Project Thirteen!!

This is one of my all-time favorite gifts to make and give: photo cards. As a photographer, too often I am in the rut of always just photographing my clients and I don't spend enough time on the world around me. This project kind of forces me to relax and look for the good in the everyday. And it only takes a few supplies!!! You will need black cardstock, white cardstock, gluesticks and photographs!! Oh, and of course scissors or a paper trimmer. Me, I'm a basic scissors kind of girl because I have a perfectly level eye, but some of you may need "help"!!
Of course, check out the place where you live for interesting shots. From my house to my friend Callie's in the next town over (heh, doesn't everyone I know live in "the next town over") is this stretch of country back-roads with the most magical places to photograph; an old church, the cemetery (though I don't recommend the cemetery for happy photos!!!) etc. Those place were my initial thoughts of what to photograph, but I ended up with these shots instead of somewhere else:
I had them printed at my local Walgreens with grins and then mounted them on the black cardstock:
After cutting out the images from the black cardstock, I mounted it again on white cardstock that had been folded in half. Essentially you get one card from one piece, with scraps.

You'll have to trim the extra off the sides and bottoms, and then here's your finished card:
I used a white signo pen from uniball to add a signature to all my cards for the final touch. Wrap them up in sets of eight with envelopes and you have insta-gifts!!

Project Twelve!

I have a bit of a collector's bug. It's in my blood to find a stash of something and just keep adding to it. Like a great store display, the more the merrier, and it just looks cooler. Such is the case for vintage spools. I started gathering them because of their texture and color and the collection just kept growing. A few years back I finally decided to actually do something with them!
First I painted them all in bright colors to match my idea of a funky tree:
Next I started with strips of scrap ribbon and glued it on, along with buttons:
Then I literally went through my scrap stash and glued on whatever I could find: broken jewelry, old feathers, flowers, beads, etc:
With all the different stashes of scraps I think they all came out pretty fun!

These rhinestones were a bracelet I wore to prom in high school!!! Keeper of everything; yes.

Project Eleven!

Our thirty days sure are going by fast! This is another easy one, thoughtful but not altogether quick. I've been making these awesome little art journal prompt cards...simply with index cards as the base:
Then I hand-wrote the 52 questions (one for each week of the year!!) onto the cards (the questions you will find below are from Emily Falconbridge)
I, personally, like to use my own handwriting to make this gift a bit more personal. Some of you perfectionists out there may need to type and print, but I dig my own handwriting. After writing all the weeks and questions, I glued the cards to patterned papers; all crazy and various themes to mix it up.
I used a photo album from Target that holds exactly 52 pictures to put the cards in and wrap up with a blank sketchbook....but I'm not showing a pic because some of my blog readers will be getting these for Christmas!!! :)

52 questions:

1.What do I wish for this year to bring?

2.Am I afraid of change?

3. Do you believe in fairies?

4. When I look into my eyes, I see....

5. How do I feel today?

6. If I could do it all again would I change anything?

7. What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

8. What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?

9. What was the last brave thing you did?

10. Name 5 movies that inspire you creatively:

11. What keeps me awake at night?

12. What are you grateful for right now?

13. What was your best/worst hairstyle to date?

14. What is the last good book you read?

15. What makes you "you"?

16. What is the truth?

17. What is your superpower?

18. What is on your to-do list this week?

19. What gives you hope?

20. What is your latest obsession?

21. If you had a free day with no restrictions, what would you do?

22. Which direction are you going ?

23. How can I be kinder to myself?

24. Name something you don't understand but want to...

25. Have you had a hug today?

26. On my walls I would write....

27. What have you found lately?

28. What are your favorite days of summer/winter filled with?

29. Do you have a recurring dream?

30. Who do you need to thank?

31. What three words would someone use to describe you?

32. Why did I do that?

33. What are you crossing your fingers for?

34. How do you create your nest?

35. What kind of goddess are you?

36. What do you never want to forget?

37. What sparks your creativity?

38. Where is your happy place?

39. What brings you joy?

40. What are you taking for granted?

41. When you close your eyes and imagine yourself passionate, giddy, inspired...what do you create?

42. What is your favorite holiday?

43. What were you doing this time last year?

44. What daily qualities are you called to be?

45. What is art?

46. What top three things happened to you this week?

47. What makes your house a "home"?

48. What scares you?

49. What is the best gift you've ever given/received?

50. What have you discovered about yourself lately?

51. If your art were a song, what would it sound like?

52. What is there too little of in the world?

Project ten!!

I know, I know, I'm a bit behind on these posts, but I will catch up and keep them coming!! So today's project is so easy and is so so so so cute! I started with choosing a solid color of one of my wool sweaters (I know, we were supposed to be finished with the sweaters...not the case!). I picked hot pink (of course)
And I forgot to take a picture of the 100 of 1.5" leaf shapes I cut from the wool. Oh well, certainly you can handle that task, right?
And I used these coolio round foam wreath shapes (Michaels, 3.99) and then I spent oodles of my time hot gluing the damn leaf shapes all over the foam in a pretty random order:
I know, NOT a good picture. It was late at night and my flash went off, but you get the drift...a leaf wreath. I'll try to post natural light pics soon in an update!!

Project nine!!!

Here we go! I started making these ornaments about five years ago as a tribute to the geneaologists in the family. I originally used only pictures of the peeps that were older than 50 in the family or passed away already. You get the idea!!! However, our "family tree" didn't seem complete without the addition of all the other family members, so I started adding in modern pictures. Now our "family tree" has literally hundreds of ornaments on it and I've made them for both sets of grandparents as well as friends. Here's the process:
I originally started with scraps of cardboard that I would find in the recycling. Cereal boxes, notepads, toy packaging, whatever...it all works great. I now keep the backs to these legal pads as they are abundant in our home.
I like using wallet size or smaller of pictures. Wallet is really the largest I suggest, but I have been known a couple times to use 4x5's when the photo was just that amazing.
I then cut and tear the cardboard into rectangles about 3-4" sometimes larger.
Then I use scraps of patterned paper to cover the most part of the front of the ornaments. Pages from books and magazines also work nice. I really do just grab a stash of scraps and junk to adorn my ornaments.
Next I very very randomly glue on pictures. The less you "think" about it, the cooler they look in the end.
Then I very randomly tear more paper and such and stick in on the corner of the photographs and the cardboard. There really isn't any rhyme or reason to my process.
I love using leftover word stickers that don't work on my scrapbook pages as they are perfect for these ornaments. After the stickers, I use glitter, more scraps and a bunch of ribbon to embellish the ornaments in a very random fashion.
They really do look nice all hanging together, generations together forever on our family tree!

Project Eight!

And when I say easy, I mean it! I'm all about using what I have around the house and can find real fast. I scrounged up some old KI memories patterned paper and an old book and of course, acid-free 8.5 x 11 white cardstock and other colors, though I didn't end up using the bazzill.
I cut oodles of poinsettias out of the patterned paper:
Then cut and folded all my 8.5 x 11 cardstock to small card size: And then I tore out some pages from the old book and trimmed the bleed around them:
I love tearing corners and using them for just the right amount of texture on a card:
Here's my base card: you can make six fronts from one piece of 12x12 paper:
I glued on my book corner and then cut a horizontal strip from my stripe paper, making sure the stripes stayed vertical:
I glued on my stripe then finished off the card with one of the cute poinsettias. Voila~
Seriously easy. Seriously cute and you can still embellish more, more more if you wanted!!!!

Project seven!

I'm sooo excited for today's project, one that is near and dear to my heart (and my pocketbook). I started making felted wool owls as my very first experience with wool. I made hundreds of these little guys; literally, hundreds. I sold them online, to my friends, at the Kane County flea market, etc. They are so darling and soo cute. I love to make them and then name them for their personalities that shine through. So, here's a basic pattern on 8.5x11 paper:
I'm not a perfectionist at all, so think like that when cutting and sewing these dudes and dudettes. I open up one side of my sweater and lay the pattern down to cut around. I suppose some of you out there will want to actually trace the pattern onto the sweater, but I never do that. I just cut right around it.
Then I cut out eyes, nose, a chest, and wings. I like to use a bunch of different color and patterns of wool to bring out some oooomph in my owlies. If these aren't for children under 3, you can use buttons on the eyes, too.
Here are my pieces just roughly placed where I want them to be. I start sewing them on one by one and it's not an art at all, this sewing pieces on.
I, personally, like my thread to show but you might want to match the colors or what have you. I've used the same spool of white thread for over 300 owls.
Once the features are in place, flip the bird (ha!) over so right side is down on right side of whatever color sweater you are using for the back of the owl. I sew along the edges first, leaving the bottom of the owl for the last. After I've sew, then I cut out along the sweater. I then turn it inside out, stuff it and then sew the bottom closed.
I like to add flowers and bows. Here's my finished owlie I made in about 10 minutes. The one below is just a smaller version I whipped up in a few minutes, the small ones would make darling ornaments!!!