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Showing posts from October, 2008

What's in a Name?

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"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." I have been doing folded books for several months now. Over that time, I've looked around for other examples of folded books on the Internet and have not found that many. My search terms have included "folded, books, book sculpture, folded pages, and upcycled books". The other day I found a site that included the term "altered book". My alarm bells went off. I *know* what "altered" means in this day and age. It means you buy a whole bunch of off-the-shelf crud (in the scrapbook aisle) to paint, paste or otherwise "embellish" a found object to make it your own. I have to say I HATE the scrapbook craft of today. I hate that "scrapbook" has been turned into a verb. (I hate that "journal" has gone down the same road, too, but that is for another day...) What IS a scrapbook? It's a memory-reminder. It is the content tha

Working with a two-year old

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I have a 21-month old child. It took me a long time to have a child in my life so I refuse to complain too much about how hard it is to do anything with him around. Well, at least, I refuse to complain often. This week has been busy trying to get ready for Halloween. Somehow I got roped into making costumes for two little boys. Brian is really good at coming up with ideas, but not so good at implementing them. That's my job, apparently. *sigh* Anyway, Alex's prince costume has turned out pretty well. I found a couple of dresses at the local thrift store that I was able to cannibalize into a relatively manly-looking outfit. He'll get to wear it three times this week, so he needs to like it. Next year, the kids are all going as bags of garbage. Those are easier.

Color - FAIL!

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For a while now, people have been asking me for colored beads. My gut feeling was that the colors would run when I dipped them in the sealer. Unfortunately for me, I was right. There go all my plans for colored holiday-themed jewelry. Oh, well. It's one more way for my life to be simplified. If I had a billion colors to choose from as well as the sheer number of fonts I already have to choose from and the design of the beads (up, down, sideways, long, short) and the number of phrases and words to use, I could well go bonkers. As if I'm already not well on my way...

Watercolor Weekend

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This weekend we had Conference. For those people who are not familiar with Mormon-lingo, Conference is a twice-yearly meeting which is broadcast worldwide. When I was little, it meant getting dressed up and going to the church and sitting on hard folding chairs for two hours straight while listening to boring grown-ups talk about things WAAYY above my head. As I grew older, it was on cable and now my family and I watch it on the Internet (hooked up to the TV). I enjoy it more now, and not just because I get to sit on the couch and do crafts while I listen, but because I understand more of the concepts spoken about. It's a twice a year spiritual recharging and I love it. Even though we had the kids and I cooked five full meals, I still found myself with *gasp* TIME!!! It had rained on Saturday and on Sunday, the sky was still full of puffy white clouds. It made for glorious light out on the patio. All gold and orange. I, with my watercolors, sat out at the patio table with Macken

Yummy Day

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I sit here at the computer, eating a salami and pepperoni sandwich that I made with my own two hands. No Subway for me today, baby! Nope, today has been a day of doing and I'm happy with what I've done. It is Conference weekend and that means I get four glorious hours per day to do crafting while sitting in front of the TV, listening to the words of the prophets and other leaders. Hurray! Today I worked on a book. A while back I made up a board with examples of all the types of folds I thought would be useful for my book sculptures. Today I brought the board out with me to the couch and figured which one I would do. So, I've been cutting the pictures out of the Reader's Digest Condensed book (one of my two favorites to use because of their size) and folding pages PREPARATORY to my folding them a second way tomorrow. Ha ha! See the picture below to check out what it looks like tonight. After Conference, the kids went to their nana's to visit and Brian went t

Wonderful Wednesday

Yesterday I was able to finagle my work schedule to go in early and get off early. Because of that, my total work day was about 5 1/2 hours. If only I could work so little every day! I came home and got to spend some time with my husband. We had a good evening - I made chicken salad sandwiches for dinner, cookies for dessert, gave the kid three (count 'em!) baths (one for sweaty day, one for playing with mom's lipstick, one for playing in the hose on the patio), worked on beads (because Brian got the printer to work after a week!), and looked through recipe books. I didn't feel a real need to work on watercolors because I accomplished enough to feel relaxed. There are times where I wish I could support myself from my art - my watercolors, my folded book sculptures, or my jewelry - and I wonder if Heavenly Father has given me all the tools and I'm just failing to use them. I guess I just have to try, huh?

Five Minute Watercolors

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After working all day and then coming home to a house full of MORE stuff to do and worry about, I've been having trouble relaxing. Brian suggested I find something that I enjoy doing that could be done in 5-minute increments - meaning that he understands that I have little more than 5 minutes at a time to call my own. So I came up with my little watercolors. I've always liked watercolor and, for some reason, only work small. Here is a sample of what I've been up to lately: