Use It Up and the Last Post for 2011

What a day! This computer is over 3 years old and telling the tale. Would not boot. Son2 worked on it all afternoon and finally got it to boot up. Still don't know exactly what the problem is. It may also happen again. And again. We shall see.

I have been advised to NOT put large files (videos..umhum) on the C drive. OK. Now I need to get them off and defrag. But not tonight! Already having withdrawls from non-computer-useage! So, tomorrow I shall begin "cleaning" the computer.

At the same time, the Studio is getting "cleaned". Way too much stuff in here! Well, there is good news on that front. UIU to the rescue! Use It Up! Instead of buying more and more STUFF, do as Fran suggests and go shopping in your own home! I have taken the pledge and can't wait to put it into action.

Read about the Pledge here at LadyFran's Blog. Use the supplies that have been sitting on the shelf or in a drawer. When was the last time you saw what was even IN that bottom drawer? What happened to those who-zee-what-its you bought last week? Last month? Last YEAR?

Take what you have and make it work! Re-think those projects. Re-evaluate the reason you wanted to make that "wonderful" such-and-such in the first place! And if it was so "wonderful", why didn't you make it? All good questions to ask yourself - especially BEFORE spending hard earned bucks.

I PLEDGE TO USE IT UP in 2012 and beyond! Won't you join in?

Ustream Show - December Daily Albums Past

I have decided to finish my past December Daily/Journal Your Christmas Albums before trying to start a new one for this year. I will continue to take photos, collect ephemera and journal for this year - just not try to do the album until later.

So, during the rest of December, I will be working on the DD albums from 2009 and 2010. All the embellishments and photos and journaling are collected and ready to go! I know I will feel better about them when they're done!

My weekly Live Ustream Show is 11AM EST every Friday!  Time Warp Art - there's a reason for the name.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/time-warp-art

NaNoJouMo for Nov 5

NaNoJouMo for today : "Make a Map". Hey - another 2 pager! I'm not sure this one is completely finished. Needs more pen work.

NaNoJouMo for Nov 4

NaNoJouMo for Nov 4 - "Matters of the Heart"

NaNoJouMo for Nov 3

NaNoJouMo for Nov 3 - "Hopes and Fears"

Supply List for Bead Class on Ustream

My beginning Peyote Stitch Bead Class will be held LIVE on my Ustream channel - Time Warp Art - on November 18 - Friday 11AM EST.

The project will be a bracelet. The pattern PDF can be downloaded HERE.

Supply List:
-bead needle to fit your beads and thread
-nylon beading thread (Nymo) (can use dental floss to learn)
-a shank button (will be used as "clasp")
-some kind of surface to bead from - piece of leather (old coat? old purse?), suede, bead mat, washcloth
-2 colors of seed beads* - contrasting (ex. black and white, ex. light and dark)

*Delicas recommended but any size #11 seed beads can be used. You may also use larger beads, just be aware the size of the bracelet will be larger in width. Almost anything can be used to learn with!

If you'd like to get a jump on things, watch our Mitzi's Ustream recording on making a Starter Strip Ruler! Taking inspiration from a starter strip I put on my bead website years back Mitzi has created a great tool for us to use in our beadwork!

So, I am looking forward to the Bead Class on November 18th! Hope to see ya'll there!

NaNoJouMo for Nov 2

NaNoJouMo for Nov 2 - "See the Possibilities". Got a full 2 pages done again! I don't know how long that will happen but it is fun trying! I put the finishing touches and photographed it this morning.
This one is total collage - all pics from the same catalog. Did the text on the computer and printed it out then watercolor over it.

The 3rd prompt isn't up yet but it's very early. Can't wait to see what it is!

NaNoJouMo 2011 #1

As if I'm not busy enough - I take on yet another challenge! NaNoJouMo stands for National Nonstop Journaling Month! This is hosted by Dawn DeVries Sokol and you can read about it here.

So here is my Art Journal page set for today. I have die cut leaves (from book pages and scrapbook paper) and doodled in them. Made a Fall color background with 4 layers of paint, then added some rubber stamps, painted the tree branches, stamped the message and there ya go!

Photo Mosaics on Ustream Show

Yes, I know - I've ignored my poor blog all summer. It's been 100+ degrees almost every day since May! Too hot to blog. Hahaha! So the weather got nice on Monday and I have some lovely energy! Hubby and I went out to walk the city and have a picnic! Wonderful Labor Day holiday for us!

I finally decided to do a weekly Ustream show! Photo Mosaics - the project for this weeks show (my first regular weekly stream) - is something I learned years ago.

If you'd like to follow along with me while I art, here is the supply list:

old photos (these will be cut up)
detailed rubber stamps
Archival ink or Staz On - black
mica powder (Pearl Ex, Perfect Pearls...)
sponge-tip applicator like from eye shadow (brush will also work, Q-tips - not a good idea)
Xyron or other double-sided smooth adhesive (to be on front of cardstock)
cardstock - cut 6.5 x 4.5 inches (for backing) any color, won't be seen from front of postcard
spray sealer (can be hair spray)
scissors

My weekly Ustream Show will be 11AM EST every Friday! Please join me on September 9, 2011 for my first regularly scheduled show. There are also recordings to watch. Time Warp Art - there's a reason for the name.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/time-warp-art

New Art Journal - 3 Page Spread - Sanctuary

These are the first started pages in this new art journal. I stayed up til 3am working on them! Fun fun FUN!

I made the journal following Teesha Moore's instructions on YouTube. It has several fold-outs - which I haven't decided if I like or not. It's interesting.

On the background I used stencils and Color Wash sprays mostly. Some stamping, a little painting. Not finished yet.

This is the cover of the Journal. Sprays, stencils, napkin, scrapbook elements. I think the cover is done. So far anyway!

Sock Yarn!

We have sock yarn! Hopefully the second skein will be ok, too. I don't want to start knitting until all the spinning is done.

The top is a very fine, very long merino. I am spinning on supported spindles. Two of them I have made myself (and Zentangled the whorls). Not the fastest way to spin, but speed is not why I do it.

Journey Around The World Page Swap

Wow - I can't believe April flew by so fast. Majorly busy! Many things going on - road trips, deadlines, company. Whew! I can rest now - I hope.

I finished my 6x6 pages for the ATT (All Things Tim yahoo email list) Journey Around The World Swap and turned them in! About a month early, too! The pic is a sneaky peek. More about this later - after the swap.

I am knitting and art journaling mostly right now. Although Zentangling is in there, too. It's hard to make time for everything I'd like to do! Eating is taking up a big portion of time as well - got to keep the diabetes from zapping all my energy. It takes a lot of work to eat so often. I am still learning about what I need to do for ME. Lots of reading and experimenting still.

Today has been really great! Full of energy and got lots done. Went to knitting group this morning after walking the treadmill, came home to clean my studio closet floor finally! Now I can walk in it. I still have some things to put away from the trip to DFW Fiberfest (a month ago now - uh hum) and the trip up to Archiver's to meetup with the ATT Texas members. Now THAT was fun and we're planning to do it again real soon.

I joined Facebook tonight. Never thought I'd do that but I've been having so much fun on Twitter I thought - why not? I have NO IDEA how anything works on there. More reading online I expect.

OK - that's enough for now - must get to bed. I am hoping for another energy day tomorrow!

KISS Triangle Shawlette - Free Pattern!

I am publishing this free pattern today! The KISS (Keep It Simply Satisfying) Triangle Shawlette can be made in any size with any yarn you wish. It's more of a recipe style pattern in that regard. I have made 3 so far in 3 sizes and started a RED one today that will be a full-size shawl.

The link for downloading a PDF in Ravelry is in the sidebar.

Be sure to get the free KISS Row Counter Page.pdf! This sheet was made specifically for this pattern - but can also be used to count anything with 10 rows or less. It's link is in the sidebar. Do a right-click and save as (for pc). See the post before this one for how to use it.

Yarn: fingering wt yarn (sock yarn, etc…) -
blue model uses: (blue/purple) Araucania Ranco Multy #304, - 1 skn= (375 yds)#5 US (3.75mm)
Teal model: Colinette Jitterbug “Jay” #85 - 1 skn (320 yds); #7 Addi Turbo circular
Kerchief size model: Koigu Mori (50% silk/50% wool) 1 skn (185 yds); #3 (3.25mm) Addi circ
 (adjust needles to yarn and personal preference as to drape)




    Teal model was my beta. LOVE this colorway!














Kerchief - you can really see how easy the crocheted edging would make blocking - using wires was soooo easy to do! And fast! Waiting for it to dry on the other hand.....



 Soooo- hop on over and grab the pattern. Enjoy!

KISS Triangle Shawlette - Row Counter Page

Be sure to get the free KISS Row Counter Page.pdf! This sheet was made specifically for the KISS Triangle Shawlette pattern (free - see sidebar for link) - but can also be used to count anything with 10 rows or less. Download the pdf for the Shawlette pattern Row Counter - it’s in the sidebar.

How to USE the Row Counter Page:
When you see the pattern, you will understand how to use this page! It's logical!

The 'G' and 'S' row that you see across the top of the numbers stand for 'Garter' and 'Stockinette'. The numbers doing down vertically represent the rows of garter and stockinette in each 10-row section. The grayed circles represent the eyelet rows in the stockinette section.

All you have to do is mark through each number as you complete a row. Easy! The pattern is easy to memorize, too. KISS means Keep It Simply Satisfying!

Grungy Monday Challenge #1

The Lovely Linda Ledbetter has granted wishes and continues to host Challenges on her web site! This round is called Grungy Monday - where every Monday she will post that week's challenge.

This is my first entry "Time to Begin". Our challenge is from Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2008, Tag #10. I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink with gold pearls (mixed in a Mini Mister as instructed). Whoa! That is such a cool technique! I love how it shimmers! The mask is a TH - the large clock face. I followed all Tim's steps for this and then over stamped the whole tag in sepia Archival ink with the large text stamp from his new Papillon set.

Next thing was to stamp, emboss on grunge board and cut out the clock face. I stamped each word with letter stamps onto some old paper I had from 1975! It was kind of crackily so I had to be careful with it - especially inking the edges. Added some metal embellies and and lens from my stash. Used my Tiny Attacher to add the ribbon at the top behind the Prima flowers and a brad from my stash.

What fun! I didn't think I was going to make it - busy, weird week - but here it is!

Sock-a-versary!

My Sock-a-versary is March - so I started a new pair! Pomatomus by CookieA. Photos are kind of hard today - it's very dark outside. No rain yet but it's supposed to. Anyway, had to use the flash so you could see the patterning.
Toe up
Magic loop on #0 Addi Turbo circular
Shibui Knits Sock - colorway 323




Fun pattern! Oh - the lifeline is the white string across the toe. It just makes frogging easier (should I need to - who me? LOL!) The little dangle is my marker when I was doing toe increases. I'll be doing a PGR short-row heel (my fav).

Handspun!

This is a small skein of yarn. Yes, but an important small skein of yarn.
This is my first supported spindle handspun, fine, Navajo plied yarn in years! And if it's partner spindle-full is at least this ok, I might knit socks out of it! Short socks, but socks!

CCC #35

I decided to make an ATC for the last challenge! It just sort of happened. I started getting out "stuff" and - voila! I was in the zone.

Mostly Tim Holtz supplies - spinner and sticker, grunge board rectangles, Adirondack spray inks (eggplant and cranberry), phrase stamp, background paper (layer in the back). First layer of background is some paper I made and photocopied (it's kind of lumpy). The metal pieces with words I've had for a while.
 

This was fun! I hadn't made an ATC in a while and now I think I'm on a roll....

Art Journals Ready to Travel!

Just finished painting/spraying the backgrounds on these 2 art journals. I made both - the one on the right is ala Teesha Moore - from 1 sheet of watercolor paper. The link is to her video tutorials.

The journal on the left I made a bunch of a while back (after a class) and haven't used them all yet. This one has a polymer clay medallion on the cover and a leather sewn binding. Also with watercolor paper pages.

I used Adirondack Color Wash (Ranger) sprays. I finally got the nozzles to work - these are the old bottles. I have six colors. I plan to get more after this! The sprays and stencil technique is great! I didn't want to stop once I got started but - had to let pages dry every once in a while!

This page is from the alaTeesha journal. Oh, that's a Tim Holtz clock mask. I also used some stencils (templates) from Crafter's Workshop.

These three pics above are also from the alaTeesha journal. If you watch her videos, you'll see her design has flaps. Not sure I will do this one again. Not crazy about the flaps. But it was quick and in an emergency (yes, artists' have emergencies!) it would be great knowledge to have. So, it goes in my art box of ideas.

This page is from the leather journal. I've already started some stamping.

Two of the above pages have a little problem I'll have to work out - blobbing in the center. It's from too much ink/paint and not waiting for things to dry....uhm..hmmm. Patience is virtue.... And the center one's pages stuck together (again - patience is...). I'll fix it when I'm journaling.

Well, I can't show you ALL the pages but you get the idea. I'm being influenced by Teesha Moore's style, Dyan Reaveley's style of working and also by Dina Wakley.
Feels great to be ready to stamp and keep going. They can travel with me now! Can't wait to pack them into my Tim Holtz messenger bag (see a previous post!) and take a road trip!

CCC #34 and The Martins Return

We've had a Martin House for several years now and this morning, I heard a familiar song as I went out to check the mail. In the backyard, there was Mr. B (for Beardsley) sitting in front of his usual opening - that wasn't open. You see, in the winter we close the house to keep out the sparrows.

He asked (singing sweetly) for me to open up! After saying hello, I said "I can fix that if you..." and he flew off. 3 martins circled overhead while I took down the house, opened all the holes and put the house back up. Then they flew low over my head - singing what I hope was "thank you" and proceeded to fly away toward the creek where I hope they had a nice lunch.

So, in honor of the Martin clan returning from Brazil for the year, I made this tag.

This covers the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #34 - the Dimensional Collage Fragment technique from page 63 of the book. I used Tim Holtz paper and cut a tag using TH tag die and my Vagabond (love this thing!) Used TH stickers, flying bird (Ideology) and some older pieces from TH - "distressables and doo-dads" that was put out by Design Originals. Yes, I've been hoarding TH stuff!

The paper in back of the fragment was from an old dictionary, rubber stamped with a small bird in silhouette. I was stuck on this challenge until this morning when I heard my Martin friends! Now, I hope the rest of the clan arrives here safely, too.

My Tim Holtz Twitter Prize and CCC #33

I was awarded one of 4 Tim Holtz Limited Edition CHA 2011 Messenger bags in a Twitter giveaway by Mario just before they left for the UK! I'm reading along on Twitter when I had to back up - wait - that's - - ME!!! Pretty Cool!          
                                      (to enlarge photos, right-click and open in a new window)

The shoulder strap was so long, the bag hung down past my knees! Well, me being me, I had to do something.

Some folds and quick cross stitches took up the strap and left a loop for my large, old split ring (from my Dad's stash) which holds the key from my first car (Ford Pinto!); a piece of old hardware on antique silver ball chain (don't know WHAT this thing is - but it has it's own green patina and threads on one end - also from my Dad's stash - thanks again Dad!); a TH "Journey" Philosophy tag on a large jump ring; a TH gear and timepiece on copper ball chain. All of these things have meaning for me and I will enjoy hearing them jingle.

The 4 and the 7 (lucky and significant numbers for me) are TH metal numbers and I used the CCC #33 challenge of Altered Metal Alcohol Inks on page 56 of the book on them. Colors used: Butterscotch, Caramel and Rust. Kind of sounds like a weird ice cream topping!

I even know how I'm going to use the bag. Yes, I am going to USE it! Why have it sitting in a box or a drawer?? It's a lovely bag and it wants to be used. I fell in love with Dyan Reaveley's Art Journal style when I saw some of the CHA videos of her demos. I have done altered books and I love the feel of the pages after they've been decorated - all thick and substantial and all. It's been a while since I've done any and now I can't wait to start a new book trying some of her techniques!
So - this means that I will carry the art journal-in-progress and the box of tools/materials in my TH Bag.
 
When I layed the bag on my work counter, my Vagabond tried to get in it! I caught it just in time.

Once again, Thank you Tim! Thank you Mario!

Romantique Valentine Box

My "Romantique Valentine Box" is finally done! The glue dried enough to take it outside for last light photos. It was a bit windy, but I managed.

The box wanted to be shades of white. I had some papers from years ago by Hot Off The Press and they were perfect! I edged it with Tim Holtz tissue tape, punched the corner papers from parchment, and hunted for a knob for almost a week before deciding to make my own!

I edged the box with my own tatting and added a tatted butterfly, stamped metal heart, copper-colored veined leaves, metal corner charms (aged with Pitch Black dabber and wiped off), Prima/Petaloo-stacked flower in shades of snow white to ivory and a glittery bling brad center to the top.

The knob has a story. I painted the little wood knob white, aged it, then was stuck. I was standing there thinking and playing with a piece of TH tissue tape when I looked down and a word jumped out at  me! Dream. Then another word and another until I had a 4 word phrase!

Mind - Dream - Idea - a Creation.

All from scraps of tissue tape! I sealed the knob with Diamond Glaze (would have used Glossy Accents - but don't have any right now) and as it dried, I played with it until it looked OLD. Like I remember some knobs in my Grandmother's house used to look. I even remember how they felt!

Hanging from the knob is a butterfly charm on ribbon, satin and organza. The front metal piece has a stone heart. This came off of a hair clip! Knew I saved it for a good reason.

The inside of the box has a bird. There are "Love notes" postcards and a Mini Album that will go inside. More on those later.

I almost put wood feet on the box, but these Tim Holtz feet were perfect after all! I really enjoyed making this and I'm sure will make more.


The design for this box is by Paper Engineer Extraordinaire Laura Denison. She does Ustream classes and sells kits and patterns. Laura is a genius! She has received high praise from the Guru of Grunge himself, Tim Holtz. Go to her blog to see what she made for his Ideology booth at Winter CHA 2011. Awesome artwork!