Heather Eddy Art

A few years ago I discovered that my local office store offered paper chopping services. When people are making flyers, they will make a million copies on full-size paper and then get it cut down into halves or quarters. Guess what! They can cut books, too! Before my workplace got a paper guillotine, I paid 50 cents per cut.  I experimented with several kinds of books before I found the type I like best for ornaments - plain old paperback novels.  Materials: Old paperback book you don't intend to read anymore. At least 150 pages (75 leaves) embroidery floss or ribbon or baker's twine for hanging Glitter & glue stick for decorating Directions: 1. Start with getting your book cut - paperbacks are about 4.25"x7" (10.5cm x 17.5cm) - I cut this one into 5 pieces - no particular size.  View #1 - book cut, but close together View #2 - separated - this seemed important to show, but it's probably not 2. From one...

You know what you get when you bead a snowflake and then dip it in Borax? THIS:   Snowflake forms here . Instructions for dipping ornament here . Happy Christmas preparations!!!

This is the year of the paper rose ornament. I wish the pictures would show all the twinkles from the glitter sparkling in the sunshine! This new job of mine takes me away from home from 7:45 - 5pm. That means the sun is only up with I'm at work. It also means that I can only take pictures on the weekends. This weekend is the first I've been home in about a month. Feels great! I love the pale lilac color of this one. It's quiet and ghostly. I ran out of pearlized pins so substituted with these ancient ones I got from a relative once upon a time. Probably Bakelite! They weren't quite long enough to hold the roses in place, so I had to use plain pins on the bottom/sides to keep them from falling off. Last, but not least - a pretty Easter-colored confection.

I started a new job at my library today. Although the work was all stuff I'd done before, I'd never had time to do it uninterrupted. For the past seven years, I've been working at branch libraries where I've been interrupted constantly. I know there are infrequent stretches of time where I've been able to work for maybe a half hour without being asked a question or something, but today was u.n.i.n.t.e.r.r.u.p.t.e.d. time. And I didn't know what to do with myself. I actually had to concentrate. Because of this, I am mentally exhausted. So, here. Look at a picture of a paper ball I made a few days ago. It's very pretty. But way too big to be on my Christmas tree. I must needs make a smaller one. And then about a billion more to give away as presents. :)

With the husband being sick all day Sunday, I had the remote and the afternoon to myself. I finished watching A&E's Pride and Prejudice (a venture over time since I could only watch after the hubby went to bed) and got to see You've Got Mail from start to end without someone complaining about "bonnet movies." And I made these little things. I think they look quite lovely and will let me use up some of my scraps of patterned paper in a most satisfying way. The husband got better around 8pm so he and I watched Big Bang Theory (season 2) while the offspring was sick. Fortunately, he's better today and at school. We'll see if it lasts all day or not. He ate a small breakfast and told me very animatedly about the fun dream he had last night.When I told him it was time for school, he said he wasn't sure if he was sick or not. Wanting to nip the fakery in the bud, I told him the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. We'll see if he really was crying ...

La la la! I love glitter! And a red one with gold-headed pins. And a surprising picture found on my camera. I never imagined my daughter was such a gifted photographer. I should let her play with the camera more often... 

  Look what I made out of curling ribbon? It took forever and I need reading glasses to make more of them, but I'm seeing earrings in my future! Kiff is sick so I have an unexpected gift of time today. Maybe I'll make a few more...  Cheers to everyone today. It's going to be over 80°F. Happy October?

I am fortunate enough to have access to an Ellison die cutter at work. Using the spiral punch, I am able to take different books and make spirals out of the paper which I then use to create roses. I love how uniform they look here in my new square cookie tin (which I bought from Costco simply for the tin. I don't like the cookies). Next on my list o' things to do (besides work on my tutorial) is to glitter these fine ladies and make them into rose ball ornaments for Christmas...

This past weekend my family and I watched General Conference . It was the first time I'd taken notes for nearly every speaker. WOW! What a difference it makes! I can't wait to put the words into practice. It's overwhelming how much I learned about myself and how much I want to improve. And I figured out how to make these.  Find instructions here . It took a few tries, but it worked. And I bought my paper strips here . I've even bought a second batch of pink and white strips. Feeling girly...

Baking soda/Cornstarch clay Over Christmas, I found the drive and opportunity to try out a few new clay recipes. I've done the cinnamon/applesauce/glue clay for years now, but wanted to try something else. It started out because we put up our Christmas decorations and I remembered my bread dough ornaments from when I was 8 years old - I still have them! I wanted to give Kiff and the kids chances to do their own if they wanted. So, I experimented with stuff from Pinterest. Above you will find one of the few ornaments that survived the baking soda/cornstarch batch. I made up the dough and cut out the ornaments - SO PRETTY!!! They were like porcelain. Then I tried baking some. Ouch - they bubbled the top layer and looked like terrible skin disease. Then I tried putting them in my dehydrator. They seemed to turn out perfect. But.... I hadn't let them dry enough and they cracked over the next several days. This heart one (being small - it must have dried completely in the shor...

A few days ago, I posted that I was experimenting with natural dyes. I'd gotten the idea from several posts in a lovely blog I follow - lilfish studios . Lisa is an avid dyer using materials gathered from the nearby woods. I, on the other hand, used foodstuffs procured from Walmart. I'm classy like that. In the picture above, I have (from left to right): red onion skins, yellow onion skins, red cabbage with baking soda and last, plain red cabbage. You can see the plaster figures in the dye jars above. When I first pulled them out (after an overnight soak), they were rather disappointing - very pale. I let the plaster dry on my windowsill and forgot about them. A few days later I noticed that the figures were no longer pale. Ta da! I have no idea of the chemistry magic behind this, but I'm glad that I know how to dye my stuff brown, turquoise and light blue if I ever need... Clockwise from top left: yellow skins (terracotta), cabbage with soda (turquois...

This is what you can make. Go! Make!  I did a Pay it Forward Christmas ornament thing this year with a bunch of friends. I decided to do these little paper ornaments. Easy. 15 minutes each. You'll like them. This will be mainly a picture tutorial. I've just finished grading about 800 finals this week and I'm too pooped to pop. Supplies Supplies: Paper Circle punch (I used a variety to make different-sized balls. The balls end up the same size as the original circle. hot glue ribbon ignore the pins. They are not used. How did they get in the picture? Cut out EIGHT circles for each half of the ornament Bend in half like a taco. DO NOT FOLD. Pinch. Fold in quarter. Crease fold. Leave petal ends lovely and round. Dab on hot glue. Do not burn self. (I did not listen to me) Attach next segment. Take care not to squish petals. Just keep adding until you get to the next to the last. Before gluing in last segment, add ribbon,...