Organization Sunday 4

    Whee!  Almost didn't make it.  I've been having too much fun art journaling and making ATC cards (may show them later).  Yes, I did get my quota of  HAVE TO DO stuff done today, including taking the photos for my organizing project, but-- I almost forgot to blog.

     Definitely a candidate, right?  This is the small cupboard in which I keep all of my various and sundry fusibles, freezer paper, and parchment, etc.  I usually put the left-over scraps into a baggie and stick it into the "black hole"  (sometimes never to be seen again).  After hauling everything out, I tried to sort the mess into like piles, but I still had no idea how to keep them straight.

     At Target I found this stacking shelf.  It fit inside the cupboard, but didn't leave any room for stacking!  My bolt of double-sided fusible pellon fit nicely on top, but not much else.  The shelf left a lot of open space underneath, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it.  So I went to Home Depot.

     Presto!   I know I have seen this somewhere before, but I'm impressed with my luck.  I bought a 10 ft. length of 3" PVC pipe, had a poor young guy saw it (by hand) into six 20" lengths, and paid all of $5.99 for my storage solution.  I sanded off the ends and planned to glue the sides together with the special PVC glue, but I couldn't get the $#%& can open.  Oh well, it works anyway. 

     Finished product:  I pasted a label on each tube and added a small plastic tray which sits nicely on top and holds my Misty Fuse.  I am happy.



     This is the offending can of glue:  I tried running it under hot water, tapping with a screw driver, using pliers, and swearing.  NOTHING worked.  I guess I'll just have to wait until a pair of strong hands materialize. . . .  Which reminds me,  I may not be doing any organizing for a few Sundays.  My oldest grandson is coming out from New York this coming Saturday, staying for 10 days, and we plan to hit the road.  When he leaves, I will only have a few days before I have to head back to MI.  So, I have a feeling this blog may be dry for a few weeks.  Never fear; I shall return. 

A Few More Pages

     OK, so I'm stalling.  I really should be painting some fabric background for one last project that needs to be completed before heading home, but. . . .



     Hands are facinating.  Besides our big brains, the structure of our hands is what makes us human.  My anatomy book provided some great design possibilities, so I cut out each piece, intertwined the fingers, and made the first page of another section:  Hands.  Not sure what will follow, but I've got some ideas.



     And another section:  Self.  I had fun picking out the papers for the letters, the pictures of me were all lifted from photos taken Christmas 2010 by one of my grandchildren, but the background paper (too shiny) doesn't translate well.  I may end up adding some black pen scribbles or something to tone down the GREEN.

     Can you tell this is my first self-portrait?  Ms. Frankenstein.  OK, so it's another blind drawing (which probably needs a blind viewer, too), prompted again by Jane Davies.  This time I needed a mirror (had to purchase one at the dollar store!) and a white crayon.  Looking at myself in the mirror, I drew my face (?) with the white crayon on white paper (couldn't cheat even if you want to), and then painted over the result with watercolor.  Why did I choose green, AGAIN?  This is a very humbling experience, but at least I can use the excuse that I couldn't SEE what I was doing.

A Journal of My Own

    This past week I have been taking a bit of a break from creating items for my shop back in Michigan .  For one thing, my time here in AZ is growing shorter; two, I wanted some playtime; and three, I ran across a couple of new blogs that really stress the importance of personal art journaling.   iHanna's blog led me to create a new kind of journal--an altered book.  I found found several good choices at a thrift store and selected an old anatomy book for my first real attempt at creating a personal journal. 

     Mr. Muscles is actually one of the frontpieces of the anatomy book; I added my own chipboard words which will become the title of my journal.  I haven't done anything to the book's cover yet, but I'm processing ideas.  I removed about half of the pages of the book since it would become too cumbersome with all of the additions I will make in my journaling.  I will also be dividing the journal into sections, alloting 10-12 pages per section. 

     Another frontpiece of the old book which I had to keep.  One of my daughters is a high-school English teacher who loves Shakespeare; I added my own comment  (seemed appropriate).



     Here are a couple of the pages torn from the old book:  I cut them into strips, wove the pieces back into one page, and refastened it into my journal. 

    After gessoing over the back of the woven insert, I added my message, and then used water-color crayons to put some color back into the design.  (I am using red and blue for the first few pages of my journal  to give homage to the flesh and blood represented in the pages of any anatomy book.)



     This is the last page of the intro part of my journal (a few pages weren't shown here), and it leads to the next section:  BIRDS.

     Only semi-sucessful page--the message of stamped letters on painted tissue paper (also from Hanna's blog) worked beautifully, but the background is way too dark.  I took some of my hand carved stamps, placed a piece of printer paper over them, and used the edges of Crayola crayons to rub patterns of the stamps onto the paper.  That part was OK, but when I added paint over the top, I lost a lot of the color.  Oh well, the chickadee was my focal point, anyway.

     A quickly-collaged page calls to mind a super fun birding trip this winter with friends from Michigan.

     A "lovely" piece of art,  this shows one of my first blind drawing attempts (prompted by a blog session with Jane Davies) in which I closed my eyes, thought "bird" and started drawing.  Yikes!!  I added the color with my eyes open, thank heavens.  It was fun, and I'm adding it to my bird section--it's my own personal art journal, after all.

      And another. . .  I thought this looked a bit Picassoesque (sp.)  No comments, please.

     Really do like this one!  I had drawn these warblers during the winter for some small notepads and still had the masters, so I printed them on tissue paper.  After cutting around each bird, I adhered them to a piece of cardstock with gel medium and colored the spaces with water-color crayon.  I activated the crayon, cut out a bunch of leaf shapes from some painted tissue paper, and gelled (?) them down, too. 

     I actually have a couple of more journal entries ready to post, but I'll save them for later (I know, this entry is way too long already!!).  Some ideas about other sections wanted to get put onto paper. That's probably how I'll function with this journal--ADD is my friend!!!.