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Simply Sketched Sympathy Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  It Is A Gift To Be Loved
Yesterday I once again appreciated the gift of being loved.  I had a wonderful swim in the morning and then, unfortunately, a migraine decided to pay me a visit.  I got into bed and closed my eyes and hoped for the visual aura to pass :(  Michael came home and asked if I needed anything.  I felt a bit bad asking him to go out to purchase some Gatorade, Aleve and Benadryl, but I set aside feeling like I was inconveniencing him and I asked.  And off he went - without any questions.  The Gatorade, Aleve and Benadryl had all been mentioned to us the other night at the park.  A friend's daughter experienced her first migraine, including numbness that traveled to different parts of her body.  They ended up at the hospital trying to figure out what was wrong and it took some time before the migraine diagnosis was given.  They learned that many patients experience some relief by taking some Gatorade and then, if that doesn't stop the migraine, moving to Aleve and then finally Benadryl.  It was something I hadn't heard before, but I'm willing to give almost anything a try when it comes to migraines.  So I drank the Gatorade and actually did feel a bit better.  I am typing this about six hours after my head started bothering me and I made it through the day.  My head is still not feeling great, but I know that by tomorrow I will feel more like myself.  In the meantime I am just experiencing the gratitude of what it means to be loved and taken care of.  I am also grateful that this is a gift that I can give to others.  Don't underestimate the power of your love!
Today I am sharing a sympathy card that I created for the wife of one of Michael's friends who passed away.  I was drawn to using one of my hand-painted pieces of deli paper.  I adhered it to the card and then stamped the sentiment from Simply Sketched onto acetate using a permanent ink.  I added some of my painted tape to hide the dimensional adhesive that I used to add the acetate to the card.  I hope you like it!  Wishing you a wonderful weekend.  For those of you celebrating Passover and Easter, I hope you are able to enjoy a love-filled holiday with family and friends!!!!

Introducing Project Life by Stampin' Up!

A Brief Visit With Nature

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Awaken And See The Beauty
Yesterday was a gorgeous day!  It began with awakening in the middle of the night to throw on pajamas and a coat and go into the backyard to look up at the sky!  What an amazing blood red moon we saw!  The photo was taken with my iPhone and the moon is quite far away...but hopefully you can get a glimpse of the beauty we saw.  We went back to bed and woke up to a beautiful morning and decided to take a drive in the afternoon to see a little scenery.  I'm sharing just two of the pics from our drive - such glorious mountains and endless roads.  Some days you need to awaken and just see the beauty!

Floral Art Journal Page

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Sometimes our mind is thinking of one thing and our body is doing another, and mind and body are not unified. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Ain't that the truth!  This is an ailment I am often afflicted with - my mind and body not being unified.  Maybe that's why I love art-making so much.  Because when I am making art I feel like I am one - aligned - in sync.  I am reading the book Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh and right now I am learning about breath - how to be conscious of my breath - how to allow my breath to bring me back to a unified place where my mind and body are working together.  I am so grateful for the practice of making art because it is a meditation - if we allow it to be.  We can allow our art to be our guide - taking us where it wants to - allowing ourselves to be a passenger on a wonderful journey!
Today I am sharing another art journal page that I created for Paper Crafter's Library.  This page took me on quite the journey and it became quite thick in the process!  It now acts as the "front" of my art journal since it is difficult to close my art journal with this page inside :)  Full step-by-step videos of the process are available to members of Paper Crafter's Library.  To learn more about membership, feel free to click on the link in the upper right-hand corner of my blog.
To those of you beginning the celebration of the Passover holiday this evening, I wish you a wonderful and meaningful holiday!

Gwen's Gift Box Decorating

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Get Someone Else's Creative Juices Flowing!
I was fortunate enough to see my friend Gwen last week.  She is a fellow creative spirit and I know she loves doing collage.  So I figured I would bring along a small gift for her - a little box filled with some of my painted tapes.  I knew she would take them and run with them...and I wasn't disappointed!  Over the weekend she shared with me these amazing boxes she decorated using the tapes!!!!!!  It was an idea I never would have thought of!  She even decorated the little box I had given her the painted tapes in!  What little gift could you give someone to get their creative juices flowing????  Gwen gave me the gift right back!  I know these boxes are going to inspire me in so many ways!  Thanks Gwen!!!! :)

Birthday Chicken!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Share Your Art With Someone You Love!
Today is Michael's birthday so I decided I needed to make him a special card :)  It's actually not really a "card" - it's more of a very large postcard.  It is 6" x 9 1/2".  I have really been enjoying playing with collage lately (as you have probably noticed!)!  What better way to celebrate a birthday than with a birthday chicken!!!! :)  At least I think it's a chicken...I guess it could be some other type of bird...actually, it can be whatever you think it is :)  I used Mixed Media paper as a base since you can apply both wet and dry media to it.  I incorporated dry wax paper that I had painted and also some that I painted and made into tape.  A touch of stamping, detail painting, white gel pen and a bit of marker were all added.  I hope Michael wakes up this morning with a smile on his face that grows even larger when he sees his chicken! :)  Who needs your art to make them smile today????

You Are Moo-Tiful Art Journal Page

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  If You Bought It, Play With It!
This page began as a decision to finally take out the Derwent Inktense Blocks I had purchased awhile back and give them a try!  So I sprayed the watercolor paper with a bit of water and began scribbling color with the blocks.  The scribbling led to a landscape background and then I just went with it!  Something about the blue sky and the green grass made me think...COW!  Yes, this is how my mind works and I try to just go with it!  Maybe what triggered COW! was a trip I took back in 1990 with my mom.  We were driving on the California coast toward San Francisco and I was so taken by the gorgeous coast, the beautiful green hills and the cows grazing in the grass.  Those cows looked so content.  (This was also the moment in my life when I became a vegetarian (I am now vegan) - those cows looked so happy I decided I didn't need to eat them anymore :)  Anyway, I digress...So, the inktense blocks led to COW! and COW! led to this completed page :)  This page makes me smile - I'm even wondering about taking it, and the bird page I did last week, and maybe doing some framing so that I can enjoy these pages on a wall.  I know I would lose a bit of the page given the holes of the spiral binding...or maybe I should just frame them with the holes and all :)  Either way, what this page taught me is that if you have a supply that you purchased that you haven't yet played with...the time is now! :)

Bird In The Berries Art Journal Page

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Trust That It Will Come
I was traveling this week and I hadn't planned well enough ahead to do my posting in advance...but now I'm back! :)  I spent quite a bit of the day in the craft room yesterday.  I sat down not knowing what to do, but decided to just start painting deli paper again (dry wax paper).  I kept painting and painting on this one piece of paper and finally felt like the page was done.  Again, I had no idea what I was going to be doing with the paper or where it might end up.  I just sat down and trusted that somehow something would come because I was willing to show up and just begin.  As I was finishing the page, the idea of using the paper to create a collage bird popped into my head.  I made a template and cut out the bird.  Then I used some of my art tape to make a wing and tail feathers.  I sprayed a background and then was inspired to carve a quick stamp that has 2 branches on it.  Once the branches were stamped and the bird added, I was led to grab another piece of art tape I had made and began cutting tiny circles and adding them to the branches.  This page taught me that my willingness to trust may very well be rewarded!!!!

Solitude Art Journal Page

 

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  There Is Sound And Voice In Silence
Last Friday we took Buddy for a walk in a dog park.  Wide open fields.  The mountains in the distance.  An immediate calm and relaxation.  And it was in the silence that I heard myself relax - the stress let go - my cells find their peace and home.  It is a different type of alone than when I walk on the city streets - cement sidewalks beneath my feet.  And I wasn't alone.  Michael and Buddy were there.  Birds.  Horses in the distance.  Other dogs and people sharing the same space.  It is in these places I find deep comfort.  Sometimes these places are found right in my backyard - the sound of the worms rustling in the leaves and dirt at night.  The wind blowing the boughs of the trees.  The caw of crows in the morning.  It is in this silence that I find my voice - if I listen carefully.
This page had an interesting beginning...if you read my blog last week you saw this post here.  Well, this is the rebirth of a piece of that experiment!  I used it as the base for this page and I'm really pleased with the texture and interest it adds to the page.  Here is a little close-up:

I hope you like it :)

Painted Paper and Some Stamp Carving

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  There's Magic In Motion
Yesterday I made myself very proud!  I swam just over 2 miles in the pool!  I still can't believe it!  The swim workout I did included some sprints and lots and lots of laps :)  There was something magical about the motion.  The more I swam, the more I relaxed.  The more I began to feel natural in the water.  And I realize the same thing is true about my art.  I start out and things feel tense - tight - like they are not flowing.  But, I keep moving - I apply more paint to a page; stamp an image; doodle a bit - I create a space where magic can happen.  Just by engaging in the motion you let the Universe know that you are open to the magic.
Today I am sharing some of the results of my motion.  Two painted pieces of dry wax paper (deli paper) that will be turned into something :)  As I was painting the pages I had the urge to do some stamping on the pages, which led me to carve a few stamps of my own.  I hadn't sat down to carve stamps - the carving came to me because I stayed in motion and I waited for the magic to happen!  I hope you have a wonderfully creative weekend filled with magic!!!!!!

ENOUGH Art Journal Page

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  When You Are Stressed, Just Pick Up Some Color And Put It Down
I allow myself to get stressed sometimes...well maybe "sometimes" is an understatement.  I am learning how to adjust my thoughts so that I don't go down the dark stress hole as often as I do.  Part of staying out of the dark stress hole was choosing the word "enough" as my mantra word for this year.  I am enough.  I have enough.  I am doing enough.  I have had enough :)  So today I thought I would share my ENOUGH art journal page that I created for Paper Crafter's Library.  If you are a member of Paper Crafter's Library you can view videos that will provide the step-by-step details of how I created the page.  You can learn more about Paper Crafter's Library by clicking on the Paper Crafter's Library icon on my sidebar on the right.  Or, you can just pick up some color and put it down on a page and begin to explore creating your own page in your own way.  I did that today as well.  Found myself feeling a bit stressed about the disaster that is my craft room.  So I began to move stuff off of the main table and once a space was cleared I decided that I should alleviate the stress by creating something v. spending the entire evening cleaning up :)  I know - it's a bit circular if the mess makes me stressed...but somehow just creating something - anything - alleviates my stress - distracts my mind - lets my intuition take over.  So I just painted a piece of dry wax paper (deli paper) and it will turn into something at some point - perhaps the background for an art journal page, or get cut up and placed into a collage, or made into a roll of art tape.  For now it is just my art therapy :)  I highly recommend the experience! :)

CREATE Art Journal Page

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Resist The Urge To Add On

Today's lesson is not about art-making - although there is probably a lot to be said about "less is more" when it comes to art.  Today's lesson is about gossip and idle chit-chat.  It can be so easy to fall into adding on to or listening in to conversations that are about other people.  After all, if we are busy talking about others we have less time to examine ourselves.  I was proud of myself today - I resisted the urge.  I was a party to a conversation that wasn't about me - it was about others.  And the urge bubbled up to add a piece of "juicy gossip" to the dialogue...and I swallowed it.  I didn't go there.  And I feel really good about that.  This is something I'm going to make a conscious effort around - to resist the urge to add on (except when it comes to my art! :)

Today I'm sharing the first art journal page I created for Paper Crafter's Library.  I was like a kid in a candy store when I was asked to start creating pages (in addition to the cards and other projects I create/design for them).  The pages allow me to play with any and every supply I have on hand and I love it!  I will continue to share the pages I have created for Paper Crafter's Library - old and new.  I hope they inspire you to give art journaling a try!  For full video instructions for my Paper Crafter's Library art journal pages you can check out the information on becoming a member by clicking on the Paper Crafter's Library icon in my sidebar on the right.

Stamp with Stampin' Up! LIVE tomorrow!!!!!

Have you ever wished you could stamp with the folks at Stampin' Up!'s home office? Your wish is granted--and your opportunity is here! Here's the basic rundown.
Who: You! And feel free to invite anyone who wants to play along.
What: This is a live, streaming event where we will stamp with the All Wrapped Up Bundle on page 6 of the Sale-A-Bration brochure. Projects will also feature the Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper. Choose your preferred device--computer, tablet, smart phone, or even hook up your computer to your TV--and tune in to learn some fun new things to do with the bundle!
When: March 26, 2014, at 5:30 PM, 7:30 PM, and 11:00 PM (all times MT). We'll demonstrate the same projects each time, so choose the one that's best for you.
Where: You don't even have to leave home. Come to www.youtube.com/stampinupvideo at your chosen time, and be prepared to stamp! We'll also award door prizes to random participants.
Why: So many occasions are coming--Easter, Mother's Day, graduations, and more--and we want to help you be ready.
Hope you can make it. We'd love to have you join us!
*Never hooked up your computer to a TV before? Do a search on YouTube and you'll find loads of instructional videos. Make sure to do a practice run before March 26 so you don't miss out on any of the party.

Magnetic North Art Journal Page & Second Life For A Red Balloon

Today's Question From The Craft Room:  How Do You Measure A Year In The Life?
As I am typing this, the song from the show Rent entitled Seasons of Love is running through my head.  Have you heard it?  If not, you can listen to it here.  I've been thinking a lot about this lately - how do I measure a year in my life?  Is it by minutes spent traveling for work?  Dollars earned?  Love experienced?  Minutes walked outside with my beautiful dog?  Amount of time spent in the craft room?  Which measurements feel more significant to me?  To society?  Can I hold onto my own measurements - the ones that are truly important to me and do my best to ignore the measures other people use?  How do you measure a year in the life?  What I do know is that the minutes I spent creating this art journal page and my balloon collage piece were minutes well spent :)
This Magnetic North art journal page was one of the projects I created for Paper Crafter's Library as a Designer/Educator.  If you are interested in being able to access step-by-step videos of how the page was created, you can check out how to subscribe to Paper Crafter's Library by clicking on the Paper Crafter's Library icon on my sidebar on the right.  Otherwise, I will be sharing pictures of the completed pages with you here on my blog (I have a bit of catching up to do since I have already created a few pages for them - I will try to share the other pages I have done during my posts this week)!
I also wanted to share a bit of fun I had today.  On a recent walk in February, Buddy and I came across a deflated balloon being blown along the street.  I decided to pick it up and bring it home (yes, I'm kind of like a crow/magpie - picking up shiny things on my walks!).  Today I decided to start cutting it up and collaging it onto a piece of dry waxed paper.  This is what I ended up with...the balloon (what's left of it) is on the left and the collaged paper is on the right.  One of these days I will share what I end up doing with the collage paper!  Hopefully I'll think if something soon :)

A Second Life For Ribbon & Fabric Scraps?

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Take A First Step In Some Direction
So I've woken up a few mornings thinking about taking my fabric and ribbon scraps and ironing them on to fusible web.  Today I finally decided that I needed to follow through on the thought and do it...even though I have no idea what direction this will take me.  The task was complicated a bit by the fact that we blew a fuse in the house today so I only have one light in the craft room and one working outlet.  But I persevered - at least up to this point - and I have no clue what I will be doing next with this sheet.  I would still like to add more scraps, threads and bits and then your guess is as good as mine :)  But that's not stopping me.  Sometimes you just need to take a first step in some direction to get moving!  I will definitely share where this takes me!

Completed Art Journal Page: Spring!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Give It Time To Unfold
I finished the page today!  I am writing this on Thursday evening - the first day of Spring.  And I guess it is no coincidence that as I kept working on this page I was inspired to add the word "spring!"  The page feels very alive to me - vibrant, growing, promising.  This page was definitely a lesson in giving my art time to unfold.  Not forcing.  Not pushing.  Being willing to walk away and come back to take a fresh look.  This was the first page I created in a new Moleskine sketchbook that has pages that are 11 1/4"x16 1/2"!  It felt a bit intimidating - looking at that large blank page...but the intimidation didn't last long :)  I began by painting off of the page - just painting a piece of dry waxed paper (deli paper).  The paper eventually got adhered to the page and then paint (and stitching) was added around and on top of the dry waxed paper.  Here are a few close ups...I am looking forward to my next unfolding :)

A Little More Progress On The Page

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Notice
I am slowly making more progress on the art journal page that I shared yesterday.  I found myself wanting to add some hand-stitching to the piece (not an easy task since hand-stitching is not something I have done a lot of).  Of course I then decided I wanted to include French knots :)  So, off to YouTube I went to find a video on how to make them.  I'm not consistent yet, but it has been fun learning.  I've also begun to take more notice at the thoughts that bubble up as I am working on this page.  Yes, the usual critic is rearing his ugly head again - asking me why I am spending time on this page - asking me "What's the point?"  And then I also notice what was on the radio when I was driving home from swimming this morning.  Two stories - one right after the other.  One was about a 17-year old girl who had become addicted to marijuana and how it had impacted her life.  She was in a program at school that was built to help teens through this addiction and one of the things she felt was helping her a lot was art.  She talked about how making art provided a distraction for her - distraction from negative thoughts and cravings.  She mentioned how fascinated she was right now with roses and drawing them - how the petals fold in so many different ways.  Next was a story about teens in Lyons, Colorado who had experienced the devastation of flooding last year.  With the assistance of a few adults, they put together a book of photos about their experience.  Using art to express and to heal.  So yes, I notice what the Universe is saying in response to my inner critic.  Why do I create art?  Why do I spend time stitching French knots to a page?  Because it allows my mind to focus on something positive and distracts me (if I can allow the inner critic's thoughts to just pass by) from negative thinking.  It also provides me an opportunity to express myself and to heal myself.  And ultimately, I hope that maybe it will inspire you to do the same.

Art Journal Page In Progress

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  You Can't Force What Needs To Happen In Its Own Time
I have been pretty immersed in this art journal page.  What I thought might take me a day is taking time over several days to complete.  I keep adding, waiting, listening for my gut to tell me what to do next.  It's been a wonderful process...and has led to my not posting something for you yesterday :)  I finally decided I could just take a picture of one piece of the page and post that - just to share something with you.  This page is teaching me that you can't force what needs to happen in its own time.  This piece will be done when it is ready to be done.  In the meantime, I will keep showing up and allow it to unfold.

Taking Time On My Travels

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Take Time During Your Work Travels To Appreciate What Is Around You
When I travel for work I often spend most, of not all, of my time in cars, buildings and planes.  I was very fortunate to discover that my trip last week had me staying at a location that actually had beautiful scenery and a 2-mile walking/biking path.  I took full advantage of it and wanted to share a few of the amazing scenes I encountered.  I have a feeling a piece of artwork focusing on trees is in my future :)  Enjoy!