Tag : sewing

152 posts

I’m super excited to announce that I have the honor of hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month.

Art Journal Journey

I have chosen the theme of Words to live by.

An art journal page just doesn’t seem complete without at least one word on it if you ask me. I’d say that I’m a stickler for the rules and true definition of a journal but that would be a big fat lie. I’m more of a rules are meant to be broken sort of gal…just don’t tell my kids at home or school. However, the gals over at Art Journal Journey do have some rules to adhere to if you want to play along so be sure to check them out.

For my first journal page of the June theme, I began with an abandoned piece of painted watercolor paper. I think Mini-me was attempting a night sky perhaps. Or maybe it was even me…who knows…who cares. It became the base as I began to stack layers of papers and fabric until I found a pleasing arrangement.

I used my sewing machine to loosely stitch the background layers together while I still contemplated where my page was headed. I rarely have an end goal in mind when I sit down to create. It really tends to stifle my creative process.

After a time, I decided on an image I know I have used at least once…but I’m thinking perhaps twice in the past as my focal point. I slipped a piece of dictionary page and scrap of vellum under the image before attaching it with brads. 

The page was really coming together now. I added a few extras such as washi tape, a punched medallion and vintage button before searching out words for my page.

In general the words are my last but critical step in my journal process. As I said before, I cannot seem to create a page with words. Found text is really my favorite way of adding words. The challenge to find something relevant that speaks my mind is so much fun!

When I noticed this phrase I thought it very fitting for the crew in the photo. What is up with this group anyway? Siblings, co-workers, man and his many wives, school chums, glee club…what’s their story? I bet it could start with the phrase “Strangest thing happened…”

Won’t you join me for Words to live by over at Art Journal Journey?

Art Journal Journey

Easter Sunday I was up bright and early like usual. The strange part was I had absolutely nothing to prepare or even get ready to bring along for our family meal. My mother-in-law told me to take a break and that she had it all handled. (which she did)

For once I had both the drive to be creative and the time to do it.  Thank goodness I had gotten my hair done and makeup on early because I got totally lost in art journaling right up until having to change my clothes to leave home. 

This was the first piece I created. Warm colors celebrating the warmth outside.

I really love all the texture in this journal page.

Next I completely changed my color palette for more seasonal pastel Easter egg colors.

Layering bits of this and that has definitely been my style of choice lately.  Also creating loose leaf style pages that will be adhered to my Creative Memories scrapbook pages…cause you know I’m not going to actually use those for the intended purpose.

I had to add stitching to this piece. I love how simply I can create texture and movement through textiles and trim.

I even zig-zag stitched over baker’s twine as a quasi frame for the quote I chose. I tried a tiny key to the corner for a final touch.

I wonder how many more pages I might have created had it not been Easter Sunday. Although other Sundays I’d have been worried about cooking for our family.

Linking up today with Art Journal Journey for Having Fun.

Art Journal Journey

Hello and welcome to a snowy and cold edition of T stands for Tuesday. We were lucky enough to have a two hour late start for school Monday morning. It still remains to be seen what will happen later this week as the Polar Vortex invades Minnesota. We might end up with a “cold day” instead of a “snow day”….it’s happened before. If it does I’ll have plenty of time to continue making my mini collages. I can’t STOP!!!!

I honestly can’t stop…I have a quart baggie filled with them already.

It seems like the more frayed and full of strings the more I love them.

These ones will work quite nicely for a Christmas theme.

These are a bit more subdued in color scheme. So fun!!

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I began to write this post before work this morning since we had our two hour late start. Right at the end of the school day we got the news that we are off for at least the next two days!!! They are watching the temps for Thursday as well. I’m so happy!!! The thought of being out in that cold and trying to start my vehicle in -30°F (-34.4°C) temp after it has been sitting out in the -50°F (-45.5°C) wind chills (or lower) made me want to cry. Instead I’ll be home drinking lots of tea….
while exercising my creativity. :) And probably some Netflix. LOL
What are you doing today?

Ok I think I’m a little obsessed again. I’ve been creating tons of mini collage pieces.

While making embellishments for my December Daily I rediscovered my love of fabric and paper collage at my sewing machine.

I haven’t made any of these in a very long time. Likely since I made them for the article I wrote for Sew Somerset. Of course my style has changed since then a bit but that’s to be expected. We shouldn’t stagnate in our creativity in my opinion. 

These blue ones make me want to created a winter theme journal or set of greeting cards.Although these I think are my favorite. I love the pop of orange along with the teal and blue.

Trust me you haven’t seen the last of these pieces…

The countdown is on. Christmas will be here before we know it! AHHH! Who had all their shopping done? Nope, not me. And we have a couple birthdays on either side of Christmas too. WHEW…the pressure.

In reality, I’m not super stressed at all. It all seems to work itself out. I do enjoy gift giving…just more the spontaneous gift giving than the obligatory. Such as I got a sweet gift from a coworker completely unexpectedly. I had complemented her a  her bag and she told me she’d picked it up in the dollar spot at Target( not affiliation). A couple days later she brought me my very own matching bag!

I like to try to make some gifts…or make gifts for others to give. I was working on a new item I saw a while ago and have wanted to give a whirl. I got all my pieces cut and ready then ….

this happened.

Totally not getting anything done. That’s ok because I was still recovering from the weirdest illness I’ve had in recent years. Sore throat, stuff nose, icky tummy and wicked dizziness…like hardly able to walk dizzy. Mini-me got it first then me then Mr. G. Thankfully it only lasted a day.

Back to the craftiness…

I made microwave bowl cozies. No more burned fingers. They are microwavable, reversible, washable and downright handy.

Our school is having another craft sale week long this year.  Its really fun to see what co-workers like to create in their leisure time.I brought some of my old etsy and craft sale stock as well as the new product that I’m trying out. Frankly I don’t care if the bowl cozies sell because I can give them as gifts.

On other news…my December Daily is ready to go. I will share it in another post. I’m really excited about this project. I keep tucking bits of this and that away each day to slip into my journal. It will be super fun to look back on in the coming years. I still pull out the book I made from my calendar project of 2014.

The cold weather has me sipping on tea everyday…both to keep the chill off and to sooth my sore throat.

What are you doing today?

Once again I’m sitting at my keyboard wondering where the time went last week and what do I have to show for it.

I have continued to use my personal handmade journal. It’s fun adding interesting bits to pages. I’m thinking I want to start another for old photos and memories of the kids. I have lots of random photos printed that would work perfect in that sort of journal.

I’ve been browsing Pinterest looking for sewing projects. There is something about Fall weather that makes me want to sew. I came across some easy fabric coaster/mug rug projects that I decided to give a whirl since I had some squares pre-cut from a long forgotten project.

This was the tutorial I used. Of course, I didn’t have the exact sizes but I figured it didn’t really matter. I turned out slightly larger than I would have wanted. Then I noticed some half square triangles in my stash. I had started making pinwheels and abandoned that project decades ago.

They do make cute coasters though!! I’ll likely make more of these…at least as many as I can with the quilt pieces that are ready to go. Another prime example of not throwing anything away….it pays off.

Volleyball still rules our evenings (and some weekends)…at least for another week or so. Like last week…two evening games, two practices, a parade and an early morning tournament… I cannot wait until Mini-me has her drivers license. 

I’m not holding out much hope for a peaceful week. Tuesday morning Mini-me has a 7AM ortho appointment…ugh. I have picture day at school. I’m not banking on that being a great photo since I’ll have little to no time to get ready. Oh well.

What are you doing today?

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have thought about and even started a personal diary or journal only to abandon it within a week after basically forgetting about it after day 2.  I would either think I had nothing to say, be paranoid about someone stumbling across my inner thoughts or perhaps just was intimidated by the hundreds of stark white pages ahead of me.

So l started actually using my newly created personal journal. I’ve discovered that it is much more inviting to write in than a blank page for me. I actually want to sit down to write. I even think during the day about remembering to write something down later. I’m rather excited about this new phase in my creative journey.

Watching the growing community of Hobonichi users was very inspiring as well as generous journal folk who share their videos on YouTube. So many ideas to put to use. I feel as if I pulled together the things that will work for me from the plethora of information I’ve absorbed. That being said, its important to me that I am authentic in what I do…not just copy ideas verbatim. What fun is that!? Besides this is my personal journal…if I can’t be real on those pages, there is really little hope.

I think I might do another video after a while to share some progress and interesting tidbits or techniques I’ve used in the journal.

I did a little before school refashion for Mini-me last week as well. We’d picked up this sweater at Goodwill but she didn’t like the length it was on her…she’s very petite aka short. So she asked me if I could do something about it…15 mins before we left for school. What do you think?!

Last week simply flew by. Volleyball games during the week, a tournament that both Mini-me and I worked at then a short trip to a small apple orchard with friends. I finally tried a couple of varieties of apples that were developed by the University of Minnesota; honey crisp and sweet tango. Both were so good! The orchard also had a few pear trees. I’ve never been a fan of pears but I took a slice when offered since it was the polite thing to do. I was actually surprised at the difference in taste than typical grocery store pears.

Thank goodness we got some nice apples because I really need those. You know the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”… well, I am fighting a cold. I was hoping it was just allergies but I fear it is a cold. Those darn germ covered kids and surfaces at school. Just can’t seem to avoid it. So my beverage today is an immune boosting drink. Fingers crossed that it does the trick.

Work and volleyball still dominate our schedule.

What are you doing today?
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