Holiday Projects in the Works

Hello to all! 

Busy time of year you say? I cannot imagine what this time of year is like for all the parents out there. Its busy enough for me with Dave and the pups and a very small immediate family. I don't know how all the working parents of small kids get everything done for the holidays. My hat's off to you! 

I'm taking the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's off and you can bet there will be a lot of paint slinging, ink splattering, paper cutting, cigar box gluing, alcohol ink blowing and tons of fun going on in my studio during this down time. 

Here are some pics of some of the projects I've been working on recently: 

 My friend Jen Cooke mentioned the idea of painting a floor cloth for her. I'd never considered that or even thought about a floor cloth...but I am now! I found an online vendor that sells the floor cloths preshrunk, gesso'd and pre sewn. Now anyone that saw my video of making the pencil cases knows that sewing a floor cloth was completely out of the question. But CanvasWorks FloorCloths saved me! So I'm still hung up on this turquoise/orange palette, I just love the pop you get from these two colors together. Here's what I came up with for my first one, more canvases on order! 

My online order of porcelain ornaments finally arrived. I made a few for some of my girls at work that traveled in for meetings this week. I'll be making more of these for our tree very soon. So much fun to make and I love the vivid colors of the alcohol inks too. Check out my YouTube videos of how I make these. 

I also made another cigar box for my bright-eyed little friend Juliette. She's ADORABLE and I could smooch those dimples right off her cheeks. Her Daddy, who works with me, called last night to tell me he couldn't get the box away from her and she was sleeping with it in her crib. She loves bright colors and animals of all kinds, so here's Juliette's box. 

Enough for art, now on to the pups -- Mojo and Babe lay on our bed every morning while I get ready for work. I came out of the shower to find Mojo in a bit of a pickle. No idea how this happened, but he was laying very still as if he thought he wasn't supposed to move the covers off his head. It was just funny to watch his eyes follow me around the room while he layer so still until I uncovered him. Goofball! 

Mojo and Babe in our first snow of the season. We didn't get much but enough for them to run around like crazy and eat their share off the deck. 

And my little friend Peyton visited this past weekend. She just loves both of our pups. Here she is hugging on Mojo. 

And on our chair and a half recliner that we call the Queeny chair. Dave bought this to accommodate Babe's habit of wanting to be a 98 lb lap dog. At least this way she can lay beside me rather than on top of me. There was enough room for little Peyton to join us and we played her new computer game laying over top of Babe. 

 And Peyton giving Babe some love. Too cute. Geezoowhiz!

This is how Babe and Mojo lay up on the sofa with Dave almost every night. This time Babe won top dog position.  #spoiledrotten 

I hope to be posting more while I'm off for the holidays and more videos and streams coming too! If you don't already follow me everywhere, here's how to find me and keep up with what I'm doing:

     YouTube

     Ustream

     FaceBook Art Page

I'll be applying the last coat of sealer to my floor cloth tonight after getting home late from a work dinner in Annapolis. Tomorrow night the tree goes up and I'll continue making some of my gelli notecards and matching envelopes for some gifts. More ornaments for our tree. Oh yeah, and I'll do some baking over the weekend. I'm sure there's more, thank God Dave's memory is still in tact! He'll remember what else I should be doing. Enjoy the crazy, busy times -- that means you have a life and loved ones to do these things for!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! 

Patti 

My Take on a Perpetual Journal Calendar

Thank you Pinterest!!! Whatever did we do for random, ingenious, crafty ideas pre-Pinterest??? God forbid I have an original thought of my own! I happened across a pic of a perpetual journal the other day on Pinterest, which led me to Nicole Maki's blog, which in turn led me to Design Sponge, which led me to my studio! I had to give this a try. I made a prototype of sorts this weekend. I wanted to personalize it and make it even more useful for how I would use such a journal. I decided to incorporate a few extra bits. Here's what I came up with: 

I just used materials I had in my stash for the prototype, and why not my (current) favorite color combination of turquoise and orange?

I added some embellies because...well, I can! 

I decided I wanted more fun and color instead of just plain index cards for the daily pages. I sprayed some with Dylusions Inks thru Crafters Workshop Stencils, I made random marks with watercolors, I used some striped cards, some colored cards, and some paint splatters...

Then the monthly dividers...hmmm...if I were a monthly divider, what qualities would I like to see in myself to be the most efficient and loved divider ever? So I said, -- self -- you'd need to be colorful and pleasing to the eye, you'd definitely need to have a title, then maybe a pocket on the back for a little surprise note or tickets for that month, then a journaling spot for all those recurring reminders like birthdays and anniversaries that we need to remember each year. So here's what I came up with: 

 The little 'JAN' tab is actually a trimmed down 4 x 6 index card that I tucked into the back pocket. I wanted the month tab to be taller than the tags and didn't want the lettering to take away from the tag design. 

I used the manila scraps from the tab trimmings to make a pocket I adhered to the back of the tag. I made a little tag with a sentiment and stuck it in the pocket. I also added a Dylusions stamp of the ruled tag to make a journaling spot to jot down all those birthdays and anniversaries that happen every year. Here are the tags for the rest of the year -- you may recognize some of the collaged papers from my gelli plate stash:

I also wanted a bookmark, something that could serve as a placeholder for where you are in the year so that you didn't have to rifle thru weeks of tags to get to the right day. I found these at Home Goods in a pack of 6, all different colors and designs -- turquoise, please: 

I added some cotton lace to a cheap basket I had, some wooden legs I painted and glued to the bottom, and some other goodies from my stash. The end product:

Prototype complete...now, lessons learned -- the pockets I taped to the back of the tags are really tight. This works out well for holding the trimmed index tab in place, but its really tight to get the little tag with sentiments in and out, and would be even tighter with anything else added to it, ie tickets, notes, etc. Next time I'm going to use library card pockets and glue the index tab into place on the back of the card. Library card pockets already on order! Another lesson is that if you are going to make more than one of these, arrange the index cards so that you only have to change the date stamp one time for each date. You already have to change it 365 (plus 1 for Feb 29th - don't forget Leap Year!). So for my next 4 sets, I'll have all the cards cut and designs of cards mixed and counted out by the number of days per month, then I'll stamp all four Jan 01's at the same time, then roll the date to Jan 02 on the stamp, and continue to stamp all the 02 pages. Capeesh? (I have a sneaking suspicion that I did not spell that correctly!).

I'm going to try to pump a few more of these puppies out for last minute Christmas gifts. Why can't I come up with these ideas in say, July? I've also got a few sewing machine drawers on order from Etsy that I will use to make the calendar one long row of tags and cards, rather than the divided compartments I used in the basket I had on hand. I'm envisioning some Ranger Crackle Paint to begin the altering process, and I'm trying to come up with a cute way to add a pen holder as well. I'll be sure to post when I get this all figured out! 

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I also made another altered cigar box this weekend. This one is for my friend Gail's Mom, Trudy. I'm calling it a Memory Box. Trudy is well into her 80's and always talks about Gail's Dad and how much she misses him. I had made one of these for my Mom that I blogged about in a previous post and thought it would be nice to make one for Trudy too. Here's how it turned out: 

 The frogs may seem out of place for the rest of the design, but Trudy LOVES frogs! I couldn't make something for her that didn't have a few of them included. I put one on the bottom and a few around the edges sort of in the back. I hope she enjoys it as much as my Mom loves hers. 

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Thanks so much for stopping by! Until the next time...

Patti