Doing Strange Things in the Name of Art

Good Morning Friends! The above button says it all. I have been making myself get back into my journal and actually work in it instead of looking at it.

I will show you in pictures what is going in this CRAZY art room where I bury myself.

First I made what my friend Paula http://www.journalartistaart.com/ calls a flopportunity:

I found this super cool bird image in a bird book. I then made a copy. My goal here was to make it into a packing tape transfer. So I put the tape on it and because I am a little OCD, when the tape wrinkled, I freaked and pulled it off and the image became this:


OMG!! Is that cool or what?!? The tape pulled off some of the black ink to show the white underneath. A total Flopportunity! WOW!! But I still wanted some packing tape transfers for my next journal spread. So to the old National Geographics I went looking for cool images, and found these, that actually worked when I taped them and put them in water:


Very Cool, huh?

So at this time I am working on this Spread in Progress (SIP):


And the bird oops is there on the top looking waaay cool.

So the next strange thing going on is; If you know Less Herger from ComfortableShoesStudio, she creates the best small travel watercolor boxes out of tins:

http://www.comfortableshoesstudio.com/2011/07/make-a-watercolor-tin.html

So I have this cool car tin full of cinnamon mints I picked up at a vendors show once:


Driver's side.


Passenger side with hinge.



Open with the mints, that will have to find a new home. It is 3 1/2" long by 1 3/4" wide by 3/4" tall. Perfect for this new art creation?!? And a car is perfect for on the go arting!

I must give it a try, because I am, "Doing Strange Things in the Name of Art".

Oh PS: My good friend Cheryl http://mysticmissive.blogspot.com/ was the ONLY comment I got back about what the heck is hanging between my diningroom and livingroom in my last post, even though she called it something I had never heard of and had to look up; LOL. Cheryl will get a little something extra in the package I am sending to her soon.

It is a Vintage Over Entry Way that actually had hung over the top of an entrance to a parlor in one of THOSE houses! I guess it had drapes hanging from it. Cool! It was a gift to me from my old boss and dear friend Pam, who died from cancer in May.

A Couple of New Journal Spreads and a Stash Book

Hi all,

I have been a very lazy person recently. Seems like I have no energy to even do my day job very well. I think it could be because I stopped taking my One A Day Women's Vitamins when I went on vacation because I had ran out. So with not taking any for a month I bought some more One A Day Women's yesterday with an energy part in them. Hope it helps. I am constantly exhausted.

Enough whining, on to some photos.

This spread is about me finding the 2 "real" Post Secrets in a Post Secret Book in Springfield Missouri. Remember to click on them to get a better look see. The secret on the straw paper reads: "Today is the day. Go for it because I love you." My mind went to a few places on that one. Ha!



This next spread is about my new water buddy! This is the best tasting water because it is sparkling:) Aww, so refreshing.



I don't know for sure if I am completely finished with the Pellegrino one or not. Anyone remember the old Hamm's Beer Commercial from the 60's? That is what popped into my head about this. I could hear the Cool, Clear, Water being sung while the Hamm's Bear ran around. WOW!

I took these photo's with the Canon I found last week. I downloaded a User Manual to try to figure out how to take better photos with it.

Oh, one more:



Does anyone know what this is? Hee Hee! It is hanging between my living room and dining room. I will await your answer's and maybe send you a prize for the correct answer.

On to other matters. I want to make a Smash Book. I know you know what this is. K & Co just created this wonder recently. It is a book, and/or journal with misc paper in it for "Smashing" your daily stuff into, with a glue stick and writing about it. There is a You Tube Video out there about it. But I figure this is an excellent way to use a ton of my paper stash (and have an excuse to buy more) and use my Bind It All. I can pick the size I want, cut it, bind it and add fun magazine, book images, etc.

The original Smash Books are silly, But they have great cool accesories. Like, what I call a "Stick Pen" cause it is a pen with a glue stick in one end and a pen in the other end. Perfect for adding bits of daily fodder as you go and being able to immediately write your thoughts. They are really called "Smash Pen's".
I already know what you are thinking. Just carry a glue stick and a pen. OK yes, but this is made together in one body. And I could have thought it up years ago and be a millionaire by now. (maybe a thousand-aire? Maybe a hundreds-aire?)

Check out the video. I will be cutting up paper. I will call mine a Stash Book! Bye!

# 160 Is About My Shiny New Baby's

Hey folks,

Well, here I am writing this blog post on my new laptop. If you look at the previous post about my messy art room, you will see a laptop in the first photo. Well that one has crashed. Last Wednesday afternoon it gave up the fight to live. I believe the hard drive is kapoot. I went today with my most generous hubs and he bought me this one. Toshiba, 14", 5 lbs, cheap. It will do until I can get enough $$ saved up for a Mac. I had decided a while back that my next laptop would be a Mac, but Mr Dell decided that that decision must be eliminated and not thought about until a later time.
I have been using my back up, a Gateway Netbook since Thursday and I must say, I was losing my mind a "little" at a time. Just can't do it. (Kudo's to you Cheryl, that you can). Just too small for my old tired eyes.

Then later today, I had a 25% off anything, even sale items for Michael's and while driving there and taking a route I never take to go there, lo and behold I saw a camera in the street. Pulled over, room mate ran and got it before it got run over. It is a Canon Powershot SX120is, 10 mega pixels and 10X Optical Zoom. Not fancy, but I believe better than my Sony point and shoot that I use. There was an sd card with pictures of houses for sale that I guess a real estate agent was taking. Guess they laid it on the top of their car and drove off.

Sad Story!

If you follow Mary Ann Moss at http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/dispatch_from_la/ you already know this. Her cat Buck was killed this week from 2 Pit Bulls and Mary Ann was there to witness his demise. She has been posting pictures of Buck and telling stories about him this week. Too bad! People, don't let your animals run loose if they are in danger of getting hurt or killed. OR, if your animals will attack and hurt or kill another animal. My heart has been aching all week since I read this. Just too sad!

Oh yea, only bought one small set of Tim Hotz Rubber Stamps at Michael's with the coupon. But I got the one with the pen nibs!! WooT!

So, I got a new laptop and a new for me camera, and an art goodie in one day. And now the excitement of going back to work tomorrow. WOW!! Hope I can hold up!

Have a great week everybody!

Too Much Stuff is an Addiction, Yea I Said It

Not too much to report this week, except I got sick from the heat in Reno last week and stayed in bed for almost 2 days. I am OK this week though. Ya just have to know when to come in out of the sun! LOL!

I have realized that my studio is a BIG MESS again. So I have decided to try to clean it up AGAIN. I did clean and purge some in January and my goal then was to organize my supplies in an orderly fashion so I could find them for one, and the room wasn't such a mess. That worked for a while until I brought in more STUFF!

Photos below: Please click on any to get a bigger understanding of this mess!


This is what you see straight ahead when you walk in. My computer area is a big mess, but I don't really see that as a hindrance to my art area. (in denial already)



This area is to my left if I am at the computer. This table is where everything lands that I drag in until I can find a place for it. WOW!! And I would like to get to my sewing machine again, you can see it at the end of the table, since my friend Barb in Missouri talked to me about how to sew on paper.


This area actually begins the arty side of the room. Books for ripping out images and an eye that is part of a pair of glasses that should be hanging on a wall, but no way to get to a wall! LOL


This is the area above my art table where I try to keep my immediate wanted supplies. Whew!


This is actually my journaling table. Well it would be if there was a space to actual work in my journal on it!


Now this mess is under a table. Extra stuff I have a hard time getting rid of. I just know I will need this someday for my art journaling! Yea, right!


This is under my journaling table. Magazines, books, etc for images. I must have 300 +. I tried to organize that too in January. WOW!! What a job! I just need to be more spontaneous in my journal and grab any magazine and use only the images from that one and no others.Almost done with the photos;


This catch all is on my right if I am at the computer. Every little nic nac finds it's way here! This shot is of the top.


This is the bottom portion of the catch all. I have TOO MUCH STUFF! But I love stuff!

A story: When I left my first husband in 1973, I owned a 63 Chevrolet station wagon. All of my STUFF fit in it in ONE LOAD. That was all I had of my own in 1973. No furniture, etc. I moved into a furnished apt. Friends and yard sales supplied the furniture, etc.

So jump ahead 38 years. What happened?? I don't know. But I do know, something must be done and soon. I am almost to the claustrophobia stage in here! LOL!

I need nothing new when it comes to art journaling. But I want to buy or feel I must buy every new thing that I see on the net! Call it hoarding, treasuring or whatever. I have an addiction to STUFF!

Have a great weekend while I try to figure this mess out!