Mixed results for papermaking

The sheets of paper that the boy helped with turned out great. My experiments were less successful.

The mildly successful bowl was made by draping wet sheets of torn paper on the outside of an up turned bowl.

The other bowl was a big fat failure. Live and learn, right?!

Paper making

I had an unlikely helper today while making paper.

The last time I made paper, neither kid would come near it.

I'm trying out making a couple of paper bowls using two different methods.

The first I squeezed most of the pulp out then pushed it into the inside of a glass bowl.

The second way was to make a sheet of paper but tear it and mold it over an up turned bowl. I'd think this way should yield a thinner bowl.

Everything is drying on the driveway in the 90+ degree heat. Too bad the humidity is up high as well.

Fun with Photoshop

Just playing a little with another macro shot of the tiny little bee I captured with my little Coolpix camera. I'm so impressed with it's macro ability. I sat real still and slowly moved the camera within a few inches of the little bee while he was sipping nectar.

The second image I used some of my custom brushes to create subtle impressions in the background. I absolutely love playing in Photoshop.

Nature's beauty in my own backyard...

Happy Father's Day

Score!!

A short hike from my house was a fantastic garage sale. I may go back without the kids so I can pour over the items at my leisure.

The boy scored a soccer ball for one thin dime.

Flower ID help

I'm wondering what this little beauty is called.
It's too pretty to be just a weed.

If you know, please leave a comment with the name!

Sweet puppy face

Our new neighbors got a puppy. My kids adore her. I was snapping some pictures of the kids with Maizy and caught this cute little face.

I decided to play around a bit and came up with this.

Here's the original photo:



Quite a bit different, huh?!?

ABC 6th Anniversary swap

Each summer ABC_alteredbookclub celebrates the anniversary with a collaborative project. This is my 4th year participating.

My 1st year we did an alphabet themed chunky book.

The next year was another chunky book.

Last year we did something a little different. We made circles!

This year we are doing a skinny chunky book. Sounds weird, huh?!
I'm nearly finished with the whole swap. I cut out 28 of these 3x6 inch recycled cereal boxes. Only 25 are required for the swap but I wanted to make sure I had room for mistakes.

I sprayed them with black, brown and gold paint on the printed side of the cardboard. The back is sprayed with white, brown and gold.

I decided to mix a custom color of embossing powder since plain white seemed way to stark against the dark background. I mixed mostly white with a little gold, copper, black and jasper. I really like the slightly speckled effect.

I have 7 more to complete but I ran out of the beaded trim. Either my math skills failed me at the store or I was severely cheated.

Bike bag

It was such an overcast, cold crumby day that I needed to find something to do in the house and I certainly didn't feel like cleaning today.

I made this bag to carry my "park-play" items. Water bottles, mini first aid kit with instant cold pack, my cell phone, sunscreen and sometimes a snack. I do still need to put a closure on the bag but haven't decided if I'll have the flap go inside or outside. I'll likely just use Velcro since it's quick and easy.

The denim is from another chair slipcover and the patchwork came in a bag of scraps I got in a free box at a sale.
Total cost of project: virtually nothing...just my time and a little electricity.

What on earth...

Spray paint and cereal boxes. I love to recycle!

I'm working on a swap. Stay tuned...