Art Journal

This has been a work in progress for quite some time now. The first thing I did was rip a bunch of random pages out. Then took a corner rounding punchto each page. I selected pages to paint leaving 1-3 unpainted pages between. My next step was to punch holes for the stitching. The stitching was done mostly while sitting and waiting for my kiddos during their activities.

I learned a new background technique on ABC_alteredbookclub and have completely fallen in love with it. It uses acrylic paint and baking soda. I believe it is a Claudine Hellmuth technique originally. I have asked my friend who presented the tutorial permission to link to it...I know she is busy so I will update ASAP.

UPDATE: Tutorial link

I used this technique for the covers of my Art Journal.

Next I plan to start filling the painted backgrounds with...well I haven't completely decided... It likely will be what strikes me at the time. I know I won't be doing the pages in order...just randomly picking what suits my mood or subject best at the time.

This whole project was inpired by Ingrid Dijnkers awesome Art Journals.

TRICK OR TREAT

Oh good...my least favorite holiday. I LOVE Fall but hate Halloween. The candy, the costumes, the spooky decor. I wish I could skip it all.

Don't get me wrong, I love kids...especially mine ;) but the absurdity of this holiday really gets to me. To dress up and take your kid house to house and beg for candy iritates me so much.

All year long we tell them "don't talk to strangers" "don't take candy from strangers" "don't walk around outside(espically on the road) at night" "be nice" "be kind" "be gentle" "don't scare people" But for tonight...forget all the rules!!

Of course, even with all my complaining, I jump right on the stupidity bandwagon. My kids are going to be Nintendo's Mario and the classic Little Red Riding Hood. We made Jack O'lanterns (which have nearly rotted on the front steps), bought candy and decorated the living room with pumpkins.

Just so today wasn't a complete waste of time...I transformed my new (on clearance), boring brown file holder.

yet another

I'm on a roll today!!

This era always fascinates me. The women were so put together. Sort of June Cleaver like.

I always wonder what things were like behind closed doors. Take a couple Valium...get out the rouge and red lipstick...your gloves and hat...and stroll to the market like everything is perfect.

Vintage fashion

I pulled out my Vintage Fashion altered book that was in a round robin. There were still a few pages left unadorned. I whipped this one out this morning.

Hopefully I can get a little more inspiration and finish this book up.

Small canvas

I put aside the sewing for this evening and this is what came of it. It's a 5x5 inch gallery edge canvas. Fun size to work with. The crown is actually a shank button. I cut a hole in the canvas for the shank to poke through the back.

New Pants Purse

I finished up a new pants purse today. I've been working on it for the last couple days. I fell in love with the red corduroy and remembered the fun retro print fabric I had stashed away. Perfect match. The L.L. Bean corduroy pants I got on $3 a bag day at a local church rummage sale. They were like brand new. The other pants I got all showed much more wear...or maybe that's just more "character".

I have a custom handbag that has a drawstring closure that I love. I wanted to emulate that in this bag.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out...of course with every thing a person makes, it's easy to "knit-pick" it apart with the things that could have/should have/would have done differently.

Thrifting again

I went to one of my favorite thrift shops today and came home with some nifty fabrics and a large zipper bag of fun fibers. I even found a nearly new pair of Columbia snow pants for my boy for $4. It was a fun morning...I'm showing my almost 5 yr old the joys of thrifting!

On our way home, my girl and I stopped to buy some notions from the fabric store...I should be able to get a couple of purses done in the next few days. That's the hope anyway.