Gripefest...

Of course today would be the day I have one of those depressed, moody, uninspiring days since today is a day I don't want nor need any of those things.

My cousin's wanted to get together today for a girls day at the gardens but things are really bad financially for me so I couldn't afford to go. I'm so bummed because not only do I miss out on seeing them, I miss out on some beautiful gardens and I love seeing those.

A few days ago my back started acting up and has been really bothering me so I've been having a really hard time sleeping at night. And of since my sisters birthday is tomorrow and I only have a couple pages left to fill it's only logical I would not feel very creative today. I did finish off the cover and did this one page.

So now I'll sit here and gripe about it all lol. I'd better start thinking about all the things I am thankful for instead. ....

Leather Flowers

Last night I was playing around with my sizzix to make sure a cuttlebug embossing plate I'd gotten worked with it. It did great as did the flower die I had bought. I did however find that the sizzix flower die I bought was too big for the machine I have. Figures. Of course procrastinator that I am I did not check all these things right after I bought them....they've been sitting around for awhile, so I don't have receipts to take anything back that didn't work.

I was curious how the dies would do on leather and got pretty good results. I had to finish them off with scissors because it didn't cut through completely in some spots but I'm sure if I would have put more pressure it would have. Then I got curious about how the leather would take the embossing plate so tried that. I layered the leather flower onto a chipboard flower then a crochet flower, added some pearls to the lace edge (not really visible) and a gem stone to the leather..voila!

This pictures shows a positive and negative version of the embossing. I was curious of the look I'd get with the raised and indented versions and this is what I got. Not bad for a first try.

Carving part two

Some of the work I really loved at the show was by an artist named Nairi Safaryan. I found some pics that show his work a lot better than the pictures that I took so I'm sharing them here. I really love the intricate vine work he does. I really like grape vines and the way they look so that might be why I like these so much. I would never have the patience it takes to get 1/4 the way through a project like these. I wish I did, just for life in general. I mean the slightest little slip and you've ruined an entire piece. That would be enough to make me quit right there.

Since she doesn't read this I think I'm pretty safe posting about it. I'm working on a collage covered album for my sister's birthday, which is this Sunday. I'm not sure if I'm liking the way it's turning out. I did however like the way some alcohol inked packing tape turned out that I made to cover some of the seams that weren't sticking quite right. I had it stuck to a craft sheet so I could colour the top. Not thinking about the brown colour of the sheet underneith when I looked at it, I wasn't all that impressed. Then when I lifted it off the sheet, wow! I made some extra strips so I can experiment using pieces to do some other things.

This is how it looked on the book where I used it on the edges. The corner is where it's overlapped, therefore being darker.

This is the cover so far. My grandpa use to call her "Gingerbread" so that's what that means.

This is what the inside will be like. Some notes on things that happened when she was born, pictures, copies of letters and notes with my parents handwritting on them. I have an old asian cookbook of my moms from 1965 that my mom had translated the ingredients in Japanese so she could read it. I've copied those to use as well. It's basically a "ME" book.

Carving

Today my sister and I went to a local carving show. It's the first time I'd ever been to one and it was pretty neat. It wasn't very big but it had a nice variety of items being shown. I was really in awe of some of the more intricate pieces done. I'd noticed (which surprised me since I thought carving was a male dominated craft) that some of the most intricate and detailed work were done by women. When I asked one of the ladies doing some carving at one of the tables she said that she thought that it might be that men didn't have the patience to do it. She said there are a lot of men that do intricate pieces, but most that she talked to liked what they saw but didn't want to spend that kind of time doing it.

I would love to be able to afford some of the things I see at shows. There was a box that had a lot of carved vines and leaves woven around each other that was so beautiful. I would love to have something like that as a banister or bedposts.

One nice lady gave us whittled flowers that were made out of small branches. They were very cool and seemed fairly simple to do after she explained it to us. I'll have to try it sometime and see if I can do it without injuring myself. I have been known to be dangerous with sharp object.

There is a carver up in the mountains behind my house that have some awesome carvings. They do large pieces for mantles and such. I saw these back in December while driving up to see the snow.

I just love seeing art in all shapes and forms. I wish I could get to places to see it more often. It truly is inspiring and gives me a good feeling just being around such talent.

Flower Power

One of my projects lately is making crochet flowers. I wanted to use them in various things I plan to make so I've been trying to crochet up as many as I can first. I'm going to layer them with paper and fabric flowers as I did with the tag below.

I made this tag after I first started them to see how it would look and I liked the way it turned out so on to making more flowers.

While I was doing the flowers I also wanted to see what crocheting directly to paper would be like so that's what the trim on the end of the tag is. It was my first try so I had to figure out how close to the edge would be safe to poke my holes to put the thread through. I had a few problems getting too close in some spots so covered them up with the beaded ribbon. Overall I think it gives a nice vintage look and adds some texture.

Blogging

One of the things I do almost daily is read various blogs and see what friends are up to and also what inspires other people. I started off with just blogs done by friends. Then I started reading blogs by other stampers and scrapbookers who shared private works or were in the business. I'm not really a scrapbooker because I don't have the patience for a whole book but I still appreciate the artwork that goes into it. I have seen some very wonderful work done by different people. Some are new versions of old techniques and others are very unique and inspiring. I'll check out people like Tim Holtz, Hero Arts (which is to see my friend, Shari Carroll's work more than anything), Prima and so on, just to see what's new in product or ideas.

Occassionally I'll follow links from one blog to another I've been reading if the name looks interesting or a comment was made about it that got me curious. I think doing this has opened my eyes to a whole new world of people. An Li Na Designs was one I followed and absolutely loved. She is in the process of creating a dragon that is amazing. She takes you through the steps she goes through and her frustrations so you get an idea of the whole journey of making one. I LOVE dragons so this was very cool to me.

Another link I followed was for The Hermitage. All I can say is "Wow!". This woman does some fabulous illustrations, but that was not the part that captured my attention the most. Her name is Rima and she is on an adventure with her boyfriend, Tui. If you have not seen her blog you really should. They have created a "motorhome" out of an old truck and are traveling around the countryside. They're in Scotland so you know the sights are stunning to begin with. The outside of their home doesn't look like much. Very old and rustic looking but OMG the inside is so warm and cozy. It's almost log cabinish and you'd never know it to look at the inside that this was on a truck. It's like something out of a fairytale. They did everything by hand and it's really lovely. She has some great detailed pictures on her site showing the process of putting it together. I would love to have some of the cabinetry in my own home.

Lastly is a fun blog I came across because of a mention on another blog. It's the daily chuck and I think Heather is hilarious. She's not one that minces words so if you don't like swearing or controversal you probably shouldn't read it. She writes about her life, how she lost her job because of things she wrote on her blog and so on. Some of the things she's written about just make me laugh out loud and other things I find I can relate to. One of the most recent was her fear of bugs and how she can over react to seeing one (which I totally do) and has seemed to pass that down to her daughter now. The whole incident she describes on her blog just had me cracking up because I could picture it and my husband saying the same thing.


Anyway, that is what blogging is to me...Sharing lives, visions and journeys. I thank those that give me a broader view of the world.

Pay It Forward

I saw this on AnLiNa Designs website and thought it was a cool idea. The rules are this:
I will send a hand-made gift to the first three people to leave a comment on this post. All gifts will be hand-made by me, as opposed to someone else. I will send the gifts out sometime before Sept. (You have 6 months to make and send your gift). What you need to do in return is to pay it forward by making the same promise on your website/blog. This exchange is open to those with active sites only. You will then send a hand-made gift to the first three people to comment on your post. You can make it yourself or patronize an artist or crafter of your choice. If you are one of the first three comments, go ahead and send me your mailing address (unless I already have it)

Figuring things out

My first ever blog... post and I'm clueless as to what to say. I use to keep diaries when I was younger and had a bad incident with it so ever since then I have been weary of what I write and leave evidence of. I constantly go back over things I've written to see if it made sense, wasn't offensive, could someone have misunderstood my intent. I tend to be very sarcastic and it doesn't always come out correctly in print.

My mind races with ideas, things I could have, should have or would have said, written or made, but rarely do they form into life. I think I have become a craft potato in my older age. I think of things constantly but then overwhelm myself and end up doing nothing....or when I do get around to trying to create I get frustrated because what is in my head doesn't come out the way I want and I'll give up.

Lately I am trying to change my embedded way of thinking. That I need to be a certain way and that perhaps my unique imperfections are or could be acceptable instead of trying to conform to what I was raised to believe I had to be. Apparently no one is perfect, even the people I once thought were. If only I could have learned this sooner, the things I might have accomplished.

But anyway.... we will see where this leads me.