Alphabet Photography

Alphabet photography fascinates me. I have seen other people take pictures of objects that look like letters and numbers. I just came across this website that is fun. You can type in a word or your name and see what it looks like. You can even change a letter to another style. Kudos to Jennifer Blakeley, the Canadian photographer who took all these fantastic photos.

This is Gaye's wall of words. She bought a photo word (of the word "words"!) at an art fair. I don't believe it is the same photographer as on the website above, but I could be wrong. Nevertheless, these photos really make you look at things in a whole different way!!

Fortunes 8, 9, 10, blah, blah, blah

Greetings, bloggereaderites, this now concludes our Fortune 10 Project.....

I am losing enthusiam for this project and fast. This no longer seems like a challenge. The fortunes are boring. I want to be funny and fresh. This just isn't doing it for me anymore!!!

I'd rather be playing with... Mannequins Gone Mad !!!!!!!

Serendipity

I finally found out who won my little purse book in a recent auction. It was a former secret pal in California, and I was thrilled my book was going to someone I knew. Therefore, I packaged it nicely.......

...and included a little bonus, more Pocket Mod books in a wrapper with a ribbon closure.

It was well over ten years ago that I secretly sent things to Bonnie after being assigned to her. After all these years, she still raves about the goodies she received. A couple of years ago, she performed a random act of kindness and sent me a little handmade book, out of the blue, for no reason. As luck would have it, it arrived around my birthday, so it was a surprise to both of us!

Then last winter, I was talking online about not ever having been to a Trader Joe's store. She sent me a little surprise package with a couple of things from Trader Joe's (I think they were called Yummy Tummies, little fruit filled gummy penguins, and some Candied Walnuts). I sent her a thank you via a message written in snow on my deck....

Those are some of the penguin candies in the snow around the letters (and my plastic and cardboard lettering tool)...

It really is a small world when you get right down to it. So today, celebrate friendships, fun, and serendipity!

Meanwhile, I'll be entertaining myself...

Give me a P...


Give me an A...


Give me a T...


What does that spell?

(TAP backwards????)

Fortune 5, 6, 7

No, I haven't forgotten my Fortune cards, although I am disappointed I'm not finding typos in the fortunes since that first one. Here's number 5:

I get the feeling someone in the marketing department is writing these fortunes! They obviously want me to buy more cookies. And this "serving suggestion" was actually on the box of fortune cookies! I guess there aren't really a lot of different ways to serve fortune cookies, so drizzling them with chocolate is fine with me!

Deja vu! This little project is going to get really boring really fast if they repeat the fortunes. I mean, there are only 12 cookies in the box. They should not have to repeat that soon! At first, I was going to throw away the duplicate, but then I decided that I love a good challenge, so I would make two cards with the same fortune. (And I don't think they know me well enough to make such insinuations about my past either!!)

Wacky Wednesday

Just a little something to get you through the middle day of the week. I saw this video by Jen Gray on another blog. Go see.




And...
if that is not amusing enough.......

here, turkey, turkey... hop on the plate...

Here Comes the Bride

I didn't post all of the goodies we got on our trip Saturday. One thing I got at the yard sale was this roll of, um, "wedding carpet"? I'm not sure what it is actually called. We spotted this roll of something that looked like interfacing, with a white-on-white swirly pattern. They told us it was used in a wedding, rolled out down the aisle for the bride to walk on. I guess when you think about it, how many times can one use something like that? Once everyone has walked on it, it then has footprints and some dirty spots on it. So the solution would be to sell it at a yard sale, to someone who has bottles of spray colors at home!

I could not wait to cut some off and try out some colors. I liked the results.

I liked it even better when I saturated it heavier and heavier, to get the dark color.

And I even liked the scrap paper below, where the colors bled through the carpety stuff onto the scrap paper.

And yes, if the color scheme looks familiar, I was using the same set of spray colors that I used a couple of years ago on this book (fabric cover; sprayed with diluted stamp pad reinkers).

This was a book I made after watching the Traci Bautista DVD. More of this book can be seen here.

Road Trip, Part 2

When we last left our happy travelers, they had arrived in Indianapolis for the annual Coffee Break Design warehouse sale. The rush was on to get some fine, unique items to take home. There are all kinds of things there... old games, old fuses, unique labels, lots of great graphic arts magazines for collage projects, test tubes of all kinds, EKG machine paper (every time I think I have all the varieties offered, he has something different!)

(Is it just me, or do other people wonder if the local hospitals have Mike's picture up in the Security Department???)

They also had some of their regular products at a discount. I needed another two ATC boxes. After all, I'm going to be making 500 Fortune cards, you know. (I crack myself up sometimes)

And check out these little zip lock bags. The one on the right is 1x1 inches. The one on the left is even tinier at 1/2 inch square. It is so tiny, there is nothing to grasp enough to open it. I used the pointed end of a small paintbrush to open it. People always say "What are you going to do with That?" In my head, I am seeing tiny Evidence bags for journaling, or something along those lines. These fall into the category of 'maybe you don't need it right now, but when you Do need it, it will be good to have on hand'!!! And since Mike sells everything in quantities of a bazillion for only $1, it was too good to pass up....(okay, maybe I exaggerate)...

Then there are all things laser cut. I love the new little pennants. You know, if you turn them upside down, you can make a crown.... or a dunce cap for that head there.....

Last year I bought a bunch of test tubes that had no stoppers. I always thought they would make good trades for a convention. Fill them with words and some beads, then put a fabric stopper in the top, and voila!
I also got a couple of the white magnifying glasses. Seemed like they would work well in a book. Later that day, I also picked up a little brass magnifying glass. (I can use those to find the teeny zip lock bags).

After our shopping, we had fun visiting with friends. Ginny and husband John were there from the Cleveland area. It was great seeing them. She carries a lot of Mike's products in her Small Studios online store, plus other very interesting and cool things. We joked that we would both be blogging about this trip! Mike has fascinating things in his warehouse. One is a very large, old perforating machine. I took a picture of it, but I like Ginny's picture better, which is on her blog here.

At one point, I saw a group of ladies standing just outside the warehouse and there seemed to be a lot of commotion. When I checked to see what was going on, it was Gaye's purse that had them so excited. She recently made a new purse using designer labels, buttons, and other art.

One lady offered to hold the purse so everyone could take a picture of it. It was the funniest thing I ever saw.

Until .....I.... saw....this.............

Yes, Gaye brought Mike a gift, the Answer Me Jesus. It is like those old Eight Ball toys, where you ask a yes/no question, turn it over, and the answer is on a floating thing in a little window. It provided some wonderful entertainment.

So, after my one hour drive to Louisville, then our two hour drive to Indianapolis, a couple of hours of shopping and visiting, was our day winding down? Noooo.... because, you see, there was a community-wide yard sale just up the street from where we were. Off we went!

That was where I got the brass magnifying glass. I also got this large safety pin for a nickel.

And this large dictionary for $1. I got it for the embossed cover. And check out that spine. It is large enough to make a book cover all by itself! The book was held together with screw posts, so it should be easy enough to remove the covers.

We eventually got back on the road for the two hour drive south. The drive went pretty fast, and we were back at Gaye's house in no time. We went inside and divided up the goods, then it was time for me to leave. Was the day winding down? Noooo... I still had a work function to go to in Louisville, a going away party for my boss. It was a surprise party, and we had a good turnout and a great meal at a local restaurant. Two or three hours later, I had that one last hour drive ahead of me. I had to stop and get paper for my printer on the way home, but I eventually pulled in the driveway after a very long day. I spread out all my goodies to admire, but by then I could barely hold my eyes open. I slept like a rock, then was up early for work today. Looking forward to the next adventure, and to coming up with ideas for using all these unique items!

Road Trip, Part 1

What a fun day today. Bear with me, though, because my day started when I got up at 3:30 a.m., and I will only be posting a brief note, with the rest to follow tomorrow.

I got to Gaye's a little after 6:00 a.m. and we headed to Indianapolis. It's always a good road trip when Gaye packs our lunch... the monkey bag for me, and the penguin bag for her!

Seems like a lot of our road trips involve spotting interesting Volkswagon beetles (okay, maybe not a lot, but at least two). Today, we were behind someone towing an old VW. It looked a lot narrower than I remembe the ones from the 70s. We both think this one may be from the 50s? Judging from the giant 53 on it, maybe it's from 1953? (or is that too obvious??)

A few years ago, we passed a truck with several of the new model VW beetles, and all the cars had dots on them. Really.



Shopping was already well underway when we got to the Coffee Break Design giant warehouse sale. First things first though. Time for a pit stop before shopping. And nothing says efficiency like being able to have an eye exam while in the bathroom...






Stay tuned for part 2 later.... Energy Depletion warning is sounding...zzzzz

Fortune 500

I was in a dollar store not long ago, and for some reason picked up a box of fortune cookies. I don't know why. My brain just said "get those". So I did. On June 1, I opened one and read the fortune. I was disappointed that the paper fortune was not in pretty red ink, but was in blue ink. And where were the Lucky Numbers? This looked like something I could have printed myself. But, I put the fortune aside anyway. On June 2, I opened another one. And then I knew why I needed these cookies. My creative brain was shouting Fortune 500 Project. I would make a card for every fortune until I had 500. Those of you who know me well at this point need to stop all that laughing. I, myself, know it is absurd to think I will follow through with 500 cards! Besides, the box only has 12 cookies!

I was inspired by someone who last year did a 3x3 collage project, one collage for every day of the year. Now she has started another challenge for this year using shipping tags. I believe she said she was inspired by someone who made 1000 inchies in 2007.

So, it's not so unreasonable for me to make a card every day. Maybe it will be the Fortune 100 project. Like she did, I set some rules, but kept them pretty lax. One, they will be ATC size (2.5 x 3.5). Two, they will have a fortune. Three, they will have the date. Four, they will have a number, starting with 1, and going in sequence until I am done (which could be next week or could be in a year!) I started to add more, such as they will use security envelope paper (yes, still stuck on that fascination), or they will use tape (so many kinds of tape out there). But I decided not to put any of those restrictions in there. There is a rule that I will not get behind more than one week. Here are the first four.

Oh, now this will get interesting. I DO mark typos. Wonder how many of those I'll come across!

So, here we go. I'm going to need more fortunes. Just think, if everyone reading this sent me fortunes, in no time I'd have at least, oh, probably ten!!! I suggest you start taking bets on how long I keep this up....

Loose Ends

Just loose ends. Haven't had much time to post anything. The above pictures are from a round robin book that I just finished. I don't think the owner will see her book here, but just in case, these are only "teaser" pictures. The top one shows the edges of all the different pages. Seems like I have had this book forever. Actually, I have. It's not like me to the the deadbeat player in a round robin. And I have tried not to let myself get too involved in any other projects until I finished this once and for all. So, it's done, finished, complete, and off it goes later today.

Other loose ends... didn't see the turkey around for about a week or so. Then one day she was sitting out under the tree in the shade. It was one of those beastly hot and humid days. Yesterday she was out there in the rain, and it looked like she was limping. Great. Now I have to wonder if I need to take her to the turkey doctor. (Concensus seems to be that it's a female, since she has no dangly down "beard" thingy.)

Just sitting there, stretching her legs every now and then. Honestly, I would not have been surprised if she had stretched her wings and yawned!!

Bonus Month

Sometimes it doesn't pay to be such a smart-alec. My last post, I said I wasn't finished with May yet. So, today, on June 2, I finally got around to tearing off the page for May from my work calendar. I folded it up for scrap paper, as I always do. Later in the day, I had to consult the calendar to check a date in June. I saw May, not June. I thought I only imagined I had torn off May, but no, the calendar had two pages for May. So, it looks like I get an extra month this year! Yippee! I can highly recommend a calendar that gives you an extra 31 days in the year! (I did check, and all the rest of the months were there... didn't want to come up short at the end of the year!)

How did this happen?

Okay, who ordered June? I wasn't finished with May yet.....

Here's the June divider in my journal.

(alphabet ribbon & lace sewn to page)

First June, then the next thing you know,... well, just look.