• Art - Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: waste not edition

    Here I am, once again, at dark thirty writing my T stands for Tuesday post in between getting kids up and making lunches. Perhaps of these days…weeks…years…I’ll get the habit of preplanning these things. I think it’s my personality though to wait and see where life takes me.

    T Tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    Today I wanted to share a couple of things I did this week to repurpose items that would have been thrown away or in this first case, composted.

    I’ve been wanting to try my hand at making apple cider vinegar. I’ve read numerous posts on this old fashion technique. Usually this time of year we have apples coming out of our ears from our neighbor’s trees. This year happened to be a poor production year with their trees.

    Homemade apple cider vinegar t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    I did have a couple organic store bought apples that we’re definitely past their prime. Not wanting to completely waste expensive apples, I decided to experiment. The recipes or tutorials I read used peels and cores but I’m certain that using the whole apple will work just fine. I sterilized my quart mason jar in the dishwasher then filled it with the chopped apples. I used spring water to completely cover the apples. A scrap of cloth was placed under the ring to allow it to breath. I placed it in our basement storage room while it does its magic. Hopefully by Christmas, I’ll have some homemade apple cider vinegar.

    The second waste not piece of this post was using a paper scrap in an unexpected way.

    t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    The scrap started as a misprinted Christmas letter from last year. Then it protected my journal from paint and sprays, glues and inks.

    t tuesday waste not edition | Halle's hobbies

    Now it’s the base of a new art journal page. Who know where this page will take me.

    Do you use any “throw away” items in unexpected ways? I’d love to hear about them…

     

     

  • Art - Blog

    Wishes and dreams

    I’ve been very drawn to the multi layered look of journal pages, collage and mixed media of all sorts lately. The more textural, the better. As I sat down to create, I had two things in mind…texture and spray mist color.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    I placed masking tape down the spine then layered joint tape randomly in opposite corners of the pages. Next I gave the whole thing a thin coat of gesso.  Even with the thin coat of gesso, I got impatient waiting for it to dry so I started spraying sooner than I likely should have.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    At this point everything was so wet I had to walk away.

    After it was thoroughly dry, I began laying down some texture.  I used foreign text from a Brothers Grimm fairy tales book, leftover burlap from my monogram wreath, rusted fabric, a clothing tag and a bit of calico fabric for my layers.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    In addition I used a punched square from an old greeting card as a focal image on the left hand page. A sweet little girl blowing a dandelion seed head making a wish.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    Which ties into the words I used on the clothing tag. The words are from a Tim Holtz sticker pack.  I cut the phrase apart to place on the clothing tag.

    I watered down some black craft paint to make splatters but was unhappy with the result so I attempted to soak them up with a cloth.

    wishes and dreams art journal page | Halle's Hobbies

    Lastly I used vintage photo distress ink to stamp a floral vine in opposite corners to give balance to the pages.

    Art Journal Journey

    I am linking up with Art Journal Journey today. The theme of the  month is Inspired by Autumn colors. The warm browns and splash of orange fit into my vision of the Autumn landscape around me.

  • Art - Blog

    Pondering art journal page

    art journal snippetI started this page at craft club next door. I wasn’t feeling like making cards this time. I prepped the pages with tape down the spine and a thin coat of gesso at home so I’d be ready to play. I brought my gelatos, some pens and baby wipes for my fingers. The baby wipes work really well for both clean up and to get a little moisture on your fingers so the gelato moves more freely.

    pondering art journal page |Halle's Hobbies

    The next evening I sat watching TV with the unfinished page on my lap. Something came up about pondering and questioning…or perhaps something else triggered that in my mind. I just started free writing my thoughts. I have always been intrigued with the idea of time travel and parallel universe theories. What if there were an alternate timeline some how…some way?

    pondering art journal page |Halle's HobbiesIf you could take a peek at your life in that time line the branched from a choice you made…would you look? Or would you be afraid to look?