Time to Travel

With the remodel and all the noise and dust, we are feeling the need to get out of the house. Since we have been eating out of the motor home there really isn't much else we need to do to get it ready to roll. Even just a couple days away from the mess will be a welcome relief.

While reading through some of my creative blogger friends blogs, I came across Valerie of Additions Style. She mentions in her blog 7 ways to take time for art on vacation. Some of these I do now but I will definitely will have to take some of her advise with me as I do get so bored when I don't have all my beads and sewing projects with me. One of the things I do when traveling is take a notebook with me. I tend to come up with all kinds of ideas when I'm experiencing new things. If you want to find out what all the 7 things are, check out her blog.

Speaking of journals, I started my art journal this past week. So far I have 6 pages with a base coat of watercolor and now the fun starts with layering paint and more paper. This is something new for me and an idea that has been growing slowly as I want to get back into my art. What pushed me over was the Cloth  Paper Scissors site and the challenges they run. This is a mixed-media magazine site. I haven't subscribed yet, but most likely will since I really like their site.

I wish I had some things finished that I could show you....oh but I do, but I can't show you the whole thing. I joined a Bead Soup party and I received all these cool beads from my swap partner. See this post. Here is a sneak peak of my finished piece. I'll show all of it during the party. Click the upper picture to that links to the party to find out more about it.

Found Objects

I've been in an artsy mood lately and wanting to do more with my art (painting), so I thought the best way to get back into it was to start an art journal and to devote 30-60 min. per day to just creating with my paint, glue, paper, pens, etc. to see where I wanted to go with it. The journal would be my experiment with all different kinds of mediums such as watercolor, acrylic, pastels, collage and pen & pencil. I've taken a few classes in art drawing and watercolor, but other than that no other formal training so I guess I just don't know where to go. I've painted quite a few watercolors (I prefer florals) but wanted to venture into acrylics and so I did a few last December. I found it very forgiving unlike watercolor, so I'll play with it a bit more.

I digress as today's post is on found objects. As we pack our kitchen and other rooms for remodeling, I'm finding all kinds of things that would make great components in jewelry. Here is my latest pile.

As you can see I have some pop tops, wine corks, eraser, keys, old transit tokens and tax tokens, old pieces of jewelry parts, flower arrangement marbles some washers and nuts from my husbands tool chest and some old military ribbons.

The wine cork I make into a necklace component by sticking some 20 gauge wire through the middle and stringing a crystal on each end and then making a wrapped loop. The key I painted so far one coat of purple paint and I have glued a image on the back of one of the flat backed marbles and then added one of the washers (I think it will become a magnet). For the pop can tops, maybe I'll flatten them out and make earrings out of them. The eraser also had a piece of wire pushed through the middle in order that I could make a loop on top. I can see this becoming a cool necklace pendant with maybe a few other doo dads for a teacher.

Okay so what can you find around your house that you can use in jewelry design? You can't buy it, so no cheating.

For another idea to use with the wine corks, head over to Martha and check out her button stamps. I plan on making me some as soon as I can get all my craft room stuff un-boxed so that I can find my buttons. Pictures of the new craft room cabinets coming soon....hopefully Monday.

Cheers, I hope you are having a good weekend.