A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

random friday

~ Latest journal entry for alphabetica round robin (trying to get caught up!)  Over the Rhine lyrics surrounding the photoshopped butterflies:

Dip your hands in colors

while the young night flutters in on you,

And fingerpaint me pictures of all you see….

~ Little pink suitcase I picked up thrifting in Austin with my sweet friend Stephanie. Don't you love it?! It's the perfect purse size for carrying essentials plus a magazine or two. It is probably best that we don't live in Austin anymore. I'd be so broke all the time.

~ Some vintage patterns I also picked up in Austin. I'm freaking out over the cuteness of those skirts.

~ No picture, but exciting news! One of my designs is going to be used on the cover of a book of short stories being published by Random House Canada. I've seen a mock up, but I can't wait to see the actual cover.

Have a great weekend and have fun creating!

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I find myself singing the same songs every day.

I need to be on the top of the mountain where I can see cause this paranoia's getting old.

My feet are so cold, and I can't believe that I have to bang my head against this wall again. But the blows they have just a little more space in between them. So I take a breath and try again.

Nothing much interesting to say today, so I'll let everyone else speak for me. I'm getting close to finishing up my next shop update, but I can't show you anything new just yet. Only a few randomly recent journal pages. But I'll be back soon.

So I take a breath and try again.

Crusade No. 11 & thank God for those 3 years

This month's challenge was super easy for me. Easy because the same music has been running through my mind daily since John came home with a new CD months ago. I know I've mentioned it before but I can't say enough about them, even though I really should quit because when I get this way everyone I know gets so sick of hearing about my latest obsession that they end up hating it. But just one last more time. I'm not going to tell you who it is yet, just (please, for me??) take a look at these ("Mouth Full of Cavities" by Blind Melon--the chick is Jena Kraus, not part of the band, but what a voice!)

If you remember the 1990's, then you probably remember Blind Melon. And if you are like me, the only song you really know of theirs is No Rain, you know, the video with the Bee Girl? You may also remember that the lead singer Shannon Hoon died of a drug overdose very early in their career. What you might not know is that this band is amazing, definitely not a one hit wonder. The three albums they recorded in their short career are beautiful and tragic. And you can sense that they they didn't get the chance to make their best music. I know it is crazy, but I can feel my heart breaking every time I listen to their music.

For months, whenever I journal, I have a hard time keeping myself from writing & re-writing the lyrics to their songs. Not that the lyrics are that profound, but that they are running through my head constantly.

This next video haunts me. It is from a concert they recorded less than a month before Shannon overdosed in 1995. From what I understand, he had just come out of rehab and was trying to turn things around, mostly for his new 3 month old baby girl. There was pressure to tour with the second album coming out and even though his counselors said it was too soon, they went anyway. I don't know what it is about this particular video and why I feel compelled to watch it over and over. Maybe it is that I understand addiction. I know what it feels like to feel out of control of your impulses. And the thought that one mistake can have such terrible consequences is heart breaking. And one more little girl has to grow up without the daddy that loved her. Ugh, I'll stop now. I'm depressing myself.

One more worth watching. The intro is a tear jerker. "Change" is so beautiful and ironic considering the lyrics Shannon wrote years before. This recording was made from the David Letterman Show on the same day Kurt Cobain's body was found--thus the "?"--and just a couple of months before Shannon's own death.

When you feel life ain't worth living, you've got to stand up and take a look around you and look up way to the sky. And when your deepest thoughts are broken, keep on dreaming, boy, cause when you stop dreaming it's time to die--and I don't want to die.

I know we can't all stay here forever, so I'm gonna write my words on the face of today. And then they'll paint it.

When life is hard, you have to change.

convocat bobcat conch

Oh, you've got to hear this! Some spam made it into my inbox, title above, and I had to open it just to see what the heck it was. Ha--I was right! There is a random word generator that spammers use to come up with their titles and their messages. This was inside:

abalone accuse, bet autopsy centigrade, bloom asunder. above constellate bright codon

bilingual burr countdown. actual clothesline contributory cavalry delft crusty brownie agnew

cognate buff bellwether circuitous. buff acre connivance accident agitate antipode ballad

Just look at that! Enough linguistic fodder to keep me in post titles for a year! And this looks like only a part of the A through C list. Just think what nonsense there must be in the rest of the alphabet! I absolutely love it. Mary Ann came across a particularly interesting spam title recently: "womanly pit viper".  Isn't that great?! I mean, who did they think they were going to attract with that one?

Ohh...I know: nerdnerdnerd. So not everyone thinks words are as fascinating as I do. I'll shut up now.

Some day I may go back and journal on this page but right now I'm happy with it as it is.

I've been busy, busy, busy! I'm too tired to show you now, but I'll be back with papers, mailart, and a tote bag. But first. Speaking of alphabets, language and the 3 R's, a song you will hear (loud) bouncing of the walls in our house lately, over and over and over:

Now dig the pattern once more...3, 6, 9...12, 15, 18....

dogbane archaism aldermen

Last week my husband had a conversation with a medical student who was in town with a Summer medical missions group working in Matamoros. These students are from all over the country with maybe half of them from Philadelphia and we look forward to getting together with people from outside the Valley, you know, from the real world. Since we have lived here, we have made an unusual number of friends who are doctors or who are going through their residency in the Valley. It is probably because we feel like such outsiders ourselves that we gravitate toward people who are like us--not from the Valley or from more urban areas. Anyway, we always find we have alot in common with these students even though most of them we have never met or only see once a year. So, John was talking to one of these students about what we do, what she does, what she will do after school, etc. and she was telling us about her belief that being a doctor is her calling in life. When John told her I stayed home with the kids, her comment was (predictably), "I could never stay home all day and do nothing." My sweet husband followed up with, "You could if it was your calling."

Now, all stay-at-home moms hear things like this all the time, but this time I realized something I hadn't before. It is not that this educated young woman actually thinks that stay-at-home moms don't do anything all day, it is that she equates the value of being a stay-at-home mom to be the same as doing nothing. Nothing valuable, anyway.

Well, today this stay-at-home mom had a pretty productive day. Besides a little laundry, I actually ironed 4 of my honey's shirts--I hate ironing unless it is freshly washed fabric yardage--worked on some mailart and cooked dinner. Best of all, I drew up the pattern for the tote bag swap I am in and started cutting the fabric. I'm pretty sure my partner doesn't read my blog, but just in case I can only give you a peek of the work in progress.

The shell rings may or may not be added to the final bag, hopefully I can work everything in. My partner is a bit of a romantic. She describes her taste as "time worn elegance".  I think I nailed it, but there is still a lot of work to be done. I am head over heels in love with the fabric, trim and notions for the bag, so I'm super excited about getting started. Tomorrow's work will be to finish cutting the fabrics for the bag and accessories, to fuse the interfacing, and start working on the little details. I love my life. I can't imagine there being anything I'd rather do.

what a good day looks like

When I woke up this morning, I couldn't bear being in a crowd of people so John and the kids went to church without me. I prayed and painted and felt remarkably better after a few hours of quiet.

 

The lighting is terrible in these scans. I worked and reworked them in Photoshop but they still look too bright to me. I think our monitor is whacked, too, so who knows what these will look like on your end.  Especially on the middle one, the white is just white. It is not glowing off the page. The third one looks more like the original.

I've never finished this many pages at one time before. I have another that I still want to tweak a bit so almost 4 pages in maybe 2 hours. That is so against my obsessive nature, but I felt more free than I have in a long time. Whatever it is, I'm not going to analyze it. I'm just going to go with it.

end of the week review, aka I'm too tired to proofread

~ A bit of journaling

~ A few papers made for a art-e-zine swap

~Mailart on its way upstate--but just a peek

~ Some sewing, but I've been having a hard time sitting still in one place for it. And waiting (somewhat) patiently for my stack of new fabrics to arrive.

~ Due to a series of unfortunate incidents, we have overnight become a one car family. The main problem is that John works out of town and, for the next few weeks at least, will have to be at work at 5 a.m. Which means the kids and I will be without a car for most days. That's not that big of a deal now, but in September Maisey will start preschool 3 days a week, and getting up early to drive back and forth would be such a bummer. I would say forget it and let her homeschool with Soren, but the preschool is such a wonderful school, I feel so blessed to have found it, and I'd really hate for her to have to miss out on the experience. Besides, she will probably be reading by the end of the year and that will make kindergarten so much less stressful for me when the time comes. So, due to this slight change in circumstances, I will probably be updating my Etsy shop as soon as I can. John very lovingly reminds me of how much money he can make working an extra day at the hospital vs. what I could make if I worked my heart out for a month. Sort of depressing, but it would sure feel nice to be able to contribute to more than just the spending of the money.

So, I've been thinking of, among other things, putting  together a few paper packs of my painted/stamped papers and/or fabric, but I could use some feedback. If you were looking for handmade papers or fabrics to use in your own work or scrapbooks or whatever, what would you be hoping to find? A range of designs, colors, even sizes? Just the handmade papers or other papers & ephemera in the bundle too? A small sampler at a less expensive price or a nice sized paper pack with plenty of pieces but costs a little more? Would you expect to choose your own color scheme or at least have a few choices? Would you rather have the papers double-sided so you get twice the number of designs or would you rather have them one-sided and get more individual sheets? Would you rather have richly layered thus more costly designs or slightly more simple designs that are less expensive? Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Have a great weekend and, as my Grandmother used to say, do something exciting and pretend like I'm there.

but let us say this: it rocked

Today, I thanked the Lord for mailart. And you will too when you see this.

 

It came in yesterday from Patty and made my day. It was so perfectly wrapped in a clear plastic wrapper that I knew I was going to destroy something by opening it. But I didn't and now I'm thinking I need to build a shelf in my studio to display all of my gorgeous mailart. Tucking them in here and there just doesn't seem to do them justice.

Thanks so much for the kind words about my tutorial. It was my first one for the blog, and I have this habit of giving way too much information when I am explaining anything. (Never would have guessed, huh?) At least once a week I see the eyes of my six year old glazing over as I take off on another tangent like the really cool symbolism woven throughout the Bible when all he wanted to know was whether Moses or Spiderman were real. Here, at least I can edit myself.

Speaking of mailart, mine finally made it all the way to the left coast into the spray paint stained hands of Mary Ann.

You can see more pictures on her fantastic blog over here. Did I mention that mailart is my new favorite thing??

I'll leave you with some new journal pages as my caffeine buzz wears off and the words begin to blur on the screen. I must go to wrestle the laptop out of my honey's hands so I can play my obligatory 3 games of spider solitaire in bed before the lights in my head go out for good. Oh, the beautiful and lifelike flower on the second page was a gift from my sweet Soren. One of his many talents.

tutorial: self-portrait stencil

I am soooo excited about this one. Please do try it, especially you journal artists. It is a lot more fun than you'd think to manipulate images of yourself. Although I make stencils a lot, it had never occurred to me to do a self-portrait until I read Randi Feuerhelm-Watts' brilliant book, Wide Open. If you don't have her book, go get it today. So many inspiring ideas! Okay, let's get to it.

Materials you need:

• Clear photograph of yourself, preferably a self-portrait
• Photoshop, PE (Photoshop Elements), or other photo editing software.
• Exacto knife with new sharp blades (this is essential if you don't want to be cursing yourself through this project.)
• A self-healing mat is nice and makes cutting much easier (you don't have to have a huge one). I've also heard of using a piece of glass to cut on, but I'd cut my finger off for sure. Note: rotary cutting mats are not self-healing. They work okay, but not as nicely as the self-healing mats.
• Cardstock  or other material for your template. Cardstock is easy, but a file folder, inkjet transparency (assuming you have an inkjet printer), thin plastic used to make stencils (you can find them with the stencils at craft stores), and really thin chipboard all work well, too. Plain copy paper will work but it won't last as long. You need something thick enough to hold cut details well, but thin enough to run through your printer. I suppose photo paper or smooth watercolor paper would work, too.  Note: you can run just about anything that is flat, can be cut down to 8.5 x 11 or smaller, and isn't sticky through your printer, including fabric--trust me, I've tried it all and never had a problem.
• Dye ink pad and cosmetic sponge or acrylic paint with sponge brush.
• Plain paper to test on.

Making the Stencil

1. The first thing you need to do is to select a good photograph. Not necessarily "good" as in flattering, but "good" as in the image makes a good stencil. Finding the perfect one takes some time. Be patient and have fun. You may have to digitally manipulate several photos before deciding which one would make the best stencil. You're looking for clear definition and not too many details.
2. Once you find the right photograph, you need to simplify and turn it into b&w in Photoshop or PE. Although another program might work, I can only show you how on these. I'm sorry, but I have no pictures for this part. I can't find my original picture. Somehow I must have deleted it or something.)
3. Scan or pull up the digital photo in Photoshop. Disclaimer: I am no expert here, I just know what has worked for me not necessarily the only/best way to do it. Everything I know, I've figured out myself.
4. Apply the "Note Paper" filter to your photo: Filter/Sketch/Note Paper.  Then reduce the Relief by sliding the slider bar to the left all the way to zero. Click Okay.



5. Next, change your image to black & white and simplify it a bit: Image/Adjustments/Threshold. (For PE: Filter/Adjustments/Threshold.) This will turn your photo completely white. In the pop up box, slide the bar to the right until you begin to see your image reemerge. Move the slider back and forth until you get a clear image with as few details as possible while still being recognizable.



6. Remember: Everything that is Black you will be cutting away. Don't worry about the background b/c we aren't interested in it. And you also don't need to include every detail (clothes, hair, etc.) when you actually cut your stencil.
7. Once your image looks kinda like what could be a stencil, and you like it, click Okay.
8. At this point, you can use the Eraser Tool to remove some of the background or any details that are distracting to you if you'd like. The simpler for cutting the better.



9. Finally, Save your document immediately! And put your cardstock in the printer now.
10. Decide approximately how large you want your stencil to be. Too small will be more difficult to cut but it doesn't have to be huge. What about 4x6? 6x8? or 8x10? Fill the whole page?
11. Print your stencil: File/Print With Preview. Adjust Height and/or Width. Click Print then Okay.

Cutting the Stencil

1. This is the easy and not so easy part. Before making any cuts, look over your image and tell yourself out loud (multiple times if necessary): Everything Black will be cut away. Cut away all of the Black parts only. (You will be cutting away the positive space, but if knowing that just confuses you, forget it now.)
2. As you cut, go slow and pay attention to important details like eyes, nose, etc. You want to cut out the basic image not every single detail. It does not have to be perfect to make a great stencil. Go along the basic contour of the image as you cut.



3. Once all the black is cut away, you'll need to try out your stencil.  On some scrap paper, hold the stencil firmly in place (or use a very low tack--sticky--tape to keep it in place and sponge ink through the openings of the stencil. At this point, make sure all the corners, etc. are filled with ink so you get the most accurate impression. (Later, try out how few areas you need to stencil to get an interesting image.) If you need to make adjustments to the stencil, do it now and then make another print until you get an image you like.

 

4. Ta-da! You did it. Is that not super cool or what?? Next you will want to hunt down photos of all your family members, and your dog, and maybe that cool sign or building you photographed last week....
5. Try out all the cool things you can do with your stencils.

Of course, you can make any kind of stencil you want. You can use clipart designs, hand drawn images, or any object to make a stencil, but the purpose of this exercise is to use a picture of yourself. If you don't already use self-portraits in your artwork or journaling, do it, regardless of how you feel about the way you look. Purposefully try out unflattering pictures to show yourself it is okay not to be perfect. How can you be truly real in your journals if you aren't real, or just don't want to document, this?? For more encouragement, read Randi's book (link above). But the thing she wrote that stuck with me the most about self-portraits was this: Don't be afraid of what you see, that is what everyone else sees every day. So, what the heck? Just do it. Seeing pictures of yourself more often will get you used to it and maybe one day, you'll love what you see. (I'm preaching to myself here, too.)

I really hope you try this out, but as a gift of appreciation for all my time and effort (just joking) you have to send me a picture of your stencil or how you used your stenciled image. I would also appreciate feedback on the tutorial itself. Is it clear or confusing? Too much information or too little? Inaccurate? Otherwise helpful or unhelpful? And if you have any questions, just email me or leave it in the comments.

And check back, because I'm also putting together a tutorial on how I paint/stamp my papers, envelopes & file folders. See pictures here and here.

Thanks. This has  been fun. ;-)

unconscious campsite bobsled

It feels so good to be back online again. Bet you didn't even know I was off. On Wednesday, a neighbor had a new sprinkler system put in and the workers ended up cutting our phone line. I actually enjoyed not having a phone for a few days, but going without DSL was painful. It wasn't quite as bad as I imagined, and I thought I would just have super productive days without the Internet. Unfortunately, I didn't. I got a little more done, but actually ended up still spending quite a bit of time on the computer doing some Photoshop-ing. It is funny how you can be "away" for a few days and feel like you missed out on so much.

I did get to do a lot of artwork, and even had my 4 year old "helping" me paint.

Some ATCs for a MMCA swap. They came from this painted paper using a new-to-me technique using stencils and Ranger spray on Colorwash (similar effect as spray paint but without the fumes.)

Here it is again souped up in Photoshop. (I *heart* Photoshop.)

And there were journal pages.

Not my favorites, but at this point in my life, I'm doing it and that's enough. While I was without DSL I kept thinking of all this stuff I could share, but now...not so much. Maybe I'm tired. We have some good movies to chose from tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.