• Art - Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: changes edition

    January 13, 2020 - By 

    This week is one of change. J heads back to college for the Spring semester. Our school is having its final week of the semester. Next week brings new classes for me and Mini-me, just to name a few.  With J heading back to college I’ll once again be expanding my crafty space to include the desk in his room. Perhaps then I’ll catch up with a couple of projects that have hit the back burner over the last month.

    New projects

    I’m creating an embellishment storage booklet. I was inspired by Gayle Agostinelli. So far I only have one page of the booklet completed. It’s not pretty but that wasn’t my purpose. I’m using up papers and extras that I’ll never use. It’s strictly utilitarian. Waste not, want not.embellishment booklet

    I slipped a few random paper pieces in the pockets so they’d actually show up…

    embellishment booklet

    It will make better sense when it’s all put together but basically I want to have a book or booklet with all my small or fussy cut embellishments at the ready instead of searching through half a dozen places for just the right piece I know I own.

    Another new project is actually an old one that I never started. The sketchbook project that I purchased over the summer. Of course, at the time the due date seemed so far away…now its only weeks away.sketchbook project page

    sketchbook project page

    I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of these pages in the weeks to come. My only disappointment is that the pages are so thin…any wet media really soaks through very quickly. I definitely have to keep this in mind instead of just intuitively creating as I prefer.

    Last weekend we finally put away all the Christmas decor. I snapped this late even photo the night before for my obligatory T Tuesday beverage reference. T Tuesday obligatory photo

    Something fun that just came in the mail that I had to share was our “free” Marvin puzzle.

    Marvin puzzle

    I say “free” because for the puzzle itself we had a coupon code making it $0 but then the shipping seemed a bit overpriced so they definitely were making their money somehow.

    I snapped this pretty sky photo when I got to work this morning. The sun was behind a veil of thin clouds…it was a perfect orange disk. The view almost made up for the slick driving conditions from the overnight snow. Almost.snowy morning sky

    Such a bummer…we’re getting snow again right now…in fact, we are getting snow basically every day this week during one or both commutes. Not fun.

    T stands for Tuesday

    What are you doing today?
  • Blog

    Mindful habit making

    January 5, 2020 - By 

    Since choosing my Word of the Year for 2020, I have been working at keeping that word in the forefront. You could say I have been MINDFUL of my word.

    One of my goals in this coming year…and basically every year previous is to make healthier choices. I don’t want this to fall to the wayside at my first slip-up as has happened so many times in the past. I decided to take a cue from some of the successful behavior modification programs I’ve been a part of with students. I’m focusing on the positives…not the negatives.

    Often students will have a sticker chart or a ticket system to earn breaks, trinkets or game time. I thought this could work with myself as well after realizing how much the silly achievement badges from Fitbit actually motivated me.

    I wanted to get a planner to record my achievements in but haven’t had the chance. I decided not to let that stop me and grabbed a journal/notebook that I’ve been using for random bits.

    I set myself up with a box of supplies so it is at the ready when I am to sit down and record. It’s not pretty or even neatly planned but sometimes life isn’t either.

    I feel that setting myself up to be successful will enable me to create this mindful habit of celebrating life’s little achievements instead of beating myself up about my shortcomings.

    It’s said that it only takes 21 days to create a habit…looks like I’m on my way.

  • Blog - Creativity

    A second look: Summer of Love ATC swap

    January 2, 2020 - By 

    Because it’s January I start to think about summer. You always want what you can’t have..right?

    So let’s have a Second on the 2nd look at the summer of love swap

    9/27/2009 Summer of Love ATC swap

     

    These were so fun to make!!

    I started with an 8.5×11 sheet of periwinkle cardstock. With an old credit card, I spread out some orange and yellow craft paints.

    After that was dry, I used rubber stamps, more paint, markers, and stencils to create lots of background interest.

    When I was happy with it I cut 9 ATC’s from my full sheet of cardstock.

    I freehanded a VW bug to make a template then cut little bugs out of discarded book pages. Paint and marker were applied in a very loose manner.

    I punched wheels from black “handmade paper” …I put that in quotes since it was actually store-bought. I then used little flower sticker for some fun hubcaps.

    The part that I love the most is the genuine VW key attached to each one. I grew up with tons of Volkswagons. My dad and his friend would buy them cheap, fix them up and resell. Sometimes they would just part them out. Dad never threw out anything so I had just enough VW keys laying around to give these ATC’s just a little extra punch!

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    Won’t you going me in linking up with Second on the 2nd?

    Second on the 2nd