• Blog

    Lots of snow and keeping busy

    December 12, 2010 - By 

    We got hammered by a winter storm here…  We got 15.5 inches at our house…but since the wind was blowing so hard we have drifts that are 4-5ft high in places while some spots are bare ground.

    Here’s a photo out our back patio door.  See the cool swirl pattern in the snow!  Up to the left between our house and the neighbors there was a 5ft drift.

    So in between shoveling and attempting to use the snowblower. I’ve been working on some crafty stuff.

    I cleaned my sewing machine..changed thread on both the bobbin and spool…and it seems to be working a bit better.

    I made a couple more journal covers..

    We also put together our Gingerbread house kit from Trader Joe’s. I think it turned out pretty cute. Maybe next year I’ll do the really deal and not buy the kit.  I know my girl and I will be making one at her Holiday party at school as well…except with graham crackers. Like these ones.

     

     

  • Blog - Creativity - Tutorials

    Citra Solv with National Geographic background technique

    December 9, 2010 - By 

    I am totally hooked on this “new to me”  technique. I’ve seen it in a magazine, You Tube, blogs etc. Trust me…this technique has been around the block a time or two. Of course, I am super late in actually trying it but I had said I wouldn’t buy any new art supplies. Well…technically I didn’t buy a new art supply, I bought a concentrated cleaner. That counts right!?!?

    Anyway…Since not everyone on the planet has read about it I’ll tell you what I did. It is so simple and has such cool results.  A word of caution…this will be messy…protect your surfaces, hands and clothing.

    First you take the CitroSolv concentrate full strength and pour a bit into a small container. I used a foam brush to apply it directly to the front and back of the National Geographic pages I wanted to use.  The more ink on the  pages the better. After slathering on the CitroSolv to as many pages as you’d like…close the magazine and walk away for about 20 mins or so. When you come back…put on a glove and start opening the pages…they will likely fall right from the magazine as the CitroSolv seems to un-glue the binding as well.

    I hung my pages to dry with clothes pins overnight.

    I painted a few pages with CitroSolv before going to bed to see if the effect would be any different. The effect seemed a little more “muddy” to me rather than having the cool bubble effect. Still totally usable papers…just different.

    These are some of my favorites but as you can see below…I ended up with a bunch of fun papers to play with.

  • Blog

    Learning a new skill

    December 8, 2010 - By 

    Over the weekend we had guests…my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. I had asked her if she’d show me how to knit some time. She said sure if I’d show her how to crochet.  We both learned something very interesting, I knit like a crocheter and she crochets like a knitter. It was difficult for each of us to break the habits that we used for our previous yarn work.  I’ve been trying again and again but never get any further than this. I’ll keep trying.

    I also made this journal cover  the other day but as I was working on a second one…my sewing machine started acting goofy. I think the timing is off…or maybe the tension. I’m going to have to bring it in for a tune up. It’s about 25 years old and has never been looked at…it’s well over due.