Books in my head

Is this art? ...I just got a new cabinet to house my sewing stuff in so I was trying to organize stuff in my studio. I had several piles of stuff that needed a "place" sitting on my desk. An old wire wig form that I had gotten to put my "bad hair day doo" on, a ceramic mask I had picked up at a yard sale, a pile of little books I got to alter and some old door hardware. I stuck them all together and topped it with my "zeroith" hat that I had made for Quinton's birthday. Now I can just leave it sitting on top of the desk ... but do I want to use the parts now???????????? :))

Rusting Technique

  

This is not my favorite style, I am just now a western kinda gal :)) but the theme for our shoebox project at my local stamping club last Friday was fall. The only fall saying I had was kinda western so there ya go. The real reason I am sharing this card is the rusting technique I used to make the oval sayings plaque. Some time back I had purchased some metal ovals that I loved. After using them up and not being able to find them again I decided I could make some. I punched mine from matt board then I used a brown marker on the edge but they really look like metal.

Here is how ya do it! First you will need some metal filings. If your hubby has a grinder he can make you some but if not try going to the local machine shop and ask if you can sweep some off there floor. Most of them will hand you a dustpan. Then just mix about 1 part metal filings with 2 parts black acrylic paint. Now you can paint whatever you want to look like rusted metal with that. Once it is dry mix 2 parts bleach with 1 part vinegar and paint it over your entire piece. Repeat this step until you have the desired amount of rust.

Keeper Of Fragments

I have been busy on my book … I did a little aging on the pages I showed before and I have added a couple more pages. I deleted some the old posts so I could add the updated photos and put everything so far in one spot.

This is just inside the cover and under the little buttoned door is some special wording I added.

The lullaby page has been aged. I added the rolled up lullaby's in the pocket, and the cherub. The little butterfly pin has been replaced with the little stork pin I found in California. I still need to add some wording above the little picture of me as a baby. I think it needs to go along with the lullaby theme. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

This is also a picture of me as a toddler. I just love the old Sears ad for teddy bears! It has also been aged a little and the other side is now finished. I traced a baby shoe onto leather and cut it out. Then I stitched it and aged it to look like the sole of an old shoe. I even used my dremel to make it look as though a little foot had worn its imprint into the leather.

This has to be my favorite pages so far. Since One of my favorite childhood memories is taking "naps" with my sister. As soon as my mother shut the door, out would come our dolls and we would play until we finally fell asleep. I think my mother knew we were not really napping :)) . Since I did not have any pictures of my sister and I napping I used an old post card photo and photo shopped our faces onto it. Then I printed it on photo paper and spray glued it to matt board. I think once the edges were done with a brown paint marker, it looked as good as the original. While in California I came across some little notes that my sister and I had passed during church when I was small. I plan to put a pocket under the little "sisters" mini book and tuck them inside.

This is me as a teen ... yes it is photo shopped again :)) The picture is on a hinge that folds out and the speller opens up to a faux chalkboard. If you click on the montage on the left side bar it will show that.

This is me as a young adult. The compact opens up to a lovely poem that is a play on a name. My given name is Joyce but my family call me Inka.

This is the wedding page. It features a picture of hubby and I. The little velum envelope has a marriage certificate in it. A reproduction antique of course with our real names but the witnesses are my Grandparents who are no longer with us.

This page is a tribute to love, a promise to be forever true and to always remember.

The back of the book :)

I'M HOME!

I finally made it home last week but it has been crazy week. I had so much to get caught up on but I will soon be creating again :)

Still in California!!

When I left for California on the 3rd I had hoped to be gone a little over a week but I am still here! My mom is doing much better although it was a very close call a couple of times. After spending hour upon hours at the hospital I finally decided that she was well enough for us to take some time away and I took my grand baby to the beach in Cambria. It is the town I spent my childhood so it was really special to be able to share that with my little Quinton. I would have posted an update sooner but my sisters computer is a dinosaur and it has the slowest internet connection that ever existed. It doesn’t have a port for my camera chip but I finally got to Wal-Mart and had my pictures put onto a CD.

Where Bloggers Create

On Thursday, Karen of My Lovely Desert Cottage invited bloggers to join her blog party showing the places where we create. I really wish I had heard about it on time. I had so much fun going down the list and discovering such great storage ideas I felt I needed to give back so although I am two days late I thought I would post a few pictures anyway. So stop by her blog and also check the posts about her room. There were a lot of late comers that have posted pictures on their blogs that are not on the list :)

There is a couple of pictures taken a while back. My studio is not always so neat and right now I have a couple of projects I am working on spread all over my work surfaces. This first one is me in the left side of my studio.

This is my work table and I am facing it in the picture above.


Hubby built my work table and it features a pull out storage for my inks and findings, He even put the acrylic ink shelf on a swivel so that I can access an additional acrylic shelf behind that one. Then it rolls under the table to hide away when not in use.

The other end has a door that opens to hold my scissors and gripper punches and a set of thin drawers.


In the center I have a pull out cart that holds my stamps on acrylic shelf’s. It is made from an old TV stand found at the thrift shop. This is a picture of my acrylic stamp shelf’s when they were in the bar... we just moved them to the cart and I like it much better. Also now next to the stamps I have a roll out trash can.

In the center of the room is my desk.

It is really just a sheet of plywood held up by two bookcases and a piece of tempered glass on top. The bookcase under the desk is where I keep my computer, printer and all that junk. The bookcase on the other end holds my books, magazines, my bottle collection and embellishments I use in my art.

I use to have a bamboo blind across the entire backside but since I closed Inka Stamps I have opened a kick area and a pull out shelf to hold my laptop. Now hubby has a place to sit and visit while we play around on the internet.


Just behind his chair is my soldering station. This is an old picture when I just used it for storage but now there is a pull out shelf that has my soldering iron and tools on it. Also now that there is no Inka Stamps the shelfs behind the roman blinds are just used for storage.

This is the top of the soldering station now. Hubby wired it with a surge protector to turn the soldering iron off and on with. The little lamp you see in the picture is also plugged into the surge protector. This way if the lamp is on I know the soldering iron is on also. This really helps me not to forget to turn it off.. something I am good at :))

This is a close up of my bling and also some more jarred embellishments.

This is an old picture but across the room from that is my cupboard that I store all my fabric, ribbon and so on in. I did a post in the past about how hubby put this together for me.


I now store all my rusty art embellishments on top as well as show off some of the beautiful art I have done and received.


I use to have a plastic bin that I would throw all my paper scraps in. It was a jumbled mess and I could never find what I wanted. So I bought two of those plastic according files and removed the plastic covers. Then I covered a gift box with newspaper and placed the according part in it. Then I organized the scraps by color. Putting all the solid color scraps in the first section and textured and printed in the second according section. Matt board scraps on one end and transparencies on the other. Now I can find what I need without spending twenty minutes going though scraps.

Be back soon :)

I know it seems as if I fell off the face of the earth and I want to thank everyone who has emailed with their concern. I am so sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I have been struggling with health issues since I closed Inka Stamps but I should be getting back to my art and able to keep up with my blog soon :)

Isn’t it Romantic .··-.¸.-··.¸.··-.¸.-·

Same bracelet, same earrings but I did a different necklace to go with them for when I feel in a more romantic mood. It is made from a vintage chandelier crystal also. I did a transfer by dampening a laser print with nail polish and then I used an iron to press it against the crystal. I repeated the nail polish and iron a few times to make sure the transfer was made. Then I soaked it in water and rubbed off the paper. I now had a semi-translucent image. When it was dry I sealed it with diamond glaze and a touch of gold leaf pen around the edge. Most of the parts are vintage brass that has been flame treated to look older.

Timeless Words II

I made a similar one of these for a friend a while back. I had expressed some should have and could haves to her and she encouraged me to give it another go or I would never have made one so similar again. I am so glad I did though because now I have one to wear too :)) I called it “Timeless Words” because of the antique shredded text between the watch lenses and then the tiny bottle has old watch parts inside. I also made a little bracelet and earrings to match. I wore it to the post office today and the lady behind the counter loved it… made my day :))

Confessions of a BLURKER : /

After yesterdays post I discovered that they have a word just for me! :] I am a BLURKER! Yes I am the one who reads there blogs from a reader and rarely post. Yep, so many blogs that I am lucky to curl up with a glass of wine and buzz through the list every evening. With a business to run and a family that always seem to need my attention, time for myself and my art are extremely limited. However I do glean so much enjoyment and inspiration from all the blog I watch. Many of them I have found by checking out those that post here. I guess I could cut down on the amount of blogs I watch but I would be missing out on so much beautiful art and tons of inspiration. Now isn’t that why we blog after all… so others can enjoy our art too? I know I have a lot of great artist that watch my blog too but have little time to post. Having that problem myself, I totally understand. I am just happy that they stop by and see what I am working on and are able to enjoy my art.

Tricked out :)

 

I had made several of these pendants last week. I offered one as blog candy and sent several to friends too. My first thought was just to put them on a black neck cord so I called them finished but when I went to put mine together I jazzed it up a little. I had second thoughts about posting this because I worried that the people I sent them to would feel that I sent them an unfinished piece. After thinking about it though, I decided that everyone I sent to were very creative people in there own right. They might even decide to trick out there little pendant better than I have done. It can be like a creative challenge :)) anyway this is what I ended up with for mine :)

Amazing Mail!

I was so surprised when I opened the mailbox today. Inside was a package from Lynn Stevens. She is an amazing artist and your really should visit her blog. Anyway, she had asked for my mailing address the other day but I really was expecting a card. I can’t tell you how astonished I was when I opened the box to find this amazing bracelet. It is a Fairy them … hmmm wonder why she chose that for me …lol. It was just too special so I had to share :)

Picturesque Soldered Charm

I called this a charm but it is really more of a pendant. It measures about 1 1/2 inches by 1 inch wide. It is made from my new “Picturesque” collage sheet. The sheet comes in ATC size but if you want to make charms all of my collage sheets are available in special sizes. This is not two charms, the picture just shows the front and the back :)

I got waxed!

This week my newest design team member Cynthia Powell is teaching a wax workshop in her online club The latest trends in mixed media art. I had to play and this is my Encaustic Wax canvas. I work on a glass table so I did not worry about laying down paper to catch the excess wax. So after I had put my first coat on, I used my razor blade scraper to clean up the wax. The wax curled as I scraped it off the table and it looked like roses to me so I used it on the finished piece.

Playing with acetate

This past Friday was our local stamp club meeting. After admiring My friend Joanne’s acetate cards I decided that would be my project. I got the whole card ready to put together when I discovered that I had ran out of xyron adhesive. First I tried velum tape and that really looked ugly from the backside. Then I tried spray craft glue. I could not even tell there was any glue. It looked great. However I did find that you need to start spraying the glue and move your image into the spray so you don’t get a glop. You need a smooth even coat because the glop will show. I also discovered another little trick. You know how when your going to stick an image down that has spray glue or xyron adhesive on the back, you have one chance to get it in the right place because once it is stuck … it is stuck. No sooooooo :)) if you put a little “Un Du” on the acetate before you stick it, you can slide the image around until you get it in the position you like. Un-DU is a scrapbookers solution used to remove stickers and you can get it just about anywhere you can buy scrapbooking supplies. I am not affiliated in any way with this product, I just like it :)

Charms, charms and more charms :)

These are a few sets of charms that I did for a charm swap in one of the yahoo groups I belong to. My categories were fabric, metal and found objects. The fabric ones are sewn houses that I stamped with newsprint. Then I did a fabric transfer of a little fairy and cut her out and the jewel flowers are fingernail charms. I used the Omni Gel medium for the first time and I have to say it came out clearer than any other transfer medium I have tired. Sometimes I want the tattered look but sometimes I do want it clear as for this project. The little house charms measure about an inch high.

I tried to do metal etching for the metals category but it was an dismal failure : / I will have to have more practice for that. I ended up using store bought blanks that I put embossed foil on one side. The other side has vintage text from an old book and a metal letter on top of that. The text I used is a foreign language to me, I used it because the text was small and I liked the look of it. I have been told that it is not offensive and I sure hope so. It was used as an artistic element and not intend to imply anything :)

For my found objects charms I used tiny hinges and made a tablet from the same book that the text for the metal charms came from so again... I don't know what they say :)) They measure also not quite an inch high.

Peek-A-Boo Eggs!

Click on the picture to see all 4 eggs! The tutorial for these are now included in my free online workshops. Just click on the link in the left hand sidebar.

Photographic

 

 

 

My friend Joanne Wardel sent me a blank matchbook book she had made to decorate. If you click on her name it will take you to her blog where she has a great tutorial on how to make them …she ingeniously hides the staples so be sure to check it out.

Anyway it is quite a bit bigger than a real matchbook. The pages were just the right height for the ATC size frames on my new collage sheet but it was too wide…. being the butcher that I am, I got out my xacto knife and cut it a little narrower. Thank goodness she had left the staples in from the edge just enough. I am still getting this ageing thing down so I tried a bit of everything …lol.


I started by stippling the entire thing, then I drizzled ink on it. It still did not look to old so I took the sandpaper to it and roughed it up with the edge of a serrated knife. Better but not quite so next I used some gray, brown and black chalk. Once I had that done I cut the little frames out and placed an acetate window in each. Then came the fun stuff, I added cut out collage images, stamped and embellished to my hearts content :))

Theme Thursday ...Labels :)

When I saw the theme over at Theme Thursday this week, I was itching to play. Here is my entry.

ATC’s 4 Trade :)

I was looking at my ATC book the other day with a friend and I realized that it has been way to long since I have made any ATC’s to trade. So tonight I was playing around ..inspired by another friends art and did these two little ATC’s. If you have an ATC you would like to trade for them…or any of the others on my “trading page" , just drop me an email :)

Eat Crow

Braunlick Bear