3s and Wishing Part 2

I left the house to run errands, and came home to find my 2nd wish in my email Inbox.  I'd rather not go into detail, as this is a very personal one--but it has to do with this flower, which greeted me at the mailbox less than 10 minutes before I read my email.  The two were connected, and only the one or the other would not have reminded me of what I'd lost.

3s and Wishing

I'm a believer in 3s.  If I hear the same/extremely similar advice from 3 sources, or 3 unique ways, I take it as gospel--God's Words to my ears.  Within the last 2 or 3 days, I've heard that it's time for me to make some wishes.  Ironically, wishes in folk tales come in 3s too... 

I admit--I feel rather abandoned and lost, and it's been a LONG time since I've wished for anything.  If I happen to have something good pop up, I'm cautiously thankful--I don't think I'm worth it, so someone else might too, and take the good thing away.  But then....   Just when I lose faith, God reminds me I am in His hands and if I let Him lead, we'll go the right way.

So I'm going to make some wishes.  My first has been revealed to me already, lol.  I first faced it using a guided meditation from Jamie Ridler Studios.  I was led to her website just this morning, from Linda at Everyday Endeavours.  (She mentioned a Moon Board, and that sounded intriguing!  Plus she's participating in Daisy Yellow's Creativity Queue Challenge, which I've noticed but did not join in.)  Linda's link took me to an information page on Jamie Ridler's site, and if you sign-up for her newsletter, you receive a wonderful audio-guided mediation and Journaling pages.  They're worth it!

As I was working last night, I managed to ruin the first 5 or 6 pages of printed art journal stuff, so I've been trying to gather those same pages back together to reprint.  (Don't ask--my files are so out-of-control it's ridiculous!)  I found the first free "Journaling Deep" worksheet from Journal Girl, and so I read it over and a particular question jumped out at me, since it fit exactly with what I'd been led to wish for!  And I've had that lesson since July 28, 2011.

I yield!!  My first wish is to learn this lesson:

It’s not about the supplies—it’s how you use them!

I spend way too much time online shopping for art supplies.  I mean hours, HOURS, spent putting stuff into the shopping cart, taking it out, comparing prices, weighing spending an extra amount here or less over there.  And all for nothing--we're rather "living on the edge" as it is, so the entire exercise is Complete Self-Torture.  Complete. Self. Torture.  The last thing my soul needs reminding of, day after day after day, is that even if I happen upon the Magic Combination in the shopping cart, I'm still not going to be buying anything.

There's a wish prompt each week, and this one is:

What do you wish to experience? 

Being aware that my needs have been met, that I have the supplies I need to continue Art Journal therapy.  I'm going to wish for this lesson to change me, to help my soul be...soulful.

And two more wishes to go....  Wonder what they'll be?  I'm linking up to Wishcasting Wednesday here; join me in a blog hop to help others' wishes come true!

While Our Son's Away...We Work!

It's Spring Break around here, and our son is spending the entire week on my mother's farm.  This is the longest "alone" time my husband and I have had since...before Parenthood, hmm, maybe since early 2005!  My how time flies.......

And since we're boring grown-ups, we've spent the week cleaning.  Spring Break and Spring Cleaning are two very different experiences.  But we have to take this opportunity to clean--it's the only way we can honestly says "This room is done!" and expect it to stay that way until the next day.

Jewelry Box and Necklace Organizer
I did get some crafting done over this past weekend--a lot, really.  I've had an unfinished-wood jewelry box for a long time now--bought from Hobby Lobby on a whim with a 40% off coupon back in 2010 I think.  I haven't been able to decide what to do with it.  It has this strange recessed lid, which I now realize is perfect to throw your jewelry on at the end of the day and it doesn't go rolling off.  But I've been thinking it needed a picture or a frame attached to it, and couldn't figure it out.  The strange thing is that this wasn't even in my Top 10 Projects To Complete--but I'm extremely glad it's done now.  My jewelry has been stuffed into a tiny silver box for 2 years now, and necklaces are my favorite jewelry to make.

I have no clue where this inspiration came from, but my favorite colors right now are gray and turquoise, and I have some beautiful fabric in those colors.  I also had some gray-ish mixed paint that was begging to be used or thrown away.  So I painted and painted and painted, then Mod Podged the fabric down into the lid.  I painted the inside of the box turquoise, with more fabric in the bottom of the 2 pull-out trays that sit on the inside.

Then I remembered this sad little project from Christmas, a necklace organizer to hang on the wall, that had not turned out well.  I have no pictures of it all, which surprises me since I take pictures as I work along.  It was originally a long thin mirror in a plastic frame with great details.  I'd painted it silver-ish per the glitter paint instructions, then with silver glitter paint, and clothespins for hooks, but, well, it was hiding actually, cowering in fear of a 15th coat of glitter, lol.  It was Christmas, so the very season itself brings to mind all that glitters and sparkles.  That's my excuse, anyway :p

Some advice: if you know you don't like glitter, don't force it on yourself--you won't like it, and the very sight of the project will make you cringe every time you see it.  (Which might be how it ended up hidden....)  And this goes for metallic finishes, pastels, whatever--stick to what you like!  There's a difference from "being in a rut" and just knowing you don't like a certain paint treatment.

Anyway, I tore the clothespins out of the frame and set about painting it to match my jewelry box.  For hangers, I used small nails pushed into the fabric-wrapped foamcore; they're in the center of each flower, so 7 nails total.  And it is beautiful, if I do say so myself, and they're beautiful together.  Now I just have to figure out where in the world to hang it....

Family Motto Sign
I've had this sign for a loooong time now.  It was one of those generic "H-O-M-E" signs and did not match our personalities at all.  (It was free, so awesome!)  I painted it "Love one another."  Then a different quote.  Then "Be nice or leave," which is rather the opposite of "Love one another," lol.  But it never lasted more than one day up on the wall--I was never happy.  I'm a quote-collector, and I've been going over and over my huge list, thinking that I have the perfect quote, somewhere.  And, I did, sort of....

"Love is being stupid together." – Paul Valery 

This quote I've had for a long time, and while it's appropriate, "stupid" is not a word I want our son to start using, much less to describe his family.  Although, we are rather insane at times, lol.  Goofy a LOT of the time ;P  Inspiration struck again, and I decided to use "silly" instead of "stupid."  Perfect!

The font posed the 2nd major hurtle for this project--then I remembered the handy-dandy glue lid craft paint secret, and my handwriting worked well in the end.  There were a few bad hours there though...but in the end I've got the perfect sign for our entry:

{Inspiration hit a lot this past weekend...wonder why?}

Twilight Book Covers and the Fabric Poster
And finished on Wednesday, between cleaning sessions:

So let's talk Twilight....  Hopefully for the last time for a while...even I'm tired of it!

I got the Breaking Dawn part 1 DVD from Wal-Mart that came with a "fabric poster."  I hung it up when it arrived, but it's been sort waiting around for a more permanent spot.  I have several of those art posters still with their cardboard backing, one was the perfect size!  And so I moved Bella and Edward to the Library.  But then they looked a little lonely, and I've been wanting to try crafting with dust jackets, and I remembered that all 4 dust jackets have been laying in the same spot for years now--yay!  Fabric-covered foamcore, red paper and careful positioning resulted in this awesome Twi-Hard display ;P  Woot!

Although it does feel strange to have wedding pictures on display larger than our own.....

I've also printed a ton of quotes, signs, phrases, plans and coloring pages, so that's my next project: getting my printables organized, framed or sorted out.

I hope your week has been as productive!  The good thing about knocking old craft projects is being able to photograph them and share them.  I can't bring myself to take a picture of the sparkling clean bathroom, lol, so this round-up is done!

Coke Bottle Cherry Blossoms: A Pinterest Success Story

I love cherry blossoms.  I went to college in Macon, GA, where there's a Cherry Blossom Festival every year.  Walking to class was amazing--the blossoms were like magical snow blowing in the warm southern spring air.  I keep promising myself I'll go back, but somehow year after year passes by and Life sends me on a detour....

Source: alphamom.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

I've had this pin on my Pinterest board for a while.  I admit I was skeptical, but this actually is quite simple.  I don't have any experience with stamps, so make sure your inner perfectionist is taking a nap while you paint.

The instructions on  Alphamom are excellent.  I did mine a little differently, but I love how it ended up anyway.  I'll add a couple more tips:

1. See the bottom of the bottle in this photo?  You want paint over the entire bottom, not just the obvious five "petals."  It gives you the perfect teardrap shape as well as a centered dot.  So be generous with the paint on your plate!

2. I used a 20oz Coke bottle rather than a 2 liter.  It was fine for my 11x14 canvas panel.

3. I painted the canvas sky blue before stamping.  Well, technically my 6-year-old did :)

4. I stamped blossoms first and then made the branches.  I do NOT recommend this--follow the instructions on Alphamom and paint the darn sticks first.

I also made a smaller version on an 8.5x11 blue cardstock and had equal success, so don't think you have to buy a canvas.  You can also use any color for your flowers--this is by no means limited to cherry tress.

I'm not feeling the "Spring Fever" as so many others are, but doing this painting is a reminder of why Spring is awesome.

Materials: 11x14 canvas panel, craft paint, brushes, and a 20oz Coke bottle

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

Me+Art Journaling=True Love

Epic Art Journalist Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has a great blog, and today she answered the main question: How To Get Started.  At the end, she asked everyone to list how each of us started as well.  So this is my story:

I'm very much a beginner, and totally new to "art."  I started out using Crayola products: watercolors (I'm still using these,) crayons, colored pencils, etc.  I figured that if I didn't like them, I hadn't wasted any money because my son plays with the same things.  And of course, with Crayola, the total for a little of everything was less than $10.

Well, and craft paint too--I've been what I consider a "crafter" for years now, so I had plenty of craft paint acrylics to use.

I've written in my journal my entire life--my mom encouraged this and I've never stopped.  She gave me my first journal at age 5!  So I started by adding a few pictures to my journal entries.  And then one day last year I leaped and created a full "Art Page."  It was a total failure but I LOVED it!!  I was hooked, and I've been consistently learning and experimenting ever since!

So I'm going to show my first Disastrous page and some others that stand out in my mind.  My apologies to these artists who inspired me--at the time, I never thought about showing my journal, so attribution was not important.

I had no plan, no idea of what to say, how to use the supplies I had just bought or anything else, but it was SO-MUCH-FUN!!  It reads "Don't let the Gray blind you from the Sparkles all around."  The inspiration was a cute pin on Etsy, a cloud with little heart crystal raindrops.

Luckily, even with this disaster, I had the idea to keep notes of what I'd done.

 And some favorites:

 I spent hours, an entire day actually, creating and making flower stencils of my own.  I've never used them to this day...but I felt the need back then.  I really liked this quick entry I made, using a printed page from something online and my Pitt Big Brush pens.

I used a black and white printable, colored over it with my Pitt Big Brush pens, and pasted a photo of my son on the next page, and covered both with tons of Mod Podge.  This is in my top 5 favorite pages :)

 And my FAVORITE:

 It's a sketch I found on the web somewhere that I printed out in black and white and then painted over myself.  This was my first time using watercolors, which made the ink run, so I really turned this into a jumping off point for my own version.  I loved (LOVED!) what I'd made, and then used acrylics on the sky and learned the hard way that acrylics are OPAQUE and ruined my piece!  I was able to remove most of it, and ended up starting over the next morning once the page had dried, and was able to make something I love.  The quote above says "Yearning to hear the whispers of my soul."

All these pages are from last year.  I have some more recent works to show as well.  These are not necessarily in a journal, but I've been happy with these pieces:

 I had this page complete--my first "real" ART JOURNAL page, and then I ruined it by adding glitter to the words.  So I covered them with the same paper, but I no longer liked my quote, so it's been sitting for a while.  I finished yesterday, using "ART and Courage Becoming Friends" as a title.  I covered the entire page with packing tape, a move I may later regret, in order to protect it from paint overflow from other pages--I get messy with the edges :)

Another recent favorite, I have no idea where the title came from, but once I had the 3 pink pictures together, the title "Only Wake Me Early If You've Brought Me Pink Roses" jumped into my mind.  NO IDEA where this came from--hubby never buys me flowers, and I thought I was fine with it--he gives me gifts all the time, just not flowers--and I get up early for no reason all the time.  Oh well, I'm putting this in the Art For Art's Sake column.

And for last, this is the outside of my current art journal.  The cupcake is white, brown and red felt, with marker "sprinkles" so it stands out against the white page, along with a flower and a K both painted with metallic paints.  I've titled my journal "Flowers and Cupcakes" to reflect my recent obsessions.  I couldn't use the flash because the entire thing is also covered in clear packing tape for protection--why did I choose white?  Oh well :)

Book Review: Darkness Becomes Her

I was very skeptical about this book.  I've had just about enough teen vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons and angels.  The best stories are easily overlooked in this crowded post-Twilight world of young adult paranormal fiction.

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton is an excellent story, and I highly recommend this book to other fans of this genre, and even to younger teens, as there's no sex, drugs, or even "bad" language--the story is good enough on its own without having to rely on such things.  The world is easily imagined: after 2 disastrous hurricanes decimating New Orleans, the US government agrees to sell this tiny bit of land to the Novem, a group made of 9 powerful families that have made their home in the area for centuries. 

It’s common knowledge that "New 2" is home to the "freaks" of the world--and this is another reason I think this is a great story for younger readers.  After all, every one of us felt like a freak (or geek, lol) at some point in our teenage years, so having a place to go and "be yourself" is appealing.  In this story though, it means out-of-the-ordinary people, such as...well, think of X-Men’s young mutants, lol.

The friendships that Ari makes in New 2 are rather instantaneous, and this is the only part of the story I found a little too convenient. But I imagine that the author or the editors wanted the whole "getting to know you" part out of the way in favor of the more exciting parts of the story. 

I won't tell you who, what or how the story revolves around, because it surprised me :)  I will, however, relate the last line of the story at the end of this review--it's truly one of the best last lines and it gives nothing away!  There is another book coming out just published called “A Beautiful Evil,” and I'll probably end up buying it since I'm #38 on the wishlist for it on PaperBackSwap.com.

My rating is a full 5 stars!

Last Line:

"And it was then that I knew, one way or another, no matter how long it took, I'd have my revenge."