Cozy Coffee

Wedding, Vacation, Family & Thanksgiving. That's what I've been up to. Oh and this....... A French Press Cozy.

It is made from an accidentally felted wool sweater, a button from my button box (given to me by my mom) & DMC floss. Decorated with my form of embroidery - see messy artist with everything! I have forgotten how to begin & end the blanket stitch so that it lies properly. Oh well. It was fun to do. This was one of those things that I kept saying I was going to make. So I finally did. Now I need to make one for my coffee cup!

Is Your Ribbon Wrinkled?

I am trying to do the whole reduce, reuse recycle/upcycle. So a lot of the ribbon I acquire looks like the ribbon in this picture.I found out that my flat iron is perfect for bringing this tired, wrinkled ribbon back to life.
Just a few seconds thru the flat iron and ta-da . Refreshed ribbon!!! Just thought I'd pass on this recycling tip.

See my shiny, happy ribbon!!!!! Now to find a project to use them in, hhhmmmm................

First Travel Journal

I spray painted some brown paper bags, large envelopes & paper for this journal. The pics are in reverse order. So here is the back page. You can see that I used brads (can't think of what they are called right now) to "bind" this. The silver is a ribbon glued to cereal box strips. I had a stapler & glue stick to adhere stuff.

The first pages here. My sister brought some greek yogurt. Yummy! I ate both containers!
I love the topiary tree stamp I got for a quarter. I embellished it on this page.

This is the front cover. Oh I found some scotch tape for these. I am not totally done with this journal. I want to add the dates to the cover, maybe some shells.

Here you can see the pieces before assembling began. This was fun to make as well as play in. I learned that spray paint is difficult for a glue stick to adhere to. & I wish that I had some white spray paint. (On my to get list)

Handmade Journal - Guerrilla Style

This was inspired by Dawn at http://on-the-banks-of-bay-creek.blogspot.com/ check out her flicker site as well. There you will find the pics of her visual journal volume 10. I loved looking at that journal she made (as well as her other art). Dawn referenced Mary Ann Moss http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bf79853ef011571f2345a970b And I found that Dispatch From LA is a great place to wander around! She gives classes on her techniques. I just found her so haven't taken any classes yet.

This one went together so fast for me. So maybe next time I will remember to take pics along the way!

For a base I used the "fabric" that I made ironing those pesky plastic grocery bags together. I learned how to do this on Threadbangers on YouTube. I started by gathering some papers I had in my stash & on my art table. That determined the size. I sewed paper towels to the inside of the front & back. Then I sewed the denim strip on the outside spine. (from my 15 yr old jeans that just got to thin to wear) Then the next black strip is from one of my husbands ties. The white is the plastic. I added ribbons to it. Took it outside and spray painted with a couple of stencils & then flipped over the stencils to use all of the paint!

The next step was to sew in 2 signatures of my papers. Folded each paper really well, assembled about 6 pages each & sewed them down the middle using a straight stitch.

This is my kind of sewing - guerrilla sewing (to quote Mary Ann Moss). Next time I will neaten up the edges. Oh and I added a pipe cleaner to the front edge to help keep it straight.

This is becoming a visual journal of sorts. I have added stickers off of fruit, tags off of a backpack for my grandson, labels off of a shirt. And I used Sarah Whitmires technique of claiming my journal on the first page. I am not questioning myself . I find a picture or anything else that catches my eye and glue, staple & stick it on the pages.

An Addition to My Recycled Journal

I am working toward the create everyday way of thinking and doing. I have to remind myself that to create everyday does not mean I have to finish something everyday. I want to incorporate more of my drawings into my art. I usually avoid drawing in my altered books because then it would have to be permanent. (Yes I question this line of thinking too. The stable voice in my head says you could just rip the page out or gesso over it you know.) So I did this piece on another ripped out page of that yucky art book, to add to my recycled journal. I will do something else on the other side, hhmm what will it be? I am growing to like my green girl.

I finished my first attempt at a new style. eeaaah....it's ok. I will definitely be trying this again. I can see using this in my doodle journal.

Oh my ,I have 4 no, 5 journals going at this time!!

I have started a recycled journal. Similar to Christy http://averageamericangirl.com/blog/ and http://ingriddijkers.blogspot.com/. Now I have even more reasons to save things!!!