Greetings

Merry Christmas to All! 

Paper Snowflakes

Who remembers cutting out paper snowflakes?  The Winter Lettering Challenge for Dec. 5 was "paper snowflakes".  I didn't even look on YouTube to try to remember how to do this, I just dived right in, relying on memory.

I first used a piece of pretty red and gold art paper.  Sounded good in theory.  But the design was so busy, you could hardly see the snowflake pattern.  In fact, I flipped it over to the back side and was going to glue it to the page that way.

But in the meantime, I decided to try other papers.  I had a box of filters that were already a circle shape.  I'm not sure what they are for, the box says Laboratory Use.  They were a little thick, and I thought they would hold up to wet media pretty good.  That may be true, but the thickness made it hard to fold and cut.  I also had some coffee filters I wanted to try.

After cutting the lab filters, I used the stem part of a spray ink to dab color onto the filter.  I unfolded it some in order to get to all the areas.

Even after adding color and spraying water on it, it looked like it needed to go back to the lab, as if it had bacteria growing on it.

Next up, the coffee filter.  Thinner and easier to flatten, fold and cut.  We're onto something.

I sprayed the inks directly onto the paper.  When I unfolded it, there were still a lot of white spots, so sprayed more ink and a good amount of water on it until all areas were covered.

I unfolded it and blotted the excess water and ink.  It turned out to be my favorite.  Even though it is bigger than my page, that's the one I used.

Fun little blast from the past and reliving a childhood activity!

December Challenge 2 and 3

I'm trying to keep up with the lettering challenge, just forget to post them here!  I'm having fun trying to come up with something different for the daily phrase.

Days 2 and 3:

December Challenge 1

I may or may not participate for a full month in the Winter Lettering Challenge. 

How's that for commitment 

:o)

Info here:
https://www.instagram.com/letteringbymhel/

DLP Planner - Ideas

I'm always looking for new ways to add dates to my weekly planner pages.  This time, I used ledger paper. Cut some strips, stamp the days... attach to the page. Easy and simple.

I have also mentioned before picking up these pads of paper at the dollar store.

This time of year, the calendars and planners are out for next year, and with that comes some new pads to look over.  I got this one recently, again, just a dollar, and more pages than I will ever need for my planner.

If they don't fit exactly, I can always trim them down a little, as I did for the daily blocks here.  And I like to start the week with Sunday, not Monday, which is another reason I usually cut them apart to use them.

These two weeks added a lot of color to my planner!

Purse Art

My to-do list for some time has included getting caught up on art card assignments for my Documented Life planner.  I liked the assignment for the first week in November - Add something from the bottom of your purse.  I don't have a lot of junk in my purse, but I almost always have scraps of lists..  I also found a bandaid, but I ended up not using that (this time).

I tore my lists into strips and collaged them to a piece of file folder that already had some paint on one end.  The file folder piece was a little narrow, so I painted an ATC and attached the file folder to it.

 I added a little stamping, stenciling, and doodling, and stitched around the file folder part.

 I added a little more collage

 I made a vinyl pocket that is big enough to hold several cards, and sewed it a page made from free art from Carolyn Dube (she frequently has her Art Sparks downloads available for free.  I always download them but never know what I'll do with them.  But they are on my computer when I need something quick to use.)

I had a lot of fun and like all the color I ended up with.

November DLP

The calendar on the wall is going a lot faster than I am! Here are a couple of recent planner pages.

Last 2 weeks of October... nothing really eye popping, just a couple of quickies.
Left Side, took a big tag, stenciled a background, stamped and stenciled the dates, used a little watercolor pencil around the border and to divide the days.  On the back of the page from the previous week, I sponged some black stamp pad ink around the border and attached the tag to it.

Right side:  Cut and folded scrapbook paper, attached ledger paper, marked the dates.  Done.

 Quick November page... I wanted to stamp the numbers in something other than black or brown, which I seem to always use.  I tested out colors on a piece of scrap cardstock, and decided I liked all the colors I tested.  So I used them all.

I added a touch of color with art stickers to two of the boxes on the calendar.  Okay, true confession.  what I actually did before that was stamp the number 1 in the wrong spot, so I used a sticker to cover it up!  Happy accident!

51 shopping days til Christmas!

Candy Corn Research

I've had a lot of fun playing in my small Moleskine journal lately.  I have to admit, I have been influenced and inspired by Jose Naranja.  Such finely detailed entries in what he calls his notebooks, because he notes a lot of things in there.

I've had this small journal for several years, in fact I think it is the first Moleskine I ever bought.  A few pages even have something on them. Some have sketches so horrible I will not even show them.  Early on, I had numbered a few pages and drew a line around the page, but there's nothing else on there.  But really, everything looks better with a line or circle around it, right?

The first double page spread I did when I got this journal out again was just playing around.  I picked up whatever way nearby, which happened to be vintage postage, with stencils and scraps.  I also wanted some words on the page, but didn't want to "journal".  I had some odd book pages laying around and copied some text from them about earth and seas.  None of it really means anything, just filling up the space and having fun with it.

My next double page spread was about Security.  Security envelope patterns.  Again, what to put on the page?  I tried to find some copyright information about security envelopes but didn't find exactly what I was looking for.  I found other patent applications, and picked one with a lot of detail about other types of envelopes.  I wrote parts of it by hand on the page, using blue pens.

I got ready to start a new spread and decided to research candy corn.  Found a couple of things to copy, along with some illustrations.  Stamped some test tubes (and didn't even notice one had a spider on it until I just looked at the picture here!)  I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of the information, but it filled the page and I had fun.  I'm liking my little book now.

Look down

I am really enjoying learning about manhole covers this month over on Michelle Ward's blog.  I live in a rural area where everyone has a septic tank.  We don't have manhole covers, so I need to drive a little to find some.

I did dig in the way back machine (my archive of digital photos) to find a few I took years ago.

The first two are from Louisville, Kentucky, 2011. They are standard covers for the water department. I think I was more interested in getting the word Louisville, as I didn't get the whole cover on the first one.  Now that I have more interest, I want to know where it was made.. India or Indiana.  Could be either.  I also noticed the drops of water in the design.

This one was taken in Berea, Kentucky, 2011.  Plain and simple.  Beneath that cover, there is some kind of communications something or other.

Related to absolutely nothing, except it was also taken in  Berea and is round, I came across this large stone.  I'm thinking (from brief research) that it is a grinding stone for grain.

More from Louisville, 2004.  I wanted the word Louisville, plus I liked the design.  But this wasn't a manhole cover.  It is a tree hole cover.

 There were a couple that had such whimsical adornments around the trees.

I need to spend more time looking down.  There's a whole lot going on down there.  Do yourself a favor and visit Michelle's blog here.  Also, she is having a stencil giveaway if you leave a comment. Don't leave a comment.  Because I want to win....Just kidding!

October DLP

Where will I go in October with my DLP 2016 planner?  I have no idea.  It has been a month where I just needed to get my calendar and a couple of pages done.  Tomorrow, October will be half over.  Whut???

I have had this picture of the girl forever and don't remember where I got it.  She reminds me of Halloween, so she got sewn onto the divider.  I continued with the brown page for the monthly calendar.  I had bought the masking tape at the office supply store recently and it went so well with the girl picture, on it goes to the page, with a white gel pen used to write out October.

Sometime in the past few months, I had obtained these pens.  They are Sakura Decorese, and the package says they write on plastic, metal and glass.  The rest of the writing is in Japanese, so that's all I can pass along except they are a gel-type pen.  I just liked the slanted tops!  I got them at either Amazon or Jet Pens.  Since that happened before today, I don't remember now.

I tested them out on a scrap to see which one(s) I wanted to use on my weekly page.

 I used those pens, plus some white paint and stenciling on the left side page.

On the right, I punched out black ovals, then used number punches to punch out the numbers to glue down.  It got kind of sloppy, but it's done.

I was ahead at that point.  But like I said, tomorrow is the 15th, so I guess I'd better put on my thinking cap again!

DLP Planner Catch up 4

My last post ended with the manilla envelope page.  On the back of the envelope, I added some address labels I had received in the mail (ordered from Check Advantage, art by Dina Wakley).  The weekly page on the right side was printed on paper that already had a design on it.  To reinforce the spine, I stamped on yellow paper and folded the yellow paper around to the back side.

The base paper was not very sturdy, so the yellow paper is to help reinforce it.  Before I glued down the yellow paper, I used a half-inch punch to make holes down the left side.  After the yellow paper was glued, I stamped the dates.

The vintage Dennison clasp envelope will probably hold art cards.  It already had some holes with grommets on them, but I did have to punch an extra hole to match the rings in my binder.

The next page is a grid paper (double thickness), sewn around the edges.  Stamp pad ink was sponged  on to separate days of the week.  

 I used the Select-A-Stencil (Stampers Anonymous, Wendy Vecchi design) to add the dates.

 On to October!