Handmade Pen

My brother-in-law's (to be) dad makes amazing things from wood.  For Christmas this year he made the family a wooden pen each.  I absolutey love it.  I'm such a sucker for pens and have a few really lovely ballpoint pens and fountain pens.  This pen takes pride of place in my collection.

My Book of Zentangles

Although I haven't done any zentangling in a while I wanted to show you what I've done with the ones I've made.  Brian bought me a lovely black, acid free A5 book and as all my zentangles are done with black pens on white cardstock I thought the black paged book would be a perfect place to put them.  Turns out I was right.  They look great, much better than keeping them tucked away in a box where no one can see them.  

I have about four larger sized zentangles and will be mounting them onto black cardstock, then white cardstock and then placing them into black edged frames.

I'll just post three photos from the book so you can get an idea of what it looks like.  The book is now about half full so I guess I'll go back to zentangling sometime soon so I can fill it up.  

Books like this are great to place on a coffee table so your family, friends and visitors can flick through them.  The book I have has a hard black plastic cover and is made by Reno.  I can't quite remember how much it cost but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere between  $4 - $7 and there's no need for me to alter the cover as the plain black looks quite nice.

If you would like to see any of my zentangles up close, you can see them under the "Zentangles" label or click this link to open the page in a new window. "Zentangle"

Thought of the Day

"Don't let anyone steal your dream. It's your dream, not theirs."

~Dan Zadra~

ATC's

Yes, I have more ATC's to post.  I hope you like them or at least can get some ideas from them to make your own.

 Left - The girl is mounted behind a slide mount .  It's hard to tell from the photo but I ran some copper ink around the edge of the slide mount.  I distressed the word "Inspire" with some sandpaper so the white background would show through and the letters would stand out.  Middle - The top butterfly is a transparency and the pink one is a plastic sparkly hair clip.  Right - The Eifel Tower is a transparency and I coiled some gold wire around the photo.

Left - The burgundy strip is velvet.  Middle - old antique button, handmade red mulberry paper.  The cream paper is so lovely in real life.  The entire page is stitched with a swirly pattern.  Right - The girl picture is mounted onto corrugated cardboard over which I ran some white paint.  The ribbon was originally bright orange.  I soaked it in a walnut ink solution and love the colour it tunred out.  

 Left - I used eyelets at the top of the card.  Middle - The wings and face were stamped and cut out, the circle is a metal edged circular tag and I used copper embossing powder on the edges.  I also used the same powder on the top right hand part of the card.  Some wire and a corrugated cardboard crown finish it off.  Right - The crown is cut from so gold metal shim.

Images and paper from magazines were used on these three ATC's.  For the girl in the middle ATC, I cut her out of an old book page and antiqued the paper with some chalks. Then I just cut the dress out of some scrapbooking paper. 

I love to use old book pages for flowers and birds etc.

 

A few more ATC's

Just a few more ATC's for today.  I'm determined to get them all uploaded LOL

Old button and ric-rac and flower ribbon

Old button, fibres, dress form is a transparency and the black corner is embossed metal that I distressed with sandpaper.  It's hard to see the details because of the blurry photo.

The clock is a transparency and the corner is copper.

 

Lots of buttons.  The wings are a transparency I placed behind the cut out girl and the writing is a transparency placed on top of her.

 

Down the left hand side is a negative and a patterned greenish transparency covers the naked lady.  I also used square copper brads (love those).

 

I can't live without...

I thought I'd photograph 3 things that I just can't seem to live without.  One is my peach smelling deodorant ... I just adore the lovely smell of this Dove product.  Number two is my Dettol handwash.  It's the type that removes 99.9% of bacteria and you don't need to add any water to it.  My third product is my trusty pair of tweezers.  Oh my!  What would I do without these.  I literally freak out if I misplace them and I hate it when I need to replace a pair.  I can never remember the name of the ones I like so I usually end up having to buy 2 different types and keep my fingers crossed that one type works well.  I use my old tweezers for crafting. 

How about a challenge?  I challenge you to take a photo of 3 products you love or can't live without and post them to your blog.  Let me know in the comments section and I'll come and see what you love :) 

Thought of the Day

"Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction." 

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Moxie

We've created a monster.  As it's been so hot lately we've been giving Moxie cold water from the fridge.  Well, it seems that the little guy likes it so much that he refuses to drink normal tap water anymore.  We've tried giving him tap water a couple of times but he just goes straight to the fridge, sits next to it and meows until he gets his icy cold water which he immediately starts drinking when we put it into his bowl.  Yep, we have a cat who sure knows what he wants!

Art Journal, Idea Book, Smash Journal - all in one

I put this book together last year and apart from one or two pages that I wrote last year, I've just started using the book.  I'm not really sure what you'd call it;  a journal, an art journal, a smash book, an idea book?  Probably all of those things.  

Basically, I wanted a book with different sized papers and different types of papers in it, from very small sheets to sheets the size of the book.  This one has everything from transparencies, envelopes, small cards, graph paper, watercoloured paper ... the list goes on. I also hope to add things like receipts, photos and notes I get from Brian and Jade etc. to it. I want to be able to pick it up whenever I feel like it and do something in it.  Sometimes it will be a dated diary entry (I've decided the diary entries will have dates but they will not be in any particular order in the book.  Whatever page I decide to do it on, there it will stay.)  I also want to make lists, draw pictures, zentangles and doodles, maybe do some art journal pages, in fact just do whatever I want at any particular time. 

Here are a few photos of the book.  I used cardboard for the front and back covers and still need to cover them and 3 large binding rings to hold the book together.  There's not much in the book now.  I just wanted to give you an idea of the types of pages I'm using.  Hopefully, as the year progresses so will this book.

I hope this will give you some ideas if you are wanting to make a similar book for yourself.

 Different sized and types of papers and cardstock.

Again, lots of different types and sizes of papers.

I have quite a few little quote blocks so have placed a few of them throughout the book and will decorate each one.

A diary entry.

Envelopes for holding private things (don't forget to decorate or write on the front and back of the envelopes.  The brown paper is from a paper bag.

A couple of tags and a white page with brown stamping on the edges.

Some transparencies and some watercoloured paper.

Lists and quotes.

Front cover.  It still needs to be decorated.  I haven't decided if I'll gesso and paint it or cover it.  Either way I want to hang lots of stuff from the cover, things like fibres, charms and any other bits and pieces I can find.

Uncovered, side view.  I'm hoping it will be twice as thick with pages when it's finished.

Thought of the Day

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know it for the first time - T. S. Eliot

ATC's

I'm determined to post all the ATC's I made LOL.  There are still a lot to go so I'll just post a few at a time.  

 The wings on the heart are made from a Ferrero Rocher chocolate wrapper.

For the right hand ATC, I first painted the background with watercolours.  Then I attached the eyes and the bird which were printed onto transparencies.  I was quite surprised at how well the eyes went with the background, making it look like hair.  Love it when little things like that just work out.

Early birthday celebration

Although it's not my birthday until Monday 13th February, Brian has to go to hospital for some tests that day so Jade and mum came over yesterday and we had a little celebration.  Jade brought over a delicious toffee/caramel mud cake and some lovely soft rolls and ham.  She gave me a couple of my presents too.  Mum and Brian said I have to wait till Monday to get theirs LOL

Jade bought me the second and third Twilight movies (Eclipse and New Moon) and she has pre-ordered the first Breaking Dawn movie as well as the latest season of True Blood for me.  She's such a sweetheart and I always love the thought she puts into the presents she gives.

She also gave me a box of Macarons.  Oh my goodness, they were delicious.  I've never tasted anything like them before.  Apparently they are French and are actually very popular in France with some pastry houses specialising in them.  This will definitely not be the last time I'll be eating them.  The "Pistache" ones were my favourite and the "chocolat" ones tasted a lot like rich brownies.

Thought of the Day

"There is a beauty of heaven, you are the rainbow. There is a beauty of love, you are the heart. There is a beauty of life, you are the soul. An angel’s beauty colors the rainbow of life; you are that angel whose heart is strong and shining bright. Life is a dream, dream a higher dream and live the most beautiful life. Create more beauty giving your heart and soul to life, create more happiness with your precious smile shining bright, create more love when you reach out to an empty heart and color it with your truth. You are the beauty of life; give your heart gifting unconditional love."  ~ Lee Held~

Artist Trading Cards

A few more ATC's.  I've been using some printed transparencies on a lot of the ATC's and love the way they look.  None of these belong to sets or any series,  I just make them as and when I feel like it.  I'm not making them to swap (which is the reason most Artist Trading Cards are made) but instead to add to cards, turn into tags, bookmarks etc. as well as add to art journal pages.  Click the pictures to see a larger version.  I've photographed all of these rather than scanning them.  Scanning gives a much clearer and crisper image but I'm feeling a bit lazy right now and taking photos is much quicker and easier than scanning :)

Thought of the Day

"There will always and always and always and always 

and always be something to be thankful for."