all 52 weekly pages. The color varies by month. I picked School Bus yellow (the only yellow I had) for the month of June. But I still wanted to break the weekly up into 'daily' time slots. I was inspired by a picture one of the other DL participants did. Since I can't remember who it was, I won't post her picture without permission. Instead, I'll show you what I've done to mine... or will do - week by week.

Sunday night will be my time to sit on the couch, watch my favorite tv program(s) and do the art for the week. 

Remember, I mentioned yesterday how I am finding my Daily To Do works best on long notepads? While shopping at B & N last November, I found this gift kit. 

Cute, right? Each notepad has enough sheets for every day that month. The little flag post -its to the right match each of the longer pads. So here's my plan. I use one sheet per day for my Daily To Do then attach with Washi Tape to the weekly page, just as I did last year. But these pages are so much prettier than the plain notepaper pad I used then. And the flags are super sticky. They don't peel off their pad very easily so when I put them in the dayplanner to mark something, I'm pretty sure they are going to stay put.

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!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Image courtesy of netanimation.net

May 2015 be full of Creative Blessings!

RECAPPING 2014

We are in the final days of 2014. While this has been a creative year for me, I didn't accomplish much of any of the items on my GOALS list. You'll see the ones I did accomplish in GREEN and the ones I didn't in RED. At a glance, I don't feel as if I did anything this year that I wanted to do.

Let's start with the 52 Scarf sets for the Mitten Tree. I know I was thinking one per week. What I didn't take into account is tht I didn't have that many glove/ hat sets to crochet scarves for. I only had 25. And that's what I turned in on December 12th. (You'll see a post about that on Thursday).

I also submitted (and sold) 3 articles to Polymer Cafe magazine. They publish six times a year and I was in three of those. I'm starting out 2015 with a sale to them. I will have the Last Word column in the Jan/ Feb issue (on stands now) with a request to send her as many more articles as I can ASAP. So yeah... 2015 is off to a good start there.

The other areas I really need to work on. Some will be tricky until we can get the studio finished. Right now, I don't even have insulation let alone a floor and ceiling. I do have electricity. So there is progress. More on that progress in future posts. (Just need to resize pics,)

I've already started the Mitten Tree sets for 2015 and completed one. My goal is to do 50. I've also joined forces with the company my daughter works for to crochet hats/ scarves for the Veteran's Camp in Arlington WA. So I'm adding 24 sets there... bringing my crochet total to 74 sets! I'll need the ones for the Veteran's Camp by the first of November.

I still want to do the girls' albums but those will have to wait until I'm in the studio... probably sometime after June 1. The other albums will have to wait as well but all are going on my GOAL list.  I'm also adding the Documented Life Project to my list. I attempted this last year. I succeeded in discovering this is the perfect dayplanner for me! The artwork never even got attempted. So this year I'm starting 'with' the rest of the group and hope to keep up. If I can do that until I'm moved into the office, I'll be thrilled.

I also did not get into any challenges this year. However, I've signed up for the Christmas Card Challenge again this year. I HATED sending boxed cards and don't ever want to do that again! I've already marked Reindeer Club on my calendar. And I signed up for the Stamp 2 Spend Challenge again. I didn't participate last year. Since all my money has gone into the new studio, I have to focus on using what I have rather than spending more. (Except for Sal A bration coming up in Jan). I do need to replenish my SU Cardstock. And there are a couple more organization items I need. But aside from that, I should be good.

For the rest of this week, I'll be showing you some of what I've done and what I have in store. Next Monday, I'll change the GOAL List to reflect my plans for 2015.

How has your year been? Please share.
Creative Blessings!

PLANNING FOR A SUCCESSFUL 2015

We are getting close to the end of the year. December is always my month to clear out the present year and begin setting files up for the next.

I'll have pics to show you beginning the first week of January but I've been in PLANNER mode. I really liked working with the Composition Book this year as part of the Documented Life Project. While I never got to the 'art' challenges, I did use the planner daily for the first half of the year. After that, I still kept the planner handy but still used a LIST pad for my To Do List. So I'm combining the two for 2015.

I've also been cruising YouTube (Links coming in later posts) on various ways people are setting up and decorating their planners. A couple of gals really got me thinking. Set up a Planner Art bag. A place to keep all the things I would use in my planner such as post its, pens, stamps, stickers, etc. So when I sit down to plan out my week all my tools are there in one place.  I'm also thinking this may help in actually doing the challenges as well.

So I spent all of yesterday (Sunday) pouring through copious amount of supplies in the studio and condensed some of the basics into THIS  Mine is all black. I bought it when they first came out several years ago and I was teaching at Michaels. Mine has cycled through various project options through that time. So when I saw THIS video by Nadine at Nadine's Mixed Plate on YouTube, the light bulb went on.

If you don't follow me, I hope you do. And if you and your friends want to be more organized in your studio (and your planner) please follow me. I'll be doing giveaways throughout the year and you won't want to miss your chance to add to your own stash.

Oh.. and I have not forgot I promised a giveaway before I got sick. I will be drawing for that on January 2 (want to wait so things don't get lost in Christmas mail mess) when I post the first Give Away for 2015.

Merry Christmas!
and a Creative 2015!

COMPUTER ISSUES, CONSTRUCTION AND SINUS'

In case some of you thought I'd vanished beneath the construction rubble... I'm still here.

Two days after the construction began I got hit with a horrid sinus infection that lasted 6 weeks! I've never had vertigo or thought it was really a 'thing'. I am now a true believer. The cursor on the computer would make me nauseous. LOL I've spent less than 10 minutes a WEEK on line until yesterday.

I've also had to continually work out things on this new laptop. But at least now my head is up to the challenge and things should run more smooth.

I had planned to post pics of the build in progress but by the time I fed the crew lunch, I just wanted to go to bed... and did as soon as they were done for the day.

Those of you who've been with me for a while know I LOVE  to decorate for Christmas.This year my decor consists of a new 4' pre-lit Christmas tree and 2 gift bags to be decorated and used in place of stockings. With the construction and my being ill, the house is a disaster. At this point I just want to get business caught up before I lose my hard-earned contacts. Everything else will fall into place - or off the counter.

And to top off my holiday season... I am not making Christmas cards this year. I want to enjoy the process, not be stressed out trying to get them made and in the mail. My work space downstairs is buried under items I've either purchased or been working on as part of the new space organization.

But, as my husband said, 'next year - look out!' LOL Christmas in all it's colorful glory will return to our house and mailboxes nationwide.

My biggest thing I'm looking forward to is that in the new space I'll be able to display my Christmas Village on the big work island I've not unpacked my village with the exception of a few pieces a couple years ago, in over 8 years. And I can shut the cats out of the studio so they won't be playing Godzilla through the snowy set up. hehe