Crafty Moments: The Start of My Visual Art Journal

Inspiration, I've got it

Creative block.  It sucks.  I get it almost every year around this time.  The holidays are over, the weather sucks, it's cold, and all I want to do is sit on my butt and watch Bones (Booth is hot, isn't he?) all day with Netflix instant streaming on the big screen.  However this year isn't so bad.  I totally admit I've been procrastinating something fierce about listing new jewelry.  Lets face it clicking renew on listings coming due is soooo much easier than taking a million photos, thinking of a great description to make you all drool, and racking my brain for tags to make sure you can all find it when searching Etsy!  Doing that won't have me swimming in dollars (as if I was ever lol!) though so create I must!

The agate beach on Hunter's Point in Copper Harbor MI

Hiking in Copper Harbor

Since I am one of those overly fussy (and stubborn) artists who blatantly refuses to lift a finger unless I'm in the mood for it, it sometimes takes a little motivation if you will.  Over the past years, my Canon and I have amassed quite the stunning collection of photography from my many trips here and there throughout Michigan's Upper Peninsula and it's about freaking time I do something with it!  Staring at hundreds of photos on the computer hunting for one to pique my interest has grown rather dull so I decided to make my own visual art journal comprised of my favorite shots.

Page one, there's the apple tree that graces much of my work!

I made a little pocket for the matching palettes so I can take them out

I came up with the idea when I stumbled across this awesome blog about Smash Books.  What is that you may ask?  Basically it's a scrapbook style journal instead of a written one.  It's not a journal and it's not a scrapbook either, it's a little of both.  That sounded like a perfect idea!  I cannot for the life of me keep a consistent written journal and scrapbooking is sooooooo time consuming!  So now I have a reason to use all those super cute little rubber stamps I've been hoarding and I can use scrapbooking papers for something other than handmade cards!  I can have a spot for all my doodles of past wire designs, thoughts for new projects, and someplace to put oodles of pretty pictures!  Yay!

Isn't that just cool?

This journal I've started is meant to help give me ideas for new jewelry, paintings etc when my brain feels tapped out.  To make it more visually appealing I will be basing each page on color coordinated swatches I've downloaded and stuffed in little corner pockets from my favorite color palette site Design Seeds.  I love how they come up with each carefully designed color palette based on a real photo.  Their site is wonderful when I want help picking out just the right color combo for new beaded treasures!  You can search by color themes or color value so if I want to find colors inspired by nature or a particular season it's a cinch to find something I love!  I also know where to go when I get bored with the color scheme in my house :) My first two pages that I've shown in here are based on woodland tones, my favorite!  I adore mossy greens, olive, and woody browns.  Go figure, lol!

I love my mini alphabet stamps, so cute!

Now I have actually been working on new jewelry and got a few new earrings up in my Etsy Shop for you to take a peek at!  They are Bronzed Champagne Vintage Luster Earrings, Amethyst Crystal Vintage Luster Earrings, Angel Wings Earrings, and Lock and Key Earrings.  I've got more that I should have listed soon once I get photos taken as well.

Vintage Luster Earrings in Amethyst Crystal

I can't forget about all these awesome Treasuries!  Take a peek!

Christmas Crafts

I've been keeping myself busy with DIY crafts for the holidays as you know if you've been following my blog!  I've made stepping stones and painted pine cones with my daughter and these past weeks I've scoured Pintrest for some awesome DIY projects to add to my own boards on my profile!  I also love Etsy's How Tuesday blogs for cool DIY projects as well!  I'd love to do them all but there's only so many hours in the day so I settled on making Ribbon Trees and Pyramid Gift Boxes!  They turned out so cute!

For the trees all you need are ribbon, hot glue, and paper mache or a rigid cone.  I'm having a woodland theme for Christmas this year and green and brown are some of my favorite colors anyway so I chose those colors for my trees.  I experimented with alternating 3/4" ribbon for the taller tree and 1" ribbon for the smaller one.  The only thing not listed in the ribbon tree tutorial (click the link to go see it) I found on how to make them is how to make paper mache which turns out to be super easy. 

Paper Mache Cone:

• All you need are equal parts Elmer's glue and water or equal parts of flour and water and about 2 tablespoons of salt per cup of flour used to keep your flour mache from getting moldy.  
• I made a cone shaped "mold" out of heavy card stock so the paper mache had something to support it while it dried.  Unless you want to reuse your mold there's no need to wrap it in plastic cling wrap.  
• I cut 1/2" wide strips about 5" long or so from a paper grocery bag to dip in the goo and I rubbed the mache on them till they were thoroughly wet on both sides but not dripping.  
• Make sure to overlap when you wrap the cone and no more than 3 layers at a time.  
• Make sure it dries completely before applying any additional layers.  If you use a paper grocery bag 3 layers ought to do you just fine, that's what I did for mine.
• Once dry I painted my cones dark brown to match my ribbon but paint yours to match the color ribbon you'd like.
• Then follow the tutorial for ribbon trees, it's easy!

I really loved how mine turned out!  I'll probably make more next year or to give out as gifts ;)

My next craft project was to make Pyramid Gift Boxes as shown on Etsy's How Tuesday Blog.  The directions are all on the link I just provided and there's also a template to use too.  I enlarged the provided template up on my scanner to the size I needed to be able to fit the painted pine cones Kaylie made to give out as gifts.  I was just going to tie them to gift bags but the pyramid boxes are a much cuter alternative!  You can also use the little boxes to hang on your tree as ornaments too!

Hopes and Goals For 2011

Gemstone Earrings
Green Adventurine

It's that time of year again for resolutions and goals for the new year!  I have a handful of my own for my jewelry and in general.
Shop Goals 2011:

• List more often and on a regular basis
• Promote myself more
• Do a larger scale craft show
• More jewelry parties :)
• Sell more on Etsy, I'm doing pretty good outside it though!
• Be more involved in my Etsy Teams (Love you guys!)

Personal Goals 2011:

• Don't stress so much over the little things
• Exercise more and eat better, not necessarily to lose weight but to just be healthier!
• Get Kaylie potty trained, I've been procrastinating too long!
• Get Kaylie used to her big girl bed when she figures out how to escape her crib
• Get out of debt (one loan is paid now, one to go and the credit card is almost done!)
• Fix our roof once and for all (I swear to God if the storage room won't stop leaking I'm tearing it down!)
• Save $$$$
• Convince the kitten that house plants are not for chewing
• Knock down the "hunny to do list" by half, at last ;)

Kaylie smelling the marigolds

I'm hoping to accomplish all these and maybe more by the end of the year!  It's all possible if I put my mind to it!  Wish me luck and good luck to everyone else for your goals for this year!  I hoping to make this year truly amazing :)

Check out my Etsy shop here, and don't forget to check out my artist website on Wix too where I sell wire wrapped tree sculptures!

Photo Charm Tree