Inspire Your Heart with Art Day!

I'm barely hanging on to the last threads of January, 
but I thought it might be appropriate to complete this challenge on Inspire Your Heart with Art Day.

I started with these supplies:

*Scissors

*Star hole punch

*Pencil

*Round object (I used a $1 coin)

* Envelopes from cards received in years past

* Notebook, purchased for $1 from a closing sale

*Glue

Trace around the edge of the round object on to the envelopes.

Cut out the circles.

Punch star holes in the middle of the circles.

Glue on the notebook. Done!

It's a cutie, huh?   :)

Gratitude Journal

For my January journal challenge, I decided to decorate the cover of my new Gratitude Journal. I began with a simple 6" x 8" brown notebook that I bought for $1.00 at a going out of business sale.

I gently removed the back cover. Because I wasn't going to be able to decorate around the comb binding, I colored the edge with a marker.

Next, I cut a piece of fusible web to size and ironed it onto the cardboard on the outside back cover. Then I cut a piece of fabric about a half inch larger on each side than than the cover. I pressed the edge next to the comb under. Then I fused the fabric to the fusible web.

I flipped the back cover over, then folded the fabric to the back. I used a glue stick to hold the edges in place.

Next, I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to size. I glued the center with a glue stick, and used double-sided tape to make sure the edges were secured. Then I used my roller to make sure everything was adhering well.

I replaced the back cover, removed the front cover, and colored the comb edge as before. Unfortunately, my photos for the next steps didn't come out. What I did was measure the finished stitchery, cut two strips of the red fabric, sewed the strips to the top and bottom of the stitchery, and adhered the stitchery to the front cover in much the same way as how I adhered the fabric to the back cover. 

The piece of scrap paper I had left was about 1/4" too short for the inside cover, so I had to improvise. After adhering the paper to the inside, I covered the edges (inside and outside) of the front cover with some grosgrain ribbon. Once the cover was finished, I put it back on the comb.

The heart is a piece that I stitched in February 2005 called Love and Roses by Just Nan. I really love everything about this little heart - the colors, the bling, the beads, and the pearls. Normally, I wouldn't finish needlework with glue. But since this has been waiting patiently for nine years to see the light of day, I thought I'd rather go for a finished item instead of worrying about it being an heirloom finish (no glue, all acid-free, etc.) 

I'm going to enjoy using this as my new Gratitude Journal for 2014.

New Year, New Art, New Rules

www.berkshirebach.org

It's been a while since our little collective was active, so it's time to start anew. Over the holidays, a couple of the artists got together and mapped out a new plan. Even this is a bit late getting started, but every day is a new chance to jump in, right?

Instead of taking turns posting a challenge, and waiting until all artists have contributed before the next challenge is created, we'll have monthly challenges. If we have the time and the energy and the creativity to do a project, we'll post. If not, no harm, no foul ... no waiting.

Here are the year's challenges:

• January: Journal covers
• February: birch bark
• March: clothes pins
• April: artist trading cards
• May: vase/candle holder
• June: shrink plastic 
• July: origami/paper art
• August: paint chip art
• September: buttons
• October: beading
• November: dough art (salt, play dough, polymer clay, pastry, bread)
• December: wreaths 

I've created some boards on my Pinterest account that are filled with ideas for each art medium. Scroll down to the bottom of that page to find the boards marked "AuralArtists." Ideas from Pinterest can be used if you wish, but mostly the boards are jumping off points for inspiration.

For January, I plan to make a cover for a new Gratitude Journal. How 'bout you? 

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Noodle It Out

I was washing out a container that held the remains of my homemade vegetable noodle soup. Just as I was about to wash the bits down the drain, I saw this noodle remnant in the bottom of our stainless steel sink.

Shine a Little Light on Me

What ho!

The Halloween decorations have appeared on the front porch

including the tin can lanterns for our current challenge.

Ahhh. A little jack-o-lantern shaped like a heart. Who would have guessed.

Plus a simpler design that puts out lots of light.

More hearts? But of course!
Happy Halloween!

Light It Up

 On one of my rare days off work, I decided to head on over to my mom's place and do the Group Challenge with her.  We went out and bought some spray paint and had "fun" hammering nails into cans of ice until our fingers went numb (well, mine did, at least ;) )
But it was worth it!

I made two cans. The first is Halloween themed, and has a jack-o-lantern on one side, and a cat on the other.

For my second can, I thought it would be fun to pull out some of my rainbow duck tape I still had from our previous challenge and decorate the can with that. Mom gave me the idea of popping holes along the lines. Since I'm "supposed" to stick with one color, I decided to outline the orange stripes.  I'm actually really happy with how that one came out, for being such a simple idea.



















I liked the ironic comment mom made about half-way through our hole-punching spree about how "we choose these projects because they're supposed to be fast and easy"... It wasn't exactly quite either of those things, but I still had fun :D

Pencil Me In

I spent a little time in my studio today, putzing around, and putting things in order, playing with my new mini iron. I wandered across my pencil collection. I figure I have enough "stuff" now, so when folks go on vacation and have a need to bring me a souvenir, I ask for a pencil with a local attraction. These are some of my favorites from Marineland, Disney World, Miami, London's Parliament, Alaska, British Columbia, Bath in England, and Hawaii.

I decided to give my pencil collection a new home where they can be displayed. I found this cute little tin bucket with the heart-shaped cut-outs at a thrift store this summer. Just right!

I "heart" this container.