...and now I'm back...from outer space....

...well not really. Seemed like it though.

Where did we last leave our intrepid blog author? Let's see...sick as a dog, hating winter, lack of creativity, stressed out and oh...did I mention sick?

Oi! That flu virus that went around this past Feb/March was a doozy...hit me hard, below the belt, above the brow and kicked me in to survival mode. Not trying to made excuses but for a time there it was all I could do to make it from day to day, meeting the necessities of family, home and work.

Anyways - enough dwelling! Recently I started crafting again and it was like springtime in my soul.
I was able to finish off my album for my Dad and was able to give it to him in person when he visited in April - sometimes its hard to tell with men, but I think he really liked it and I know I was very happy with how it worked out.

As it turns out, this picture was perfect for the cover as it shows both grandaughters talking on speaker-phone to my Dad long distance to the west coast. They are obviously giggling at something he said...

Also I've been starting my multi-media journey with canvases and was very happy to hang this on my daughter's wall finally...I started it forever ago and as my first attempt, it didn't turn out too badly. Emma likes it and that's all that matters to me anyways...

She doesn't understand why there is no detail to the face, but I really don't want to mess around with it at this point...

The fine print in the bottom right corner says "She is Beautiful" which pretty much sums it up...

I have also started two more canvases, which I will post here as "Works in Progress" ... hopefully getting more work done on them this weekend.

A "She" of some kind will come out of the above...I actually found an old package of one of Christy's massive paper dolls...maybe just use it up. What? Shop in my own stash!?! What the...yes really. Using my own stash of stuff up is quite satisfying...

This one is a bit more challenging...I like what I have done so far...but what to do what to do...I'll figure it out hopefully over the weekend...

Anyways - hope you are getting your craft on...short week this week and tomorrow is TGIF!!!

Cheers!

j

...and a baby step...and another...

...and before you know it, another week has passed.

I do feel better. I am not 100% out of the woods but I am doing better and trying NOT to overdo it (in bed by 10:30 pm every night!)

Firstly! Blog Winners! I didn't want to have to choose - so the lovely three ladies that posted will EACH get a Random Goodie Bag worth $50+ of various bits, embellies and papers! Yay! Contact me at injennuity.designs@gmail.com to arrange picking up of the kit. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your ideas!

I got crafty! Thought I would give the Melted Crayon Art a go, and before I did it with Emma, did an experiment in my Art Journal (where else?) to see how easy/difficult the process was.

Well...the process in and of itself is not hard. It's a bit time consuming and on the fidgety side, but not hard. So to get started, I bought a cheese grater at Value Village so that if I trashed it shredding the crayons, I wouldn't care. Searched all over and found this wee little shredder that stands maybe 2.5" tall. It's so cute!

So I scalped a crayon, shaved it down into little bits with the shredder and tried to transfer it to my art journal. Holy Static! I ended up using two paint spreaders to do the transferring as the crayon bits stuck to my skin and was messy. I kept it a bit calmer by misting the crayon bits with a mini-mister full of water.

When time came to iron, I was very surprised at how quickly they melted. Less than a second of heat seemed to be enough. I turned it down to a low heat so I could try blending the crayon together without starting any fires.

I engraved an angels"wing" in the plum/purple

I rather like the finished project. I even took my Creative Memories Lifter and with the short stubby end, gently carved a few designs into the thicker puddles of wax. It was easier to do when the wax was slightly warm. If I let it get too cold, chunks would fall out. I used my heat gun to lightly warm up my surface when it got too brittle.

Then I realized - I didn't really need to use my iron at all....I could have just used my heat gun! Oh well...I figured it out in the end.

Next day Emma and I got crafty together! My mother gave us basic 8" x 10" canvas boards and I thought we would try this melted crayon technique on. After a few minutes of showing her the steps, I decided to call this project, "The Art of Patience" as Little Miss Headstrong wasn't too keen to wait for instructions.

Those of you who know me well enough can start making wisecracks...

...I mean...I had to explain to her why I had to explain...it was a learning experience for both of us
the whole morning.

ANYWAYS! We managed and she did *brilliantly* and even did her own ironing (never held an iron before either) and while a bit timid at first, after a few tries at the melting she got used to it and was able to produce this!

Then she took my Creative Memories Lifter and engrave-doodled all over it.
(Just found out that she took it school, so I am not able to take a picture of her final artwork- hope it comes home in one peice!!!)

I tried to do something a bit more directed...we had just watched "Finding Nemo", so I thought I would try for a simple ocean scene with the sun shining down and some colourful fish peeking up through the waters. It worked fairly well I thought. I really like how the soft opaque white wax from the wax paper transferred in random dots all over - gives the water some rather abstract "spray" here and there.

Not sure if I will do more to this other than some fun engrave-doodling but all in all, I was creative and with my girl, and we were both happy with our efforts. A good day, no matter who ya' are.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the read, and your short work week! Take a chance this looooong weekend to do some crafting of your own!

See you next week...

Jenn

...and week two of life kicking my butt...

...but as one of my all time favourite songs firmly reminds me...

I will survive!

Sooooo March Break was broken by my getting ill. Went to my mother's on the weekend after getting my act together enough to drive that far and my mother had a cold. She was so impressed with it, she gave it back to me as I left.

In reality, my little family and I have been passing around the flu-d'jour for weeks and didn't realize how badly my DD had it until this morning. We took her in to see the NP and discovered that among other annoying symptoms she had a double ear infection.

?!???!?? Up till then, she never complained, although if it were me I would be whining like a kicked dog.

A little shout out to any Mom's that read my blog...always always ALWAYS listen to your gut when it comes to your babies. When YOU KNOW in your bones that something is wrong with them, you can take that to the bank. Or in this case, to the doctor's office. They are your heart walking around outside your body after all...

Anyways...my life is skidding sideways in some respects, my health especially, which takes my focus off of creating. I walk past my craft table with so many ideas clinging to it like ghosts...waiting to be made into reality. It'll come, I keep telling them...I will arrive and give you life and artistic flesh...be patient with me...Mrs Arty Frakenstein that's me. 

I think I need inspiration. More than what Pinterest can offer. What inspires you? Help me out here...really. What gets your crafty motor purring after a dry spell?

To sweeten the pot, I am going to do my first ever BLOG GIVEAWAY! WOOHAAA! WHy not? As most of you know, I had an LSS not that long ago and I still have quality goods to find good homes for. I made up some Grab-Bags with over $50 of various goodies - papers, die cuts, embellies and more. I will give one away, in a random draw.

All you have to do is comment on this post with something that inspires me. Everyone who posts gets put into a draw (1 per person) and next Tuesday March  26th around 8pm I'll pick a name. If it's one person - then they win! Woot!

Here's a peek at me putting these kits together. You'll could win one! Comment...inspire me! Please!

Hope you have a good week folks...I'm feeling a bit better today so I have hope. I always have hope.

Jenn

...creativity on hold...

...due to illness.

This is something rather new for me.

Getting sick? Oh well....

Not exactly...I have been ill before. But in my recent history - say 9 years - I have never given myself more than an afternoon or overnight to let my body recover from whatever chance bug or virus was visiting. Perhaps I was such a lousy host, by ignoring the poor germs, they just got huffy and left.

Who knows. I thought I just had a good immune system, rarely catching whatever plague was going through my little family and soldiering through when I did. Such was my mentality. Sick days wasn't part of the package I chose, so I accepted and continued on. It was mad (in the british sense) but there it was...

Now that I have a job that is a tad more forgiving...I...(get ready for this) took a sick day yesterday.

Whoa eh? Good thing too because since the minute I got home from handing my daughter over to my Mother for March Break (yup the whole week), I proceeded to feel absolutely wretched and that did not stop come Monday morning.

So my weekend was a write off due to being sick and taking care of an even sicker husband (thank you Mom and Brother for taking care of our girl!) but it completely put the kibosh on finishing up my album for my Dad. But I realized something about being sick that I hadn't realized before.

It's so  ...   so......boring.

Helloooo Pinterest.

Now Pinterest and I have been playing a game of footsie for the last year or so. I have an account. People are following me on Pinterest, waiting for me to pin stuff, but unfortunately I haven't really obliged. No time! But yesterday I had time....and a new cel phone....and the Pinterest App.

I blame Heather.

I mean...it just kept going...there was no end to the scrolling! Recipes and crafts, quotes and home decor...it was so easy! Every once in a while, I could hear faint evil chuckling. After a few minutes I just attributed it to a receding fever...

Ok, ok I get it now. Pinterest is fun, and wickedly addictive. I want to share something that I want to try either solo or with my daughter...

Shave crayons in whatever color/pattern onto a canvas, cover with wax paper and iron the whole canvas! The crayons will melt, creating your masterpiece!! Gonna have to try this one!

I think the original blog that this came from is from Momtastic - hopefully I am giving the correct person credit for this. Anyways...we have leftover bits of crayon that could fill a gallon pail of ice cream...love the idea that it won't go to waste.

Anyways - I'm at the end of my energy. I did go back to work today - good thing I got to sit for most of the day =)

I hope you had more of creative week than I did...but if you can't get to your craft table, take time to be inspired by someone else. It's all around us....and it'll get you back there faster...

Jenn

...over here...

...just in case you were wondering...I am back to doing a mini-album from scratch. I seem to be all over the place creatively speaking. Not sure why that is, but if I had to guess, I'm still transitioning from one life to another and in doing so, many things are unsettled, and I am easily distracted. I am fairly confident that once I am on 'the other side' then I will be able to do bigger projects, explore in depth techniques or slap some paint to a canvas, but I just don't feel "there" yet.

I saw this quote on FB the other day and it made me laugh...

"If I had a dollar for every time I get distracted....I want a puppy."

That pretty much sums it up. Rightio then - on to the mini I started on Saturday at a local crop. It was really good to see the familiar faces and catch up on all of our going-ons.

This album I started - and by no means is it done - is for my Dad. I haven't made him a brag book of his grand-daughters, although I have always meant to. I came across this simply stunning collection pack from Fancy Pants "Happy Together" that is a delish blend of browns, teals, muted greens and yellows. The pack includes a page of borders, journal cards, and 2 acetate sheets (one of which is flocked with a geomatric teal pattern- oh my stars!) which I hope to use throughout the album.

I am going to use an old trick of printing pictures in sepia if the colours clash horribly with the palette but my focus right now is just on making pages.

Herein lies the challenge - to make an album for my father (a man-album) with the subject being two girls in various ages of their life. Pretty - yet not overly embellished, feminine yet not choked with flowers and bling. So far, so fun....check it out!

This is the front cover. The approx size of this album is 5.5" x 8.5" and I will be binding it with my Cinch when everything is done. I figured since I wasn't going to be decking out the bindings with ribbon, I may as well bind with proper coils.

Did I mention this is a work in progress? I covered the chipboard easily enough but then got stumped when looking blankness of the brown. It'll come. I just moved on to doing some pages. 

The inside cover and first page.

The tag is attached by a hinge of washi tape that I made sure lined up on both sides so that it looks seemless. I quite enjoyed that...

 

Next page. Trying not to overdo it. Realizing that these are satisfactory backgrounds, but need pictures so I can do some tasteful layering and groupings of embellies. 

 

And the next page....don't like the right side - will need to tweak a bit. Where's my Undo?!?

Using more of the paper from the paper pack. The patterns are lovely, and the colours soft which will make a great backdrop to the pics. I am also getting to use quite a bit of Washi Tape throughout this album which makes me happy!

 This is still in pieces trying to figure out where that left overlay is going to find a home.

 

...and the reverse of the above...I like how the ribbon adds a touch of frill that hides a small tag that I  made out of two different scalloped border stickers.

 

 And the back cover. May leave it this plain....not sure yet.

 So there it is - in its infancy. A mini brag book for my Dad, that I will hopefully get completed this weekend, and shipped early next week.

....oh wish me luck!!!

xoxo

Spring dreamings...

I had such a good time seeing everyone on Saturday - there were a few people who weren't able to make it out for various reasons...they were missed and you know who you are! I had fabulous helpers that day - my M-i-L Maureen, S-i-L Mar and niece Hayley (aka ribbon specialist extraordinaire) handled the morning rush with ease allowing me to relax and enjoy what small snippets of time I had with people. I could not have done it without them!

To answer your question... Yes I still have "stuff" left and I think what I will be doing is making up "grab bags/boxes" and selling them on a first come first served basis. Stay tuned...if you are interested, email me at injennuity.designs@gmail.com.

On to the fun and crafty part of the blog - did I do anything? Yup. Got crafty with my girl Emma and after being challenged by Mr Tim to make some flowers, we decided to give it a try this past Sunday morning. What I love about having an 8 foot table to craft on at home is that we can craft together without being on top of each other. We each have our own chairs and space...granted I get more space but then I'm messier.

RIiiiiight.

Anyways, I had to snap a few pics of Emma having fun with the process of painting and smearing. Not surprisingly, her colour palette starts and ends with her favourite colour teal.

Mind ended up a bit muddy in places - too many colours and adding yellow in I think with the purple caused it. Oh well...Art isn't suppose to be perfect...

I'm not going to go into the how-to's on this technique when Tim does it so well on his blog. Suffice to say I did not use his new paints as I haven't gotten any yet. I do have enough other paint to sink another Titanic so why not use it up experimenting?

Exactly what I thought...

Emma didn't use the tattered flower die. She wanted to cut out hearts but I didn't have one (?!?) so she settled for another one instead...any guesses from the picture?

I have more miscellaneous brads than I know what to do with so was happy to pair some up with the flowers. I think the ones I used were from an old line of Basic Grey's "Marrakesh" that melded alot of blues, green's and oranges.

 I am not sure if I am going to try and mount all these flowers on a tag or what yet. They may go on a canvas, I am just not sure. But I enjoyed making it and I will be submitting my...sorry...*our* creativity on Tim's blog before the week is out. I had hoped to make his Feb Tag as well....well the month isn't over yet. I may yet surprise myself in a fit of creativity. Turns out I don't have hardly any of what he used to make his tag but then again...it's not really a requirement. I have more than enough to simply be inspired and try my own spin on it.

But for now I am going to bid you a good night, and happy crafting!

Jenn

PS If you guessed "Fanciful Flight" as what Emma chose as a die, you were right! Pat yourself on the back for being so good at squinting and get cracking on your own spring-inspiration!

...the last remnants of my old life.

Time is doing that weird thing again where I stop for a moment and look back and have a fleeting sense of vertigo - where did the last 6 weeks vanish to? Wasn't it just New Years???

Then time stretched like warm taffee and my follow up thought was "No...that was years ago wasn't it? That person who lived that life of an LSS owner?"

Then a painful snap back to reality that neither is true. I conclude that change is just a part of life and that person who was, and the person who is....well they are just the same person who are on the journey of many hats.

So creative time this past week - ZIP. ZERO. ZILCH. I spent most of my free time organizing my stash (ohgoodlordpleasemakethepilesend) in my crafting area, and the other part organizing my store into one last push to liquidate what is left.

If you weren't aware, I am having a liquidation sale this Sat Feb 23rd from 10am - 6pm at The Scrapbox location. Cash only and creazy deals to be had on new and used product and fixtures! Here are some pictures!

So lots of stuff that simply must go. Come early to get the good deals. Talk to Jenn to play "Lets make a deal" and score some awesome stuff for a fraction of the price. Tell anyone and everyone who you might think would like to be there - 5510 Canotek Rd Unit #13 from 10 am to 6pm on Sat Feb 23rd!

On a slightly different note - I received an email from a friend this past weekend asking my how to get started with Art Journaling. Good question! I will be doing a lot of it myself in the next forseeable future and will be happy to share what I do here, and how I do it etc. I think the most important thing to remember is that with Art Journaling - kinda anything goes. It can be abstract, or it can tell a story, it can have journaling, or just one word or no words at all. Start with doing things you KNOW and add a little of what you don't. If you have a product that you have never used,  but looked cool at the time, google it and see what other people are doing with it and then try it yourself. Trying it out on paper is always better than keeping it in its packaging. It's ok to experiment - you may find the most incredible discoveries happen quite by accident.

Oooooh I just had a phrase pop into my head .... "Art By Accident".....LOVE IT!

I hope you get to do some. I will be making sure I have creative time this weekend somehow...even if it's finger painting with my daughter.

huzzah!