Category : Art

432 posts

T Tuesday: mixed media edition

Who knew that inspiration could strike while randomly gluing bits and pieces of paper from the scrap bin. Seriously…this is too weird. I was feeling the need to craft something…anything. I had watched a couple of YouTube videos of folks making these insanely beautiful collaged papers. Of course, the bits and pieces that they used were amazing. Pieces that I wouldn’t be “just trying to use up”. But this thought got me to put paper and glue together.serendipity background beginnings

I started with a double-page spread from a children’s music book. I added bits of paper from my scrap bin until I was pleased or in this case…just “done” with this process.serendipity background

Not bad right…not super but workable. I added some washi tape, stamping, and stickers.

Next, I took the sheet to my guillotine cutter and needed to decide how to chop this up.

serendipity background

I decided on three postcards and several tags or perhaps journal cards.

I added some paint and embellishments to the postcards before adhering them to plain paper. I then ran them through the sewing machine to make sure everything stayed firmly together.

serendipity postcard

serendipity postcard

serendipity postcard

Super fun!serendipity background

These are the completed pieces that are ready to use. The gaps are still WIP. Not sure what I’ll do with them but that’s ok.

I had so much fun with this process that I made another collage sheet.serendipity background

I have 5 postcards and 2 tags with a fun springtime vibe.

I made this sheet on Saturday…before this happened on Sunday.Merry Eastergiving

SNOW!! What a crazy weather day. Mini-me and I decided that we should say “Merry Eastergiving” since the outside said Christmas, I was making a Thanksgiving style meal with turkey, all on Easter Sunday for just the 4 of us.

The card in the collage above was made by a sweet friend of mine.  She is a tremendous card maker. I’ve been sending more cards lately. A card in the mailbox is a tiny bit of joy I can send someone. Just getting a handwritten card by a real person these days is nearly cause for celebration. We need that these days.

Distance learning continues at our house…both on the teaching and learning ends of things. chromebook styleMy school issued Chromebook is getting a workout. Stickers optional but fun indeed.

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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Old image, new page

I can’t even begin to count how many times I have used this particular image. When I was first learning how photoshop and my printer played together I inadvertently printed multiple copies of the same sheet of images…which happened to be all the same image. Since I don’t like to waste and printer ink costs a small fortune, I have become very fond of this odd foursome.foursome art journal page

I always wonder what the story is behind this photo. Siblings, extended family, sister wives? I decided to play on the latter with a bit of printed vellum.printed vellum loves me loves me not

The background of this page is simply a book page.  After adhering a piece of Tim Holtz tissue paper over the entire page, I added color with gelatos. I softened and blended the color with baby wipes.

More instances of this image:

 

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T Tuesday: I have no idea edition

Wow…I don’t even know where to start. I had effectively checked out of blogland for an extensive period of time. I wasn’t creating, feeling like being creative or even enjoying looking at others creative work. A big old funk is what I’m calling it.

Now perhaps since we are heading into this crazy uncharted waters time of life, I feel the deep need to reach out to my online folk and participate. I hope you will all welcome me back with open arms…because after all…we are maintaining a 6 foot distance.

I don’t mean to sound flippant about the current state of the world at all. I mean it. It’s serious folks. Life as we know it is changing more rapidly everyday. Schools are closing and moving to online learning models. Case in point….I spent all day today typing online curriculum in the event we go to “distance learning” after our extended spring break.

J got the notice today that his college has been moved to online learning for the remainder of the semester. It’s really too bad that we had just traveled to Duluth on Saturday to get his laptop and books along with some clothes…now he needs to move completely out. *sigh*

With all the ever-changing, fluid nature of everyday life we are currently dealing with, it’s nice to be able to share with others some beauty, some stories, some escape. With that in mind I will update you on a few things since I’ve been AFK.

In the art realm, I’ve been a bit stagnant. I did create this journal page which made me happy that I hadn’t completely forgotten how to art journal.retro color quote art journal page

I like the ragged edge on this page. It will eventuality get glued onto a black card stock page in a binder journal.

Over the past few week school and school events have kind of taken a bunch of my time and energy. Our school does a fantastic fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of MN each year. Our students take this very seriously. During the final push classrooms hold garage sales with donated or created items all under $2. Juniper my pet rock

Meet Juniper, my new pet rock. She lives in my locker. Greets me each morning upon arrival to school and makes me smile.snowshoeing

My job as a special education paraprofessional has an extremely varied job description. I go from class to class supporting my learners in whatever it is they are doing. Science, math, reading, home economics, technology etc. This day it included snowshoeing. It was actually really fun and not as physically taxing as I had imagined. We traveled 1.5 miles in about an hour through the woods up and down a ravine. Marvin field trip

Speaking of school…on a workshop day, Marvin went on a little field trip to the high school. Do you see him?cookies

Mini-me and I worked our district archery tournament right after Marvin’s’ field trip. IT was a busy weekend. Mini-me made lots of cookies to sell for concessions. This picture show the ducks and grey ducks….its a MN thing…and the right thing. Duck, duck, grey duck NOT duck, duck, goose.archery tournament

I worked the team registration table so I decided that some signage was needed. It turned out really well so it went in the tournament bin for next year. archery tournament

Mini-me shot her personal best once again. She has been continuing to shoot better each tournament. She shot a 272 out of a possible 300. Now with COVID-19 running rampant, the final tournaments have been canceled. Hopefully they will still grant her varsity letter in archery.painted fingers

Yesterday I snapped this photo…messy painted fingers. They made me so happy.

I have two more days of school…with no children there…until our extended spring break. Then who knows what will happen. Mini-me was supposed to get her wisdom teeth removed over break…again…who knows what is going to happen. I guess we all are learning to be flexible.

 

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: winter chill edition

I did it! I finally got creative in the form of an art journal page.

through flowering gardens art journal page

It took me a few days to get it done but I did it. Ah makes me feel so much better knowing that given enough time, my muse is still there. Maybe she was just frozen.through flowering gardens art journal page

I honestly just kept grabbing things from my scrap bin and gluing them down onto some cardstock to get the ball rolling. Over the top I spread a bit of white paint to mute the wild background. Then I went back with teal and lime green. This combination of colors made me smile and almost forget how dang cold the basement was.through flowering gardens art journal page

This flower was created with layers of die-cut  book pages secured together with a large brad. I used various sprays until reaching the desired color. After it was completely dry I shaped the petals.

through flowering gardens art journal page

I used a little piece of my new Tim Holtz tissue up one side of the page. The butterfly and flower had me thinking spring along with the cheerful background color.

I’m hopeful that I can continue a bit of crafting here and there as the temperature seems to finally be getting warmer. Maybe then the basement won’t be so frigid.

cold early morning coffee x2

This was my Wednesday morning on the way to work. It was so cold. It’s also my early day. I had finished my cup of coffee I brought from home well before arriving at school. I had to stop in an grab a cup to go as well.  A two coffee morning for sure!

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?
Also linking up with Try it on Tuesday for Go Green

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Tuesday: books edition

Welcome to another edition of T stands for Tuesday. The only post I seem to do lately.

new H mug

One of the teachers I work with surprised me with this H mug last week, It’s so pretty and holds a copious amount of hot beverage.

new H mug

I was admiring the new to me ledger. It will provide me with lots of great background papers and junk journal pages. So cool!

new supplies

Speaking of supplies. I picked up some goodies at Michael’s on clearance. Super excited about my new supplies.

book stack

I have made one crafty item lately…this book stack home decor item. Makes me laugh every time I look at it!

T stands for Tuesday
What are you doing today?

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T Tuesday: changes edition

This week is one of change. J heads back to college for the Spring semester. Our school is having its final week of the semester. Next week brings new classes for me and Mini-me, just to name a few.  With J heading back to college I’ll once again be expanding my crafty space to include the desk in his room. Perhaps then I’ll catch up with a couple of projects that have hit the back burner over the last month.

New projects

I’m creating an embellishment storage booklet. I was inspired by Gayle Agostinelli. So far I only have one page of the booklet completed. It’s not pretty but that wasn’t my purpose. I’m using up papers and extras that I’ll never use. It’s strictly utilitarian. Waste not, want not.embellishment booklet

I slipped a few random paper pieces in the pockets so they’d actually show up…

embellishment booklet

It will make better sense when it’s all put together but basically I want to have a book or booklet with all my small or fussy cut embellishments at the ready instead of searching through half a dozen places for just the right piece I know I own.

Another new project is actually an old one that I never started. The sketchbook project that I purchased over the summer. Of course, at the time the due date seemed so far away…now its only weeks away.sketchbook project page

sketchbook project page

I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of these pages in the weeks to come. My only disappointment is that the pages are so thin…any wet media really soaks through very quickly. I definitely have to keep this in mind instead of just intuitively creating as I prefer.

Last weekend we finally put away all the Christmas decor. I snapped this late even photo the night before for my obligatory T Tuesday beverage reference. T Tuesday obligatory photo

Something fun that just came in the mail that I had to share was our “free” Marvin puzzle.

Marvin puzzle

I say “free” because for the puzzle itself we had a coupon code making it $0 but then the shipping seemed a bit overpriced so they definitely were making their money somehow.

I snapped this pretty sky photo when I got to work this morning. The sun was behind a veil of thin clouds…it was a perfect orange disk. The view almost made up for the slick driving conditions from the overnight snow. Almost.snowy morning sky

Such a bummer…we’re getting snow again right now…in fact, we are getting snow basically every day this week during one or both commutes. Not fun.

T stands for Tuesday

What are you doing today?

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Where I’ve been….

Hello!! I bet you thought I forgot all about blogging. December has been full of highs and lows….none of which had me racing to the keyboard to share. Since my last completed post was December 3rd, we have a great deal of catching up to do.

December 10th I actually had a partial post written for T Tuesday wrapping up November.

T Tuesday: November wrap-up edition

I’m a little slow on the draw lately. I’m finally wrapping up November. Technically, I’m not fully wrapped up since I haven’t completed the #junkjournalnov19 prompts. But just go with me on this.

11/30 Zodiac sign

12/30 Autumn evening

14/30 Dress

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As you can see I never finished the post including missing one of the days. That’s ok…I’m learning to embrace imperfection.

December really was a whirlwind. Lots of activities, snowstorms, J coming home for winter break, shopping, cooking, sewing, shoveling, cleaning, decorating and a little bit of creating.

Everything came to a screeching halt when I threw my back out on December 12th….the morning of Mini-me’s holiday choir concert…also a Thursday. This was really unfortunate because my chiropractor doesn’t work on Thursday! I always seem to break on a Thursday!

The last 2 weeks have been painful and scary at times. I’ve had an urgent care visit, 2 ER visits, 2 injections, 5 medications, an MRI, 7 days of missed work and numerous chiropractor visits…including one today.

In the end, I’m doing much better. Diagnostic tests came back good, the healing process is moving forward. My back still is easily fatigued and a bit fragile but something really positive came out of this. I’m learning to ask for help, let others do, letting go of things I can’t change and embrace the chaos.

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