Unscripted Sketches 03

Well, a new sketch comes out every Saturday from Unscripted Sketches, so sorry, but no bonus points for guessing what I did today. This is the journal I made today with the sketch to get me going. Design Team member April continues to assure me that I may play with the sketch and make it my own, so I took a few liberties again today. My tree branch is the part of the sketch that looks like a tied ribbon and my leaves are the knot and bow. I am including a picture of the book open to show the front and back at the same time as well as a closeup of the little bird.
The inside is full of ledger paper that I scored at a second hand store on a little adventure today. I removed it from the ledger and cut it to size, saving the top part of the paper and the covers for some other things. And it really does lie flat. It just looks bunchy in the photo.

Unscripted Sketches 02

I finished Unscripted Sketches 01 around midnight, and when I got up this morning, I was all ready for Unscripted Sketches 02. After this, there won't be a new one until next Saturday, so luckily I WILL be able to go into work this week. Most of the other people who are playing are making things with paper, like cards. They might find my mixed media a little off the wall, but I love fabric, and I never was a scrapbooker, so this is what happened. I'm just doing my thing.

This is the journal I made with the "blueprint" from week 2. I'm glad we get to mix things up a bit, because I just "had to." I am including a few detail shots so you can see the zipper, my favorite part: button flowers, and the photo of my grandmother from when she was just a little one. I printed the photo onto a piece of soft cotton on my printer. Unless you look really close or click on the photo to enlarge it, it is hard to see what I used as the different left and right backgrounds, but it is netting, black on the left and hot pink on the right. I just couldn't bring myself to cover the hand-painted canvas I was using for the covers. The baby photo has been used too many times in my art to count. It is just that special to me. I often look at it and think about how innocent she looks and then think of all she had to endure in her life including burying two of her own three children and outliving a grandchild, too. That alone seems like a lot to me, but there is a lot more she had to do that most people don't in their lifetimes. She is still my guiding light often, and I wish she were here to see how much her newest great great granddaughter looks like her.

Unscripted Sketches 01

So, Miss April, put up a challenge on her blog for Unscripted Sketches. Participants are given a blueprint of sorts to get started on the challenge of the week. Anyone who wants to play can interpret it in their own way and add a link so others can see their work. If you go to Unscripted Sketches, you will see how the design team interpreted it, and if you click on the names on the list after all the pictures done by the design team, that will take you to the sites of all the other participants where you can see their samples. I am #11. Anyone who clicks on my name is brought here. This is my submission for Week 1.
I am loving making fabric journals with all kinds of different papers from old agendas, notebooks, graph paper, computer paper, etc. I also added a pocket inside the front cover to hold neato stuff like coloring pencils, evidence, or secret notes!
I am on the lookout for the alphabet fabric I used on the front here. Penney gave me a little piece, and I NEED more, so if you see any on your trips about, please notify this blog immediately, or as soon thereafter as possible. Thanks kindly in advance. It is made by Fabric Traditions which is said to be sold at JoAnn's, but I haven't found it there, yet.

And the winner is...

NOT me, but I was close. Helga over at Art Chix Studio had a twinchie swap/contest. My daughters bought me everything I needed to participate as a Christmas present. Yes, I am spoiled. Thanks, my loves, you REALLY are the best!!! It was the biggest ART Chix swap ever, according to Helga in her blog. She had a hard time picking a winner, so she selected eight honorable mentions to go along with her first place award, and I was one of the lucky eight!!! I will be receiving a goodie bag soon as my prize along with someone else's twinchies I get back from the swap. I sent in six, and will get six back, along with three collage sheets she is sending everyone which she making to show some of the work submitted in the contest.
These two twinchies are two 0f the six that caught her eye and landed me with my prize. Sorry, I can't show you the other four because I shoved them out the door before photographing them. (I am going to learn not to do that some day.) If you look closely you will see a piece of a zipper I sewed in one and my stitches which I find hard not to put on everything. There are also transparencies involved, but it is hard to see them in the photo. If you have never been to the Art Chix site, you really must pay a visit. Besides all the goodies for sale, there are lots of samples in the gallery that are very inspiring as well as free classes, yes FREE, so head on over there.

Sew Somerset update!

I got an email today from Sew Somerset. It had the pictures and layout for my article coming up in the next issue of Sew Somerset! It is going to print next week, so this is my last chance to see if anything needs to be edited. I am really happy with how it turned out and happy that they are including one of the pages I missed when I photographed it before I mailed it off. Most of the pages they chose are the fabric art pages rather than the pages where I actually wrote, which doesn't suprise me, but I was surprised to find out that it will cover 6 pages. I can't wait 'til June!

ReSCueD PaPeRS - little books of recycled happiness

G46 Scrappy Chic - sold

Purple Posie -sold



Red. Gold, Green posie - sold



Canvas Birdie -sold

Black and White Scrappy - Sold



So after seeing other books with mixed up papers and having made LOTS of what I called junque journals in the past, I decided to continue that idea with a twist. I saved up all sorts of paper that may have otherwise be sitting in the local landfill. Leftover pieces of scrapbook paper, graph paper, maps, old computer paper-the kind with holes lining the sides, ledger paper, note paper, cardstock, old maps and crossword puzzles, grade books, planners, etc., but all of it clean and unwritten on by the human hand. I cut them all to size and reassembled them into note pad size books about 4.25" X 6" of approximatley 100 sheets, added one of my little sewing art pieces to the cover and a heavy duty tarot card to the back, and then I bound it with a wire coil. Wah-lah, and I am almost aftraid to say, I don't know how I will part with them, but etsy calls, and people are telling me I must, so a tiny new adventure begins. I will be selling these babies in my etsy site. And then I will be off looking for more funky papers to feed the next batch.

Graffiti Chic - Finals!

As you may know, I have been taking a class from Alisa Burke for the last 5 weeks called Graffiti Chic. Recently, she welcomed us to share with her what we did with our painted canvases. Here is what I have done so far that I can share. (One project is a top secret operation that may never hit this blog since it was one of those things that went straight out the door about 5 minutes after I finished it.) First, there are some different shots of a journal I made using funky papers sewn in, and a leftover transparency from another project along with some fabric letters that I sewed down. Then there is a tote bag. Actually this tote bag was an advertiser's totebag in its previous life. The kind teachers usually take straight to the "donate to charity" pile because we always seem to have too many. I deconstructed it, painted over it, added some permanent markers, sewed on some new and funkier handles (Those royal blue ones REALLY had to go.), and sewed it back together. I still have three big pieces of canvas from the class, but I haven't gotten around to giving them their new life yet. I really enjoyed the class, and feel now like I have finished my "final exam."

Catching Up - Chunky Books

Our first chunky book in Penney's invitational group was The Wizard of Oz, and I chose the ruby red slippers for my page because my oldest granddaughter has her very own ruby red slippers. She is not even two, but just you try to sneak anything on that child's feet that she isn't planning on wearing that day. The girl knows her shoes. Dorothy was wearing a blue gingham dress at the time she was given her ruby red slippers, so she had on blue socks. My daughter, Jeane, and I had a lot of fun making our Dorothy look alike pose for this photo.
Stephanie, one of the group members made this Oz house for me as a hostess gift, and she gave me permission to post it here. Isn't it amazing?
This is my page for our second book: Sewing

These are samples of what I made for Altered Cards book in Penney's group, our third book. Everyone who participates is working on a different type card. I signed up for flashcards, and the result is here. The transparency that I sewed on top has the same stamp as the flash card, but I set it off so the one on the flash card looks like a shadow. Shadows don't often show on rainy days, so I thought it would be a fun look. If you can't see the shadows of Umbrella Man, click on the photo, and it will switch to a larger size that is easy for you to see it.