Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Week 3, Part 2...

Here is some actual creating I was able to do over the last week or so. More of the Pandora Album...

First page I had some fun with strips of paper left over from one of my favourite Teresa Collins Album Kits. I love finding ways to use up "scraps".


Then - pulling out some grungeboard letters from my man Tim's collection from - get this - 2006! i painted black and glossy accented as a top coat. Bang! - they look awesome. I love crystal laquer/glossy accents (whatever). It's like Franks Red Hot, I put that *beep* on everything. 


 While over at a friends place, I was working on finishing up this page by altering a chipboard heart from Bazzill. It was a plain grey piece, that I painted creme, stamped with Archival Black ink (v. important because otherwise it would blend when....) then I put my Franks Red Hot....I mean Glossy Accents on top. Love this. Basic technique but thrills me every time. Don't know why...don't care. So moving on to Page #2.

AUGH! More scraps!!!! But then I look at them and think...it looks kinda like a banner...but the back looks even nicer so...


Turn it around, tape it up, make the banner cuts with scissors (no need for a cutter really, and no ruler either hah!) add a bit of ribbon to cover the seam. Then, just cause I had a scrap of it - some of that yummy Maya Road 'string-o-bling' across. Underneath the banner peices, a bit of toule just to soften the black up a bit...


Did you see that? Yeah...one of the crystals is missing. I know. There wasn't enough on either side to make a piece long enough to go across.  I spent 5 minutes of my life - 5 minutes I am never getting back - letting my TAP tendencies frustrate me until I smacked down the bling with the missing gem as a lesson never to let TAP tendencies get in the way of creativity.

Art isn't perfect folks, and it shouldn't be. Anyone trying to tell you otherwise is lying to yer face. Strive instead for excellence. It is highly achievable and you better yourself in the process whether you achieve it or not.

Added a bit of old dictionary as a mat for the picture (peeking at us in the upper right corner) and that page is done.

I uncovered in my craft area a green Crop-o-dile and matching case full of large eyelets which conveniently fit the holes in the covers. After refreshing my memory on how to set eyelets with the Crop-o-dile, I put eyelets in both covers and both pages and put everything together with hinge rings. I approve of this, as eyelets will keep the paper from ripping from over-handling.

That's it for now. Tomorrow is a very busy day that starts with dropping my white furry feline off for dental surgery at holy-early-o-clock and then I am running for the rest of the day. I am going to go to bed early and get a good nights sleep.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Mixing the asthetic with the functional...

Greetings!

I am a little startled that January is closing in on us so quickly - soon one twelfth of the year will be gone. I will take a moment to see if I am where I had hoped to be, when I rang in 2013...

....hmmm I think so. I am splitting my daytime hours between getting old business tidied up, visiting friends and taking a mini holiday....although I don't think I have spent a whole day just at home doing NOTHING yet. Not even on the weekend. I think I may have to do that, at least once, before I start work FT.

Adding that to my TO DO list.

My evenings are spent mostly with my hubbs and DD. Once E. is in bed, I have been alternating between reading, organizing my craft area and actually creating stuff. Because organizing 5+ years of crafting supplies doesn't happen overnight - especially since I am bringing a bag or two home every other day - the crafting is hit and miss. At least I am *feeling* the creative juices flowing and am loving the little that I am doing.

The rest of the time, I am just being happy - as happy as I can be in the coldest weather in the WORLD....blehk!

SO! here has been my progress this week - on the organizing side, a huge step forward with installing an 8 foot table (from the sbox studio) where I only had a 5 foot table previously. In order for this to be accomplished, I had to remove the door to my walk-in-closet - no big deal really. There is no such thing as privacy in our house. Regardless - an idea started to perk after I took a long look at this mountain of ribbon that came from various parts of my stash.

Yikes - what in blazes was I going to do with all of this ribbon? Then I remembered what one of my customers did with hers (thanks Jan!), and after making a few changes to fit my circumstances,

I started to sort them by colour and using Clip-It-Up Clips, clipping together 6-10 ribbons. As usual, I had help from Midnight, who was there for quality control.

(Just curious, who noticed the wine glass in the upper left corner?  Hmmmm? A few people. Ok...This "ribbon-sorting exercise" happened this past Friday evening and Red Wine just seemed to "go" with it. I would like to point out to a certain acquaintance of mine, (ahem H.M.) that there is also a bottle of water for proper hydration. This way there aren't any unfortunate side effects the next day from over-indulgences.

Just sayin'.)

Moving right along....I eventually ended up with this :

 Yes this is my closet, with a curtain rod installed. All the ribbon is gathered with the clips, and hanging on 2" hinge rings, which are then attached on to the curtain rod. I can easily move them aside to get in and out of the closet, take down a grouping or just one clip worth and cut off the amount I need, then put it back up.
Here again I am seeing hitherto-unknown streaks of Type A Personality (Otherwise known as TAP) coming out in my nature - yes I put the ribbon in order of the rainbow. Well it just looks nicer, don't you think? I have noticed a preponderance of Green (my favourite colour), Blue (second favourite colour) and Pink (because I have a daughter).

I like this solution because I can *see* quite easily all of my ribbon. It doesn't take up table space, and I didn't have to invest in any kind of expensive equipment. Over time, gravity will pull out many of the kinks and wrinkles but if all else fails I have my wee little HS ribbon iron to smooth everything out. I was able to reuse the curtain rod from the sbox and it is really very pretty. Which brings me to a conversation I had with my hubby at the end of the day.

Imagine me standing and admiring my handiwork, and my hubby wanders by. I can't help myself ladies. The words slipped out before I knew it.

"Honey - what do you think? Isn't it *awesome*?"

-a small puzzled pause followed by a question, that I so richly deserved, he asks me...

"What are you going to *DO* with all that ribbon?"

I draw myself up to a rather impressive height, square my shoulders and look him straight in the eye and say,

"How on earth am I suppose to know?!? What's important is that I *HAVE* the ribbon...you know...uhm....just in case..."

He walks away chuckling to himself.

I let him live because he helped me install the curtain rod and I might need him again tomorrow.

(ps i hope to blog again tomorrow about a few pages I finished in my Pandora Album. it got really late on me somehow and i's tired...g'night!)


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

My Pandora Album...

I have had this idea from the moment I first saw the packaging...

I am secretly annoyed by packaging. Doesn't it bother anyone else that almost everything we buy comes in something that eventually goes into the garbage? Doesn't that mean we are buying garbage? It speaks volumes for the lack of trust that runs rampant in society today. But I digress...greatly.

I received a Pandora bracelet from my DH and DD on the occasion of my birthday last month and I LOVE IT! I love the charms, I love silver, I love the concept and my husband is deeply grateful that he no longer has to *think* when it comes to meaningful gifts. Like ever. My daughter just loves picking out charms and can't wait to have a bracelet of her own.

Then Christmas came and I received more charms from family and so now I have a lovely collection that has a deep meaning for me which brings us back to...this...


 ....Packaging and lots of it. Let's take a closer look shall we? I see...ribbon, and tissue paper and little paper envelopes and the Gift Bags themselves are reinforced and chipboard like - but beautifully embossed and ready like a canvas! It just screams "Alter me!! I am an album, grab your scissors!"

I can't take credit for this idea - this is directly inspired by Debby Schuh and her Anthropology Album from a few years back. Can't think of a better recycling project...

So here are a few pics of me taking the large bag apart to turn them into covers of the Album. All you need is a pair of scissors, double sided tape (sookwang!) and some patience.


 The bottom of the bag I separated easily by lifting the flaps - there may be some tearing but try to keep most of the flaps intact.


 Cut up along the sides of the bag so you have two halves. Use the scor line as a guide. You don't need perfectly straight lines as we will be fold them back down and covering up any uneven cuts.

 Next cut out those notches along the bottom as otherwise, they just add unnecessary volume.



 As an aside, if you have cats, you will know that they also love all the packaging and want to "help". I would like to introduce you to Midnight, a steadfast distraction while creating. I am sure she will be featured often here.


Anyways - back to making the covers...using double-sided tape (sookwang!) I tacked down the side flaps first. Cut a piece of black cardstock to 9" x 9" and tack down to the cover, I finished the inside of the front cover.

(Which one did I use as a front cover? Good question...

The bag had a definite "front" (shown on the right). It's smooth, without any scor lines to mar its appearance. The "Back" of the bag has a scor line about 2" from the bottom (shown on the left) - it needs to be there, it's how the bag folds up for storage purposes while it's at the jewellery store. I decided on a tasteful black velvet ribbon to mask the seem and turn it into a lovely embellishment instead. So - plain and smooth is the front of the album, and black velvet ribbon is on the back. )

Still working on the front cover - you should have a bottom flap that's just...well...flapping there. I thought it best to use it - turn it into a pocket to store bits to scrap later on. Pictures, ribbon...you get the idea.

Anyways - I need to reinforce the bottom flap/future pocket so I just used plain Bazzill white cardstock to adhere to the inside of the flap. Then, using the thinnest sookwang tape available (the 1/8"), I tacked down just each side of the flap to give me a decent pocket on the inside of the front cover.

Front Cover done!

Back Cover - the bottom flap is a bit wrecked and to try and turn it into a pocket really wasn't worth the effort - especially since I had another idea for a pocket anyways. The Back Cover just needed to have the sides tacked down, bottom flap tacked up, but before you tacked down the black piece of 9" x 9" cardstock, be sure to cover that scor line with ribbon - 3/8" black velvet was my choice.

A small FYI on Velvet Ribbon (may arts) - I use Scor Tape to adhere ribbon - it works beautifully. However you better be VERY certain of where that ribbon is going because while you can still pull it up after, if you pull the tape OFF the back of the velvet ribbon, you are likely removing velvet as well, and the ribbon is ruined. Just be careful when placing the ribbon - that's all I'm saying.

Once the ribbon is placed and you are happy with it, then you can finish off the inside of the Back Cover with the 9" x 9" black piece of cardstock. Voila - 2 album covers upcycled from a gift bag!

Next week I will show some pages I have done inside...hope this didn't bore you to tears, and maybe inspired you to look at packaging in a new way. I will be further altering the covers, and talk a bit about how I am going to bind them.

Jenn

PS On a more personal note - I am doing fantastic. Lots of work to be done to keep me busy, so I don't get to craft as much as I would like but I've done more this year than I have in the past five so I am grateful.

Oh...and I accepted a full time job today that is awesome and starts on Feb 7th. Glee!

j.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

This post was brought to you by the letters M.B.

I created this blog, but to say that it is a work in progress is an understatement of the first order. Blogs and I don't see eye to eye.

But I like to write. I used to write a lengthy newsletter weekly...for 5 years. I enjoyed it. I am told that it was enjoyed. I went out on a limb during one of the last newsletters to state that I was going to create a new blog to showcase any creativity I may accomplish.

That meant a new name for what it was that I do creatively. A new name, and a new email address. Oi what did I just agree to? I had so much to do this month...surely I could let this new identity of mine slide a bit right? But then I started to play with my 5 years of collected crafts supplies of various types (hereafter to be conveniently called "The Stash") and created something, quite by accident .

Let's view this sequence of events. I had made a public obligation to make a blog if I got crafty. I went and got crafty. THEN I got an email from a good friend who poked me in the back and asked for the blog address for the as-of-yet-un-created blog.

Which leads us to this point in time, and in this place, which is my new blog. Public Obligation met! Yay!

Then what needs to follow is some crafty stuff I suppose. Please be kind in your observations, I am terribly rusty in creating for the sheer enjoyment of the craft. In order to ease into this new kind of creating, I have decided to Smash (tm) my way and be inspired by others.

Here goes!

Using rubs and other fun bits from The Stash to throw this page together.
This is my take on Tim Holtz's January Tag. I tried to find everything to make the tag exactly like his original, but I was forced to be creative. Oh darn!


Alright - so there you are. New blog. New Name. New email address (injennuity.designs@gmail.com) and now a new blog post with creative things I have done. (check, check, check ANNNNND check!)

I am going to try to blog weekly. If I can manage weekly, I will try to increase the frequency. These sorts of things need to become a habit so am going to try to set a reasonable goal of once a week. I'm interested to see what my blog looks like next week.

Thanks Monica...=)