Cherish All Your Moments Journal

Well I did it again, I made another journal with the Zutter Distrezz-it-All and the Zutter Bind-it-All. This one is made with Deja Views Global Treks scrapbook paper that I found in the clearance area at Michaels and Recollections Spice Market cardstock and is 4 inches by 6 inches. I've added pockets, journal cards and some rubber stamping. After taking the photos I added a few more things, but since this is a gift I will leave that a mystery to be discovered by the recipient. I just love the look of the distress pages and using ribbon to bind after punching holes with the Zutter.

Seventh Little Book

Well I needed another quick book yesterday, since I am also working on ATCs for this month's swaps. I hadn't planned on doing one so similar to a previous one, but what can I do? My daughter saw the book made from tissue boxes for the covers and came out with some boxes that she really likes, shoved them in my hand with the request that I make her a book. I encouraged her to have different pages, but it had to be the same pocket pages. So here is the April 7 book.
I'll be posting the ATCs soon.

January ATC Swap at The Grind

I'm living up to the Queen of The Last Minute ATCs I made for the byhand swap and am rushing madly to finish ATCs for the swap at The Grind. Here is a few of the ones I've gotten finished so far.
The themes for this month is blue, books or beads.
The first set is more of the "By The Numbers Pockets" this time all blue, no orange here.

This next set I've used all 3 temes, I have a mostly blue chair with a stack of books on a embossed blue cardstock background. The blue fibres have beads on. I also used a Fiskars embossing border punch on the top edge. The words are computer generated and printed on white cardstock. These are called "Books in The Blue Room"



And the final group I've made so far is "Sing Little Blue Bird". For this I made a 3 layer cardstock template with a 2 inch circle punched out of the ATC sized template. I placed the blue cardstock in the Victoria Cuttlebug embossing folder and the template behind the cardstock and closed the folder. The sandwich I used was the A plate, 5 pieces of Cuttlebug packaging cardboard, the embossing folder and fially one B plate. This left a circle that is not embossed and I used that area to rubber stamp a little bird and music from the Crafty Secrets clear "Altered Art" small stamp set. The word sing is computer generated and printed on white cardstock. all this is layered onto a darker blue cardstock and ribbon, beads and a blue rhinestone are the embellishments.

My First Felt Bead

My First Felt Bead
Originally uploaded by okanagan_spirit

I finally did it!!! I made a wet felt bead. I went to the Farmers Market on Sunday and after checking out all the fruits and vegetables that were available and buying a nice supply I checked some of the other booths. What a great discovery of a lady at one of the booths with colourful pieces of wool roving. She allowed me to choose a couple of colours and showed me how to make a wet felt bead. I came home with this treasure which I may embellish with some seed beads and turn it into a necklace, I haven't decided for sure yet. If I do I'll post the results.

Needle Felting

Well I finally did it. I've been wanting to try needle felting for a very long time and I went in to Vancouver yesterday and got the tools to get started. I bought a holder that can hold up to 3 needles and it came with medium gauge needles, so I also bought some course and fine loose needles. For this, my very first piece of needle felting I used a piece of felt I made quite awhile ago for the background and used Bernat Felting wool for the flower, leaf and stem. I will incorporate this 6" X 6" piece into my felting journal. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I am definitely hooked on needle felting.
Next I tried a needle felt ATC. I used Bernat Felting wool yarn for the flower, leaf and stem on an acrylic felt background. It turned out quite well, but is much easier to get results with a wool background. Next I'll have to try the dyed wool silvers I bought. To start with I used some of the short ends I had leftover from the knit felting I did for the 12 Days of Christmas Gift swap I participated in on the Byhand Artists Yahoo group last December.
Now, since this is my 99th post and I have something planned to give away on my 100th post, I better go and hurry up finishing the item I'm planning to give. Keep checking it should be here soon.

Monthly ATC Swaps for December

On Sat and Sun I completed 27 ATCs, now I will select some to send to Yogi for her Byhand Artists monthly swap and take the rest to the monthly swap at the Grind in Vancouvernext Sunday. The last 2 groups "Starry Night" series are white or burgandy organza on blue or pink cardstock. All the images are from the Ten Two Studio Christmas Countdown. I used various charms, fibres and peel-offs to embellish.
The first group "Winter Wishes: series started with a background painted on watercolour paper. I coated the paper with matt medium and painted Vancouver Grey, African Violet and Paper Bag acrylic paint on while the gel medium was still wet, blending some of the colours and wiping some of the colour off in areas. When dry I stamped with a flower and flourish foam stamps with Spotlight acrylic paint. This was scanned and reduced in size for the background of the ATC, printed on acrylic paper. I also stamped and embossed snowflakes and then embellished.

Plastic Laminate Pendant

I've just gotten the time to post my latest art piece which I made a couple of days ago. I used a plastic laminate sample and lightly sanded both sides, then painted with a light coat of gesso, rubbing a little off in some areas. Next I stamped white pigment ink with a Stampendous Crackle cube and embossed with Pirate's Gold EP. The front image is a portion of Tree Fairy from Mary-Beth's tree photo mounted on black cardstock and applied with gel medium and a silver dragonfly charm. The back has a metal tag curled over cord and glued on with E6000 and a puzzle collage image from Artella. The ends of the cord have silver beads glued on and fibres are looped through the hole on the bottom of the laminate sample.