Journal Pages

Just a few Pages I am working on,,,,

Art Journal Part 2

I have my art journal already to take on our next camping adventure. We are going to be camping at Jamaica Beach RV resort in Galveston  for a few days.

I made up the signature for the book from drawing and mixed media paper combined with gelli printed and tea died card stock and sewed it in the cover with a simple pamphlet stitch. Then I glued in a few illustrations from the original book, I left a lot of space blank for doodling and adding art later.

I covered the book with gelli print paper and added the little man from the book and an elastic closure with a lampwork bead.

I am so looking forward to using the book on our trip.

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Starting New Nature Journal

So I found a book at Goodwill that is the perfect size to make a little art journal to fit in my purse to take camping with me. It is about 8 and 3/4 by 7 and 1/2 inches. 

It is a children's book in Spanish with damage to the inside cover and writing on a few pages but the spine and covers are intact. As you can see it has lovely illustrations that I will keep for inspiration.

I took out the pages and planned on making one register with mixed pages of watercolor, drawing and mixed media page from these pads.

In the end I decided the water color paper was too thick so I left that out and added some graph paper.

I made the graph paper just a bit smaller than the pages. The pages are 8 by 14 folded so they fit way beneath the book cover. I may add some envelope or pocket pages before I sew it to the spine.

 

I glued some printed tissue to the inside covers that I plan on decorating later.

This is where it is right now. When it dries I will get the pages sewn in and leave the cover to decorate last.

Dollar Thrift Store Journaling Treasures

 I keep seeing people on YouTube making incredible DIY projects with things they found in the Dollar or Thrift stores. I thought well they must have better dollar and thrift stores than I have in my little Texas town.

So I decided to buck up and give myself a challenge to make a travel journal out of found objects and Dollar and thrift store finds. I went today and was amazed that I found a few items that I could use to get started. I am thinking of doing a video and uploading it to YouTube to record the process. So here are the items I found today.

A rubber matt to use as a stencil, 3 stencils, butterfly and leaf embellishments, drawing paper, photo paper and two large rubber erasers to carve into stamps. I plan on going to the Goodwill and Thrift store tomorrow to see what else I can find. This is going to be fun.....

 

Crafting Toward a better reality during a pandemic

I think many people are having trouble coping with this Covid 19 disaster. I think the artists and crafters who are used to going inside themselves for inspiration and have learned to dig deep and unfortunately spend a great deal of time alone mulling things over do not get off any easier than the rest of the lot. If anything they may have it worse.

I have been neglecting my creative side during this time but the fall approaching I will not allow it to continue, The studio is pleasant and inviting when it is not 100 degree out there and I find I need to get going again.

I am going to download a few photos of the work I have done in thenlast few years to show I have mqde some progress if not much.

Homemade Solar Oven

I am working my way through my bucket list and one of the things I have always wanted to try was solar cooking. It moved up on my bucket list after Hurricane Ike left us with no power for 17 days but since I started a job after that that had me supervising 28 workers and no free time I had to wait until now to try it.
I did some research on the internet and found a quick and easy way to make one with only using items that I have in my garage and art studio. it is amazing how you save things and have no idea why at the time but they come in handy later,
Basically the oven is a cardboard box lined with Styrofoam panels that I saved from packing boxes.
I used a 12 by 12 box and cut the Styrofoam to fit snugly inside like a box in a box. I then wrapped them in tinfoil and slid them into place.  If you don't have Styrofoam you can put a box inside one the next size bigger and stuff the walls between the two with crumbled paper to insulate it. On the bottom I placed a black piece of paper to absorb the heat better.
Online I have found sites where the entire inner box is lined in black and some just the tin foiled Styrofoam so I tested it first with just the tinfoil and my second larger oven will be lined in black cardboard.

The reflectors are made with cardboard panels positioned around the main box to reflect the sunlight into the oven. I am still learning the ins and outs of positioning the panels correctly but I have managed to bake Irish soda bread in my first oven as well as chicken and rice.


The second photo is my second attempt at a solar oven. As you can see this one is a little larger (13 by 13 inner box) but except for the front wall being slanted down and the inner walls lined with black cardboard it is the same design. I have not yet made the reflector panels for it so I am using the ones off the first oven,
The first oven reached 225 maximum temp but it took a few hours this new one reached 200 in less than half an hour and today is much cloudier then when I tested the other one.
. I started out testing blueberry muffins in it like  I did the last cooker. I think that is a safe thing to cook and since it was the 89 cent package kind I am not risking much. They cooked much faster with the new design.

The soar panels are not adjusted for cooking yet in either of the photos. It is easier to photograph them that way. That is the last step. Both ovens have Plexiglas covers to retain in the heat. I check and re position the ovens every 20 to 30 minutes When I am baking bread I uncover the pan for the last 1/2 of the cooking time.

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Paper flowers, Collage and Time to Reflect....I'm Back..

I have missed blogging in the last few years.
The job I had was so stressful at times that it sucked all the creativity and fun out of my life. I dealt with so many people on a daily basis and yet I have never felt more alone in my life.

I have retired now and I plan on making up for that time.First thing I did was write out an actual bucket list of all the art and craft projects and techniques I want to explore.
I will post that on a later blog entry.


I had a real struggle doing a flower themed art piece for the Splendora Gardens show.
 I just don't do flowers ...but forcing myself to come up with a simple collage piece that fit the theme got me to thinking about years and years ago (the ice age) when I used to make tissue and crepe paper flowers to decorate my apartment because I could not afford the real thing.
I remembered today the last times I made them. A co worker had asked me to be her witness at the courthouse for her marriage, since she was pregnant her family would not attend ( that was how it was back then).
I surprised her with a bridal bouquet and when I handed it to her she broke down in tears....
She said she loved it but I never made anymore after that...life seemed sadder than fake flowers could handle.

So once I had finished the collage for the show I decided to make some paper flowers.

I found the video that Jennibellie did for these on YouTube here:

Jennibellie Funky Paper Flower Tutorial

She did a clear step by step video and it is super simple to follow. I used some odd buttons I had for the center of the flowers. The paper is a mix of printed and painted card stock and paper.

As for the show, that turned out to be great and I am glad I went. It was interesting to see all the directions that were explored from the theme.


The top picture in the black frame was my entry in the show. It is a collage over a mono print on watercolor paper.